Firefly - Rain squalls

With only 725 miles to go to the Marquesas the chances of us landing that elusive Tuna are rapidly diminishing. In contrast a number of fish have been catching us! over the last few nights flying fish have landed on Firefly; one almost on David's lap and the another one big enough to eat; if it were not smelly and very bony!

Its been quite cloudy today and for the past hour its been raining, heavily at times. looking upwind we can't as yet see the skies brightening again but we anticipate it will within another hour or so.

Listening to this morning's radio net the fleet are now converging on the French Polynesian islands from their Northerly and Southerly tracks. If the South Easterly wind stays with us as forecast we should be dropping anchor in about 4 days and in close company with Polaris, Vivo and Caduceus. On the basis of the briefing at the start of this leg and the pilot books the anchorage at Hiva Oa is quite small so we are expecting to move on to the other islands shortly afterwards once we have had some exposure to exercise, culture and all things French we are promising ourselves. The experience could be similar to a landfall in Brittany after a night crossing but heightened after 18 days at sea - we doubt if the mussels are as good or the Muscadet as affordable but we can't have everything!

Paul, David and Peter