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American Spirit II - Day 78; Arrived Hiva Oa in Dark; Saturday, March 22, 2014



No sleep tonight. Even though my watch ended at midnight, with land fall imminent, no sleep for the weary. Joel got up at midnight for his midnight to 3:00 AM watch. He and I would be up all night henceforth until we were anchored in Hiva Oa. Mike got up at 3:00 AM.

Having sighted the outline of the mountains of Hiva Oa at an hour before midnight, the dark mountains continued to grow as we got closer and closer. Then we started running along the southern coast of Hiva Oa, two miles off shore, but close enough to see the whites of waves crashing on the iron seashore. Ahead to our right was an uncharted reef. At least that's what Joel Navionics Navigation App said. Our chart plotter on the boat listed no depths and almost no lights. Not very useful. As we approached the end of our voyage, we came into an area designated as a red, white or green sector. We had to enter the area via the green sector, as the red sector was for outgoing vessels and the white sector was designated to separate the red and the green sectors. The red sector had a red flashing light visible while you were in that sector, the white sector had a flashing light to indicate you were in that sector, and the green sector had a green flashing light to indicate that you were in that sector. When in a particular sector, you could not see the lights of the other sectors.

At 2:37 AM we got our first legitimate depth reading in 20 days - 277 feet.

At 3:45 AM Saturn was visible behind us, rising out of the clouds; very large and bright.

At approximately 3:30 AM Rally Control called us and we shortly afterward advised them that we were 2 miles from the finish line. At 3:59 AM we crossed the finish line on Leg 3. A half hour later we entered past a breakwater with a flashing green light on it, and into the anchorage of Taahuku Bay, where 20 or so other Rally boats were already anchored. The anchorage was smaller than what we expected, and more crowded than we expected.

We drove the boat around, looking for a suitable place to anchor; and anchored 3 times before finding the right location. The third time we pulled the anchor up, we had snagged the chain of the largest boat in our fleet - NDS Darwin. It was the heaviest sailboat chain I'd ever seen. We couldn't get it off our CQR Anchor, so we had to put two spinnaker halyards on it to pry the chain apart, because it was wrapped around our anchor's shank. After 20 minutes we were successful. We then repositioned ourselves, and dropped a bow anchor, backed off of it, dropped a stern anchor, then pulled up on the bow anchor again and pulled the stern anchor tight. Finally, by 7:00 AM, we were securely anchored. We then got the dingy out of the aft, starboard storage compartment, blew it up with an electric pump, put it in the water, and put our electric Torqeedo Outboard Motor on it.

At 7:30 AM Joel and Mike went to bed. I followed 30 minutes later after filling out a Rally sheet I needed to turn in later in the morning.

At 10:30 AM I got up, and by 11:00 AM I was in the Rally 'office' across from the dingy dock going over paperwork with our agent, whose job it was to help us clear into the country. I then went back to the boat, got Joel and Mike, and came back to the Rally office for the new boat arrival briefing, which lasted 15 minutes and where we were given some maps and brochures of the island. Mike talked with our agent about getting a flight from Hiva Oa to Tahiti, so he could connect with his flight home on Friday, March 28. Mike was told that getting a flight this week might not be possible.

For lunch we went to a mountain top restaurant called the something Pearl Hotel. The view overlooked the bay surrounded by mountains, wind swept with clouds. Lunch was fabulous, and for the first time in 2 weeks we had bread, French bread! Vive la France!

Due to a lack of taxi's, the hotel/restaurant manager had to pick us up and drop us off back at the anchorage after lunch. Getting around Hiva Oa will not be easy.

From 3:30 PM to 7:15 PM we attended a gathering at Alex's house, a former member of the French Foreign Legion. We spent time at Alex's socializing with the crew of II Audacious, a boat we had sailed in close proximity with throughout the leg until we lost our main sheet traveler car on March 17. By 7:30 PM we were back at the boat.

Brian Fox

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