Farewell Marquesas

We got a bit of a late start from Taiohae to Daniel's Bay (Hakatea) after running last minute errands in town Monday morning. Had one last load of wash done at Nuku Hiva Yacht Services, bought five baguettes and two chocolate beignets from Magasin Kamake, checked out with the gendarmerie, and bought carrots and cabbages at the market, and sailed off before Noon. For some weird reason it took four tries to get the anchor down in our usual spot in Hakatea, and even then we didn't really get a hard set. Came up all muddy each time and was just slipping right through it. Went ashore to the beach in the anchorage and asked permission to take some pamplemousse from the loaded trees there. An even younger man than Mahi (sp?) is the caretaker there and since I picked over a dozen pieces of fruit we gave him Joe Tynik's old army duffel bag as a thank you. We'd been using it to store our big Fortress anchor in a hanging locker but it mildewed too easily on the boat, so we finally had to give it up. So Joe, now you know where to find your duffel bag, if you ever want it back!

Tuesday morning we went to the bay next door to cross the river bar on the rising tide with our water jugs in the dinghy to top our tanks with potable water. The time we can spend in the Tuamotus will be limited by our ability to conserve and replenish our water supply since we understand water there is a precious commodity. We thought we were going to need an early departure time, but John took another look at the forecasted winds and decided our average speed might be higher than he had previously anticipated. So we waited until 2 PM to depart for the 500+ nm trip to Tahanea in the Tuamotus.

I'm writing this Wednesday afternoon, and we've been making good speed so far. We're on more of a reach this time which means less spray over the decks, but some wackier boat motion as the waves tend to spin us off to the side at times. It's very hot (87 F) in the cabin and the water temp is 84.6 F, making sleep impossible without a fan to keep us cool. John anticipates taking three more nights to do the trip, for a possible arrival on Saturday.

We'll keep you posted!

Linda