Arrival in Hiva Oa, Fatu Hiva and Passage Pictures

Date: 28th April 2023.

Location: Hiva Oa anchorage, French Polynesia.

[Hopefully this posting will get picked up by Mailchimp again and delivered direct to your email InBox]. 

We've now been in French Polynesia for just over a week.

I could tell you about the first island, Hiva Oa, the one where we checked in. About the chaotic check in process where our agent decided April was a good time to go on holiday, or the incredibly expensive groceries (think $50 US for a tub of nuts, $10 US for a kilo of oranges), the friendly lady who lost our laundry for three days, or the very tight anchorage made half the size when the cargo ship was due in. I could tell you about the friendly people, the well stocked chandlery and the sailmaker who will mend our yankee sail. All good there but mostly admin and restocking. Or Tuhuata island with its white sand beach and steep beach that threw us and the kayak like bits of driftwood when we managed eventually to land.

Land Ho after 27 days.

Safely anchored in Hiva Oa.

Traditional Polynesian craft share our anchorage.

Tuhuata North Beach.

But really this post has to be about Fatu Hiva. What. A. Place. We knew the anchorage was supposed to be one of the most impressive in the world. And so it is. But the whole island is just mind blowing. Towering rock sentinels, massive volcanic cliffs and green, green, green. Everywhere fruit trees grow wild and in people's gardens. Grapefruits (pamplemouses) the size of footballs, soursop, bananas, mangos (end of season), beautiful flowers everywhere. And the people are amazing as well. We've been given fruit and talked to a guy drying bananas on a wooden frame the size of a pool table. For two weeks whenever the sun is shining (which is just about all the time) he has to turn the 200 or so longitudinal banana slices every two hours. We bought a couple of his completed packs which are said to last 5 to 7 years!

Preparing the bananas for drying.

Skipper in Fatu Hiva

Whilst there we walked up to "Les Cascades" the big waterfall. Instructions were, walk out of the village there is only one road, turn left at the sign by the switchback, by pass the bull on the track, turn left by the small cairn, up the wire to the falls. We were the only ones there so a quick swim in the pool was required. Gill spotted crayfish but we evaded the biting eels the thickness of a man's leg. Gulp!

Jungly jungly - en route to the falls.

At the falls.

Les Cascades.

Bananas 

Amazing scenery everywhere.

Grapefruits (pampelmouses).

Today's haul.

Soursop

Perfect.

Red flower.

Purple flower.

White flower.

Another white flower.

So now we're back in Hiva Oa and making friends with the boats that arrived about the same time as us. We've sorted a lot of jobs and breakages which every boat seems to have after their long passages. Mast stabilised, dinghy engine running again, sail repaired and hoisted, fuel topped up, watermaker looked at. And so it goes on. This is the island that Thor Heyerdahl spent over a year living on and it is also where Gaugin the artist is buried.

Here's a nice story. Our friends on Mowzer have two ten year old twins. In Fatu Hiva they swam with manta rays 8' across from their friends' big catamaran. What did they rave about that evening? Only the fact they were able to have a HOT shower on their friends' cat. No mention of the manta rays. The things we take for granted.

Last night we were on board Malvina for snacks. We met Neil (79) and his family friend Heather (61) in Galapagos and they told us of their trips to Spitsbergen, Norway, Canada and beyond. A great raconteur and a special sailor. Tonight we host two boats that just arrived after crossing the Pacific so we've walked in the heat to town, Atuona, to buy a few provisions. As usual we were picked by one of the locals, a French physiotherapist, and given a lift back to the boat.

Polynesian tiki in the communal sports field.

Walking into town for provisions (note very small shadow).

In a day or two we'll leave for the next quiet island for a few days before working to Nuku Hiva 80 miles to the north.

************************************

Here follows photos from the crossing now that we have an internet connection for the time being.

Small fish preparation.

Large sperm whales approaching.

Fish supper.

Pacific sunset.

Oh dear. Broken yankee sail.

The parasailor flies.

Wind steering maintenance.

Running a preventer.

The skipper sleeps.

Trying to fix the broken steering. It really was that dark.

A welcome visitor.

Day 27- Pacitic Crossing - 18th April

Mehalah has arrived safely in Hiva Oa, French Polynesia.We dropped anchor at 13:30 Pacific time, 12:00 French Polynesia time.

The anchorage is small and tight and there are a lot of boats here to clear in. It is flat and quiet. The scenery is stunning.

Tomorrow we will check in in town , get French Polynesian francs and some SIM cards. Now it's time for dinner and bed.

Best wishes
John and Gill

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Day 26 - Pacific Crossing - 17th April

[It seems I posted yesterday's blog to myself rather than the blog! So here is what you missed. Today's follows below it.].....

Finally, finally. After twenty something days and with only a few hundred miles left we have gorgeous downwind trade wind conditions. Sparkling sun on big ocean rollers lifting us up and pushing us westward at over six knots. Apart from reefing last night we've barely touched the sails for twenty four hours now. On she rolls rising on each 2m swell and dropping down into the next trough with a twist to wait for the next one.

It's been a day of reflection I guess, a day for lazing naked in the cockpit and a day of very few jobs. This is how the Pacific crossing, The Coconut Run, is sold in all the glossy magazines. Haha, but we know better now! Consequently there is not much to say today although I did call my mum on the satphone this morning. She is getting very old.

We did see another sailing boat on AIS though. The thing is you all start from say the Galapagos with your own course in mind that may vary by several hundred miles or so. So you don't see each other for maybe 2,500 miles. But at the other end you are all aiming for the same place so you come back together again. We saw no boats for weeks and now as we get closer to the Marquesas three in two nights. Last night it was a very nice Outremer catamaran called Wild Thing². Owned by a German family with three children under 12 this is one of the families we climbed the volcano with back in the Galapagos. We had a quick radio exchange with them as they passed us out of sight six miles off our starboard side. Apparently the children are looking forward to running around on land again!

We've seen the ubiquitous flying fish of course. Not so many of the 20cm jobs have flown aboard recently but loads of little 5cm ones. Also one blue footed booby. The return of Baldrick? I think not.

With landfall hopefully only a couple of days away we've started discussing making Mehalah shipshape for our arrival. Plenty to do to tidy up those parts of the boat left exposed after the various incidents earlier in the passage.

And that I think is pretty much it for today. Paul continues to sit quietly on the back of Mehalah with his yellow yin yang paddle steering us unerringly towards Hiva Oa.


***************************

[And here's today's......]


17th April: 16:00 (Add 8 for UTC)
Course needed: 272
Course steered: 269
Speed: average 5.5 knots
Miles sailed: 2955
Miles in last 24 hours: 133
Miles to go: 114
Lat: 9° 57'S
Long: 137° 06'W
Wind: 8-24 apparent, 105 true?
Plan: Sail direct for Hiva Oa (Yeah!)


Well, this MIGHT be the last passage making blog. Gilly especially will be very pleased to be in Hiva Oa. She has had enough. At present we are motoring as we got stuck in a squall system with either no wind or wind in completely the wrong direction.

That meant bringing the sail in. We have perfected our reefing/hoisting/dropping process by adopting the Ramshaw technique when downwind reefing is required. It involves turning the boat towards but not into the wind. Because the sail is prevented out it comes into wind before the boat. Then I just work as though the boat/sail combination was all head to wind. Much quicker and safer than going right round. Much less strain on the rig than doing the whole thing completely downwind. Thanks Peter!

Other than that it's mostly been a day of calculating if we can make it tomorrow or if another night will be required. We are hopeful of making landfall tomorrow. And we have decided to stick with our original plan and head for Hiva Oa one of the official checkin islands.

Our main problem right now is that the celebratory bottle of champagne has been hidden away somewhere and we can't find it. Oh no!

Oh yes. French Polynesia has for some reason decided that they should be nine and a half hours behind UTC! At present we are -8 so we have to lose 1.5 hours (put our clocks back by 90 minutes) sometime. As we are doing complex "when will we get there" calculations anyway we have decided to change the clocks after we anchor. We also have to dig out the yellow quarantine flag and our shiny new French Polynesia, or is it Marquesas, courtesy flag too. And the battle hardened red ensign will also make its reappearance.


email (text only, no pictures) to mvgc3@sailmail.com

Follow us at https://www.noforeignland.com/boat/mehalah/journey

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Day 24 - Pacific Crossing - 15th April

15th April: 15:15 (Add 8 for UTC)
Course needed: 265
Course steered: 320 then 255
Speed: average 4.9 knots
Miles sailed: Got confused!
Miles in last 24 hours: 117
Miles to go: 372
Lat: 9° 22'S
Long: 132° 48'W
Wind: am: 10-17 apparent, 070 true? Stb tack. pm: 10-15 apparent, 100 true? port tack
Plan: Sail direct for Hiva Oa (Maybe!)

A day of two halves. We dropped the parasail as it got dark last night and set off on a starboard tack on a good course. But as the night went on the wind veered so that we were headed first at 300 degrees and eventually 330 degrees (aim was 270). And of course the waves were beam on again. Anyway in the middle of this Gill handed over to me at midnight and showed me a boat coming up behind us. It was Audacia from New Zealand that we had briefly met at Shelter Bay Marina. After a few attempts they replied on the radio and we had a nice chat. They are much faster than us. Then we were interrupted by another boat, Little Bird. He could see us on AIS but we couldn't see him as his AIS did not transmit, only receive. So after no sailing boats for 22 days now there are three of us within a couple of miles. It turned out Little Bird was on the other tack from us two. He called Audacia to say he was crossing his track. 15 minutes later and I had not kept track of him I'm afraid and he called us to say he would cross our path in 5 minutes at a distance his chartplotter said of 220'. We were on starboard tack so we were the stand on boat. We assumed he would go behind us but no in the dark he passed across our bows probably less than 220' ahead of us. Scary or what? He was relying on instruments and making poor decisions, we are all tired and my bad watchkeeping should have spotted him to ask his intention earlier. Luckily we got away with it. The rest of the night we powered on in the wrong direction wondering what the next event would be.

Dawn came and we executed a perfect gybe. Now we could make straight for Hiva Oa at 6 knots with waves behind us. And that's what we are still doing later this afternoon.

We made more water today. The raw water filter is still leaking a bit so I've made an additional seal which will hopefully cure it. More tired decisions meant I started it with the wrong feed hose open. But we seem to have got away with that one too. As usual Gill did the washing at the same time.

We are wondering whether to head for Fatu Hiva instead of Hiva Oa. It's a must see anchorage and the easiest way to visit is as our first island. But you are really supposed to check in to the Marquesas before visiting. We shall see.

More crosswords today too. We've finally completed #141, started back in October last year!

Morale was low this morning as we.headed north for Hawaii. It's much better now we are heading in the right direction.

More wind due for the next few days which might or might not help us depending exactly where it comes from.

Only 364 miles to go now.

#############################################################

I THINK YESTERDAY'S BLOG MIGHT NOT HAVE ARRIVED. HERE IT IS.

We spent the night bobbing around with Paul set to stop the wheel thrashing around in the swell on a mirror flat sea. With 3 knots of wind in the wrong direction we took all sails down and waited. A brief heavy squall came through. I slept deeply for several hours as watch keeping was put on the back burner though Gill stayed up much of the night to watch the stars.

We had a message from Mowser last night to say they were only 250 miles from Hiva Oa but they were also becalmed. Our forecast said it would continue into this afternoon.

But at 6:30 this morning we had 10 knots from the east. We put up the main, yankee and staysail and had breakfast. "Looks like a parasail day Gilly?" So that's what we did on a broad starboard reach all day averaging over 5 knots SOG (6 knots at present) with only about 6 knots of apparent wind. Excellent.

And guess what? Somehow the parasail survived being tangled in the radar dome without damage. We did wonder yesterday how the hell we were going to get it untangled but a quick turn to starboad and it all miraculously untangled itself. We were due a bit of luck!

So up to now absolutely no events of note to report today. The fishing rods are out but no fish. Gill has washed her hair and I've been learning more about the navigation program OpenCPN. UPDATE: 1 small (25cm) unidentified fish caught and returned. Greedy bugger as the lure is 20cm long!


Right. Here it is. Communication with the outside world. There is no internet, no wifi here. We have three devices that give us some connectivity, two via satellite and one via a special long range SSB (single side band radio). As I previously mentioned quite a few boats now have Mr Musk's Starlink which gives fast internet via his satellites. We don't have that.

#1. An InReach machine using the Iridium satellite network. Twice a day we send our position to family and support crew. It also gets picked up by NoForeignLand who provide our position map. It costs £33 a month and we can turn it in and off whenever we want. The daily position reports together with two other fixed messages are free of charge. One InReach can message another free of charge too. Other messages cost extra and it's not an easy system to use. There's also an emergency button that should get things moving.

#2. An Iridium Satellite Phone 9555. Looks like an old fashioned brick mobile phone and is about as user friendly. You buy a SIM for it and then a plan that is hundreds of pounds and it only lasts a certain number of months. But it makes calls to any phone number in the world (using up your credit) or you can send and receive texts to mobiles or email addresses. But the screen is tiny and editing messages is very annoying. We have the UK Coastguard number saved as in case of emergency they would coordinate any rescue. Oh yes, you should be able to send files like the blog using it but the USB connection is stuffed so I can't.

#3. The SSB radio. Almost all boats carry a standard VHF radio for calling the coastguard, talking to the local marina or other boaters. But these will only work over line of sight, maybe 30 miles if you are lucky. The SSB long range radio provides similar capability but over thousands of miles. We use it for two purposes. Firstly we can join "nets" as they are called. Every day on particular frequencies groups can get together to chat. We have been joining the Pacific Voyagers Net most nights. It allows us to report our position and find out where other boats are and whether they have any issues. This net is run out of Santa Cruz, California and boats join each evening from all across the Pacific. Pretty amazing really. But not as amazing as our other use for the SSB radio.

By using a special Pactor modem we can write messages or the blog on our PC, send them via the modem which converts the "Computer" messages into "Radio" messages and on to the SSB radio. From there special software sends the messages to around 20 stations around the world where the messages are converted back to "Computer" messages and sent on to join the normal email system. Clever or what? However like most things radio it's all a bit of a black art. You have to choose the best station (it was Panama, now it's one of two western Pacific stations) to send to in the best frequency at the best time of day (or actually normally the night). Connections speeds, if you can get connected are reminiscent of the modem speeds of the 1980s. It can take anything between 30 seconds and three minutes to send our blog each night. We can also request all sorts of weather info using this system and it is how we receive your, very welcome, messages. Oh yes, the equipment, radio and modem are not cheap (a couple of thousand pounds) but there's usually someone selling a system for a quarter of that. The messaging software known as Sailmail, charge 275 USD a year. You are supposed to only be connected for 90 minutes a month but I think we've exceeded that with no adverse effects si far.

There you go.

Let's hope for an event free night. We've decided to drop the parasail until the morning so in the event the wind picks up we don't have to wrestle with it in the dark.

So that's it for today.

We now have less than 500 miles to go. ETA maybe Tuesday or Wednesday next week. Not long now.



email (text only, no pictures) to mvgc3@sailmail.com

Follow us at https://www.noforeignland.com/boat/mehalah/journey

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Day23 - Pacific Crossing - 14th April

14th April: 15:40 (Add 8 for UTC)
Course needed: 269
Course steered: 272
Speed: average 4.9 knots
Miles sailed: 2590
Miles in last 24 hours: 63!
Miles to go: 474
Lat: 9° 47'S
Long: 131° 02'W
Wind: 4 apparent, 10-12 090 true?
Plan: Sail direct for Hiva Oa (Yes!)

We spent the night bobbing around with Paul set to stop the wheel thrashing around in the swell on a mirror flat sea. With 3 knots of wind in the wrong direction we took all sails down and waited. A brief heavy squall came through. I slept deeply for several hours as watch keeping was put on the back burner though Gill stayed up much of the night to watch the stars.

We had a message from Mowser last night to say they were only 250 miles from Hiva Oa but they were also becalmed. Our forecast said it would continue into this afternoon.

But at 6:30 this morning we had 10 knots from the east. We put up the main, yankee and staysail and had breakfast. "Looks like a parasail day Gilly?" So that's what we did on a broad starboard reach all day averaging over 5 knots SOG (6 knots at present) with only about 6 knots of apparent wind. Excellent.

And guess what? Somehow the parasail survived being tangled in the radar dome without damage. We did wonder yesterday how the hell we were going to get it untangled but a quick turn to starboad and it all miraculously untangled itself. We were due a bit of luck!

So up to now absolutely no events of note to report today. The fishing rods are out but no fish. Gill has washed her hair and I've been learning more about the navigation program OpenCPN. UPDATE: 1 small (25cm) unidentified fish caught and returned. Greedy bugger as the lure is 20cm long!


Right. Here it is. Communication with the outside world. There is no internet, no wifi here. We have three devices that give us some connectivity, two via satellite and one via a special long range SSB (single side band radio). As I previously mentioned quite a few boats now have Mr Musk's Starlink which gives fast internet via his satellites. We don't have that.

#1. An InReach machine using the Iridium satellite network. Twice a day we send our position to family and support crew. It also gets picked up by NoForeignLand who provide our position map. It costs £33 a month and we can turn it in and off whenever we want. The daily position reports together with two other fixed messages are free of charge. One InReach can message another free of charge too. Other messages cost extra and it's not an easy system to use. There's also an emergency button that should get things moving.

#2. An Iridium Satellite Phone 9555. Looks like an old fashioned brick mobile phone and is about as user friendly. You buy a SIM for it and then a plan that is hundreds of pounds and it only lasts a certain number of months. But it makes calls to any phone number in the world (using up your credit) or you can send and receive texts to mobiles or email addresses. But the screen is tiny and editing messages is very annoying. We have the UK Coastguard number saved as in case of emergency they would coordinate any rescue. Oh yes, you should be able to send files like the blog using it but the USB connection is stuffed so I can't.

#3. The SSB radio. Almost all boats carry a standard VHF radio for calling the coastguard, talking to the local marina or other boaters. But these will only work over line of sight, maybe 30 miles if you are lucky. The SSB long range radio provides similar capability but over thousands of miles. We use it for two purposes. Firstly we can join "nets" as they are called. Every day on particular frequencies groups can get together to chat. We have been joining the Pacific Voyagers Net most nights. It allows us to report our position and find out where other boats are and whether they have any issues. This net is run out of Santa Cruz, California and boats join each evening from all across the Pacific. Pretty amazing really. But not as amazing as our other use for the SSB radio.

By using a special Pactor modem we can write messages or the blog on our PC, send them via the modem which converts the "Computer" messages into "Radio" messages and on to the SSB radio. From there special software sends the messages to around 20 stations around the world where the messages are converted back to "Computer" messages and sent on to join the normal email system. Clever or what? However like most things radio it's all a bit of a black art. You have to choose the best station (it was Panama, now it's one of two western Pacific stations) to send to in the best frequency at the best time of day (or actually normally the night). Connections speeds, if you can get connected are reminiscent of the modem speeds of the 1980s. It can take anything between 30 seconds and three minutes to send our blog each night. We can also request all sorts of weather info using this system and it is how we receive your, very welcome, messages. Oh yes, the equipment, radio and modem are not cheap (a couple of thousand pounds) but there's usually someone selling a system for a quarter of that. The messaging software known as Sailmail, charge 275 USD a year. You are supposed to only be connected for 90 minutes a month but I think we've exceeded that with no adverse effects si far.

There you go.

Let's hope for an event free night. We've decided to drop the parasail until the morning so in the event the wind picks up we don't have to wrestle with it in the dark.

So that's it for today.

We now have less than 500 miles to go. ETA maybe Tuesday or Wednesday next week. Not long now.


email (text only, no pictures) to mvgc3@sailmail.com

Follow us at https://www.noforeignland.com/boat/mehalah/journey

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Sent via SailMail, http://www.sailmail.com

Day 22 - Pacific Crossing - 13th April

13th April: 16.15 (Add 8 for UTC)
Course needed: 270
Course steered: 270, then 215 (into wind!)
Speed: average 4.9 knots
Miles sailed: 2527
Miles to go: 622
Lat: 9° 41'S
Long: 128° 33'W
Wind: 7-10 apparent, 105 true?
Plan: Sail direct for Hiva Oa (HaHa!)

Frustrating or what? The nice 10-15 knots from the SE have been replaced by a sloppy ESE breeze. And whilst that should still allow us to make reasonable progress on port tack we again have the waves on our beam. Every one heels us over causing the sail to crash. It's horrible.

Update: We have now gybed onto std tack. Initial indications are better. Less slatting, making some north that we now need. But even slower. SOG now around 3.2 knots at 300 degrees. VMG around 3 knots.

Anyway it's been an overcast day today. Very soporific and energy sapping. Mostly we've laid around, tidied a bit, made some bread and had a good moan about everything. I have to say we are both ready to arrive now but at this rate it will be another week to go still.

The new lures have been out in the less hectic conditions but no success there either I'm afraid.

So for the time being we sit here doing Daily Telegraph cryptic crosswords, reading Kindle books, wincing at the crashing, adjusting the sail and hoping for more wind.

Jack. Send us some wind!

UPDATE @ 1900.
Little improvement and wind now coming from right behind us so engine on for the night. Hoping for more wind tomorrow (though forecast is more easterly). Boo.

[Last night when I sent the blog there were no replies for the first time. We have a 90 minute a month connection contract so it's possible we've reached that limit and we won't get any more of your messages and you won't get the blogs. Fingers crossed. We'll see if this one goes tonight].


email (text only, no pictures) to mvgc3@sailmail.com

Follow us at https://www.noforeignland.com/boat/mehalah/journey

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Day 21 - Pacific Crossing - 12th April

12th April: 15.15 (Add 8 for UTC)
Course needed: 268
Course steered: 235
Speed: average 4.9 knots
Miles sailed: 2425
Miles to go: 622
Lat: 9° 41'S
Long: 128° 33'W
Wind: 7-10 apparent, 105 true?
Plan: Sail direct for Hiva Oa (HaHa!)

Frustrating or what? The nice 10-15 knots from the SE have been replaced by a sloppy ESE breeze. And whilst that should still allow us to make reasonable progress on port tack we again have the waves on our beam. Every one heels us over causing the sail to crash. It's horrible.

Update: We have now gybed onto std tack. Initial indications are better. Less slatting, making some north that we now need. But even slower. SOG now around 3.2 knots at 300 degrees. VMG around 3 knots.

Anyway it's been an overcast day today. Very soporific and energy sapping. Mostly we've laid around, tidied a bit, made some bread and had a good moan about everything. I have to say we are both ready to arrive now but at this rate it will be another week to go still.

The new lures have been out in the less hectic conditions but no success there either I'm afraid.

So for the time being we sit here doing Daily Telegraph cryptic crosswords, reading Kindle books, wincing at the crashing, adjusting the sail and hoping for more wind.

Jack. Send us some wind!

UPDATE @ 1900.
Little improvement and wind now coming from right behind us so engine on for the night. Hoping for more wind tomorrow (though forecast is more easterly). Boo.

[Last night when I sent the blog there were no replies for the first time. We have a 90 minute a month connection contract so it's possible we've reached that limit and we won't get any more of your messages and you won't get the blogs. Fingers crossed. We'll see if this one goes tonight].


email (text only, no pictures) to mvgc3@sailmail.com

Follow us at https://www.noforeignland.com/boat/mehalah/journey

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Sent via SailMail, http://www.sailmail.com

Day 20 - Pacific Crossing - 11th April

11th April: 15.25 (Add 8 for UTC)
Course needed: 269
Course steered: 269
Speed: average 5.7 knots
Miles sailed: 2307
Miles to go: 738
Lat: 9° 29'S
Long: 126° 36'W
Wind: 10-15 apparent, 135 true?
Plan: Sail direct for Hiva Oa


Consistency sums up the last 24 hours. We've hardly touched Paul. Just the odd click every few hours to compensate for small wind changes. Fair sized ocean swells pushing us from behind at an average of 5.7 knots.

We reefed at night but as we put full sail back up this morning the blue #1 reef got stuck in the boom. So the main won't quite go fully up and I think we'll have a baggy reef line hanging down for the rest of the passage when reefed. If anyone can find out what might have happened and how to resolve in port please let me know. It sounds as though one of the single line reefing sliders came loose and is now jammed? Not a good start to the day. [Update: Maybe it's sorted. At least the reef went in OK tonight. Big test tomorrow when we shake it out again].

It's Gill's turn to feel down today. I think I heard her say "I've never liked ocean sailing". Oops! Whereas I can just sleep wherever I am she still struggles to fall asleep at any opportunity.

We passed 3/4 of the way today. Amazingly each quarter of 750 miles has taken around 6 days and a few hours.

Oh. I almost forgot. Today we saw a ship! The AIS alarm screamed and at the same time Gill saw it on the horizon. The closest it came was 6 miles but it was the first sign of human life for two weeks. So unusual was it that Gill said there were two ships whereas actually one was the bow and one the control area at the stern of the ship, the Mount Ita, a cargo ship!

It's been very quiet wildlife wise for the last week. Gill spotted a few dolphins in the night and today we saw a couple of Shearwaters (I think) as well as a skinnier type of petrel. Other than that and a few flying fish, nada. Or as we are now closer to French Polynesia than Spanish Galapagos, rien.

It's my turn to cook tonight. My girls will know what's on the menu today. Yes, you guessed it - cheese omelette, my signature dish.

Hmm. Food stores. Where are we? We have 21 eggs left out of 36 but cheese as always has taken a hit. We are on our last round cheddar. We have loads of jars of pickles, made up pasta sauces, curry pastes etc but the longer these last in French Polynesia the better as it is apparently three times more expensive there than Panama which itself was not cheap. Panamanian rum and wines from there are stored away too. Tins of beans and sweetcorn are rapidly being depleted. Fresh produce? Ha. No salad stuff; the lack of a proper fridge hasn't helped. Loads of onions, potatoes and sweet potatoes. We ate the last delicious grapefruit for lunch today with last night's left over potato salad. A few avos and green peppers and chillis remain and an enormous butternut squash together with two huge watermelons, apples and lemons. Plenty of pasta and other carbs. Tomorrow I will bake bread again. We are not going to starve!





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Day 19 - Pacific Crossing - 10th April

10th April: 17.30 (Add 8 for UTC)
Course needed: 269
Course steered: 269
Speed: average 4.8 knots
Miles sailed: 2171
Miles to go: 870
Lat: 9° 21'S
Long: 124° 19'W
Wind: 10-15 apparent, 135 true?
Plan: Sail direct for Hiva Oa


A cloudy night with a weird sunset sky suggested we were in for a rough time. But as it happened we just sailed onward to the west. I think the weather system was changing somehow though as the wind direction and strength were all over the place. But we got some good miles in.

And by this morning and all afternoon we've been cracking on surfing down big lazy swells consistently over six knots. Indeed as Gill said today "This wouldn't have been a bad journey if it had all been like this".

But I am tired. Physically, mentally and emotionally. Sway, sway, creak, creak, what's that noise, so many things to go wrong, how will we fix them. Good job Gill is so supportive. And then I look around at the miles and miles and miles and miles of empty ocean. Just us and the Pacific Ocean headed for a tiny dot halfway to New Zealand. Quite amazing, remote and awe inspiring.

I did manage to make two very nice fishing lures today but the swell is big, we are travelling too fast if we hook one and the back of the boat is rocking around so I haven't deployed them yet. Or perhaps I just couldn't be arsed again. Sorry Stu.

Down below the boat is in chaos. We had to empty the big lazarette storage area when the steering broke and there are fleeces and wet weather gear strewn around.(It is still chilly at night, especially the 3am to 6am watch when energy levels are low). At least the yankee is no longer filling the saloon. We gingerly tested Gill's repair today, first reefed and then full sail as we surfed our way west. It held up well but as the wind increased we though it better not to risk it so it now sits up on the front stay nicely rolled away and we sail on with full main and staysail.

Noises.(just the top eight)
1. A crack/rattle. One of the reefing sliders inside the boom.
2. Occasional tension creak. As Paul's steering lines move against a pulley.
3. A scraping noise. The forward fire extinguisher moving minutely.
4. Rattle, rattle. Crockery moving (quiet now as stuffed with tea towels).
5. Bang/kerthwump. The worst. The boom swinging and the sail slapping when the wave action wins over the wind action. Horrid.
6. A distinct 'crack'. Two pieces of carpentry moving against each other when we roll. Sounds worse than it is.
7. Clonk, aft cabin. Paul's steering cogs and vane moving.
8. Click from rudder. Tiny amount of play now that shaft bearing aligned correctly (thanks Kevin, M2).


Our mindsets have changed since the 2,000 mile mark. Instead of the next big milestone being 1,000 miles or halfway it is now how far to Hiva Oa. We are counting down rather than up. We watch the miles reducing by around 120 a day. Not fast but steady enough. Currently 866 miles remaining. In 7 or 8 more days we should be there.


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Day 18 - Pacific Crossing - 9th April

9th April: 17.30 (Add 8 NOW for UTC)
Course needed: 26
Course steered: 267 (at least in afternoon)
Speed: average 4.8 knots
Miles sailed: 1944
Miles to go: 982
Lat: 9° 16'S
Long: 122° 27'W
Wind: 10-15 apparent, 135 true?
Plan: Sail direct for Hiva Oa


Last night was again slow but uneventful. The wind was from ESE again so we were pushed south of our desired course. It's been a very hard day actually though we're finally cracking on nicely at 18.25pm new time!

By afternoon we had had enough of the HORRID sail slatting and crashing and subsequent burbling along at 3.7 knots. So again we flew the parasail. This went well but as expected we had to hand steer. Quite fun actually at least for a couple of hours. Bringing it down was tricky again though as even in 10 knots of apparent wind I can only JUST tame it into its sock. But at least the process is much slicker now.

So. What about today's planned tasks?

1. Make water. Yes, and probably fixed a small leak in the crap brand new Osculati raw water filter.
2. Make new fishing lures. Nope, no time.
3. Catch a fish. Nope, no lures!
4. Be 2/3 of the way to Hiva Oa. Yes!
5. Have less than 1,000 miles to go. Yes!
6. Put the clocks back a further hour to UTC -8. Yes!
7. Do the laundry. Yes.

So unfortunately Stu fishing has taken a hit again. Maybe tomorrow? :-(

We hit the 2,000 mile mark this morning and later this afternoon we crashed through the 1,000 miles to go barrier. 900 sounds much better tha 1,000+. Lucky Neptune got another rum tot.

Tonight thankfully the wind has veered and we are able to finally head directly for Hiva Oa. Long may it continue. At present we are flying the main and a tentative yankee. All good so far.

No time for a Comms update. It is already getting dark.


[Hopefully you will receive this post by email as usual. Jenny might be looking into the problem for me].


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Day 17 - Pacific Crossing - 8th April

8th April: 15.20 (Add 7 for UTC)
Course needed: 265
Course steered: 260 (too much wind in East)
Speed: average 5.0 knots
Miles sailed: 1944
Miles to go: 1089
Lat: 8° 42'S
Long: 120° 42'W
Wind: 10-15 apparent, 120 true?
Plan: Sail direct for Hiva Oa


Last night was slow but uneventful. We reefed before dark but actually didn't need to. Hence the slow speed.

This morning it was parasail weather so we decided to give it another go. The most efficient launch yet but neither Paul nor the slightly poorly autopilot could manage to steer us. So reluctantly it came down again as we don't have the capacity to hand steer it all the time though Gill did steer at 7.5 knots for an hour or so. It really is the right sail for light downwind sailing. So that took around three hours in total during which we used some diesel and sailed basically nowhere. I was not a happy , though tired, bunny.

Back up with unreefed main and dawdle along downwind at 4.2 knots in 12 knots of wind. Gill went below for a sleep and I decided to play with the sails. Peter of Milly said we needed more (or any!) sail forward of the mast to be better balanced so I unfurled the small staysail. Although it gets blanketed by the main a bit we are now bobbing along at just over 5 knots. The course is good and I see the rudder is finally straight, so no drag there.

It's a beautiful trade wind day today again. Ideal for lounging and recharging our batteries.

It's been a bit of a catch-up day too. Some sleeping, some planning, some lounging around. Tomorrow we hope to...

1. Make water.
2. Make new fishing lures.
3. Catch a fish
4. Be 2/3 of the way to Hiva Oa.
5. Have less than 1,000 miles to go.
6. Put the clocks back a further hour to UTC -8.
7. Do the laundry.

I wonder how many of those will get completed?!

So that's about it for today. Tomorrow I may explain how our communications with the outside world work.


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Day 16 - Pacific Crossing - 7th April

7th April: 15.45 (Add 7 for UTC)
Course needed: 263
Course steered: 260 (too much wind in East)
Speed: average 5.4 knots
Miles sailed: 1827
Miles to go: 1204
Lat: 8° 20'S
Long: 118° 47'W
Wind: 10-15 apparent (to 27 in night) 120 true?
Plan: Sail direct for Hiva Oa


Last night as the moon came up I saw an ominous cloud to the east. I said to Gill that I think we should reef. So we did. Then nothing happened for a few hours. Then suddenly the sky went black, the wind piped up and it started to rain. A very nasty squall that lasted almost an hour. Paul, who follows the wind backed from 263 degrees, our desired course, to 208 degrees. Consistently over 20 knots, peaking at 28. When you add on our 7 knots of boat speed that's pacto the mast in the dark with white capped waves swishing around me just visible by the light of the moon.

Eventually we came out of it and it was my watch. Another squall a couple of hours later but not as bad and our course was less affected.

And since that the wind has stayed consistent all day at around 15 knots from ESE. At last it has been a beautiful sailing day. Fair sized waves but for the first time coming from behind us instead of rolling us from the side. The sun is out, we've investigated a few issues with a view to repair and, at present, life is good. We are starting to get tired though as we always seem to both be needed on deck several times a night. Still Gill is sitting here waiting for the "1,200 miles to go" mark to be reached.

No unusual wildlife and no boats. We do know that Wild Thing 2, a fast catamaran on a similar course to us is only 700 miles behind us. They may well catch us before we reach Hiva Oa. Milvina who left Galapagos before us dropped anchor in French Polynesia last night.

All in all today has been a much needed pleasant day.

[Daughter Jenny tells me you might not have received yesterday's blog and she thought you might wonder if we were dead! I think this is because the email distributing programme checks for updates on the website early in the UK morning. As we are now eight hours behind the UK it's possible yesterday's message had not yet been posted when it checked. This is increasingly likely to be the case as we will put the clocks back a further two and a half hours before we arrive in French Polynesia. However you can always see the most recent post at www.yachtmehalah.blogspot.com.]

We are really enjoying all your messages to us. Message download time after dinner is one of the day's highlights and gives us lts to discuss.

Also Gill reports that we used the last of the salad stuff today. With the fridge out of action we have been running the normally dormant freezer in its place for a few hours a day. So far it is holding up well.


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Da y 15 - Pacific Croassing - 6th April

6th April: 15.00 (Add 7 for UTC)
Course needed: 263
Course steered: 263
Speed: average 4.4 knots
Miles sailed: 1698
Miles to go: 1329
Lat: 7° 52'S
Long: 116° 43'W
Wind: 7-15 apparent, 150 true?
Plan: Sail direct for Hiva Oa


An uneventful night (excellent). Quiet watches but slow progress.

This morning as it got light Gill, much the better swimmer, donned her togs, mask, knives and grappling hook to try and free our fishing line from the prop shaft which was making a screechy noise. We heaved to and dropped a long line with fenders (properly tied on) behind and a knotted line for her to hold onto. We were pretty concerned but down the steps into the ocean she went. 1.4 knots still and she could hang on to the rope. Good news. She reported nothing visible so even if there's a bit of line in the cutless bearing somewhere there's not much. We heaved her back on board and went to try the shaft. I could now turn it by hand although it was a bit stiffer than usual. Phew. Looks like that one's sorted.

The wind today is from the SE so we are pretty much on a beam reach. Slow though without the yankee. Could we risk it? Yes, we could. We flew the repaired sail with a reef in for almost an hour when the wind piped up to over 15 knots again and we no longer wanted to risk the repair. Another success!

Bread making followed with some 'interesting' coconut cakey things.

The day isn't totally without incident though. We use a brand new Samsung tablet with Navionics and OpenCPN as our day to day 'chartplotter'. This afternoon for no apparent reason the whole tablet lost its GPS location. Just like that. One minute it was reporting our location and plotting it on the chart, the next minute nothing. Nada. Good job we have plenty of backups. But very annoying never the less. [3 hours later. Just as magically it's started working again!!].

This passage has not been what we expected. Where are the endless fluffy clouds, consistent trade winds, gentle sailing without a sail change for weeks? OK, there's only the two of us but it's been much more challenging than we expected, and more so than either of the Atlantic crossings. Not helped by the fact that we damaged the yankee and we are not flying the parasail as much as we might in case we are unable to bring it down in a sudden squall. Twice now it has lifted me off the deck as I try to retrieve it. It is BIG. Peter, now we can basically get it launched we could do with another tweaking masterclass!


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Day 14 - Pacific Crossing - 5th April

5th April: 15.20 (Add 7 for UTC)
Course needed: 263
Course steered: 255-275
Speed: average 5.1 knots
Miles sailed: 1593
Miles to go: 1440
Lat: 7° 37'S
Long: 115° 1'W
Wind: 9-15 apparent, 150 true?
Plan: Sail direct for Hiva Oa


Oh dear. Another problematic day. We sailed hard through the night with the usual staysail/main setup. The angle was good with wind more from the South, few waves, 10-14 knots of breeze. But. Lots of adverse current so we were only making 4.5 knots SOG.

So this morning we decided it was just about OK to fly the parasail. Good decision? Probably not as it turned out. We made a bit of a pig's ear getting it up but there it was. Then with 14 knots apparent almost on a beam reach we couldn't get it set so we decided to bring it in again. The annoying blue rope (you know the one Peter) got caught up and whilst we were sorting that the port sheet went overboard. Luckily it wasn't caught in the prop and we recovered it. However a fishing line did get caught in the prop and is giving a nasty noise at low revs. We need to decide what to do. If it's calm enough Gilly (by far the better swimmer) might go overboard for an inspection before we decide on further action (yikes I hear you say!).

Meanwhile we are sailing beautifully back with the white sails that we took in and then re flew. The big parasail is hard work and it took over an hour to get back to where we started.

And then one of the mast partners dropped out. Mehalah has a weird system. The mast is keel stepped so it goes through the deck down to the bottom of the boat. Instead of being fixed permanently at deck level there were four compressible high density spacers that aligned the mast as it passed through the deck. As the mast flexes they take up the slack. Today one of those spacers dropped out and I think looking at it we might already have been one short as we had noticed some movement earlier in the passage [John, Mariel - do you remember on the Atlantic crossing we thought the mast was moving too much?]. So now it moved more as the stresses on the rig varied. How to solve? Well we found some pieces of old fender, cut some pieces out and, as the mast flexed backwards we were able to force them into position. It's not pretty and cable ties were also involved but actually the mast is now moving less than I can remember. Another job to add to the Hiva Oa list of repairs required.

And yes, we are now officially over halfway with a belated 'party' at lunchtime. Tasty wraps, a not quite gone off grapefruit and date, almond and coconut balls. All washed down with rum (with an offering too for Neptune).

It really is a lovely trade wind sailing day today with an arrival time of 11-12 days currently predicted. We shall see!

Still no ships or sailing boats though we hear that several of our friends are not all that far away. Most, I think are sailing faster than us.

One interesting fact is that with all the sail and parasail hoisting I am getting stronger! Usually the main has a nasty habit of getting a batten caught in the lazyjacks just as I reach the limit of my manual hauling. But now I can get the sail past this tricky point before needing to resort to the winch. Good news.

Update: Just seen a beautiful Regal Tern, very chunky more like a gull.


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Day 13 - Pacific Crossing - 4th April

4th April: 15.20 (Add 7 for UTC)
Course needed: 264
Course steered: 250-270
Speed: average 5.3 knots
Miles sailed: 1479
Miles to go: 1552
Lat: 7° 26'S
Long: 113° 09'W
Wind: 9-15 apparent, 150 true?
Plan: Sail direct for Hiva Oa


"Tomorrow? A biblical day. Fishing and bread making if all goes to plan." Well, so much for that plan. I couldn't be arsed to fish and by the time I was ready to make bread we decided it was better for breakfast so I'll make it tomorrow.

I'm pleased to report another trouble free 24 hours. Winds 10-16 knots which is on the border of the top wind for parasail recovery should it strengthen so we've stuck with white sails. Only getting 4.5 knots with main alone at 100 degrees off the wind we needed another sail. But we're wary of using the yankee until it is properly fixed. So we tried the staysail. Much vibration. Not good for the stay. "Let's tighten its halliard" says Gilly. Great difference and we're now making 5.5 knots instead.

However, here's a question for all you proper sailors. I discovered today that our little used autopilot shows rudder angle. We are on a port tack 100 degrees off the wind and the rudder angle is (assuming the autopilot is correctly calibrated) 22 degrees to starboard. That seems a lot and presumably slows us. How do we go faster?

Late tonight we will be halfway. But what is halfway? In actual fact we might be more than halfway or less in terms of miles sailed as we never sail in a direct line from point to point. We know it was 3002 miles from Santa Cruz to Hiva Oa. And we know we will have sailed more than 1501 when we have 1501 left. So we say halfway is when we still have half the original direct miles left to go!

Not much to report today so here's a list of what we have in the cockpit. This is where we spend just about all our time if we are not cooking, washing, sleeping, making water or looking for things in which case we will be down below......

7 ropes (yellow port and starboard staysail sheets, grey port and starboard parasail sheets, black port and starboard parasail guys, red staysail furling line, green flecked mainsheet, black vang tensioning rope), 3 reasonably comfortable waterproof cushions that cover the sitting area, 2 adjustable chairs, one with pillow, 3 winch handles, 2 steering lines and 2 adjuster lines for Paul the wind steering, a small £45 tablet running SailFreeGPS, a Samsung tablet running Navionics, OpenCPN and Kindle app, 2 charging leads, odd bits of rope, a screwdriver, my fish catching box, 3 head torches, binoculars, logbook, reading books, 2 phones (no internet), InReach for sending position reports, SatPhone for special texts and weekly calls to my mum, 1.5 litre bottle of water, plastic mugs, sun screen, gaff, folding landing net, anchor stick, hand bearing compass, cryptic crossword book. Hmm, quite a lot of stuff.

As I said yesterday passing half way is a big psychological milestone. Suddenly you are getting closer to land rather than further away. So tomorrow the rum will come out again for Neptune's toast and a small, Peter might say, very small, tot for each of us. Halfway party food will be pin wheel wraps and almond, coconut and date balls. Up to now we've counted miles done. From here on in Gill will be counting miles to go. [Remember, Mariel?]. This can get a tad annoying if you let it!


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Day 12 - Pacific Crossing - 3rd April

3rd April: 16.30 (Add 7 for UTC)
Course steered: 263
Speed: 5.7 knots
Miles sailed: 1366
Miles to go: 1668
Lat: 7° 15'S
Long: 111° 14'W
Wind: SE 9-12 apparent
Plan: Sail direct for Hiva Oa


Today has been a day for licking our wounds. We always joke that passage making is like a continual session of 'boat yoga'. Today I feel as though I have done 10 rounds with Mike Tyson (well maybe a slight over exageration but as Leonard Cohen says "I ache in the places that I used to play"). That was a pretty intense three hours yesterday.

However at present we finally have some gorgeous trade wind sailing. Sparkling water, a gentle swell, no big waves, 11 knots off the port quarter. And so far nothing has broken today!

Last night though the sea was lumpy and headway was hard to come by. We never really got the sails set optimally and around midnight a 23 knot squall came through which involved a rainy trip to the mast to reef. (Geek alert: we have single line reefing so can reef whilst sailing downwind by practically centreing the sail first).

The rest of the day has been spent tidying up, making water and sleeping. We're wary of using the repaired Yankee so we're currently flying a full, prevented main and staysail and she's nicely balanced at just over 5 knots.

The other evening we briefly made contact with the Pacific Voyagers net on the long range SSB radio. This is run out of San Diego, US (good contact eh Chris?) and we were able to talk to Hazel on Susimi, who we met years ago in Grenada (remember her from hashing Wendy?). She and her partner are sailing from Mexico to French Polynesia where we hope to meet them again.

Still no ships seen or on AIS though we hear Zoë and Angus on Mowzer are only a hundred miles from us and Itiki are approaching the Marquesas.

Thanks to Jack for his daily weather reports and to Jenny for sorting out the overful message box last week.

Still no sign either of a returning Baldrick. A dozen flying fish (stiff) and small squid returned to Neptune after last night's squall. A couple of unidentified petrels zooming around. Otherwise just sea for as far as you can see in every direction. It's like being on a disk of ocean that is continually sweeping past and underneath us.

Dinner tonight was delicious left over pasta salad, a potato salad with capers and a few slices of pepperoni. And we have another big, almost full moon in store tonight. Here's hoping for an uneventful time. Tomorrow night we should be at the halfway mark. Always a big physiological moment. The closest land will be French Polynesia and no longer The Galapagos Islands.

Tomorrow? A biblical day. Fishing and bread making if all goes to plan.


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Day 11 - Pacific Crossing - 2ndApril

2nd April: 10.00 (-7 UTC)
Course steered: 263
Speed: 6 knots
Miles sailed: 1124
Miles to go: 1800
Lat: 6° 50'S
Long: 108° 51'W
Wind: ESE 11-16 apparent
Plan: Sail direct for Hiva Oa

(info for John Almberg, Petronella's current owner)

Well, that was an excellent night's run. No problems, nice sea, steady wind. Sailing at around 6.5 knots in the right direction. Both refreshed, early jobs completed including strengthening Paul's framework. Pride comes before a fall.

And then a quiet "thwump" and, no steering! Losing steering is one of the worst things that can happen. Now we had no steering at all, the wheel just turned slackly. Somewhere the cables had come apart between the wheel and the rudder. This could potentially be the end of our journey if we couldn't fix it. And we are a L O N G way from anywhere.

First job was to identify the problem. Meanwhile Gill had somehow managed with only one sail to heave to so hopefully we will just bob nicely (haha) until the problem is fixed. I removed the compass and peered down to the sprocket that drives the chain and associated cables. Slack, but not broken. Good. Now to the rudder end of the cables. This involved dismantling our bed, removing a panel, emptying a locker on deck and looking at the situation. A bolt with a ring on its end that connected to one of the cables had come undone. Now the bolt and the ring were no longer connected. If we could rejoin them perhaps we could continue. Problem is this is heavy engineering, the cables need to be brought together under a lot of tension and the whole rudder assembly is crashing around. And Mehalah is rolling a fair bit. VERY dangerous. I could lose a finger here quite easily. I eventually managed to get the cables rerun over all their pulleys but try as I might I couldn't get the ring and the bolt together to reconnect them. I tried strong kite string to pull them together. So close but no. Then Gill found a longer bolt and eventually we got a connection of sorts. I tightened things up and lo and behold as good as new. Three hours of our lives gone that we will never get back.

Meanwhile I'd also identified a problem with the autopilot drive but that looks less of a problem and can wait for another day.

I thought Mehalah was better prepared for this passage than she was for our Atlantic crossing but we've had a LOT of problems this passage. I wonder why as I think conditions have generally been easier than for the Atlantic.

Phew. Well that was very hairy and a bit frightening. But for once it happened in the daytime and with a reasonable sea. So we live to fight another day!


Baldrick has gone. Gill is missing him.

Sorry we haven't replied to many of your very welcome messaged. We will do so when we arrive. I think the backlog is now cleared.



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Day 10 - Pacific Crossing - 1st April

Be careful what you wish for. After a good parasail sail it started to look a bit grey so we decided to drop it and put up the mainsail. Good job because the wind then built and built. The promised 10-15 knots arrived and was passed. We sneaked a reef in. Now dark we approached 20 knots apparent wind. Add on 7+ knots of boat speed almost dead downwind and its getting pretty tasty. The waves built too, crashing into our port quarter. The biggest lifted us up and turned us downwind before the amazing Paul realised what was going on, turned back to port, over the crest and lined us up ready for the next one. Much better helming than either we or our autopilot can do. Right through the night and on after a welcome dawn we were grabbing handholds and timing our movements to avoid falling over or knocking into things. As a result though we've had our best daily run so far - 147 miles.

And then it dropped. Just like that. In less than a minute we were seeing 10-15 knots and the sea started to settle a bit. It's still 15 knots apparent now and we're doing 6 knots but the world has returned to its senses for the time being at least.


The lively conditions threw a dozen flying fish onto the deck last night. They are apparently delicious fried. The trouble is they always seem to come aboard at night and by the time you collect them in the morning they have gone stiff. So we've never tried them. But we've seen huge numbers of them on this passage,more than eve before. Often there will be hundreds at a time skimming over the waves.

I expect you are waiting for the latest Baldrick update. Well he stayed with us the whole night. He struggled to stay balanced on the pulpit at the front of Mehalah and finally flew off this morning. But not before he had a meal of safety netting and yankee leech line. Will he return tonight? Who knows.

Other than that, not much sign of wildlife to report I'm afraid. No fush because we only fish for food and we dont really fancy dish at present. Maybe tomorrow if conditions are conducive.

However to celebrate 1,000 miles completed we've just put all our clocks back. We are now officially on Pacific Time, seven hours behind UTC and eight behind the UK who have just switched to British Summer Time. That gives an extra hour in today so we can claim the next hour's mileage in today [maybe]. And there you have it 152 mikes in a day. A new record!

Later ..the seas are still pretty big and the winds are quote light. Its a battle as to whether roll along at 4 knots or we just wallow and slat in the swell.


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Day 9- Pacific Crossing - 31st March

We were talking today about how the passage has compared with our expectations. We had expected a nice trade wind passage once we were clear of Galapagos. Blue skies, fluffy clouds, 15 knots of wind from the SE. What we have had is either close hauled for the first few days or 3-7 knots mostly from ESE or E; that is almost dead downwind. Seas are very disturbed with a dominant 2m swell on our port beam and occasional small bands of current pushing us one way or another. Without a decent sized genoa to pole out (and now a small Yankee we don't really trust) we end up rolling and crashing unless we use the parasail. Which we are not confident enough in yet. Yesterday the apparent wind suddenly picked up to 18 knots in the night and it was all I could do to pull the sock over the sail to dowse it. So it's been pretty hard work with little time to relax. Today though we have flown the parasail all day and had a bit of time to relax - for the first time really. Time indeed for a cockpit haircut

It was 3,002 miles from Galapagos to Hiva Oa our first French Polynesia landfall. Tomorrow we will pass both the 1,000 miles completed and the less than 2,000 miles to go marks. We will also be almost halfway from Panama to French Polynesia and a quarter of the way from Panama to New Zealand! So tomorrow it's PARTY TIME!

Also as we move west we need to put our clocks back 3 and a half hours in total. That's roughly an hour every 1,000 miles so that's another milestone for tomorrow.

Otherwise morale is pretty good. Sleep patterns are evolving and we are starting to talk about plans once we arrive in Hiva Oa which might be in around 18 days.

Oh yes. Our friend Baldrick the booby is still travelling with us, leaving his perch only to catch a few flying fish.


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