We Have Arrived! - Fatu HIva

Welcome to our Blog. Our latest entry always comes up first... 
Click this link if you want to start at the beginning:
FIRST BLOG ENTRY
If you want to start at the beginning of our trip:
START OF TRIP
If you want to see the story of our trip from South Carolina
(where we bought the boat)
 to Lake Ontario Click this link:
  SOUTH CAROLINA

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WE MADE IT!!!  At 0241 local time we dropped the hook in "The Bay of Virgins" in Fatu Hiva.

We are scheduled to check in in Hiva Oa at 0800 on Tuesday morning, so will make the 6 hour run from here to there on Monday morning.

Statistically speaking, here is how the trip went:

We left Panama City at 0700 local time (1200z) on Tuesday, April 12 2016.  We arrived at Fatu Hiva in the French Marquesas Islands at 0241 local time (1315z).  Making the trip almost exactly 32 Days.

We traveled 3970 nautical miles (4568 statute miles, 7352 kilometers) averaging 5.2 knots (6 mph, 9.6 kph).  

 We ran the engine 86 hours, 76 hours in gear (about 460 miles) or 10% of the distance.  Other than to pull into the anchorage in Fatu Hiva, the last time we ran the engine to move the boat forward was on April 22.

On this leg of the trip we have broken:
one engine mount
the roller furler line (fixed)
an ipod
suncover on the Genoa is almost destroyed
one snatch block (kind of repaired)
one of our spinnakers (blown out)
deck wash valve (caused the flood)

I am sure I have forgotten something....

As for fishing, we lost 3 lures and only caught 5 fish and only kept one (a nice tuna).

Yesterday, we spent a few hours cleaning up the boat.  In the afternoon, we went for a long walk/hike and felt land under our feet for the first time in over a month...

Last night our good friends from s/v Beach House arrived just after dark, so we hope to get together with them today.

Our plan (at the moment) is to sail to Hiva Oa on Monday morning (tomorrow) and check into the country (officially) at 0800 Tuesday morning.  Following our check-in we think we will head to a small island called Tahauta, where we we clean the bottom of the boat and spend a few days.

Here are a few pictures from Just before we left, the trip, a Fatu Hiva... Unfortunately, it loaded them all in no particular order, so bear with us...

A morning visitor...

Day watch...

Our first morning in Fatu Hiva...

Fatu Hiva... Just as Thor Heyerdahl would have seen it in 1936...

Christina... happy to be here!

The village from our boat

Captain Kyle...

A welcoming Tiki...

Amazing mountains!

Just before we left we met Donna Lang.  She is a woman who is doing a solo reverse circumnavigation of the world.  She ran into some trouble approaching the southern tip of South America and was forced to re-route to Panama City.  We helped her a little and became fiends in the process.  You can follow her journey by going to her WEB PAGE

Inspired Insanity...

Out with Donna (on left) for pizza....

Just before we left Panama our good friend, Roger, took us for our last minute provisioning..

A bag of oranges - $6

Melons - $1

Pumpkin Squashes....  Yummy!

Fruit & Veggie heaven!

Roger and I patiently waiting.....

Sugar cane juice!

Bananas - 20 for $1

ready to go!

BEER!

Underway with our first spinnaker flying....

Christina & Shelley

A tired little sea bird... joined us for a rest....

Christina, hard a work....

ibid....

Kyle hard at work....

The EQUATOR!

Our friends on Swift Sure....

Christina becomes a Shellback!

Daily sunsets!

charting every day...

beautiful skies....

A must read for this trip... I was given this American First Edition for my sixteenth birthday...  I wonder if this planted the seed?

Halfway - we sent a message in a bottle....

Snack time!

another amazing sunset!

Fatu Hiva

nice hair!

drying coconut...

looking for the waterfall...

A little light reading.... Oh NO!

More soon.