We had a great sail racing talabal across to Nuka hiva. A huge bay full of oysters awaited us and a small but sweet town with a few wifi cafes and bars,  post office , hospital and local craft centre.  My favourite was a little snack bar that ran bbqs and had decent enough wifi to call home. 🙂

The locals put on a day of activities;  they showed us their local dances,  gave us food to try and showed us how to make seed necklaces. In the evening their local dance group performed for us and blew us all away. Sadly the food was a bit exotic but it was great fun to meet up with the rest of the rally.

The next day was spent unblocking toilets which on a fragile stomach from last night’s drinking was not too welcome! Amazingly for me and james , we got some help off Ian who insisted on doing the whole procedure. After which his nurse/wife Sindy looked inspected and cleaned up my smashed toe from the day before.

Hugh took me to the hospital the next day and I was seriously impressed by it.  Clean, modern and quick; I just walked in got a ticket and was seen within 5 minutes.  10 minutes later and I was hobbling along to the pharmacy with a list of drugs and bandages. Luckily some of the locals gave me a lift because it turns out walking 2 km with a smashed foot isn’t much fun!

After a pleasent stay in the soggy Marquesas (Andy described it as a warm lake district) we were all looking forward to heading off to the Tuamotos.

Hiva Oa has a small breakwater which you can anchor inside if the ferry is not there. Luckily for us it was bank holiday weekend so we managed a few days in the bay before we had to move on.

Here we were reunited with Tiggy of Miss Tiggy. After 3 weeks apart this was very exciting and we were all pleased to have her back!

About half an hours walk around the mountains there is a village with a lovely mix of Polynesian and French influence.  However before we could explore we had to check into the local gendarme.  20 plus yacht crew in a tiny office where the officers only English was “I don’t speak english” followed by a chuckle was certainly an unusal sight here.  The gendarme found it so funny he took several selfies and probably won’t forget us for a while!

Once checked in we could finally roam free. Sadly the post office closed before we got there so we had to wait to get local sims ( this became a long running theme..) but the supermarket wasn’t.  The owner gave us fresh lychees and we got excited about the French food. We spent the rest of the afternoon planning out our stay in the Marquesas by the beautiful pool in the hotel in the mountains.  To be reunited with everyone back home via wifi was much appreciated.

Indeed had Marie Jo the washing lady not lost my favourite teeshirt,  I would only have found memories of Hiva Oa. Dam you Marie Jo.

After an excitable struggle with the crusing shoot, we arrived along the coast of Ou pou with a pod of dolphins. More spectacular cliffs and another impressive bay.  The anchourage itself was a bit tight with only just enough room for ourselves and the other 4 oysters already there. We had a group dinner in a local pension on the hillside. No menu, just a shown of hands for several options. My steak and breadfruit chips were delicious.

The next morning we walked up to the cross on the hill and were rewarded with stunning views of the bay and village. After a group breakfast we wandered around the small but neat village, complete with not one but two football pitches.  Sadly we had to get to Nuka Hiva for the oyster party or we could have happily stayed longer.

For starters you can’t just leave somewhere like the galapagos.  You must first notify Regine 2 days in advance who notifies our agent Ricardo who sorts it all out with someone else… who gives Ricardo a piece of paper to give to Regine who passes it on to us to say we can leave. Few!  Regine has to do this for 30 boats… and that was just for leaving.  I don’t even want to think about entering!

She must be some kind of wizard because we all manage to get our zarpes  ( leaving tickets) and with a little ( alot) of help from Gav we manage to get the boat ready and fit for the 3000 mile passage that awaits us.

Provisioning for such a passage would be tricky anywhere but there’s no 24 hour big tescos here so have to order our food through another agent who gets it flown in from Equador and delivered to the boat.. which sounds like a glammed up tesco’s delivery until you realise they’ve given you all the nearly out of date stuff and shitty looking fruit and really it’s just like a tesco’s delivery.  A few hours wandering around the fruit market later and our fruit issues solved, we were not to rest just yet as a rogue taxi driver decided to ram our dingy with his flag pole.  Standing on Safiya’s dingy in a swelly ancourage while trying to patch a large hole is not easy… And sadly didn’t work.  Luckily the magical Regine kicked Ricardo’s ass in to gear once again and found us a dingy repair man.  It unfortunately meant we set off 6 hours later than we’d planned but that’s sailing!

Leaving the galapagos and friends behind was not easy.  Especially knowing we wouldn’t see some for a long time and others for a really long time.  And yet again I come to the conclusion that saying good byes is the hardest part of Sailing. I can deal with broken dingys,  leaking engines,  squalls and late night shifts but saying goodbyes won’t ever get easier.

However, as I sit on watch writing this the sun is about to come up and I’m full up on chocolate biscuits trying to work out which saw doctors song was their “one hit wonder” so It’s not all bad.  And I am very much looking forward to the marquesas where we will be reunited with the fleet and internet coverage so we can be reunited with loved ones back home.

To my friends and family that read this I’m sorry it’s been so long since I last posted…. 3000 miles is a long way! After a great  (but rolly ) passage I am very pleased to be enjoying the marquesas. Wifi here is not great so I will go back and add the photos later!

Love to you all,

RACH X

Day one.

In true boat style, the instruments decided to pack in just as we were getting ready to set off. We managed to narrow it down to something blowing the sea talk fuse in the course computer so the first 6 hours of our trip were spent running around plugging and unplugging raymarine equipment.  Already worried about our batteries and the alternator it was a bit of a shaky start but by the end of the day we managed to isolate the issue and get our instruments back. During all this time we were surrounded by huge rays. They like to jump out the water , some flapping their fins, some bearing their bellies, some doing back flips. Just amazing.

After a day of rushing around we were rewarded by the most beautiful sunset and a night sailing under the stars.
We traded some chocolate for a fish off the local fisherboys enroute so I had breaded snapper for the first time. It actually wasn’t bad!

Day two.
Today we tried out the twin headsail. After 2 hours of rope setting and wrestling with the halyard to get it up, we had a great sail.  The two sails balenced each other out nicely so once we locked off the wheels little helming was needed. Almost like having the auto helm back!

We had a drive by delivery of limes and fuses off calliope and then followed them into the sunset. Tiggy treated us all to fillet steak. Life is good.

Day 3.

Back to the raymarine mystery. 3 hours later still a mystery. Tried the tuna we caught yestersay. Safe to say not a big fan but filled up on fried rice instead 🙂
We’ve now added Shanties to our little oyster flotilla. Wind is starting to die.. think it’s all motoring from now on.

Day 4.

Bacon sandwich for lunch and spaghetti bolognase for tea. Yum yum. Saw a shark and attempted to raft up to calliope for 5 o’clock cocktails .. Sadly it was a little too bouncy so we ended up having a swim instead. Followed by the most incredible sunset.  We really are so privaledged to be here. It’s just beautiful.

Day 5.

We crossed the equator aussie style with red and blue in honor of the Melbourne demons. We’re now officially south of the equator which is pretty cool.

Day 6.

Galapagos !