Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Marquesas Islands

Marquesas Islands
Ten islands and numerous rocks and islets compose the group which has an area of approximately 1400 square miles.  These high, volcanically formed islands have steep, black, cliff-edged coasts indented by many valleys.  The total population is about 9,000, the descendants of proud and warlike Polynesian tribes that once numbered approximately 100,000 when Captain Cook visited the island in the 18th century.  These islands were the first islands that we reached upon our arrival from Mexico.  We visited Hiva Oa, Fatu Hiva, Tahuata, Ua Pou and Nuku Hiva – you should here the local island kids’ giggle as we try to say all of these names.
 It is here in the Marquesas where you will experience the Polynesian culture where it is probably the most intact and where the native tongue, Marquesan, is spoken as the primary language.  You still see tattoos carved onto the skin of men symbolizing the legends and customs of these people, women adorning themselves with flowers in their hair and men going out in their outrigger canoes as part of their daily ritual.  These islands are very remote, rugged and hard to get to, but the islander’s prefer it that way to keep their culture from being spoiled from too much outside influence.
Hiva Oa
Our first island in the Marquesas was sweet Hiva Oa.  Hiva Oa is the 2nd largest of the islands in the Marquesas, has a population of about 2,000 people and is also the burial site of Paul Gauguin. 
We picked this island as our first stop only because we needed to check into French Polynesia and this was where our customs agent was located.  We arrived on a Sunday and found that everything was pretty much closed up – the Marquesan’s are very devout Catholics and they observe their day of rest.  Actually, all of the schools in the Marquesas Islands were shut down for a two week Easter holiday – very religious culture.
Bright and early on Monday morning, our customs agent, Sondra, greeted us and took us directly to the local gendarme to properly register our boat, and to check all of us into French Polynesia.  She also picked up our laundry and recommended a wonderful place for dinner – Pension Alex.   Dinner at Pension Alex was a superb feast blending the best of the French and Marquesan cuisines – lovely tomato and cucumber salad, seared tuna with a nice array of vegetables, and a fantastic rum cake with whip cream frosting for dessert.  Alex was in the French military during the days of French nuclear testing, settled in Hiva Oa, and married a Marquesan woman.  They have a beautiful family of 3 girls and one boy.  That evening, there were guests from France staying at the pension who Dennis managed to whip in billiards – after four games with the pool shark, the young French men, said Enough!
Sondra hooked us up with Mary Jo, a tour guide who happens to speak a little English, for a grand tour of Hiva Oa.  We found this oh-so-mellow island to be a picturesque mix of lush jungle, sea-smashed coastal cliffs cascading into picturesque bays, and lofty volcanic peaks.  Mary Jo arranged a brief stop in one of the quaint villages to purchase fruit from William who just happen to have the only “yacht” club in the Marquesas – this consisted of a boat register which contained the names of many cruisers.
We also visited one of the best-preserved archaeological sites in French Polynesia, the “Lipona” archaeological site, on the outskirts of Puamau.  After taking in the archeological site, we lunched at the only restaurant in Puamau – a delightful, timeless village located on the sea.  The Marquisan lunch consisted of freshly baked baguettes, raw fish marinated in lime juice and coconut milk (poisson cru), a platter of fried red bananas and breadfruit, coconut shrimp with rice, and fresh tropical fruit for dessert – enough food to last us for a week.  Our guide spent most of the luncheon talking in the Marquisan language with two local women who were dressed in traditional Polynesian clothing.  While feasting, several of the friendly local kids visited, played with us and entertained us very nicely.  After touring the island for the day, we returned exhausted to our boat anchored at Atouna.
Atouna, a very small town that is quite easy to miss, has a few stores and some services, including a post office, grocery and hardware stores.  (The Mobil station located at the port also has a small store with the best fish sashimi and marinated fish salad dishes to-go.)  Atouna was about a 4k (or 2.5 mile) hike into town.  We replenished supplies, purchased prepaid phone cards at the post office, and found out about WiFi for the internet.  But we struck out on diesel and had to wait for the ship to arrive before we could purchase any diesel from the Mobil station.  The ship stops at Atouna every two weeks.  Once the ship was offloaded on Thursday, we were able to purchase diesel on Friday.  There’s no place to tie off your sailboat at the harbor so Dennis and RB made four trips to shore via dinghy to transport 80 gallons of diesel back to Lardo.  We had no luck with propane as we forgot that we needed an adapter; hopefully we can find one along the way or else we’ll end up eating lots of cold cereal and sandwiches.  No gas – that arrives on the following Wednesday and after a week on Hiva Oa, we’re eager to explore the beautiful Marquesas islands – hopefully we’ll find gas for our dinghy at another island.
Our last evening in Hiva Oa, we were treated to cocktails on board Andy, Monica and Jake McKaskle’s “Savannah”.  Fellow puddle jumpers “SongLine” (Fred and Cinda), and Sarah Jean (Beth and Norm) also joined us.  It was so nice to meet these folks after listening to them every evening on the “Puddle Jump” net!
Fatu Hiva
After loading up with diesel, we took off early on Saturday morning to Fatu Hiva, one of the hardest-to-reach islands in French Polynesia.  This was an all day trip bashing against the swells; we arrived just at sunset.
 Fatu Hiva has a population of just under 700 people.  It was certainly an island where you could play castaway for a few days.  When arriving by boat, the scenery is a visual shock.  Wrinkled cliffs and towering basaltic cones tumble into the coast and splendid bays, including the iconic Bay of Virgins (also referred to as Baie Hanavave), where we anchored.  When the missionaries first arrived at this bay, it was originally named “Bay des Verges” (Bay of Phalli) by the early explorers because of the shape of the rocky pillars.  Supposedly the missionaries disapproved, and inserted the “i” making it “Baie des Vierges” which translates to Bay of Virgins.  The water in this bay was very clear and warm (80 degrees) - we loved jumping off the boat into this water.  This is what the South Pacific is all about!
This was certainly one of our most majestic anchorages and I never tired looking at the rocky spires that surrounded us.   The valley was lush with tropical vegetation, including palm trees, bird of paradise, orchids, gardenias, jasmine.  We ate lunch at a local’s home who was selling some freshly barbecued chicken and skewered meat dishes – ate early as this place was only open till 11:00 a.m. on Sunday morning.  After a hearty lunch, we proceeded on our hike into the valley to the waterfall - this was a very long hour hike up a steep hill – didn’t quite make it but at least we could see the waterfall from the road – next time we’ll start earlier before the heat of the day.  We about all collapsed by the time we made it back to town – just in time to watch the main town event of the day – the local women’s volleyball team versus the other village island team – these teams from these very small villages have some great players – guess volleyball is the key activity in some of these villages.  They play power volleyball with bump, set, spike the norm.
Next day, we paid a local to take us to the next village located in Baie Omoa, a quaint little town with friendly people.  After we met the school teacher (a surfer who has spent some time in Santa Cruz, CA); he asked two little girls to be our guides to the petroglyphs.  These barefooted little girls took us on a very narrow trail winding through the jungle but never quite found the petroglyph – we loved their eagerness and determination and probably had more fun spending the afternoon with them than finding the petroglyphs.
Tahuata
We spent two days at this island across from Hiva Oa.  Not much more than 650 people in this island.  The first day was at Vaitahu village where you can see much of the village from your boat, including the school, volleyball court and the seafront stone Catholic Church – commemorating 150 years of Catholic missionary service on the islands.  We arrived in the late afternoon and were treated to a lovely cocktail hour onboard Storm Haven with our very gracious host Don and Paulie.   Their boat is a Nordavn 46, which is a powerboat long range cruiser…..very comfortable!  They so far are usually about a day ahead of us in their cruise of the Marquesas’ and have offered great advice on what to see and do throughout the islands.
Only a few boats anchored at Vaitahu as the landing into the village is very rough.  I said to Dennis, no way am I getting off here with this swell crashing onto these rocks; so the next day we went around the corner and anchored in the idyllic Hanamoenoa Bay - sandy beaches and crystal clear blue water where you could see clear to the bottom.  Easy to spend the day on your boat just jumping on and off for a leisurely swim in this beautiful bay.  No one was in a rush to leave this bay that has been rated as one of the most beautiful anchorages in Polynesia.
Pulling anchor was a little dicey as we managed to snag a huge 200 pound piece of coral – we needed to take the dinghy off the boat in order to remove the coral.  After struggling for nearly an hour, we succeeded in getting this stubborn piece of coral off the anchor and headed out to our next destination, Ua Pou.
Ua Pou
Our next destination in the Iles Marquises was Ua Pou with approximately 2,000 inhabitants.  This volcanic island has many soaring mountain spires and towers, and scenic bays indenting the coastline.
We anchored at Baie d’Hakahau so that we could be close to the village of Hakahau, the main settlement of the island with approximately 1,000 residents.  I think what caught our attention was the decent anchorage with a breakwater/wharf and nearby Rosalie’s Restaurant, featuring Marquisan foods such as poisson cru, breadfruit, curried goat, barbecued rock lobster, taro, octopus, green mango, tapioca and sweet red bananas.  Well, we found Rosalie but it never seemed to be opened so we ate at another local “no-name” restaurant and each of us had a terrific meal – steaks for the guys and a Marquisan style fish with vegetables dish that was excellent; so good we went back the next day.  The village also has a post office, stores and a bakery.
Met French man and single hander - Jean onboard Senta - who bought his boat in La Paz, Mexico where his son worked at the French consulate office.  Jean was also a Puddle Jumper who completed his crossing all by himself in 28 days.
That afternoon after lunch, RB and I remained in town to check it out, visit St. Etienne with the beautiful wood carvings and to buy bananas from a local directly from her banana patch with about 20 trees.  When buying bananas, be prepared as you must buy the whole bunch (or about 10 kilo’s that I had to fit into about 4 buckets).  Right now I’m thinking that these green, hard bananas might never ripen.
While RB and I were touring around in town, Dennis was boarded by the French Polynesian customs officials, very friendly but they forgot to tell us that we were in the swing line of the freight ship; that night literally about five minutes before the freight ship arrived in port, the customs boat official, as his boat was suddenly leaving the dock, shouted to us to get out of the way of the freight ship – here we had been in port for a day and a half and they finally got around to telling us.  We struggled most of the evening with the anchorage and at 11:30 that night, we re-positioned our boat – finally at 12:30 a.m. we went to bed knowing that we were securely anchored. 
On Saturday, we toured the island with Xavier, a Frenchman who spoke English – we met Xavier who swam daily in the bay – chatting to local cruisers.  During the tour, we felt like we were in an Indianapolis Jones movie as we were tramping about the island in Xavier’s four wheel drive with two us stuffed into the converted back seat staring out at the road behind us and bouncing around on these rugged dirt roads.  For sure Xavier’s car would be illegal in the states, had no shocks and certainly never had any tender loving care.  My back and joints are living proof.   I almost did not want to go in his vehicle but Dennis talked me into it – we had a lot of fun four wheeling about the island, no worse than doing nine knots on bumpy seas or the roller coaster in Santa Cruz.
Off to Nuku Hiva on Sunday, April 17th.
Nuku Hiva
Nuku Hiva is the largest in French Polynesia after Tahiti and is sparsely populated with approximately 2600 inhabitants.  We timed our visit right smack in the middle of the rainy season and we sure got a lot of heavy downpours.  This island boasts a fantastic terrain, with razor-edged basaltic cliffs pounded by crashing waves, deep bays blessed with Robinson Crusoe beaches, dramatic waterfalls and timeless valleys that feel like the end of the world.  The main town of Taiohae, the ‘capital’ of the Marquesas, has managed to hold on to that slow-down-it’s –the South-Pacific feeling.  It is this town that we had some of our sail boat parts shipped to and we waited an extra week or so to get them.
We spent a little over a week exploring this island, waiting for our parts to be shipped to “Dennis Millard - General Delivery - Post Office – Taiohae – Nuka Hiva, and replenishing our supplies and provisions.   We loved our tour around the island, especially all the archeological sites.  Our local tour guide, Richard Temarama was fantastic – great English and fantastic knowledge about the Marquesas, including its rich ancient history and tropical plants (temarama.tour@hotmail.fr). 
Dennis bonded with our guide Richard, a fellow hunter, and was in awe over his method of hunting wild pigs.  Richard shared with us the Marquesan style of hunting – absolutely no hunting rifles.  The Marquesan traditional way is to stalk the pig, creep up on it with a large hunting knife in hand, quickly grab the pig and then immediately attack it with the knife - praying that they are quick enough before the wild pig turns on them.
Fortunately, our visit coincided with the Easter holiday festivities.  At night, we sat on our boat listening to the rhythmic beat of the drums as the Marquesan’s prepared for the festivities.  We attended a local festival where we watched Polynesian dancers and feasted on pork slowly roasted in the ground and complimented with breadfruit and cooked red bananas.  The dancers were quite moving and dressed in traditional Polynesian grass costumes.
We also attended a Polynesian style Easter service – lots of singing, bongo drums and tropical flowers.  As I entered the church, I was immediately struck by the heavenly scent of the gardenia flower lei’s.  The church was tastefully decorated with tropical flower displays, bird of paradise, palms and leis – all done by locals as there’s no florist on this island.  It was fun to see the women dressed “Polynesian” style – white missionary dresses or colorful Polynesian print dresses and of course flowers in their hair.
Better be off to the “boulangerie” and farmer’s market at 6:00 a.m. for bread and produce – otherwise it’s all gone before 7:00 a.m.  The other few stores at least are open all day but are always closed for two to three hours for a decent lunch break.
Summary
All in all, we spent about 3 weeks in the Marquesas with Nuku Hiva our final destination in the Marquesas.  We must continue through French Polynesia before our 90 day limit given by the French government is up and head on south to the Tuamotu Islands (French Polynesia), the next set of islands on the way to the Society Islands which include Tahiti.  We ate lots of wonderful tropical fruits (mango, papaya, banana, breadfruit, and grapefruit) that grew abundantly all over the Marquesas Islands and will miss that daily part of our diet.  For now after three plus weeks in the Marquesas, we must say goodbye to these islands that truly host the wonderful Polynesian culture.  That’s all for now until we get to the Tahiti as there’s limited internet access along the way.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Pictures of the Marquesas

Pictures of the Marquesas




Pictures of the Marquesas

Pictures of the Marquesas



Pictures of the Marquesas




Pictures of the Marquesas

Pictures of the Marquesas

Sail from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico to the Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia

Sail to the Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia (2011)
One of our Longest Ocean Passages of approx. 3,000 miles
Captain’s Log (recorded at 8 p.m. daily Puerto Vallarta time)

Date
Latitude
Longitude
Wind
COG
SOG
Barometric
Wave Ht
Comments
Mar 12
20.40 N
105.25 W
11 kt W
230 W
5.6 knots
1016
1 – 2 ft

Mar 13
19.24 N
107.42 W
18 kt NW
230 W
6.9 knots
1016
2 – 4 ft

Mar 14
18.27 N
110.02 W
14 kt NW
250 W
5.5 knots
1016
5 – 7 ft

Mar 15
18.11 N
112.15 W
5 kt NW
257 W
5.3 knots
1016
3 – 6 ft
Motor sailed
Mar 16
17.48 N
114.25 W
3- 5 kt NE
250 W
6.0 knots
1018
5 – 7 ft
Motor sailed
Mar 17
17.13 N
116.40 W
12 kt NW
245 W
6.5 knots
1019
8 ft
Saved boat hook; tanker siting at 3:00 a.m.
Mar 18
16.45 N
119.06 W
10-12 NW
235 W
6.2 knots
1019
8 ft
Shackle repair
Mar 19
15.45 N
121.08 W
12-14 NE
185 S
6.2 knots
1017
6 ft
Jibed south; turtle siting
Mar 20
14.12 N
122.13 W
8-10 kt N
228 SW
5.4 knots
1016
6-7 ft
Motor sailed until 4:00 p.m
Mar 21
13.19 N
112.53 W
15 kt NE
250 W
6.4 knots
1015
4 – 8 ft

Mar 22
11.30 N
125.53 W
8-18 kt NE
200 SW
6.2 knots
1013
10 ft
Whale siting
Mar 23
07.15 N
127.28 W
20–30 kt N
230 SW
6.5 knots
1012
6 ft
A.M.  Fishing boat siting P.M. Squalls – Thunder, Lightning, Rain, Double reefed main
Mar 24
07.15 N
127.28W
20 kt N
230 SW
6.5 knots
1012
6 ft

Mar 25
06.11 N
129.21 W
13 kt N
235 SW
5 knots
1012
 6-8 ft
Sun and Squalls
Mar 26
04.49 N
130.34 W
12 kt N
185 S
5.5 knots
1012
7 ft
Sun, Squalls, 90 degrees; Water temp 79 degrees
Mar 27
02.43 N
131.30 W
11 kt NE
240 SW
6.0 knots
1012
4-6 ft
Squalls, Mo to r sailed
Mar 28
00.48 N
132.03 W
5 kt N
170 S
5.8 knots
1011
3-4 ft
 More squalls, hot and humid; Motoring
Mar 29
01.27 S
132.04 W
10 kt E
171 S
6.0 knots
1014
2-3 ft
Crossed equator, Dry weather, Motoring, Mast repair, MLM hand injury
Mar 30
03.27 S
132.42 W
15kt  E
214 SW
5.8 knots
1012
3-4 ft
Flying during night– hit 9.0 knots
Mar 31
05.45 S
134.17 W
16 kt SE
220 SW
7.5 knots
1012
5 ft
Continue to fly at high speeds; Inbound -  made final course adjustment early in morning to head to Hiva Oa
Apr 1
07.08 S
136.03 W
11 kt E
215 SW
6.0 knots
1012
3-4 ft
Sailed the good wind and motored the light wind
Apr 2
08.47 S
137.50 W
16 knt SE
214 SW
6.0 knots
1013
3-4 ft

Apr 3
09.48 S
139.02 W
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YEAH – We arrived at Hiva Oa!


Dennis Millard (captain), MaryLee Millard, fantastic crewmates RB Ward, Krista Beckley
Week 1(Saturday, March 12)
We set sail from Puerto Vallarta (PV), Mexico to the Marquesas on Saturday, March 12 at 6:30 p.m. after waiting out the tsunami warning the day before in Banderas Bay.  As we were checking out of Mexico in the Port Captain’s office that Friday, we heard about the devastating 8.9 and 7.9 earthquakes that hit Japan.  There were tsunami warnings from Alaska clear down to the coast of Mexico.  After hearing this, it didn’t take too long for us to figure out that the safest location for us was to head out to the deep waters of Banderas Bay.  We ended up going to anchor off La Cruz (North side of Bandaras Bay) where we had spent several days previously on the hook.  There are normally 30-40 sailboats on the hook off La Cruz.  This night there were 155 boats in the anchorage.  All ports were closed to boats coming in, so we joined everybody else that got caught out sailing when the tsunami hit.  We waited out the warning until early the next morning when the port captains re-opened all the harbors.  Fortunately we had plenty of food on board.  Some of the boats didn’t have anchors or food because they were racing in the Bandaras Bay Regatta.  Our first stop that morning was to La Cruz Marina to fuel up; it was there that we witnessed the destruction of docks 9 and 11 – these slips were totaled.  We were glad that we didn’t risk staying in the marina.
After fueling up, we had to race back to our slip at the Nuevo Vallarta Marina. We immediately checked in with our weather forecaster, which we had been doing all week long, and he said that we needed to go that day instead of Sunday if we want to catch the ‘westerlies’.  After missing the previous day due to the tsunami, we had to scramble around last minute with provisioning and other chores before taking off on our 3,000 mile trip to the Marquesas.  By 6:30 that evening, we were done and as ready as we possibly could be.  We headed out to sea to be greeted with some great winds for the next few days.  Our strategy was to head out west to catch the northeast trade winds.  Our forecaster, along with our own review of grib files from NOAA, had indicated that we would have great winds for the first few days of sailing (ranged from 10 to 25 knots); then we had a lull where we experienced very light winds for several days.  A little more than we anticipated, so we motored through them.  Made us a little edgy to use that iron wind so early on, but our prayers were answered by Poseidon who gave us more wind.
Fortunately, my timing for catching the flu bug was timed right for the light winds.  Before we left dock, Krista Beckley, RB Ward and Dennis were all hit with the stomach bug which they blamed on food poisoning.  However, I kept saying that it was the flu and watch me get hit with it three days out to sea.  It was miserable – severe vomiting and diarrhea – which I got over in a day and a half.  Poor RB and Dennis – they were still fighting this bug the day we took off.  Everybody on board were real troopers as they covered my watches and chores.
It didn’t take long before we found ourselves isolated from civilization.  A few tankers the first few nights and then that was it.  Fortunately, we’ve been escorted by an occasional whale, dolphins, marlins, sunfish, turtles – but these guys even seem to disappear after about 500 miles.  Now it’s only flying fish, small black/brownish birds and the boobie that keep us company on this long ocean voyage.  When that boobie comes swirling around our boat, it’s such a welcoming sight to have his company.
Each night, we look forward to listening to the Puddle Jump net on our single side band radio – our only link to civilization and other cruisers crossing this huge vast ocean.  We eagerly wait for our roll call to hear reports from those cruisers about a week or so ahead of us.
 We’re eating well the first week – plenty of food and liquids.  We ate mostly cereal and juicy Mexican oranges for breakfast; sandwiches for lunch; and a hot cooked meal for dinner each night.  The only fresh meat we brought on board was chicken which Krista used for a delightful chicken curry dish.  Amazing that we’ve been eating so well – quiche, shepard’s pie for St. Patrick’s day, pasta with sautéed tomatoes, onions and zucchini, southwest tuna casserole, and homemade pizza!  Krista has also baked bread – she’s quite talented with kneading bread while doing a jibe!
We packed lots of fresh produce for this trip – including oranges, limes, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, zucchini, mango, avocado’s, onions, garlic.  Plenty of fruit drinks, carton milk, nuts, soups, pasta, split pea and lentil beans,  and array of canned items including chicken, salmon, tuna, vegetables and fruits.  Pretty sure that we’ll be ok with the food but know that we will run out of bottle watered.  Counting on that water maker to work and enough diesel to run it!
Settled into our watch routine with two people on deck at all times.  During the day, we each got six hours in the cabin to catch up with sleep and to get a break from the strong sun.  At night we alternated 3 hours on and 3 hours off.  So far Dennis and I are settling into the watch routine and adjusting to the disrupted sleep schedule but RB and Krista are struggling a bit with it.  With all of this constant motion, we’re all experiencing strange dreams at night as well.  We reversed this routine during week two so that we could get six hours sleep at night.  We eventually went to 3 hour watches near the end the trip.
As we keep heading out further, we’re starting to feel connected with this vast wide Pacific Ocean.  It’s such an incredibly peaceful feeling to be surrounded by all of this wild untamed blue water and the evening galaxies at night.  It’s a true marvel that the force of the wind over all this blue water will blow Lardo across 3,000 miles of open ocean.
During the days/nights, we let the monitor wind vane do all of the steering so all we had to do was just trim the sails, make boat repairs – such as fixing shackles, perform daily chores – washing clothes and cleaning the boat and of course lots of reading.  Although not much to do, when you’re constantly fighting the motion of the water, it takes a lot out of you – even the simple task of bathing can be trying as you fight the constant wave motion and try to maintain your balance with these rollers.  By now, both Krista and I have a pretty good set of bumps and bruises.  During 2011 the trades were rather bumpy, with a lack of big swells with 15 second intervals.  Instead there were big swells, one right after another, maybe on 6 second intervals.  We sometimes caught up with the swells in front of us, with a resultant confused sea.
Week 2 (Sunday, March 20)
At the beginning of week two, we’re about 1000 miles offshore (or about a third of the way to the Marquesas).  Our latitude is 14 degrees north and our longitude is 122 degrees west.
For the most part, we’ve had pretty good wind the first week with about 2 motoring days.  Today, March 20th, the start of week two, we found ourselves motoring until about 4:00 p.m., each silently praying to Poseidon for more winds. Our goal is to get to the Marquesas in 21 days.   Without the wind, it’s also a lot warmer on deck and we’re all feeling a bit lethargic and probably a little tired from lack of sleep due to very roiling seas on Friday evening.  Still pretty choppy and we’re wishing for those smooth long high rollers known to these seas.  It might be La Nina or weather fronts way up front that’s causing these disturbed confused seas.
The lack of wind always makes me a little edgy and the “what ifs” start creeping into my thoughts.  Fortunately, no one else on board seems too worried or they are doing just a better job at concealing their nerves.  I’m pretty confident that we have an ample supply of food on-board; it’s the diesel and water supplies that worry me.  When the wind does pick up, then this nagging worry seems to go away.  And about when the wind does pick up, which it does big time, then I grow weary of everything going flying around the cabin – like the broken raw eggs that Krista found in her bed this morning.  Since Sunday, the wind has been very steady and our boat is hauling ass through the Pacific!  Our Cal 39 is a wonderful sailor!
At the beginning of week two, we decided to reverse our shifts so that we do three on/off during the day and 6 on/off during the night.  Hopefully, everyone will start getting more night time sleep as no one seems to get enough during the day.  Anyway, if this doesn’t work, then we will try something else.
About Wednesday, when I was convinced that we were so far away from everything, we had a mink whale siting.  A mink whale is sleek and fast.  They look like a miniature humpback without the big fins the humpback has.   It was magnificent to see this pod of whales about 1500 miles in the middle of the ocean.  They were quite curious and played with our boat for several hours.  And we were quite thrilled to watch them surf through the waves.
Later that night, we were nailed with several squalls on RB’s and Krista’s shift – they kept us on course while dodging the squalls.  The squalls, thunder, lightning, and rain, came back later in the next day with winds topping at 30 knots – we double-reefed the main and comfortably sailed through the dark night at about 5 to 6 knots.
The next day, we sited a mystery boat.  Our guess was that it was a rusty old Korean long-liner fishing vessel, but it sure looked like something out of “Mad Max”.  It made us a little nervous to see this boat, especially when it crossed our bow at a good rate of speed and looked us over. Fortunately it kept its course which was opposite of our direction and it continued to go past us.  Once the fishing boat hit the horizon, we all breathed a sigh of relief that they had no interest in Lardo.
At the end of week two, we’re heading west to take advantage of the wind direction and getting daily squalls.  Our biggest question is what kind of wind will greet us in the ITCZ (Intertropical Convergence Zone).
Then, on Saturday March 26th we lost our westerly wind so we started heading more in a south-southwest direction.   From our grib sheets and reports from sailing vessel SongLine, it looks like the wind will die soon and that we may have to go several days through the doldrums without much wind.  We shall have to wait and see.
Week 3 (Sunday, March 27)
At the start of week three, we are so happy that we still have wind at latitude 3 degrees north and longitude 131 degrees west.  The question of when the wind will die continues to haunts us. We are catching the vessel Songline…..they are becalmed.   We’re noticing that the weather is quite warm and humid in the equator zone; we experience daily showers and squalls.  The water temperature is 79 degrees - can hardly wait to jump into this warm water.
On Sunday afternoon, we fortunately decided to run the water-maker.  When turning on the engine, we discovered that our throttle was frozen.  By now, I have realized that any significant ocean passage is 10% sailing skills and the other 90% are “fix-it” skills constantly needed to repair the breaks – hey a good sailing day is when you have more “fixes” than “breaks”.  Fortunately, both Dennis and RB are very mechanically inclined and resourceful when it comes to fixing things on the boat.  Good to have sailors that don’t panic when stuff breaks.  Who would have ever guessed that an ice-pick from my galley would be used to replace the throttle lever! 
The wind didn’t last long before we realized that we were in the “doldrums” (ITC zone).  It was about late Sunday evening/early Monday morning that we were hit by a series of squalls plus we lost our wind.  Fortunately, we were in touch with SongLine who was a little ahead us - we were able to benefit from their experience.  SongLine had headed south too soon at 129 degrees and was be-calmed for three days – they agreed that we should continue west for a bit longer.  Hence, we waited until we got to longitude 132 degrees before we headed south to motor sail through the doldrums.  Fortunately, we were able to find some wind before long – motored quite a bit on Monday and Tuesday.  Late Tuesday afternoon, we found some wind which kept us sailing for most of the night and most of Wednesday.
We crossed the equator early morning on Tuesday, March 29th during Krista and RB’s shift.  Dennis and MaryLee were sawing logs and missed out on the while Equator party occurring on the deck.  Fortunately, Krista and RB contained their party and celebrated by taking pictures – they were too chicken to jump off deck into the darkness of the ocean – good call on their part.
Once we crossed into the southern hemisphere – we found the Southern Cross.  Also, we found the seas to be much calmer and going in a different direction.  After a little more than two weeks of battling roily high seas, it was a blessing to have calmer seas and to be able to move about the boat a little more easily.  So far, no major injuries other than MaryLee managing to smash both her hands.  Both hands have recovered nicely and are ready to pull in the main and jib sheets.
By mid week knowing that we were low on fuel, we continued to hope for those wonderful trade winds to show up.  On Wednesday afternoon, as we were pondering our course (approximately 500 miles remaining) after looking at the grim “grib” files which had indicated a big hole in the ITCZ with very little wind, a strong weather front blew in.  Initially we thought we could ride out this front to the south for a few hours and with a little bit of luck the front would take us to those trade winds.  To our surprise, this front packed quite a punch and we were able to sail south at speeds reaching 8 to 9 knots.  This strong front took us right to the trade winds and we were able to make a course adjustment early Thursday morning to head directly inbound to Hiva Oa. It is a great feeling to know that you are “inbound”, meaning no more course corrections to arrive at your destination.   This wind continued strong through Thursday evening so we reefed in the main and pulled in the jib to sail at 7 to 7.5 knots per hour – we were truckin!  By Friday, we decided to slow the boat to 6.0 knots per hour so that we could guarantee an arrival on Sunday in the daylight plus do a little fishing.   We hooked several fish, and managed to lose them all!  Got spooled a couple of times by really big fish, and lost all the line on the reels and the lures to boot.   Now we “go to battle” when we fish and try to have the heaviest gear possible.  We had pretty good wind for the remainder of the trip coupled with some light wind where we motored.
Our first siting of land was early, before dawn, on Sunday morning April 3rd.  What a beautiful site that was to see the outline of the island.  We reached Hiva Oa on Sunday, April 3rd – it took us 21 and a half days to reach our final destination.  We were quite pleased with our time as the average for the 2010 puddle jump was 23 to24 days, with the average boat length 42 feet.  So Lardo at 39 feet, and even though she had to motorsail about 700 miles to catch the trades off Mexico, still put in a fast time!
Ah Land Sweet Land!  Time to allow all of our bumps and bruises to heal after fighting the ocean swells on a keeled over sailboat.  It has truly been quite an odyssey that I marvel at how well we all managed to survive the confinement of the passage for three weeks on our 39 foot sailboat.  Kudo’s to Captain Dennis for an excellent job in preparing our boat for this passage as well to the crew on board Lardo for their excellent sailing!  To navigate our way across the Pacific Ocean and to make the right decisions on chasing and finding the wind, is no small feat and quite an accomplishment; everyone on board should feel proud of themselves for contributing to this journey.  RB Ward was a great help in interpreting grib files and providing his help in sailing and navigating.
This concludes our chapter on our passage to the Marquesas Islands.  We will explore the islands for the next few weeks and I’ll continue to update our blog as we explore these wonderful islands.  All is well on board sailing vessel Lardo.

Provisioning/Storage
I have gotten so many questions on this subject that I decided to include a section about how we managed the storage of our food supplies on Lardo.  Of course, I provisioned for the 3 to 4 weeks at sea, but I also had to provision as much as possible for the 90 days that we will spend in French Polynesia.  I’ve been told that everything must be shipped to these islands; hence food cost is extremely expensive in French Polynesia – for example, a watermelon might run about $30 (USD). 
One cruiser friend told me that he resorted to using his machete for cutting banana’s and sneaking into watermelon patches at night to steal watermelon.  Another cruiser, who has spent 14 years in French Polynesia, said that it’s very difficult to find stores in the Marquesas along with finding a store that might even have produce.  For example, you might think that tropical fruits would be supplied abundantly in the local store, but in reality you will find that you will need to barter from a local homeowner for your fruits and vegetables.  So keeping all of this in mind, we’re planning on eating lots of fish that Dennis will catch along with all of our canned/dried items that I squeezed into every nook and cranny of our Cal 39.  When we left Mexico, Lardo was bursting at its seams.   Our next big provisioning stock up will either be Figi or New Zealand where we will once again find more affordable supplies.
With having mentioned all of the above, I will share with you in the following few paragraphs where I found storage space on Lardo.  Starting in the V-berth, you will find a flat of eggs on my bookshelf which will remain there until used; we found out through the school of hard knocks that the kitchen counter was not a good storage location as the eggs were catapulted into Krista’s berth. 
My V-berth clothes closet contains a large sack of oranges and limes along with about 50 rolls of toilet paper.  Continuing through the cabin, you will find an ample supply of paper towels, trash bags and other bags and wraps containers in Dennis clothes closet.  Supplies are crammed so tight into the closet, that I’m sure months from now that we’ll discover some extra stuff that we forgot all about. 
My “office” cabinet has our supplies of potatoes and onions which worked great until some moisture seeped in and it started to smell.  About the time that I noticed this, I was able to find room in the cooler for these items.  Wanted to have a food hammock but ran out of time and wasn’t able to get one – this would have been nice for storing onions, oranges, etc.  When we get to New Zealand, perhaps I’ll be able to find a hammock.
Fortunately, Dennis had the foresight to build cabinets into the dead space behind our sofa’s which has worked out great for storing all of the drinks, canned and dried foods – but watch out when opening when the boat is keeled over as cans will literally come flying out at you.  Each day is a constant juggle to take supplies out of the cabinets and put into the plastic box containers under the table for easy access.  Also, my food items are competing for space with of all of our very necessary boat supplies, spare parts and Dennis’ fishing gear.
Under our table is where I store “easy” access items in plastic storage containers.  Such items include drinks, baking provisions and other dry items.  The unfortunate part of this arrangement is that depending on which side the sails are on, I have to constantly re-arrange to keep these containers out of everyone’s way.
On the kitchen counter are two plastic boxes with items that we use every day, stored in OXO plastic containers.  Such items are cereal, coffee, dried fruit, nuts, etc.  This arrangement works great and I love it.  In the galley, I have a microwave which I can’t use while underway so I use that as a storage spot for soups and crackers.  The oven is used for storage of a poupouri of items.
Then of course, I have two refrigerator storage units.  One side I keep the temperature up for all of the produce and on the other side, the freezer, I keep the temperature up and use this side for perishables.  It’s always a game of hide and seek when you need to pull something out of the refrigeration units but it all works.
What patience you learn on a sailboat!