Well we’re still in Nuku Hiva waiting for the weather to settle down. According to all the forecasts we should be good to go tomorrow. And quite honestly our little boat would have done fine if we had left sooner. But it would have been definitely uncomfortable and the arrival at the Tuamotus would have been a bit dicey. By tomorrow it should be a solid 15-17 knots off our port quarter for the whole trip down. That’ll make it a pretty fast ride for us, but the seas should be down to reasonable swells and we should have a good sail.
The bay here is just rolly as hell since it’s so bouncy outside and I’m definitely tired of rolling around at anchor. It’s one thing to have to hang on to every item in the galley as you try and cook while you’re at sea, but when you’re on a hook you should be able to set something down on the counter without having to worry about it getting launched across the galley. Good news is we met some folks today who did a cruise down here 15 years ago and they promised that this is our last rolly anchorage. All the atolls are nice and flat and calm inside. Which is nice because Rob & I took a little inventory and since we left Ecuador last November we’ve had less than a handful of nice quiet flat anchorages.
But enough of that whine – I’m still sitting on a sailboat in French Polynesia and need to not forget that fact. Some friends from Tasmania on a boat named Warrior that we first met in Zihuatanejo 3 years ago came in last night after a nice little sail down to Easter Island, Pitcairn Island and the Gambiers. We’ll have a potluck on Hello World with Carina and Warrior tonight and hear about all those adventures. Warrior is a Chance 50 that was huge in the racing circuit in the states for years and Robin & Michelle are taking her home to Australia.
That’s all for now. I’ll post some blogs as we sail south to the Tuamotus. It should be about a 4 day trip. We need to arrive in the morning for a slack low tide and we can’t make the 500 miles in three nights out so we’ll plan for four. So we should be there Friday morning.
Teresa
