LAND LEGS

LAND LEGS 0 nautical miles to go

POSITION Hiva Oa-Marquesa's

Well we finally made it. We have anchored in Tahauku Bay anchorage of Hiva Oa. The most gruelling part of the journey was dropping anchor. Although there are only 3 catamarans and 4 yachts here the anchor area is small. At one end is a beach with waves, at 1 side is a cliff area with pounding surf and at the other side is the cargo ship dock. The authorities have only left a small area near the beach for yachts. Since we arrived 2 people have lost their kedge anchor-line cut by rocks on the sandy bottom. We anchored in an area near the entrance. We saw old friends on Yellow Dog. Ian kayak'd over and said hello. They were leaving and were able to point to a better location for Faraway. We moved there although it was tight. Shortly after that another yachtie motored over and pointed out that we were outside the yellow crosses and would block the cargo ship. We moved but the area we allocated had someones kedge anchor there-we did not wish to cross lines. We went back to the 2nd location. Dropped anchor twice before it held. We endured 2 extreme rainstorms during all the chaos-(I was on the bow completely drenched). Then Faraway decided to lie at 90 degrees to all the other yachts. We layed a kedge from the starboard stern. Once layed we then pulled Faraways bum around so we were lying like the other yachts. This all took 3 hours. We were already exhausted-by the end of this we were really really really exhausted.

As a special treat we went ashore. We had to beach Puffin on the rocks and risked damaging Pushin (the engine). We will inflate Puffin 1 and row ashore in future-as it can be easily lifted out and placed on the beach(very light)

Hiva Oa is really beautiful. This was the first time we had been to a country inhabited by Polynesians. They are all really friendly. I saw 2 of my favourite creatures as soon as we were ashore. Horses and cats. TO WALK ON A SURFACE THAT DID NOT ROLL-AMAZING.

We returned to Faraway after half an hour and opened the champagne. It tasted great-Thankyou Adrian and Lisa on Two Ticks we owe you. Ian BBQ'd 2 steaks in a light rain shower. Once we were in the cockpit eating the rain came thundering down. We had to close all the sides on the Bimini. This morning all buckets on deck and Puffin were full of water.

We had the best nights sleep.

We are in an illegal anchor area so will have to move today-we are watching hoping that 1 of the catamarans will go and leave us a spot. Later we will go ashore and eat as much fresh fruit as possible!!!

The statistics:

3030 nautical miles travelled.

Exactly 19 days 11 hours.

2 hours on the engine

No visible wear and tear to any sheets or sails. Only used 2 of the 3 sails.

The Lewmar autopilot worked continuously all the way-rock solid.

Only 2 other yachts seen

Lost count of books read and DVD's watched.

8 bars of chocolate

Faraway is filthy on the outside-green growth all around. The entire rear underneath is coated in small mussel like creatures.

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We could have saved at least another day if we had pushed Faraway. We never used full sails-with only 2 of us on board we did not want to risk breaking equipment as doing repairs on deck is a real challenge. We normally ran with less (sometimes a lot less) than 3/4 main and 3/4 genoa. We never even un-rolled the stay sail.

Overall- It has been quite a journey. We have had very mixed emotions each day. The sea state has been worse than expected so no smooth sailing. It has been far more exhausting than expected. It has been a challenge that we set for ourselves to break from the routine of life and work. We are really glad we completed the challenge.

Would we do it again-who knows, time will tell. As Ian says '" Those people who sail long distance-especially on the northern and southern oceans-Respect man Respect!! "

We will continue to update the blog as the journey progresses. We will try and put more photos on in future.

WE ARE REALLY LOOKING FORWARD TO ISLAND HOPPING TO AUSTRALIA OVER THE NEXT 4 MONTHS.