Bonjour from Nuku Hiva!

Bonjour, Bonjour! 23 days and we have finally and happily made it to French Polynesia! 23 days, that is one day less than it took us to do the passage 13 years ago from Galapagos Islands, which is a similar distance. We probably sailed around 3200nm in the end after the juggling to stay in the best wind/current areas. However, the passage had no other similarity to the one all those years ago.

The weather on our run straight from Monterey to here was a mixed bag. And we must thank Ian for sending us the weather updates by text messages on our Sat phone, they were a great relief that we would make it out of the hurricane area with no sign of developing systems. The cold and wind initially was trauma. We struggled in layers upon layers of jumpers and jackets and still felt cold. Geoff was wearing thermals and managed a bit better than me, I had 5 layers of clothes on! But when the wind chill kicked in, ouch..we both felt cold to the bone.

We had maybe 5 days of lovely sailing with winds on our stern and running down the swells. Comfortable and fast. Sea Otter was showing that she was capable of a good turn of speed and able to handle the large following seas. We could some times hit 8 plus knots, surfing down the swells we even hit the odd 10 knots. But if you worked out our average speed it is like 5.8 knots for the whole passage. That's pretty good considering we spent one night becalmed and a few other times close to it. We also got some shitty conditions at around 8 degrees north that we found the squalls, rain and wind. Combined with some decent swell size it was a tough few days. However on the equator we encountered no storms or squalls and we thanked King Neptune with the tradition of a good shot of rum. It was a happy moment to have safely crossed the equator again and returned to our home southern waters.

Both our soles of our feet are peeling from two days of permanent wet and salt. We don't have too many bruises from bumping into corners and my knees had their good days and bad days. Overall the boat seemed to handle things better than us. We can't really say too much bad about her behaviour and performance at sea. No leaks down below and that is always a treat on a boat. There were a few more squeaks and creaks than we expected as the hull moved about and caused bulkheads and fittings to flex. The new bigger, better, beefier Autohelm turned out to be a dream, and steered the boat the whole passage, 24 hours a day untouched, except for course changes. It was quieter and more efficient than what was originally on the boat. So we give our thanks to that little unexpected purchase in Alameda!!

Food and eating....hmmm, well some days we did little of it as the boat was being tossed about too much to battle keeping food, implements, utensils on the bench or we felt a bit too queasy to bother. Other times in the more balanced stable seas, all we did is snack. And as Linda and Bill will understand, chocolate played a large part in keeping you going and sane. Yes Linda, I had plenty stashed away and in fact we have some left!!! We caught one big Dolphin/Dorado/Mahi Mahi about 4' long a beautiful big fat female full of roe. It was a bit sad to have to kill her, but she was already gone by the time we got her hauled in to the stern. Geoff cut off massive fillets and we ended up with about 4 kg of fish to enjoy on the BBQ. We couldn't eat it all in the end and sadly had to toss out the last few fillets, as we weren't running the fridge at nights by that stage. The solar panel was pumping in some good amps on the sunny days, but during the night with the autohelm running and nav or cabin lights etc, we didn't want to drain the house batteries too low. We ran the engine about an hour a day, except for one day were we motored about 8 hours in no wind. But you can't do that all the way to Nuku Hiva!

We still have plenty of water left and we have plenty of diesel in the tank. We did all our washing up in fresh water, had the odd shower and used it lots in cooking. So the bigger tanks on this boat have certainly allowed us a few more luxuries. As have the fans! Once we hit the warmer area near the equator the little cabin fans ran 24 hours a day! The odd cold soft drink, cool chocolate, fruit juice and milk (organic milk lasted us about 10 days) were all luxuries you appreciate at sea. Plus, to watch a DVD on our little portable player one particularly calm day...was unreal.

So as you can tell, we did okay. Being able to contact home and text friends and family was so wonderful in keeping our morale up. And to have Mum, Christine and Ben phone us...wow what a wonderful treat. Though I still never got used to hearing the phone ring at sea....just seemed so out of place and alien. Some days it felt like you were just holding on and surviving...other days you laid about like millionaires! It was still tougher on us than last time, but I think that is more age related.

Now, Nuku Hiva a wonderful, dramatic big bay surrounded by lush rain forest and palms. The smell of earth, plants and smoke fires hit us 20 miles out to sea on the breeze. Your senses are so cleansed at sea from smells, that it is the first thing that you notice as you get closer. We have cleared in, got a prepaid Internet card for 5 hours (ouch expensive and VERY slow) but it is still a massive plus to 13 years ago. We have mobile phone signal on Geoff's Telstra phone. We can buy beautiful crusty real french baguettes for about 70 cents. (that's about all we can afford though) We will wash our huge pile of laundry, rinse the salt of the decks, relax, check over all the gear and rigging.

I will try and post some photo's but the connection I paid for is very weak and very slow...so not sure how I will go.