Monday, June 21, 2010

Search & Rescue...Alicia and Louie are safe.

From Wendy Van Praag received June 21st.

Hi Wendy




I have attached a photo taken this morning by the RNZAF Orion search aircraft showing TAR BABY II dismasted.



The Taiwanese longline fishing vessel TUNAGO #31 is expected to rendezvous with Louie and Alicia at approximately 11:00am your time. There are no vessels that can assist from Niue despite our best endeavours. The TUNAGO #31 is enroute to Pago Pago in Samoa and unfortunately that will be the next port of call for Louie and Alicia.



I will contact you again when I know the transfer to the fishing vessel has been completed.





Kind regards



John Ashby
Search and Rescue Officer

Maritime New Zealand
Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand (RCCNZ)

T +64 4 5778030
F +64 4 5778038
W www.maritimenz.govt.nz/contact-rccnz
 
And her follow up email:
Hi Everyone


Latest news from New Zealand Search and Rescue. Both Louis and Alicia are on board the Taiwanese fishing vessel and are heading for Samoa. The NZ rescue staff could not persuade them to take Louis and Alicia to Niuie ( only 75 miles away) and they have had to abandon the yacht. It is closed fast/hatches battened down and a shipping warning has been issued.

I am hoping that another vessel might be able to pick it up and tow it to Niuie for Louis and Alicia to reclaim. Maybe a fellow yachtsman could help - other wise it looks like goodbye Tar Baby. If anyone has any boating/yachting contacts who may be able to assist that would be great.

Regards

Wendy

Cook Islands -Rarotonga

Received June 9th, I apologize...I've been sooooo busy. 

June 9


We did the 530 miles from Bora Bora to the Cook Island’s Rarotonga in a little under 4 days, quite good! The trip was pleasant I thought, although a bit rolly the first couple of days which made Louie seasick. On our 3rd day out we spotted a passenger ship in front of us just as the sun was starting to peek over the horizon. We thought it was heading straight at us so we radioed it to ask where it was going since our AIS had told us it was heading the same direction we were. The captain told us they were heading to Rarotonga but had changed route to head to Bora Bora since they heard the weather was really rough in Rarotonga with 30 knots of wind and 10 foot seas. We were not worried about his weather report because we checked the weather when we left and it said it would get calmer the closer to the Cook Islands we got and that was actually what happened.

We arrived in Rarotonga’s Avatui harbor at 3am!! We could barely see anything around us, we even struggled to see our lead in lights because of a massive fuel ship’s blinding deck lights. Once we got in we dropped anchor in the middle of the bay, which is actually quite small, then went to sleep. All the other sail boats in the harbor (around 7) where tied up stern to up to the wharf, this is not something we are very interested in attempting in our little tank that has very little steerage in reverse. If there was a wide space for us to try it we would have but there was only a cosy little spot between two other yachts. After a few hours sleep we radioed the harbormaster and got permission to tie up to the fishing boat jetty just opposite the wharf.

Rarotonga is a wonderful little island! Getting closer to Australia we are back in more friendly territory. French Polynesia, although beautiful, in many places we found the locals to be very unwelcoming, not in the Cook Islands!! When it comes to people in general what we have found is that Americans, Aussies, and New Zealanders are the friendliest. By contrast, French, German, and English are not so pleasant! We have also met a few people from Denmark that are lovely and a few from Holland who are nice. Anyway, Cook Islands are made up of mostly Kiwi’s (New Zealanders), and Maoris. Cook Islands are where many Maoris settled down and where many migrated to New Zealand from. They are very big people, actually every island we have been to in the South Pacific we have noticed their natives are quite big people, you wouldn’t want to be on their bad side! .

We have been here nearly a week now and have seen the island very thoroughly. We rented a scooter for the week which was only $18 a day and well worth it, it has been so much fun and is an excellent way to get around the island. The only motor bike I ever remember riding on the back of was my Dad’s Harley and it has been a long time so this was a new experience really. I think Louie will be quite sad returning it today, he has especially enjoyed it. Rarotonga is only 32 kilometres in circumference so it only takes about 30 minutes to circle the whole island by scooter without stopping. We spent an entire day going around it and checking out all the resorts, beaches, and cafes. The snorkelling here is not as clear and beautiful as in Bora Bora but we saw some interesting fish we had not seen while snorkelling before... we had a massive blue trevelli circle around us for awhile and we also saw a big Sole fish and a massive Stone fish on the bottom. You have to watch where you walk here, there are a lot of stone fish. We also found the water is much cooler down here and the nights are quite cold as well in comparison to where we have been. We actually have to wear sweaters at night when we go out!

On Friday night we had made reservations to attend a show at “Highland Paradise” we were told it is the best on the island. We were joined by a couple on a Danish boat that we have seen throughout the entire south pacific we just had not spent time with them yet. The boat is a 55 foot Tayana and has one owner on board along with his girlfriend from Columbia plus they have 3 other crew at the moment. Two of the crew came with us, Palle and Margaret, they are a lovely couple close in age to Lou and I so it was really nice getting to know them. The evening was fabulous! We got picked up by the Highland Paradise bus in front of the boats and driven up into the mountain where they do their show. Louie was elected as our bus/group leader so he represented us the entire night, he even had to dance on stage at one point, it was quite funny and I got it on film!! The dinner was amazing, there were many different authentic dishes and the show was not only full of wonderful dancing and drumming but was educational, quite a cultural experience. They go into detail about their ancestry from when they first arrived on the islands to when the missionaries arrived, up until now. The missionaries made a huge difference in Cook Islanders way of life, it was a mostly very welcomed change. They became more civilized really, stopped eating people, and became Christians... to this day Christianity is extremely important in their lives, there are many CICC (Cook Islands Christian Church)’s around the island.

On Sunday we actually attended a CICC church service. It was really nice, the service is in both English and Maori, and the Maori singing is beautiful... it made me think of something you might hear in a church in Africa. We stayed for a service and for communion then joined them for refreshments after... during refreshments we met a lovely couple, the husband Tom Masters is from Palmerston atoll, it had to be meant! Here’s a little background on our next stop... Palmerston atoll, also in the Cook Islands (just 280 miles North West of here) is a small atoll with only about 60 people living on it. William Masters, from England lived on this atoll alone with his 3 wives back in 1863 and it became their atoll. The atoll to this day is populated by 6 generations of Masters, they do not have any shops and ships only go there about twice a year so they really rely on passing yachties to bring supplies, etc. They really enjoy having yachties come through and consider it an honor to host you on your stay. The village is divided by 3 sections from what we understand given the 3 original wives, and when they see a sailboat approaching the first person to reach the boat gets the honor of hosting the yachties throughout their stay!! We are quite excited to experience this and were extremely excited to meet Tom Masters and learn more about it before we arrive and find out what we can take to the island. Tom and his wife Margaret (who is originally from Holland) now live in New Zealand and are retired but are in Rarotonga for a 5 week holiday before they head to Palmerston for awhile as well. There are many Masters on Rarotonga and they introduced us to some of the cousins, one of which we offered a ride back to Palmerston because he has been stuck here for around 4 months waiting for a ship to take him home. He ended up declining the ride because his son wanted him to stay a bit longer but we are taking heaps of supplies over for him and for Tom for the families over there. It was wonderful meeting all of them, they are really lovely people with such an interesting past.

On Monday we met up with our Denmark friends on Lady Sunshine and went on a hike, well saying a hike is an understatement, it was more like being on Survivor!!! Our plan was to hike to a famous peak on the island called the “Needle” then over the other side to a waterfall. Well we got lost along the way, we left at 9:30am and around 2pm realized we were definitely not on the right track... we had to literally climb up muddy ledges using tree roots to pull our way up, we were climbing, sliding, and falling over a slippery muddy surface, it was actually quite intense! When we turned around at 2pm hoping to head back down and give up on the Needle we realized we were actually then on the right track and continued along to the top and then over to the waterfall. By the end of it we were sore, scratched up, and dirty and Louie had a torn shirt and ripped up shoes which went straight into the bin upon our return! The island is stunning, it is extremely lush and green, but also full of mossies and they sadly didn’t seem to mind the OFF I kept applying because I was nailed about 12 times by the end of the adventure. When we finally reached the road again we realized we were on the wrong side of the island and hitch hiked back, not arriving to the boats until 5pm!!! What a day! We ended it having a fabulous BBQ on Lady Sunshine then quite possibly the best sleep I have ever had!!!

Yesterday I woke up sorer then I think I have ever been in my entire life! We spent the day preparing the boat to head out again. It took me half the day just to do our laundry since I did so in a bucket with our hose and plunger! While I did laundry Louie enjoyed playing with his newly acquired ukulele he purchased at the farmers market on Saturday. Last night we were invited over to Tom and Margaret’s place for dinner, it was a lovely evening. Tom cooked up quite a feast! We had breadfruit cooked up in two different ways, both fried and boiled, both great. He also did steak, fish (Wahoo), vegies, mashed potatoes, and we had milk straight from the coconut to drink. It was all delicious! It was great to have a nice home cooked meal the night before our next voyage. We had wonderful conversation through dinner; they are both very interesting... Margaret told us all about her immigration to New Zealand from Holland. She is the same age as you Eddie (Louie’s Dad who is also from Holland)... you may have immigrated at the same time!

Rarotonga has been a great experience and we are really looking forward to our next stop on Palmerston. We are hoping for the right wind because we cannot actually get into the lagoon at Palmerston so we have to anchor outside of the reef and if the wind is wrong we won’t be able to stay for long or we will end up on the reef. We would like to spend a week there though so hopefully the weather will behave. We are heading out in a few hours and Tom and Margaret are coming down to see us off!

I doubt we will have internet in Palmerston, we will go to Niue after that and most likely will not be in contact again until Tonga... so it may be awhile.

We hope you are all well!

Much love from Louie & Alicia

xoxo

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Finally Caught Up!!


(Received on 5.20.10) 19.5



I finally feel like I am getting you all up to date! This email although I am sure it will be long is only about the last 4 days, finally I am not writing about a couple of weeks, or an entire month!


Morea cont.


On the 15th we moved from Cook Bay in Morea over to Opunohu Bay, only around the corner. Windswept & Pahto stayed in Cook Bay although we all had the same plan to leave Morea the following day. Cook Bay was great and I don’t actually think we did enough there but the weather was not very good so we figured we would go around the corner to Opunohu Bay where there was a Hilton resort and shallow clear water. This bay was fantastic, we anchored in only 5 meters of water and we could see to the sandy bottom everywhere we went. Lou was snorkelling immediately after we anchored, it was so clear I even snapped a photo of him on the bottom underneath the anchor chain! We had quite a time getting to the resort though, it was a bit of a dinghy ride from the boat and over very shallow coral heads. Our first attempt was ended only a couple 100 meters off the resorts beach when poor little outboard Ernie struck a coral and gave up... we sadly rowed all the way back to Tar Baby hoping the outboards fix would be simple. Just a side note about this outboard; I know I have mentioned it a few times because Louie has put a lot of work into fixing it. He knows it now in and out. It is a 1971 Evenrude, and although it sounds like it is just a load of problems there is good reason for that, Louie has put the poor thing through hell and back! First he didn’t clean it out and run fresh water through it when we left back to Aus for 3 months last Oct, when we returned the engine was seized. Lou remarkably got it up and running again by using a hammer and banging on the cylinders until they moved freely again! Next, when we were in Puerto Vallarta Lou accidently filled it with diesel rather than gas... oh my I have never seen an engine smoke so much!!! Later, when we arrived in Hiva Oa we think it still had some hiccups from the diesel issue so Lou took the whole thing apart, spending 2 days fixing him up only to flip our dinghy over the morning after the engine was up and running again... Ernie didn’t like swimming. And now finally we hit the prop on a coral head. Luckily Lou was able to make up a new shear pin and there was no other damage done... man the engine is a bloody trooper!!!


Attempt two, heading back to the resort again, we very carefully dodged the coral but we were rained on the whole way over... arriving at this 5 star resort like drowned rats. There are overwater bungalows at all the resorts around these islands and they start at $800 a night!!! We just had lunch there then headed back to the boat again for a snorkel and a night in. Sadly a fellow yachties dinghy was stolen the night before in Cook Bay, a $6000 dinghy and brand new 25 horsepower outboard they had put on it that day. The dinghy was later washed up on the beach, the outboard had been stolen and the dinghy slashed on each end with a knife to sink it... very sad. We were not about to leave ours on shore that night.


Ra’iatea


On the 16th after a beautiful early morning snorkel we pulled up anchor and headed out for our next island, Ra’iatea which was only an overnight sail for us. Overnighters are typically not too bad because it is not too long of a sail, but this one was particularly painful... both mentally and physically. We had the biggest sea we have seen yet, 15 feet, and NO wind for the whole day. Big sea and no wind are quite scary because the boat really needs speed to not be taken out by waves and had none, plus the engine really doesn’t like getting tossed around like that and neither do we! We did end up with wind by around 5pm but it was still a rough night... each of us sleeping no more than an hour and both ending up with cuts and bruises from the battlefield of waves. Louie said he had never been happier to be in calm water when we pulled into Ra’iatea’s massive lagoon, although it was not an enjoyable experience I still believe the trip to Tahiti was worse, sadly Louie did get seasick on this stretch. Windswept and Pahto left within an hour of us and both had extremely rough rides as well.






On Ra’iatea we all anchored in Faaroa Bay at first day break and straight away made breakfast then crashed for a much needed nap. At the end of Faaroa Bay there is a river mouth that you can actually take the dinghy up quite a ways, so later Lou and I went with Jack & Marlene in two separate dinghy’s and headed up to check it out. Just at the start we were lucky to be joined by a local by the name of James on his canoe who is a caretaker for the botanical gardens a ways down the river. James guided us through the shallow parts of the river and all the way up to the gardens where he led us on a hike for about a mile or so. He was an excellent guide, telling us the names of all of the flowers, fruit, trees, etc as we passed them by... also making sure we tried some along the way. There was a kitten that followed us like a dog the entire time as well!! In the end James had given us paumpamoos, starfruit, lime, green beans, fresh vanilla sticks, and coconuts to take back to the boat! He then led us back down to our boats where we asked him if there are any restaurants in the bay, he said yes and escorted us to a nearby dock and called out to a lady in her home who came down. While we waited for Jack to get Kevin & Kyle to join us this lady dressed the cuts on my feet that she noticed, it was nice of her but she used lime and man it hurt. Once the whole group was together she led us through her yard and pointed across the street and up the hill to where the restaurant was. We went along to find someone’s house, in their front yard was a pool overlooking the bay and their patio was converted with tables and chairs into a restaurant setting... the open kitchen to their house now to be used to cook for us, no one else was there. A lady came out of the kitchen and spoke very little English and had no menus, she said it was a set menu of fish. Lou got across to her that he would like fish, french fries, and salad... she said ok and everyone else agreed it sounded good. We also ordered a round of the Tahitian beer “Hinano,” except Lou who had Coke. The meal was really nice, the fish was especially yummy. We were there for quite a long time considering she was cooking for the 6 of us by herself, only a couple of little kids observing us from inside the kitchen. After we ate she brought out a plate of paumpamoos and pineapple, plus Lou and I had ice cream. Although the shock came along with the bill! The beers were only $5 each, but the meals were $30 each!! The meal was nice, but not worth that, I guess it is all in the experience and for Lou and I worth it. But poor Kevin and Kyle, they are already cutting their trip short since they are running out of money (Kyle is flying home to the US soon and Kevin is sailing straight from Bora Bora to New Zealand, a month long sail, to store his boat and fly back to the US as well for work until he can afford to continue)... they said they wouldn’t have ordered if they had known the price.. oh well.


Taha’a


The next morning, yesterday the 18th we left Ra’iatea for Taha’a an island within the same lagoon, these two islands are right next to each other and in the nearby distance we can see Bora Bora! We anchored in Tahaa’s Apu Bay, Windswept and Pahto actually moved up to the top of Ra’iatea to be near town and fill up on fuel. Although we are not on the same island we can see across to where they are anchored the islands are so close together. We will see them again in Bora Bora but this last couple of days have been nice being on our own for awhile.
We have absolutely loved our two days here in Taha’a. When we arrived yesterday we were happy to see there was a mooring buoy available for us, we had heard they are usually booked up. The buoy’s are ran by the Marina Iti yacht club ran and owned by an American guy. Richard has lived in these islands, mainly Bora Bora, for 35 years! Originally from California he moved here in his mid 20’s, also arriving by boat, smaller than ours! His son’s (who aren’t here) are both avid kite surfers and Lou was intrigued to hear about all his idols that Richard has hung out with. We signed up for the special dinner and performance that we attended yesterday evening. This was a traditional Polynesian seafood buffet and Polynesian dance performance which included fire dancing... it was amazing! The food was great and the dancing was very entertaining. It was all done by young kids; I would say between the ages of 10-18 and was on the sandy beach just in front of the restaurant... our table was a great front row seat. They even got the audience involved, both Lou and I separately were pulled to the sand to dance during the night... man they are talented because it is difficult!! A young boy of maybe 10 was the star of the show, he was a fantastic dancer, played in the band, and was phenomenal in the fire dancing!! We took video footage of all of it.
Today we slept in since last night was the latest we had been up in ages (midnight)! At 9am we met Richard to rent bikes from him that we had arranged the night before. Just before taking off we released Ray, our hermit crab. Yes, sad... but it is really nice here and we found a pretty isolated tree right on the beach to set him under and there are heaps of other crabs here too. Richard had a look at him and actually said he thinks he might be a coconut crab which will disguise themselves as a hermit crab in their early years... coconut crabs can get as big as 3 feet in diameter so all this time we thought we had a huge hermit crab and he might have been only a baby!!
Our bike ride was beautiful, the scenery is lush and green... we took photos with plants that had leaves the size of Louie!! The bike ride enlightened us on just how extremely out of shape the both of us are! Living on a boat you don’t really get to stretch your legs much, today we really pushed ourselves to the limit and were completely exhausted half way through the day! Along the way our first stop was at La Maison de la Vanille (translates “The House of Vanilla). Vanilla cultivation dominates as Taha’as leading industry. The economy here is based off of vanilla and pearl harvesting. The nice owner gave us a tour and explained the process, wow what work! It is no wonder fresh vanilla is so expensive... it takes 9 months to grow each bean and once they have grown they have to dry each vanilla bean in the sun for three whole months, covering them if it rains... It is a very long process.
Our next stop was in the village of Haamene where we had lunch at the highly recommended restaurant “Tahaa Maitai.” Words cannot describe how amazing this experience was. We were the only customers, the restaurant has spectacular views of Haamene Bay, but even more impressive was the food!! The owner/chef greeted us warmly upon arrival. His name is Bruno, he moved here from France 22 years ago. His father was a chef as well so as along with all his schooling he was raised in the kitchen, and boy has it payed off!! We ordered heaps of food, more than needed but we wanted to try everything we could. It came at a price of a $90 lunch but well worth every penny. We shared a warm goat cheese salad with the best raukfort dressing I have ever tasted. Then we each had tuna Carpaccio... wow!! Little red berry like things we had never seen before added a marvellous sweet flavour I never knew carpaccio to have. For a main Lou had fish (a bottom fish we can’t remember the name of) that was served in vanilla sauce, he loved it and had never heard of fish in vanilla before. I had seared tuna that was immaculately cooked in thyme and toasted almonds, oh so good. And for desert we shared some exquisite sorbet and a chocolate parfitarol with vanilla bean ice cream and whipped cream... OMG we were stuffed beyond belief... oh and of course I had started off with a Maitai, their specialty drink. It really was an amazing meal and Bruno took our orders personally and made sure to check on us even though he had a server helping us as well. He said he has always wanted to visit Perth and gave us his email address... I told him when he does Louie will cook for him, Louie said “oh the pressure!”


The rest of the bike ride was a bit tough; we were just too full and ready for a nap! Although there is no stopping us!! When we returned it was around 3:30pm and after returning the bikes we went to the boat only to grab our snorkel gear and jump in the water! I am definitely beyond exhausted now but it has been a wonderful couple of days. The last couple of hours while I have been writing this letter (it is now 7:30pm) Louie has been up on deck fishing for dinner... I can’t believe we are even considering eating again!! So far he has pulled in 3 small bait fish, 2 absolutely huge sting rays, and nearly pulled in what we think was a shark... I don’t think we’ll be getting any dinner at this rate.
Tomorrow we are off to Bora Bora, just a couple of hours away.
Until we meet again!!


xoxo

Tuamotu to Morea!

(Received on 5.19.10)
14.5



Well internet has definitely been more difficult than anticipated, particularly on Tahiti. The issue aside from being impossibly slow was also that every time I tried to load a letter it couldn’t translate it because it was looking for French the letters would load of only numbers and symbols. I will catch you up on where we have been since the last letter.


From the Marquises we went to Rangaroa in the Tuamotus. This was a 5 day sail, so it felt like nothing compared to the month at sea but we were both still eager to be anchored again. The Tuamotu Archigelago are a group of 76 atolls that span a distance of 1000 miles! For those of you who may not know atolls are much different from islands, they are volcanic ruins. There used to be a volcano in the center of each remaining atoll which has throughout centuries sunk leaving only a large ring of coral with a strip of land. Something really amazing about atolls is that as you approach them by boat all you see at first are palm trees that look as though they are growing straight out of the ocean!! The atolls are only about 1 to 2 meters above sea level. We had planned to see a few of these atolls but as we researched and studied charts we learned more and more about how very treacherous they are for boats to get in and out of due to fast currents of 8-9 knots and lots of shallow coral heads. Because of this we chose only one to visit, one that we heard was somewhat easy to get in and out of, Rangiroa. We made it in alright but it was quite the rush! The current was confused and breaking on the way in, we came in during the start of the outgoing tide so we had about 3 knots of current against us getting us through the pass at only 1 knot! The biggest dolphins I have ever seen in my life swam along side us playing in the rough passage, if only it were that easy! Getting through was a big relief because it was nice and calm just inside and this atoll is just humongous! From the bay we anchored in (next to Windswept) just inside it looked as though there was only sea around us because the atoll was so big (20 miles across) you can’t see the other side. It felt like we were anchored in a massive, clear lake! Although Rangiroa is beautiful we only spent 2 nights there. This was the first spot on our trip we have had extremely clear beautiful water where even on the dinghy going to shore we could see tropical fish just below us everywhere. We went to an amazing restaurant on the water that over looked the pass we had entered, I think the most scenic restaurant I had ever been to! I just could not get my head around life on an atoll. They live there with only one road that goes around the atoll, and have this thin, maybe ½ mile strip of land all the way around. It is absolutely beautiful but there was not too much there. We could have stayed longer because the snorkelling was great and Louie wanted to have a dive but Windswept was heading on to Tahiti and we heard the weather was turning so we wanted to get there too. If we do it again we will spend a bit more time in the Tuamotu... Tuamotu is also were they grow all the black pearls!


When we left Tuamotu we thought we were going to beat the bad weather, we were wrong, we ended up in the heart of it. Our day and a half passage from Rangiroa to Tahiti was the worst nearly 2 days we have had on this whole trip!! We got slammed by the low we were hoping to get in front of, even Windswept said it was the worst passage in their 30 years of sailing experience!! The wind ended up on our side and at times nearly on our nose when it was supposed to be behind us, the swell was massive, up to 15 foot seas! And the wind sat around 25 knots at times gusting to 35... for those of you who don’t know a nice sailing wind is from 12-20 knots... and you don’t really want the sea much more then 3-6 feet, flat is the best! This weather we have seen before, but only behind us which is much more comfortable, not on our side/nose. We were wet the entire time, waves... really big waves were constantly crashing all over Tar Baby. When I tried to get our beds ready as we were starting our shifts we had the hatch cracked only a couple of inches for a little air and a huge wave crashed over the boat spilling buckets of water through this little crack wetting all of our dry towels and blankets, we were not dry once!


Tar Baby once again handled it like a little tank, ploughing through the waves, not letting anything really disturb her, it was just us that were uncomfortable and a bit scared a rogue wave would come and take us out!! There was a Pan Pan warning issued over the radio at one point that worried us as well but we had no idea what it was about since it was only in French!! We were to say the least very happy to finally spot lights from land around 10p on our 2nd night. We pulled in exhausted around 1am, anchored in a place we weren’t supposed to and passed out asleep, not wanting to worry about moving the boat until morning.


Tahiti, what to say about Tahiti... such a disappointment!! From my understanding of the islands we were to visit, the only ones I was familiar with were Tahiti, Bora Bora, and Fiji... the rest I really hadn’t heard of so I had been very excited for these few and Tahiti was the first of them we came to. I had expected clean civilization, beautiful white sandy beaches, good facilities, and supplies... I got none of these things except the supplies!! We stayed in Marina Taina which is just a 20 min bus ride outside of the city of Papeete. The marina was ok, the restaurants were good but over priced and the city itself was just gross! People say if you go to Tahiti and stay exclusively in a resort you’ll love it, but I’d say that would be the same anywhere, resorts are typically nice... so why Tahiti? They don’t even have sandy beaches!!! It was just another city to me so to give it more of a chance we rented a car along with Kevin and his brother Kyle and drove to the other side of the island to see the famous surf break that Louie has a picture of framed in his living room “Teahupoo.” We met Kevin in the Marquises, I’m pretty sure I’ve previously mentioned him... he’s 24 and from Tacoma WA, not far from my hometown and he single handed (sailed by himself) in his little 28 foot boat “Pahto” all the way to the Marquises where his brother Kyle joined him... Kyle is 26 and just recently returned from Iraq and is very excited to be done with the Marines! Anyway, we are very glad we rented the car to drive to the other side of Tahiti because it was much nicer the farther away we got from Papeete. It was an interesting day... our rental car broke down half way to Teahupoo so we waited on the side of the road for 2 hrs for a replacement car. We were lucky to have a road worker come and give us a bag of rumbutans to snack on (a lychee like fruit). By the time we got down to the infamous surf break Louie was just itching to get out to get a closer look, but not surf it, it’s really just a pro surf break.


We didn’t have a lot of luck finding a water taxi, they were all busy or MIA so Lou was flagging down every boat that went past... a couple fishing boats stopped, didn’t speak English but picked up their fish to show Lou and pointed to shore, we assumed they needed to get their fish to refrigeration. Finally we got lucky... Lou got the attention of a guy who came over and agreed to take us out for a look at the surf break. It turned out that he was an American who had been living there for 10 years with his wife and kids. He is a professional surf photographer and was going out to shoot pics of the pro surfers (sponsored riders) that were out on the wave, there were about 10 of them and they were all from Hawaii. Even pro’s from Hawaii come out to ride this very fast hollow wave, said to be the most consistently perfect wave in the world!! The photographer’s name was Josh, he took us out to the break and jumped off to go get his shots telling Lou to just drive his boat around and not get too close to the break or the surfers. We were out there for an hour or so, it was really cool, particularly for Lou but it rained half the time and we all ended up soaking wet and cold. On the way back in with Josh we discovered his wife writes cruising guides, one of which we use on the boat! He also has a pearl farm on Ahi in the Tuamotu and said he had some pearls at his home if we would like to buy any. Lou had bought me a black pearl necklace in Papeete the day before but we thought we might as well check it out. It was dark by this time but we went to Josh’s house in the back of his pickup truck and picked out a couple of pearls so I could make earrings while Josh showed us the photos he took that day. It was a good day, long... but really great to see more of Tahiti and talk a bit with a local. The downside of the day was that we were really worried about Kevin all day. When we did the waterfall hike back in Nukku Hiva Kevin cut his leg really badly and didn’t do anything about it. Now nearly 3 weeks later it hadn’t healed at all and was badly infected. He was having a hard time walking and his lymph gland in his groin was badly swollen and even more painful than the actual cut at this point. We’d told him for days to go to the doctor but he’d resisted. I was watching him very carefully all day, when we ate he didn’t eat, when we walked he limped, he’s normally as if not more active than Lou and was having a really hard time catching up, but tried to play tough guy all day... admitting to the pain but insisting he was fine. By nightfall on our way home we were all hot and he said he was freezing and couldn’t get warm... yet still told us he won’t go to a hospital, he said if he’s not better in the morning he’d let us take him. AGH! I was beyond worried... thinking it might not just be an infection but possibly staff since it is very easy to pick that up if you have an open wound in the tropical waters here. I went to bed so worried but told his brother we’d leave our radio on all night and if he needed anything at all to call us, I also told his brother that if he got sick even one time I don’t care what he says he’s going in.


The next morning he was actually a lot better, although I still thought he should go to the hospital. All three boats, Tar Baby, Windswept, and Pahto had all planned to head from Tahiti over to the next island over, Morea, which was only a 3 hour sail. We were all over Tahiti plus heard about some nasty weather coming in and wanted to get to a more sheltered, less crowded anchorage. After some last minute supply shopping we all pulled up anchor and headed out. Something I forgot to mention earlier was our little stow away. In Tahiti, on the dock in the marina we picked up a hermit crab, the biggest hermit crab any of us have ever seen!! We found him one night on the way back from dinner... we figured a kid must have found him somewhere and dropped him off there because there was no living environment anywhere around for a crab like that! Lou said I could keep him and I decided I would until we found the perfect beach to set him down on. His name is Ray, and when I say he’s a big hermit crab I mean it, his body minus the shell is nearly the size of my hand, he’s actually in desperate need for a new shell because when he is startled he can’t even fit all the way inside, nearly half of him still sticks out! Kevin said “you could eat that!” No way, I quite like having him around... he lives in our bathroom sink now and during the day I take him out and he wonders around on top of the boat. He is not shy anymore; I can’t even make him hide in his shell!


We are at Morea now in Cooks Bay; it is 1000 times better than Tahiti! The island itself has beautifully shaped volcanos, green velvet mountains, and only a handful of boats in the bay. We came in at night and spent our first whole day here yesterday. The weather did get bad by 1pm it was pouring down rain along with thunder and lightning and strong wind until morning. There wasn’t much we could do but we had another fabulous spaghetti dinner on Windswept along with Pahto. Today we went snorkelling and found big shells for Ray... I haven’t found the perfect beach for him yet but I am hoping to get him a new shell, one he can actually fit all the way into. Because at this stage, if a bird finds him he’s a goner! There will be more to say about lovely Morea but I’ll leave that for later. Oh, Kevin did end up at the hospital here on Morea, he did continue to get worse and finally gave in. He’s now on strong antibiotic and something for his fever, he is looking and feeling much better!!!


Hopefully we will find a good internet cafe in our next bay over and be able to send this soon.


Your devoted travellers,


Louie & Alicia

After nearly 3 weeks we can send an email...

(Received on 5/12)
22/4


Bonjour!

Because it is so hard to send regular emails due to lack of internet and or slow connections on the islands I just can’t keep up! I’d like to send a paragraph every few days so you all don’t have to read these massive emails but that has just proven to be impossible. So although I am writing this from the Marquises Islands in French Polynesia when we finally send it we most definitely won’t be here anymore so I am just going to try and continue writing as we go and send a few emails each time we get a chance trying to catch you all up!

We had not planned to stay in the Marquises for more than a few days and thought we would only visit one island, the first one we’d arrived at (Hiva Oa). Well plans changed and I am so glad they did! This place is beautiful, the people are nice, the islands all look so different, and it is really amazing!

Our first landfall was on Hiva Oa (as mentioned in my last oh so long letter). We were there for 3 days. It was a nice island and the locals were very friendly but the anchorage was not very good and the town was quite the hike so we were happy to leave when we did. Actually the majority of our time on Hiva Oa was consumed with Louie trying to get Ernie the outboard up and running again. He spent 2 whole days pulling it apart and putting it together again before it started up. When it actually came back to life we were both thrilled, this was in the evening of our 2nd day. Well on our 3rd morning Louie and his new best mate Jack decided it would be a great idea to take a short cut to town, and rather than walk, take the dingy over to the surf beach. Yeah, it was not such a good idea. The 3 of us headed over around 6:30am in our dingy which also needed to be pumped up a bit. As we approached Jack and I both mentioned to Lou that the waves looked a bit big... but there was no stopping Louie... we chugged along just not quite fast enough with our newly fixed engine only to be smashed by a good size wave which then bent our lil dingy in half and flipped us upside down! Luckily no one was badly hurt, the worst of the injuries is a huge bruise on the back of my leg from kicking the engine while under the boat! The most disappointing thing was that our brand new $600 camera was broken and once again outboard Ernie called it quits... I didn’t blame him that time. Louie was the only one laughing, for some reason he found it hysterical even though he had to row back to the boat by himself. Jack and I opted to walk to town in our completely wet clothes and buy things with our completely wet money, then back to the boat a bit later. That was our adventure on Hiva Oa.

Jack and Marlene are from a 47 foot Catalina named Windswept. They are a retired Aussie couple we met at anchorage in Hiva Oa and have become our new travel buddies and pseudo parents. They actually call us “the kids.” We left Hiva Oa together and sailed side by side (until they passed us up which didn’t take long) to an island called Tahuata, only a 3 hr sail. This island is the only island in the Marquises that has white sandy beaches because it is also the oldest island at 3.5 million years old! We spent 3 nights here enjoying the beautiful clear water and calm anchorage. There were around 12 boats there already, mostly Germans (which we’ve found to be not extremely pleasant). The water was spectacularly clear; we were anchored in about 25 feet of water and could see clear to the bottom! Lou did a lot of snorkelling; I didn’t because I of course have an ear infection and made sure to keep my head above water. Each night we barbequed with Jack and Marlene on our boat, it was a good time!

We left Tahuata at 6am on the 19th and headed to Ua Pou, an island about 60 miles away. This was a long rough day for us. We couldn’t get our windvane to set because of the rough conditions so we hand helmed (hand steered) the entire way!! And we have NO shade on our boat so it makes for a very hot, long, tiring day... we didn’t arrive until 8:30 at night!!! The only highlight of the day was only an hour into it... Lou threw the fishing line over to get it out of the way of the jib sheet (it’s a rope that controls our front sail) and within minutes caught a fish. And not just any fish, this was a 4 ½ foot Wahoo!!! The bloody thing was massive, weighing around 70 pounds!!! And yes I have heaps of photos and even a video to prove it! Although our problem was that it was too big for us and we don’t have refrigeration so we radioed Jack and asked if we should keep it... of course he said YES! We ended up passing it off to their boat a little while later because we were struggling to keep it cool. It was a great handoff... the boats where pushing along in the rough swell getting just close enough for Lou to throw the rope to Jack which had the fish’s tail tied up on the other end. When Jack saw the beast of a fish he said “Holy Shit!” We weren’t sure he was going to be able to lift it up but he did. And after our long day Marlene already had a beautiful fish dinner cooked up and ready for us when we arrived, just what we needed.

That night we ended up dragging our anchor (drifting) for the first time so neither of us got much sleep. We were constantly jumping up worried we would end up out at sea! Luckily the next day was a much shorter one. Ua Pou was a magnificent island, the most uniquely beautiful one we had seen yet but the weather around it was so rough we all decided on leaving first thing in the morning for the next island, Nuku Hiva. It is a shame really because it would have been great to explore more.

It was only a 6 hour sail to Nuku Hiva’s Taiohae Bay and thank goodness because we hand helmed again! We were beyond exhausted when we got there and soaking wet due to the rough sea. Wet isn’t such a bad thing though because it is nearly 100 degrees every day and the ocean water is warm any way! We stayed at Taiohae Bay for 2 nights. The bay was enormous but rolly so not very comfortable. The village wrapped right around the bay so it was very convenient. We stocked up on mangos, bananas, papaya, tomatoes, fresh baked French bread, and paumpamoos (a fruit that looks like a giant grapefruit but is much sweeter and tastes a bit like honey). We love the Marquisian wood and stone carvings and wanted to buy one to bring home but found them to be very expensive. One thing I did buy is a neat necklace they made out of sea urchin! There was also beautiful jewellery made from bone but the necklaces went from 50,000-80,000 francs (roughly 500-800 US$!).

Our last morning there, actually this morning, Louie & I went bright and early for a long hike into the jungle to find an old sacrificial site we had heard about. It took a bit over an hour of mostly uphill hiking to get to it and a lot of friendly Marquisian direction but we made it. It was a beautiful walk filled with lots of wild and domestic pigs, cows, goats, dogs, horses, and heaps of chickens. We took lots of picture and the site was really neat, we could just picture the ceremonies that used to be preformed there. We also imaged what it would have been like hiking up there 200 years ago when the Marquisians were cannibals, we would have been dodging spears!! Now it is quite the contrary, they are all so friendly, although Jack is convinced they are just trying to lure us into a trap! Haha. We ran into a few locals working up at the ceremonial site and they made sure to knock some fresh mangos out of a tree for us and offered as much information about the area that they could in their broken English.

After our hike, a bit of shopping, and lunch we pulled up anchor again and set sail to another bay only 3 miles north called Hakatea Bay. The weather is still very rough and the entrance to this bay was the scariest one we have had to face thus far! We could not even see exactly where we were to enter until we were right up to it and we actually sailed through hoping for more speed and control so not to be taken with the strong wind into the mass of rocks surrounding the entrance. I was really nervous, but of course Lou thought it was good fun. It did help though that Jack & Marlene arrived 30 minutes before us so they told us over the radio that the entrance is really rough but nice and calm just inside, and so it was! Once anchored the 4 of us took our dinghies to shore to check out the couple of cottages there. Words cannot describe the beauty of this place. It astonishes me how different every bay is even on the same island. This bay is not as big as the last and it is surrounded by high massive cliffs. There is also a river running into the bay surrounded by palm trees full of coconuts. We had a swim there and Lou was thrilled to find a rope swing tied to one of the palm trees over the river, very fun. In the evening we enjoyed cheese and crackers on Windswept and a sunset show of sting rays and sharks feeding around the boat.

We plan to take a walk of about 2hrs to the largest waterfall in the Marquises (just under 1000 feet in height) in the morning and have a swim in the pool beneath it and then take off that evening or the morning after. Our next stop won’t be for 5-6 days at the Tuamotu Islands. I am not thrilled about a few nights at sea again but I think it might feel like nothing when compared to where we just came from! Again I wish you were all here to see and experience these amazing places along with us. When we finally have a decent internet we will get our photos up.

Lou & Alicia

PS. Here is an update written on the 28th of April while in route to the Tuamotus

We ended up staying 3 additional nights at Hakatea bay. We loved it and didn’t want to leave. We made friends with the locals and in particular a family... Mie, Maria, and 5 yr old Tohia. Windswept did leave however after our first full day there and we were supposed to follow them later that morning but over breakfast w/our newly befriended family at their home right on the waterfront we were invited to go goat hunting, so we stayed another night. It was an experience I am glad we had because it was something we had never before done, but something I don’t plan to ever do again! That evening they invited people over and had a goat feast (we shot, gutted, and skinned 5, well Mie, Maria, and Lou did, I sat back and watched in horror). This family is so welcoming and caring, they loaded us up with fresh fruit from their yard (mangos, bananas, papaya, paumpamoos). It is amazing the way they live in their little home that has no inner walls and its outer walls are very thin with no windows or doors, their floor only dirt. They have many animals, ducks and cats everywhere babies and adults plus one dog and one goat. And they all live in harmony, happily, peacefully together.

We had planned to leave the next day but again stayed, we used the weather as an excuse but neither of us really wanted to go. It was so hard to say our goodbyes the night before and Mie and Maria were so happy to see us in the morning (Maria is 25, Mie 37 and they have been together since she was 15). We did the waterfall hike twice, it was spectacular and the second time we were joined with friends from 3 other boats that had pulled into the bay as well. We also introduced everyone to our new local friends who happily welcomed them all into their home. Our last night 11 of us met for dinner on Brian’s powerboat, including Mie, Maria, and little Tohia. They were very amazed by this 3 story boat, not many luxury powerboats are seen in these bays! It was a great night, Brian and Kyle entertained us by singing and playing the guitar, Maria and I sat in front of the computer while I showed her pictures I had taken of our days there... later I will make a disk and send it to her. It was once again hard to say our goodbyes but we did have to leave the next morning, it was time to discover a new bay but we will never forget Nukku Hiva and its amazing people. I have had many moments on this trip when I have sworn to never sail again once it is through... seeing places like Hakatea Bay and meeting people like Mie and Maria make me realize I will sail again because it is the places we discover and the people we meet who make this journey really worth while, this is what we are here for... but next time it will be on a MUCH bigger boat! =)

We made it!

(Received on 4.21.10)
Hi Everyone!


I wrote this letter on the 13th of April and sent it but I'm not sure it went through, sorry if it's a repeat but we don't think it worked.

So it's a week old and about our trip over the Pacific, we'll an updated letter shortly!



We made it!!!! And land has NEVER been so good!!! We left Puerto Vallarta on March 14th and arrived here in the Marquesas Hiva Oa island yesterday, April 12th... 29 days at sea!! We celebrated our 6 month wedding anniversary at sea. I’d like to say it will be our most memorable, but we didn’t realize it had happened till about 2 days later so I can’t really say that!



Well, it’s hard to know where to start, it all feels a bit surreal now that we’ve set foot on land again. The first week was hard because it was the week to adapt to the boat’s movement; this is hard especially on Lou who doesn’t ever fully adapt. He did quite well however, better than expected. Around 300 miles offshore on our 3rd day out we hit the start of the tradewinds which were not pleasant to transition into. It wasn’t the biggest sea we’ve seen but it did pick up a bit and Louie’s stomach wasn’t appreciating it. He took some Sturgeron which we were told in Mexico was a wonder drug for sea sickness and it worked like a charm! He still got some nausea but was never actually physically ill the entire month! It was a definite plus that he got to keep his cookies but it was still very hard on him because he was never 100% well. He could do things for about a half hour then would have no energy and would get queasy and lay down. He couldn’t read, cook, clean, really anything that took a bit of focus. He would hurry when he had to work off the chart because his stomach could only handle so much of it. Because of this, one of our daily rituals we actually quite enjoyed along the way was that I read to him. I read 2 books to him along the way, one of which my Grandma gave us before we left and I recommend it as a funny book about cruisers who did this trip as well but about 30 years ago, this couple now lives in Port Townsend next to my Grandma. But yes, do read it, it will give you a good insight and somewhat comical idea of what it is like out here, the good and the bad... “Blown Away” by Herb Payson.



Before we left Mexico we set up a sort of a net with the boat “Serenity” with our new friends Sherry & Gordon (a retired nurse & dentist). Each morning at 9:30a (Mexico time) we would talk to each other on our HF radios. This was great, I loved having contact with other people along the way and they were very helpful since their boat is fully equipped with weather facts, etc. They kept us posted as much as they could on our weather to come. They left a week after we did and passed us up in our last week making it to our destination 2 days before us!! Yes our boat is slow, but she’s a beast! She was so comfortable even in the worst of weather.



Another very tough part of the first week is getting used to night watches. We worked out the best way to do it is 3 hrs on 3 hrs off.

One person would be able to get 3 hrs solid sleep while the other would be on watch meant to check our heading, engine, and for other boats every 15-20 minutes. At least that was the idea, and where our first week of arguments came in to play. I can be a bit of a drill sergeant when it comes to watches, I take them very seriously and think that checking for other boats, yes even in the middle of the pacific, is just as important as checking our heading. Well, Louie on the other hand feels that as long as the heading is good and the boat feels good he can get up every hour or so, he even slept nearly 2 hours once on a shift which happened to be when our attachment for our auto pilot broke and we did circles for about 2 hrs!! This drove me

mad! The first week I didn’t sleep well during my off time because I

wasn’t convinced Lou would get up for his shifts. After the first week it still annoyed me but although I got used to his casualness I didn’t let it influence my every 15-20 min checks.



We learned a lot about our wonderful little Tar Baby this past month, the good and the bad. The good definitely far out weighs the bad but she heard her fair share of our curses. She sails beautifully and comfortably and more so the stronger the wind, it actually takes about 20 knots to get her moving. We felt very safe and sure of the boat the entire trip, we did have moments when we’d doubt ourselves, but never the boat. Our biggest complaint of her is that she’s slow! So to gain this safety and comfort we’ve sacrificed speed... I never thought it would really matter but after 2 weeks at sea with 2 more to go, everything starts to matter. She has her leaky issues too, some of which we knew about, some of which we still can’t figure out exactly where they’re coming from! The head (toilet) has another leaky issue as well, but fixable. She did amazing with fuel, but that’s also because we only motored about 6 days in total of our 29!

We had wind nearly the whole trip. The motoring we did was in the variables (an area not too far off shore where the tradewinds are unreliable for a couple of days) and then again in the ITCZ.



Oh the ITZC, this was where we really questioned what the hell we were doing out there?!!! After the first week out Louie was already going on about how he would rather be anywhere than where we were with 3 weeks left of it! He said he can’t wait to be back in Oz, starting our life, building the house, settling down, etc... it only took him a week to feel really over it... then we had a week that was not so bad.

A couple of days of flat seas to motor in always cheers us up a bit, we even stopped the boat so Lou could jump in at one point. We hit the ITCZ around day 16 and didn’t get out of them until around day 23 or 24!!! It was awful and felt like it would never end. We had immensely confused seas, dark cloudy days with lots of rain, lots of squalls, lightening, and a head wind and head current just pushing against us. We were going into the weather and our boat does not enjoy going into the weather, not at all. We were motoring against it and going only about a ½ a knot for a couple of days, at times we were even going backwards!!! This was the most emotionally draining part of the trip, it really felt like we were stuck in the middle of nowhere. We weren’t scared, but very frustrated, it was actually nearly depressing! The only really good thing that came out of the ITCZ was in the first couple of days we caught our first good fish!

We had caught 2 Mahi Mahi a week earlier but one was so small we let go and the other small as well but we had it just for a snack. This fish we caught in the ITZC was a 4 foot Wahoo!!! It was huge, about 30 pounds, and I think the best tasting fish we have caught thus far!

It brightened both of our day. But sadly we got no photos of it because it was pouring down rain and our camera’s not water proof, but I swear this fish did exist!



On April 4th, day 21, we made it to the equator! We were so excited, it felt like a bit of an accomplishment! Plus we knew we were just on the edge of the ITCZ’s at that point. We filmed our little equator ceremony which involved throwing a bottle over with a note in it hoping to get a response! And also pouring over a can of coke as our offering to King Neptune! It was all very exciting for us, plus from there it was like a home run with only about a week to go.

The last 4 days before we got here were our best of the entire month.

We had the more constant 12-15 knots of the Southerly trades with us, much smaller seas, and wonderful blue sky. In the evening the wind picked up a little and the sky was nice and clear, the stars more clear and beautiful than I’ve ever seen them. We booted along on our race to land... because although the conditions were better we still wanted nothing more than SOLID stable ground, a COLD refreshing drink, FRESH fruit, and everything else land has to offer. Plus we were and still are so, so, so, so very tired.

Yesterday at 10:18a (our time zone at the moment is the same as Alaska’s), Louie was napping and I was doing a check when I spotted land!! I was so beyond excited, I went straight into the cabin to tell him and he woke hearing me yelling “land land! I can see land!!”

and he said “I’m sleeping, don’t wake me up”. We knew we were both looking forward to this moment, but I didn’t realize just how excited I would be, I was really over the moon. Sadly we didn’t anchor until 8:30pm, it took ALL day to get there, our wind had dropped, not much was in our favour, and we had 2 boats pass us on the way in which was discouraging. One actually slowing down aside us asking if everything was ok!!! Hahaha, yes we’re just slow... but you’d be slow too if you were a little 1 cylinder engine trying to push along a 30,000 pound beast of a boat!!!



Last but definitely not least, we made it! We actually didn’t sleep much last night, I guess we’re used to a lack of sleep and more than 3 hrs in a night was a bit too much for both of us! But after I made pancakes for breakfast (something I did every morning at sea as long as it wasn’t too rough), we pumped up our dingy and headed over to Serenity. Gordon and Sherry were so excited to have us finally arrive, although Sherry was disappointed we didn’t get in til so late because she had a chilled bottle of champagne ready and steaks set aside for bbq!!! Gordon and Sherry showed us around, there are about 30 or 40 other boats in the bay, we’re actually anchored right outside the break water for the bay because there’s not really room inside.

Everyone is very happy, sunkissed, and friendly, it’s fun to meet all these people doing the same thing we are doing, I’m sure we’ll run into a lot of them continually along our way. We all hiked to the village so we could check in, it’s about a mile and a half from the bay. It is just beautiful here... jungle like, tropical green mountains all around us, islands, very warm water, tropical fruit trees every where, etc. But we do have to watch out for the mossies, they carry Dengue Fever, which can put you in the hospital. We soak ourselves with bug spray a few times a day and I made fly nets for the boat on the way over, so we’re being very careful. In the village we checked in, got fresh baguettes from the bakery, pineapple from a street vendor selling fruit, our first COLD coke in a month! And we even stopped for an ice cream on the way back. It is nearly 100 degrees here! One thing I wish we would have done before arriving is learn a little French; it is going to be a bit difficult conversing with the locals. When we returned from our hike we had showers, no facility here just a faucet w/the privacy of a brick wall around it...

but it was still great!! Nice cool fresh water and even more exciting was CLEAN hair!!!!! The only down fall of today is that our trusty little outboard we’ve so lovingly names “Ernie” has decided not to run. So after our days venture we were kindly towed back to our boat by Gordon and Sherry with whom we will later meet up with for that bottle of champagne and dinner this evening!!!



Wow! I’d say that’s it in a nutshell but that was a bit more than a nutshell. I hope this is all digestible, I am feeling very drained and groggy, I hope to be more clear in thought the next time I write.

There is so much more I’d like to say and tell you all about, it is so very hard to sum up this last month in only a few pages, but that will have to do for now. There is no internet cafe here; Sherry and Gordon are going to send this for us so we will not be able to write all too often now. We will when ever we can, but please don’t worry if you don’t hear from us for 3 weeks or so because that will be how long it will be before we are in Tahiti which is where I think internet will be more prominent. We will be here at Hiva Oa for a couple more days then we’ll explore its surrounding islands, then the Tuamotu group of islands, then to the Society Islands. So it is mostly day sailing, or at the most maybe 3-5 days to islands for the next few months! YAY!

We are so thankful to have that passage out of the way, it was the biggest of this trip. I hope none of you worried too much! We miss you all and will continue to keep you posted as often as we can.

Much love,

Alicia, Louie, & Tar Baby the Incredible!

Adios Amigos!

(Received on 3.12.10)
Today's our last day in our lovely paradise village marina. We have thoroughly enjoyed our time here, and although we've been quite busy provisioning and preparing for our trip we've had a bit of time to relax as well.




Not only have we enjoyed the comfort of Paradise Village but the people we have met here have been very good to us. We are by far the youngest cruisers on the dock and a few couples have tried to take us under their wing, it’s really nice and informational although at times Lou gets frustrated with the constant advise. A guy named Steve helped Louie install our HF radio, very exciting because now way out there in the big blue we will be able to listen in on weather facts and other boats around, even out of sight. A couple we plan to leave within a day of and meet in islands all the way back to Aus are Sherry & Gordon, who have also helped us immensely with information and some supplies. We are also going to set up a time every day or every other day to check in with each other on this HF radio, they will most likely end up a day or so ahead of us so they can tell us what weather we will be heading in to! They had us on their beautiful 52 foot boat for dinner last night and tonight we are going to see Alice in Wonderland w/them in 3D (or as they call it here in Mexico "Alicia en el pais de las maravillas").

Once we leave here (hopefully tomorrow Sat morning) we’ll head over to La Cruz which is just north of us and fill up on fuel and head out to the end of this massive Banderas bay at to Point Punto Mita for a night before we head out to sea. It’s a rolly anchorage and should help us get a feel for the motion of the boat again. So after a night there (hopefully Sunday) we’ll take off for our 25-35 days without land.



When we leave Punta Mita it will be about 250 miles before we get to the tradewinds which will take us nearly 3 days. The tradewinds will take us most of the way to French Polynesia following the northern trades until around 128 degrees west and approximately 5 degrees north. From here we pretty much head straight south through the ITCZ and equator until we arrive in the southern trade winds. The Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) is the area encircling the earth near the equator where winds originating in the northern and southern hemispheres come together. This area can be unpredictable, the seas could be confused and it's well known for thunderstorms, or it could be dead calm with no wind for a couple of days, although we don't have a whole lot of fuel I'd hope for calm before crazy! Once in the southern trade winds we resume our course heading for the bay called Altona on the island of Hiva oa in the Marquesas. I can only imagine what it will be like to spot land again!!!!?? You can keep an eye on our weather on the website we have been using to keep watch of it... it's really great because you can even animate the page! Plus it shows the ITCZ as well... it is a very obvious usually white line across the middle when looking at the right screen, you can also tell where it is by the direction of the wind. http://www.passageweather.com/

This should be our last letter until the South Pacific but as soon as we arrive we will try to touch base with everyone, but don't stress too much it may take time for us to find internet again! It will be an exciting journey and I look forward to sharing it with you when we arrive!

Much love from Louie & Alicia

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo