Departure
A cloudless and windless dawn, our last in the Galapagos. This morning’s nature checklist in Puerto Villamil lagoon is typical – young sealions cavorting around the boat, imperious reef sharks, fluttering storm petrels, frigate birds…
Category Archives: 30 – Marquesas
Dispiritude
Not a breath of wind for 6 days. We just sat. Rain squalls brought cooling deck baths and seductive promises of a wind which never came. Tainui rolled and lurched in the swells, moving slowly…
But we finally got here
That southerly wind stayed with us all the way to Nuku Hiva. 24 days from Galapagos to Marquesas, 6 of which we spent becalmed. For the remaining 16 days we averaged 7.2 knots, for dear…
Nuku Hiva
Ashore the little town of Nuku Hiva is extremely relaxed, to say the least. Everyone is large and type 2 diabetes must be thriving here. Cockerels crow, large Polynesian women with flowers in their hair…
Ennui
It is a relief to be at sea again. We slipped out of the bay at noon, into a cooling SSE sea breeze. The lofty volcanic spires of Ua Pou lie 15 miles to port…
Crew
Jochen, an industrial chemist, is a competent and careful sailor. He and Axel hit it off immediately and he provides an excellent foil for my curmudgeonliness and Axel’s youthful and at times chaotic exuberance. The…