Galapagos to Marquesas: "I would sail 3000 miles..."

 

Tuesday 23^rd May, Hanavave, Fatu Hiva, Marquesas, French Polynesia.

French Polynesia, woohoo!!! After 27 days, 3005 nautical miles (about 5,500km), one ripped spinnaker and one broken can opener we arrived in the South Pacific Polynesian paradise island of Fatu Hiva (population about 1200) last Thursday. We're anchored in the stunning Bay of Virgins surrounded by very tall, steep, lush, green, volcanic mountainsides dotted with precariously positioned goats. Apparently the Bay was originally known to sailors as the Baie de Verges (Bay of Penises) because of its suggestively shaped rock formations but when the missionaries arrived some clever clogs inserted a strategic "i" to change it to the more acceptable Baie de Vierges (Bay of Virgins). It hasn't made the rock formations look any more like virgins but this has been a fabulous place to make landfall after such a long trip, our second longest after the epic Covid-forced passage from St. Helena to Grenada in 2020. So we've just been resting, recovering, trying to get used to speaking French after a couple of months of Spanish, tidying up the boat and catching up with Matilda, Mac and Be Free who have all also arrived.

Mokai!

Hanavave is the very quiet little village ashore with a shop, a post office, a church, a school and a football pitch. The Saturday morning football games against two teams that arrived from the island of Hiva Oa on the Friday evening ferry was the big event of the weekend. Our first priority was to start trading with the locals for some of their delicious fresh fruit (it's not sold in the shop because everyone has their own and also there's no ATM and we don't have any local currency) to satisfy the vitamin C appetite of the long distance sailor. Then a bit of wandering around. Then cleaning Gráinne's filthy topsides – this passage had made everyone's hull dirtier than anyone had ever seen before. Then testing the atrophied legs by walking up a big hill for a view of the anchorage. Then a group celebration arrival dinner at one of the local homes (heavenly tuna ceviche and who knew there were so many ways of cooking banana!). 

The post office, sold out of SIM cards alas.

Main Street, Hanavave.

The church.

Karl admires the decorations on the lights at the dock while locals play pétanque in the backgound.

Arrival celebration sundowners on terra firma with Matilda and Mac.

The football teams arrive from the big smoke on the Friday evening ferry, complete with big bags of baguettes.

Pamplemousse the size of your head, and these weren't even the biggest.

It's not all fun and games - scrub scrub scrubbing that hull.

View of the village and anchorage from on high.

Steep hills mean very winding roads.

View of the bay from the top.

Celebratory dinner with Matilda, Mac, Be Free and 101 types of banana.

And now it's time to start thinking about moving on to the next island, Hiva Oa. You can't check in here on Fatu Hiva (there's no Gendarmerie) so we're not really supposed to be here without having done the formalities at Hiva Oa first and we don't want to push our luck too far by hanging out here much longer. Also, this is probably the longest we've gone without internet since 1996 and who knows what might happen if we have to continue like this much longer.

The Big Trip:

So we had a pretty cruisy passage from the Galapagos all things considered.

Day 1: As we sailed away from San Cristóbal we were escorted off the premises by sealions porpoising along in our wake and followed by a couple of those amazing little, black, water-walking birds I have to Google if I ever encounter internet again (turns out they were Elliot's Storm Petrels).

Day 2: Light winds so we decided to get the spinnaker up. That lasted a full couple of hours before dramatically tearing right along the repair from where it dramatically ripped in the South Atlantic. Maybe we should give up on flying spinnakers. The forecast is for very light winds over the next few days so there might be some drifting in our future.

Days 3 & 4: The Miracle Wind! Despite the pessimistic forecast the wind has kept coming, just barely enough breeze to keep our headsail filled but it's working and we're moving.

Day 5: Matilda, who left the day after us, have caught up and seeing as conditions are so calm and no-one is going anywhere quickly they decided to stop by for a visit. They buzzed right by to deliver some delicious freshly baked banana bread and then did a few circles around us, just to show off, before they headed for the horizon again. Strange to see other humans out here but alot of fun.

The crew of Matilda prepare for the big banana bread drop.

The crew of Matilda confirming that the uniform of the Aussie sailor once offshore is mainly Bonds underwear.

Day 7: The Night of Evil Squalls and Calms. And somehow always worse on my watch.

Day 8: We've found the trade winds! Hooning along now but as the rolling has increased the meal quality has proportionally reduced. If it can't be cooked all in one pot it's not being cooked.

Day 10: May 1^st – four years since we set sail from Mooloolaba.

Day 12: A Grand Grey Drizzly Irish Day. Alas we have no Tayto aboard.

Day 14: Half way! Passed 1500 miles since departure. We've come so far south it's even getting cold (relatively) at night.

                                                                The early morning watch.

Day 16: Crisis! The can opener has broken! Starvation in the face of plenty looms. The rest of the fleet are facing more serious losses including: a beloved bucket and a winch handle lost overboard (Matilda), a melted phone charging socket (Mac) and a shredded headsail that flung the radar overboard (!!!!!) on Be Free.

Day 18: Looking forward to – 1) sleeping all through the night, 2) freshly ground coffee, 3) showering standing up, 4) putting my feet up and watching Karl cook (he still doesn't have his underway galley licence), 5) standing unsupported and doing any task in the galley that doesn't involve Warrior Pose.

                                                            Rollin' rollin' rollin' along.

Day 19: The Universe got its revenge for my joking about the broken can opener crisis. At 0145am, on my watch of course, there was a loud bang and Rover stopped steering. "Karl! Help!". I lept to the helm and Karl lept out of bed and into the cockpit. One of Rover's lines had snapped, it seemed like the only problem, there was a relatively easy solution. Phew. So I hand steered for a bit while Karl leaned out the back and threaded a new line. By 0230 Rover was back steering and I went to bed, slightly shaken.

Day 21: A big pod of dolphins came past at sunset. I spotted them first which meant I won the "First to Spot Anything That's not a Bird or Flying Fish Competition" that had been going on for quite some time.

Day 22: We gibed! We've been on a port tack with a poled-out genoa since we left but after much deliberation we decided that there was really nothing for it today but to move it across to a starboard tack. First bit of deck work since the ripped spinnaker back on day 2.

Day 24: We gibed again! This is all getting a bit much. Yup, time to get back to that good old port tack. It's been a very confusing couple of days heeling in the opposite direction.

Day 25: Used the last apple at breakfast.

Day 26: Used the last fresh fruit, two oranges, at breakfast. Fresh veggies long gone. Prettiest sunset of the whole trip. Due to arrive tomorrow morning so soaking up the stars and peace on my last night watch. Have the company of Mac's port nav light all night as they gradually overtake us.

Final sunset of the trip.

Day 27: Land ho! Approaching the anchorage at dawn. Mac got in just ahead of us and nabbed the last good spot in a very crowded anchorage. We headed to the front of the fleet to see if we could squeeze in cheekily beside Matilda and saw that Karl's kitten boat is here! After a probing circuit of the anchorage we found a nice shallow spot (concerns of having to anchor in 30m proved unfounded as I got very excited having found 8m) right beside Matilda.

First land in 27 days.

A warm welcome awaits at the anchorage.

Arrived! We toasted ourselves, Gráinne, Rover, Neptune etc. with the last of the good Mauritius rhum and then the crew of Matilda arrived to bring us next door for celebratory breakfast pancakes. Yum.

Bonus YouTube video from our friend Thomas Be Free Sailing with Thomas (we feature a little).