Week 3
06.04.19 to 13.04.19
The wind is a bit unsteady this week, the tendency is less than more but we are still making progress, with the boat speed mostly below 5 rather than 6 and 7. The sails are flapping, not so good . We also have a spell of overcast weather no good for the batteries. The size of the waves is oscillates between a gentle swell and more robust 2/2.5m. we have another really equally, rainy afternoon, our boat speed reaches over 9 knots for a tiny spell.
As the days goes by, the fleet news are getting more familiar, witty, funny and off the wall. Nawi (Sandra and Jeff) have now joined in the fun too. They have a catamaran, left a week behind us and will probably arrive before us. Vagabond's messages are full of daring deeds, flying gennaker in strong wind changing sails 4 times a day and also at night and boom dipping in the water... And they still manage to get through the whole series of orange is the new black... Bo the cat is also drafted to write some message... Pacific crossing from the cat perspective... it was hilarious and we resurrected Flash the imaginary Dalmatian for the occasion. Must be a book in it...
On Quo Vadis keeping the kids entertained is a big part of the daily routine, well after studying and cooking it looks like. Tibby had us in fits of laughter with his rendition of the various length they would both go not to study. David recreated a full set of monopoly, from memory and set to win every one of their games. So much so that soon no-one was willing to play with him anymore. Tales of the elusive fish that would not be caught was funny too both on Quo Vadis and Nawi... As for Hans on Vagabond, fishes were simply throwing themselves on deck!
Week 4
13.04.19 to 20.04.19
Our fourth week at sea already. Winds comes and goes, but it is mainly light....we could do with the Genoa back now. We have had to use the wings as a Genoa, and the sail area is not as big so we are not going as fast as we could. Ian is worried about the charge in the halyard and sure enough it would be pain if it was to break. It does feel slow though and the rolling conditions make it difficult especially when I get into my head that we should have quiche Lorraine for lunch.... Not a good idea, it goes all over the oven and I do loose my rag then. Still it is not so bad. We have plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, apples and Clementines are doing well so is the watermelon. The pinnapples lasted almost 3 weeks which was a surprise. Cucumbers and tomatoes, potatoes, carrots and onions are doing fine too, although the carrots need careful tending... I do spend a lot of time wrapping,, checking and re-wrapping them. We've tried various ways of treating them, cutting the ends,not cutting the ends, outside in the nets, inside in the crate.... It would seem that cutting the end and wrapping them keep the for at bay. In our 4 week, we have now room in the fridge so in they go. As far as meat is concerned, the best buy was definitely the chicken, smoked and then vaccum packed, we had one each week, managing at least 3 meals out of it... Whish we had gotten more of it. The pork also smoked and vacuum packed was not as nice but the beef was good. We still have plenty of sausages and bacon left too. We reckon we could have another 10 days of fresh stuff before we have to switch to canned food.
Vagabond has arrived in Fatu Hiva a good 6 days before us.
We finally catch our first glimpse of land on the morning of the 23rd April, 32 days after we set off from last perlas. We are so eager to get there that we actually throw the gennaker out turning the boat speed from 5 to 7 knots.... until we get a wrap that is... We are only 10 miles away and the last couple of hours, the last couple of miles seem to take for ever. The island looks beautiful though, high cliffs and volcanic rocks. We get a huge wind shift and increase as we turn the corner of the island - Fatu Hiva. We scream into the anchorage at around 2in the afternoon. Roos and Hans have been looking out for us and their come and welcome us in their dinghy screaming and shouting and. blowing the fog horn....what a welcome sight!
The anchorage is just spectacular! High cliffs fringed with palm trees and rocks fingers reaching for the sky. The bay is big but with 10 boats and little room at the head of the bay where the depth is below 10 metres, it quickly goes down to stupid 20/25 metres under us. So we squeeze between the gaggle in the shallow water, after over 4 weeks of splendid isolation, we are now very cosy with the neighbours.
Celebrations are soon underway and we have a meal on board with the vagabond crew including Bo....what a lovely way to end our Pacific crossing.
