Saturday, April 30, 2011

Relaxing in paradise!

The island of Nuku Hivia is a beautiful place with steep mountains covered in lush vegetation. We get a couple of rain showers every day that keep Moondance clean and waters all those flowers and trees.

We are anchored in Taiohae Bay, which has population of approximately 1800 people. The bay lies in the remains of a volcanic crater with the caldera walls surrounding us. Can't wait to show you the pictures! There is about 20 boats anchored around us - most of them recently crossed the Pacific too. It has been fun catching up with everyone and telling are stories. The locals have been very nice to all of us cruisers and helping us find our way around, plus very forgiving of our terrible French! And fresh baquettes everywhere!

As mentioned, we have some projects to work on, so we think we will be here approximately 2 weeks. Plus, we are still catching up on our rest! Our main project, taking our jib down and over to the sail loft for some stitching. Doug's also been working on the generator, plus our dinghy sprang a leak (again) so more patches. Hope our dinghy makes it all the way to Hawaii. We are definitely going have to re-think having an inflatable dinghy - we have had lots of issues with it!

My big project - 3 weeks of laundry. Apparently, there isn't a laundrymat in town. There is a laundry service, but very expensive. So, I am going to be washing lots of clothes with my plunger!

We are still don't have access to the internet, but as soon as I do, I promise to upload some pictures!

Summary of our crossing: The Good, the Bad, and a little bit of the Ugly...

Overall, our crossing was just a longer version of our other sailing adventures - a lot longer. There is definitely a rhythm to living on a boat that is constantly moving and the days go very quickly. Because you are leaning and bouncing around, everything just takes longer - plus you get some pretty good bruises! On our best day, we sailed 168 miles; our worst day 96 miles. Having Brian aboard was a real asset - glad he is going to be with us for awhile.

We were all happy about completing our crossing in 22 days. The breakdown:

Good: We had some wonderful sailing days, beautiful sun and moon rises and sets, and caught some very tasty tuna, plus a great weight loss program.

Bad: Uncomfortable sailing conditions - mostly caused by waves crashing into us and lots of rockin' and rollin'. Makes it very difficult to sleep.

Ugly: Two bad weather nights where we converged in the cockpit trying to outrun or hide from big storms. We were fortunate there were only two of these.

We had a few things we could have done better and will improve on before our next crossing, but overall we did okay. Lots to celebrate for sure!

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4 comments:

Ana said...

Thrilled you arrived safely. Have a great time. Instead of your plunger, just use your leg! Like Lucy, pretend you are mashing grapes! Ha!

Anonymous said...

Can`t wait to see your pictures sounds like a true paradise. wished we were there to share stories and a tall drink with you both on a sandy beach sounds so good ! Keep in touch and beat those dirty drawers on a big rock a few times and they will be good to go Love mom Dad

Wudrich said...

HOORAY!!! Glad everyone arrived safely. Can't wait for the photos, it sounds amazing there.

Jim and Heather on Meerkat said...

Congrats!! Sorry about all the laundry. If I was there I would help you. You could fly me there?