Turn The Page ~ Day 18 to the Marquesas

08 August 2015  ~  Position 09 27S 134 39W at 1730 UTC, 0930 Boat Time (Alaska Time)  0530 tomorrow NZ Time.

Course Over Ground 285dT, Speed Over Ground 5.1 knots,  24 hour run 138 miles again.  Clear skies and starry night again, wind dropped out to around 10kts and gone to the NE.  Sails up, down, in, out, course this way, that way, this way again, gype, gybe back as the wind and swell changes, hard work. 

Todays big news is that skipper is very happy with the English Cricket Team and thanks to those with updates, made his day.  And that basically is all the news, nothing is happening out here. 

should have counted how many sail changes we have done

We can now hear the Polynesian sector of our radio Magnet and are listening to boats that came through much earlier than us check in enroute to Samoa, Cook Islands, Tonga and other South West Pacific treasures.  At last we do actually feel that we have turned the page and arrived at the final chapter of our circumnavigation.  The Caribbean and Americas are far behind us, Polynesia awaits.

  

Yet another fish free 24 hours, mind you we are going so slow now that our lure does not look so appealing.  I found another "passage meal" in the freezer earlier, think it is surely the last.  While cooking dinners in the Galapagos I would cook for four and freeze a meal, I didn't label any of them so it has been quite nice not knowing what was for dinner until it was time to tip it in a pot and heat it up.   

For those of you querying our change of arrival from Fatu Hiva to Tahuata (and there have been a few of you!) as we are staying in the Marquesas for some time we have decided to do our check in first and then we can pick a quiet day to get south to Fatu Hiva and then we can happily stay as long as we want, so thats the reasoning, but thanks for the reminders that we should not miss Fatu Hiva.

ARE WE NEARLY THERE YET?   Well, it's 5.15pm local time now and the GPS tells us we now have 229 miles to go, we have had the wind drop out this afternoon, as low as 4 knots and currently just 6 knots, we have dropped the main as it was banging around too much in the swell, and running with headsail poled to windwind and staysail on leeward, we are managing 3 knots, could be a long 229 miles!!!! tick tock, tick tock. 

   

You can see our progress  on a map on our mailasail blog.  

Position at 0130UTC when sent via satphone 09 34.07S  135 10.76W