Arrived at Rotoava, Fakarava yesterday morning (July 21st)

Iconic Pacific with low islands and the highest point the palm trees. This is the main atoll of the group so a few more houses etc. Got out Mouse and had a great sail up and down the anchorage. Children off one of the boats took over and only stopped when it was fully dark!

Position: [-16.062,-145.620]

We have the Tuamotu Islands around us now by nothing to be seen just hot Sunshine. Wind just enough to sail by and the sea easier.

Position: 14°48’S 144°46’W [-14.80,-144.76] at 16:00 local, 02:00 GMT July 21st
24hr run: 141 miles by GPS
94 miles to Fakarava, Tuamotu Islands. ETA at 6 knots: 08:51 local 21st July

Wind eased late morning and we were about to shake out a reef when we caught a 11 lb spanish mackerel.  The elastic shockcord played it very well and it was about dead by the time we had slowed the boat and had pulled him in.  I pulled in the tow generator before we recovered fish, will need to ask other boats if that is necessary.

Mary did some amazing dishes with raw tuna and lime juice with our last fish.  Looking forward to this one.  Limes were in season on the Marquesas so we have quite a few.

Squalls overnight with heavy rain chased me below several times.   Black clouds easy to see even though no moon.

Tuamotus are daylight entry only and best at slack tide, will have to adjust speed and/or choice of island soon.

Position: [-13.036,-143.188] 13°2’S 143°11′ at 16:00 Sun 19th local, 02:00 GMT Mon 20th July
24hr run:  159 miles by GPS
234 miles to Fakarava, Tuamotu Islands. ETA at 6 knots: 08:16 local 21st July
Wind: East force 4 Sea: Lumpy with E, SE and S swells

We had a sail by today by an Oyster 66 – Elvis the Gecko.  Great to see sailing boats at close range, especially in the middle of nowhere.  They have been in several of the same anchorages as us in the Marquesas and are Scottish – Martin is from Dumfriesshire and Sammy from Perth.  We are both on the way to the Tuamotu Archipelago probably both to Fakarava [-16.298,-145.627].

Great sailing weather, sunshine and a beam reach in force 4.  Enough free electricity not to need to run the engine – long may it continue.

Position: 10°55S’ 141°31W’      [-10.922,-141.507] at 16:00 local Sat 18th, 02:00 GMT Sun 19th July
142 miles by GPS in last 22 hours .
394 miles to Fakarava, Tuamotu Islands. ETA at 6 knots:  10:51 local Tues 21st July

Las Perlas Islands first stop, we did have to motor all the way as there was absolutely no wind. We selected an anchorage on the east side of the island, one other boat there. What a lovely spot, white beach, palm trees and behind mango and avocado trees, all with fruit ready for the picking. We walked ashore in the evening, watched the tiny hummingbirds, hover over the flowers. Oh what peace and quiet, just a great place to relax. However as they say time and tide wait for no man, after an early morning stroll we packed away the dinghy, put the windpilot in place and were shipshape by lunchtime. The journey to Galapagos had started.

Link to Las Perlas Photos

Link to on route to Galapagos Photos

Pacific Passage, Hiva Oa, Fatu Hiva, Tahuata, Ua Pou and Naku Hiva photos now in Gallery.

Keep on expecting to be able to get internet in the next anchorage! We are moving around to the main town of the Marquesas, Taiohae on Naku Hiva [-8,918,-140.101] tomorrow. Hopefully this will give us opportunity to upload pictures etc to the blog site. Hoping we will get something special for 14th July celebrations. Even the communities in the north of the island are doing dances, and other adhoc events, we were ashore last night watching dances and signing.

We plan to move on to the Tuamotus later in the week. They are about 500 miles from here so it will take about 4 days. We have Fakarava on our list of possible atolls to visit[-16.298,-145.627]

Position: Anaho Bay, NE Naku Hiva [-8.821,-140.064]

I have taken the ‘Where Are We’ ‘posts by location’ page offline, as it has some bugs that need taken care of…  …you can still view the ‘route’ page if you wish.

In the meantime you can copy / paste coordinates from the posts into google maps (Firefox users can highlight the coordinates and right-click and select ‘Search Google for “highlighted text“).

Andrew

At Anchor.  Straight into visiting the town to get signed in with the gendarmerie.  Had the other boats in our SSB net on board for drinks – Scott and Cindy from Beach House and Steve, Kathleen and Emmett from Uliad.

Tomorrow it is the fruit and veg market at 08:00 and then a music festival.  Paul Gaugin Museum will have to wait to Monday!

I sense doing the Marquesas is going to be hard going!  Looking forward to the challenges!

Position: [-9.804,-139.032]

Had a great sundowner drink on deck last night gliding along effortlessly.  Just got to the end of the limes from Galapagos which we add to sparkling water, bitters and rum.  The night watch reminded me of the penultimate day at sea in the Atlantic – glad to be reaching land but sad to be leaving behind our own special little world.

Went slightly to the north to be ready for the wind change to the ENE.

Position: [-9.230,-137.705] at 15:00 local, 23:00 GMT 18th June
24hr run:  140 miles by GPS,  141 miles through water.
87.3 miles to Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands. ETA at 5 knots:  GMT 20th June
Wind: ENE 12 knots Sea: SE swell 1.5m
Sky:  30% cloud cover fluffy clouds