Happy Friday from the South Pacific

All is well aboard QuickStar. We have spent a nice week in the Marquesas, with ideal temperatures. As noted in the earlier blog we made landfall in Fata Hiva. While in Fata Hiva there was only one other boat which came in just before we left. Steve aboard Uliad (sp?) very generously gave us two huge servings of Marlin, which they caught sailing over. It was over five feet and apparently was quite fun to bring in. It was a bonus for us as we had two great dinners out of it!

After departing, we sailed over to Hiva Oa, which was primarily a "business" stop. We needed to officially check in, re-provision, make phone calls, connect to the internet, etc. I was very saddened with the news that my Dad's best friend Corky is in the hospital with pnemonia and also that my Uncle Eric had passed away during our crossing. Got the great news though that my niece Courtney is expecting and also Chelsea (a former Ambassador employee and also my good friend Les's daughter). The circle of life continues.

When we arrived in Hiva Oa there was an unusual surge activity that had been forecasted and we experienced 5 - 6 foot waves in the harbour, which made for a very rolly anchorage, which was also surrounded by construction. This meant the water was too dirty to swim in. We had to stay two nights to accomplish the check in, since the office is only open 3 days a week, but we left as soon as we got everything done.

We sailed out in the afternoon and arrived at the blissful island of Tahuata. A true South Pacific anchorage surrounded by palm trees and a white sandy beach. There were three other cruising boats...one from Sweden, one from Brazil and one from France. As soon as we arrived we opened our new inflatable kayaks. They are ideal. After a very peaceful sleep, Doug and Shelby went off on a three hour kayak trip to the next bay. We had just started to get worried about them, so had put the engine on the dinghy and were just about off to find them, when they came around the corner. They were just having so much fun - except for Shelby flipping over in the surf near the beach. She shook that off like a trooper and they paddled back to QuickStar. We spent a lovely afternoon snorkeling and it was great fun with the surge. Doug gathered a huge bag of limes off the beach to make lime concentrate with.

We left at daybreak this morning and are currently enroute over to Ua Pou (about 75 miles) for two nights. We have a very confused sea, with the wind directly behind us - too much wind to fly the chute with anticipated gusts throughout the day of 25 - 35 knots, so we are motor sailing and flopping along (not complaining though - we are in the South Pacific!!!!) Whenever possible we will stay two nights at each anchorage so that we have a full day without sailing to enjoy the destination. From Ua Pou we will head to our final Marquessan anchorage of Niku Hiva (26 miles away). Here we will do our final provisioning for the next two weeks, check in/check out, do some internet work (if I get a chance I'll upload some pictures to the blog) and get fuel and propane. So our tentative schedule is to leave on Monday or Tuesday next week for the Tuamotu archipelago, which will be about a 4 day open ocean crossing.

As we promised to keep daily contact during crossings, I will once again commence a daily update on the blog as soon as we begin the crossing. Keep in mind that we can't guarantee daily connections, so don't worry if you don't hear from us. Until next time.....have a great weekend.