SERENITY NOW

  13 May 2023 (Nuka Hiva) Our second attempt at checking in with the police at Nuka Hiva was as successful as the first: The lady at the other end of the intercom at the gendarmerie advising “returné Lundi” (come back Monday!) All good - we tried! The pre-booked baguettes from the small supermarket were wonderful, filling the loaf sized hole in my life just nicely. I rather like this little spot - it’s verging on being touristy, but just barely. The locals smile and joke around together. There’s a few large dogs prowling around who delight in a bit of affection. The scenery: lush (there’s that word again!) high volcanic peaks surround us, coming down to palms at sea level. The anchorage (we’ve been told) is rolly, but we’ve had nothing but the gentlest of rock-a-bye baby rocks which haven’t bothered us in the least. Caught up with Becky again this morning - she’s found a new boat/home for her next leg to Tahiti via the Tuamotos - it’s actually our anchorage neighbours: “Into the My...

  5 May 2023 (The Marquesas) Both a little ‘jetlagged’ from the trip.. tired, headache, and aching all over, we’ve spent the first day back close to land just recuperating. Our first trip ashore - via a couple of familiar boats - was a delightful success.. managing to change USD into local currency, buy some food, and trade some manky ravioli for some pomplamous (local grapefruit). Came away realising that perhaps land isn’t so bad after all. Some new Swedish friends (Lars and Susanne) brought us over a flask of boiling water water for coffee - ah… the kindness of strangers I won’t bother with describing the scenery here - Google: Bay of Penises and you can see for yourself. Another lovely surprise visit later in the day: Philipp and Kristel , our Swiss friends /linehandlers from the Panama Canal. So so lovely to see them and to have a chat about our experiences with people who fully understand. They also had some spare gas and Kristel brought us over a curry at dinner time - ca...

Day 43. (Sunday April 30) 15+ knots, 2m swell, sunny Welcome to week seven.. Slapped a smile on my face this morning. I spent the first part of this journey telling Chez ‘no one except you can make you happy’ or some such similar waffle.. and I’ve spent the rest of the time not heeding those words at all. So, today: smile on face.. it helps that the wind is finally with us, the sun is shining and we’ve got less than 400 miles to go. Made about 100 nms yesterday - hard to say exactly as Navionics has a habit of crashing, and losing all the tracking detail. Hoping to make slightly further today - we’re going along at a steady 5 at the moment (10:30am) I’m sacrificing another lure to Neptune today.. I should say: I’m back trying to catch a fish again.. but I think being a realist on that front is fair enough after the amount of success I’ve had thus far. As with the fresh food, I’m now also scraping the very bottom of the barrel of the tackle box - oh well, fingers crossed for a nice mahi...

Day 36. (Sunday April 23) 10-12 knots, sunny, not flapping, 1-2m swell. Well it’s nice to start week 6 the right way: 5 knots gliding along under sail, the water sparkling from the sun in the cloudless blue sky. Chez has gone all Lieutenant Dan / Bambi today… her legs don’t work. We’ve instigated an exercise regime to hopefully rectify the situation: 3 times round the table every time you come up to the cockpit. Took the rods in shortly after sunset. I was surprised to find a shiny silver scabbard fish hanging on to Ballyhoo John’s lure. Not sure how long it had been there - it wasn’t large enough to make the reel squeal, less than a meter or possibly just too streamlined. Not being sure if it’s edible, I happily returned it to the deep, still very much alive. Lots of nasty teeth to avoid as I got the hook out. This is the same type of fish as the one I’d ‘caught’ in Trinidad. I say ‘caught’ as that one actually jumped into the tender overnight whilst we were anchored there in Chaguara...