Log 9 - Zihuatanejo, MEX - Marquesas, French Polynesia See Photos Here We spent the last part of February and the first part of March provisioning Gumbo Ya-Ya for the upcoming season. Because we would be spending almost 1 month sailing to the Marquesas, followed by 3 months in the VERY expensive French Polynesian islands, we planned on having enough food aboard to last us for 6 months. Nancy spent countless hours going over recipes and ingredients and we made numerous trips to the large grocery stores (Bodega and Commercial) and the public mercados. We filled up every available storage area on Gumbo and even bought a couple of plastic planter containers that we lashed to the bulkheads to store more food. In addition to the food, we bought 6 30-liter jerry jugs that we filled with diesel. We had heard that, because Zihuatanejo is so far east, we would probably have to motor for at least 300 miles before we got any wind. And, finally, we stocked up on booze. Beer, wine and spirits are INCREDIBLY expensive in French Polynesia and relatively cheap in Mexico, so we loaded up on all kinds of stuff. We think the taxi drivers that delivered the supplies to the beach for us must have thought we were serious alcoholics! We finally raised our anchor on the morning of March 16 and motored out of Zihuatanejo. It was with mixed feelings that we departed the Bay - we had spent an incredible two and a half months there, made lots of new friends, but were excited about the upcoming adventure. As predicted, we had very little useable wind for the first 3 days and did alot of motoring. The next 3 days were spent motoring, motor-sailing, or sailing with variable amounts of wind. Finally, on March 22, we got into serious tradewinds, and Gumbo took off in a blaze of glory. Our boat is not a dragster, but she really handles downwind sailing well, with the windvane steering and the mainsail out to leeward and the jib poled out to windward. It was great watching the water streaming by, knowing that we were making good progress under sail. The days seemed to drift by without much to differentiate them. We got into a night watch pattern that had Nancy taking the first watch from about 1000 to 0230 or 0300 and then Kurt would take over for the next 5 or 6 hours. Days were spent eating, reading, sleeping and checking in to various radio nets. We tried fishing but after a huge marlin took the hook, lure and half the line, we decided to hold off for awhile. Maintenance was another daily feature. The amount of wear and tear on a boat that is sailing 24 hours a day is incredible. Lines chafe through, blocks freeze up, fuel needs to be transfered, filters need to be cleaned and, of course, things break. Our most serious breakdown was, you guessed it, the autopilot. This device had been giving us problems since we left Seattle in August and, finally, a critical bolt snapped in two. Of course this bolt was a non-standard size and we had no replacement. So, whenever there wasn't enough wind for the windvane, we had to HAND STEER! We HATE handsteering. There was big excitement on our 19th day out - we CROSSED THE EQUATOR! This was a very exciting moment that we had dreamed about for years. As it happened, we crossed at 0830 in the morning with overcast skies and lumpy seas. We both were awake for the occasion and we dressed in costume (Kurt as King Neptune and Nancy as "Red Nancy" - Pirate Goddess of the 7 Seas). We broke out the special bottle of "single barrel" Jack Daniels and poured a shot into the sea, one onto Gumbo and then one down each of our throats. That was it for Nancy, who fell asleep for most of the rest of the day! After we crossed the Equator, we felt like we were on the downhill slide to Hiva Oa - our intended landfall. According to our sailing guide, we weren't supposed to see the Island until we were about 20 miles away, but, on April 8th, at sunrise, we could see the island in the distance, at 38 miles out! Talk about exciting. When you've seen nothing but water for the past 23 days and have been relying on a little black box (GPS) to tell you where you are, you begin to wonder if the electronics have been telling the truth. So it was really great to see the island appear just where it was supposed to. See Photos Here We dropped anchor at about 1600 local time and celebrated. Total time spent on the passage was 23 days, 11 hours and 20 minutes. Total distance was 2870 miles. And what a beautiful anchorage we had arrived at. Incredibly lush, steep, green hills surrounding the harbor. We were the only American boat there with a bunch of French, Spanish, Swiss and German boats around us. Because we had arrived on the afternoon before Good Friday and because Monday was a local holiday called "Easter Monday", we couldn't check in with the gendarmes and pay our bond at the bank until Tuesday. So we spent the time recuperating and wandering around the small town of Atuona. The big deal every day was to walk into town to get a couple baguettes - the 2-foot long french breads that cost about 40 cents each. Yummy! After finally checking in on Tuesday, we headed out of the now rolly anchorage and sailed through the pass between the islands of Hiva Oa and Tahuata, finally anchoring in a beautiful bay on Tahuata called Hanamoenoa. What a difference! The anchorage was totally flat, we could anchor with just a bow anchor (instead of using 2 anchors as we had in Atuona), and the water was incredibly clear (visibility to 30 feet). We spent about 3 days here enjoying the swimming and visiting the other bays on this side of the island by dinghy. Our next trip was the 65 mile passage to the island of Oa Pou. We left Tahuata at 1800 and planned on sailing all night to arrive at Oa Pou the following morning. The only problem was that, after the first 4 hours, there was no wind. So we had to motor all night, and this meant hand-steering due to the broken autopilot. Nothing is worse than hand-steering at night with nothing to look at but the compass for hours on end. The following morning we arrived at the harbor of Hakahau and bow and stern anchored behind the breakwater in this beautiful little bay. The scenery here was stunning with huge pinnacle rock formations, or "spires" overlooking the anchorage and village. It was easy to land the dinghy on the beach here so we visited the village quite often (even attending a Sunday church service to record the singing). After a few days at Hakahau, we moved about 5 miles to the west to the next anchorage on Oa Pou called Hakahetau. This was another beautiful bay with a different view of the spires. The dinghy landing here was incredibly difficult as the swell was up and we had to try to jump from the dinghy to a stone jetty, timing the swells so that we wouldn't crush the dinghy or fall in the harbor. However, we did manage to get ashore one afternoon and attended a potluck dinner hosted by the village elder (and ex-mayor) Etienne. He gave us a pre-dinner tour of the village and then about 7 of us boaters gathered with about 20 of his family and friends for a dinner of fish, octopus, lasagne, rice casserole, breadfruit, pompalmousse and pastries. We would like to have spent more time at this anchorage, getting to know the locals, but the dinghy landing was so precarious that we decided to leave and head for Nuka Hiva. Nuka Hiva is the largest of the Marquesan islands and is just 25 miles from Oa Pou. We had a nice 5 hour sail from Hakahetau to Conroleur Bay on Nuka Hiva. Controleur Bay is actually three bays within in one larger bay. We elected to go to the western most bay and were rewarded with a totally quiet, beautiful anchorage that was deserted except for us. It was what we had always dreamed about - Gumbo Ya-Ya laying quietly at anchor, all alone in a tropical paradise. There were mountain goats on the steep cliffs above us, pigs on the beach in front of us and huge manta rays swimming in the water around us. Whoowheee! We spent 3 days there before moving to the eastern lobe of Controleur Bay where we met up with "Azimut", a German boat we had talked to every night on the trip across from Mexico, and some new aquaintences from the vessel "Only Tomorrow" from Australia. This part of the bay has a nice beach with an easy dinghy landing. We were able to walk up the road, past all the small homes, and explore the lush interior. And, we were able to trade 2 Bumbershoot T-shirts for a stalk of about 50 bananas and a bag of about 20 limes! As we finish this edition of the log, we are planning to move over to the main anchorage and village on Nuka Hiva. We plan on re-provisioning (we're totally out of fresh produce) and attending a party for all the boats that have arrived from Mexico. Then we'll head back over to Oa Pou and wait for a good weather window before heading out on the 4 day passage to the Tuamotus. This part of the trip is, potentially, the most problematic because, unlike the Marquesas, the Tuamotua are low-lying atolls that are not even visible until you are within 5 miles. And, once you arrive, you must negotiate a pass between the coral reefs to enter the lagoon within. Tricky navigation and kinda squirrely weather patterns around this area. Should be interesting. Stay tuned.