9.11S 125.21W Saturday 22nd March Day 15 The
winds dropped to around seven knots so with a calmer sea and the prospect of
going nowhere fast we finally put the Twistle up Friday morning at 6.00am
- it took four hours to untangle all the relevant ropes, bring down
the large genoa, drag the smaller (newly mended) genoa to the front and pull it
out of its bag, line the two sails up and pull them together up the same
groove in the forestay. This in itself is an exacting job to make sure
they are aligned and a physical one winching their joint and great weight to
the top. Finally when the poles are attached to the universal joint and
all else is in position the whole caboodle gets hoisted into the air and the
great kite flies again!! It makes such a terrific difference not only to
our speed but also our comfort – most of the rolly polly motion
disappears. The exertion floored poor Bennett who retired for the day!!
Just a week to go before we arrive in French Polynesia –
comprising 5 archipelagos -and in particular the Iles Marquises (Marquesas
Islands). These ten islands, known to be the youngest of the group, are
submerged underwater volcanoes and compose the northernmost islands which have
an area of around 1,418 square miles. The total population is only about
6.000, the descendants of proud and warlike Polynesian tribes that once
numbered around 100,000 when Captain Cook visited the islands in the eighteenth
century. This was before they were decimated by western contact and the
diseases they brought with them from Great
Britain and Europe.
Our Rally support dates are up to the 4th April on the Ile Nuku
Hiva, the principal island and our port of entry. Apparently the
Marquesas archipelago is one enormous archaeological site and the buildings and
statues (tikis) date from AD 1600-1700 AD. Unusually these islands have
no coral reefs (although coral beds in the bays are apparent) and one theory,
apart from their comparatively young age, is that the periodic seawater
temperature changes due to local currents may have contributed to the scarcity
of large coral formations. The lack of reefs also means that sharks are not
excluded from the bays so swimming is at your peril and the ‘no no’
fly, smaller than a mosquito, is particularly virulent here, causing sceptic
tropical sores when scratched. Cannibalism was practiced until relatively
recently and apparently there are still pits in the jungle where ‘fresh
meat’ was stored alive and from which it was impossible to escape!
We were the last to leave Galapagos so still have a distance of around
800 nm to cover but some yachts have now arrived. The faster ARC boats
are overtaking now too – one monster covered the distance from one horizon
to the other in 90 minutes yesterday, waving as he shot by, and reported an
estimated and respectable 15 day total passage time….. it’s all in
the length of the waterline! We six, Happy Wanderer, Spectra, Shaula III,
Neva and Cayuko are pretty close together
– Zippy is long gone! Lots of chat on the net each morning and
night – Happy Wanderer has run out of beer and is resorting to Campari!! Neva have run out of chocolate and everyone is trying to
dream up appetising recipes from depleted stocks. We finished our last
potatoes yesterday and the chicken chow mien tonight put paid to the onions,
remaining red pepper and green cabbage…..
