Happy Easter folks,

No hot cross buns, easter bunnies or eggs for us – local eggs that we bought in Galapagos went off within a week (in fact one had little maggots coming out of it – f’in yuk!). So making do with homemade bread and bacon butties, except bread failed to rise so it’s more like soda bread. No worries still the bacon is UK style and makes up for it!

So been at sea for 10 days today, leaving between 1-5 days after the other yachts cuz we wanted to go to Isabel and ended up loving it so much there. Anyway not to worry – all the other boats were advised to head S/W first to get down into the trade winds before turning right and running to the Marquises – not for us, did 2 days on the motor in SW direction, wind picked up strong so decided to cut the corner off and turn to head direct for the Marquises – what a great strategy, already past half the fleet and hot on the tails of the bigger boats, which are only now circa 60 miles in front – having said that we’re all on similar courses now so little chance of catching them up, but loads of fun and banter on the twice daily radio log calls.

Big achievement 4 days of doing over 200nm, including 1 day at about 218nm –whoooo a massive speed for a yacht of our size, so dependent upon wind may manage to get there within 16 days, which is really going some (bearing in mind it took 18 days to cross the Atlantic which was 200nm shorter!) So on that basis we’ve decided to go to the island of Hiva Oa first for a few days before going up to NuKu Hiva, where most of the rest of the yachts will be gathering. We’ve been told if we give the local Gendarmerie ‘a bottle’ there’s no problem getting clearance – with 25 Oysters that gunna be 1 pissed up local police!

Life on board is working well, with 3 of us on shifts at least we get circa 6-7 hours sleep a night, although when the wind blows hard and sea’s are big most days) we end up rolling around most the night so it’s not like real sleep. (I’m bed hoping between our bed, the sofa in our room and the saloon not having much luck in any of them, bring me terrafirma (solid land) and quick about it please J) Trish still bored (putting it mildly haha, I’m not that bad guys)and haven’t caught a single fish yet, although have had a couple of bites, including 1 that bit through our steel leader line WOW, think that was a big un!

Due to the strong weather we’ve had about 8 days of overcast sky’s and squalls. Yesterday and today being the first day where we’ve had a reasonable bit of sun! Tan going fast (nooooo) We had a solid day of rain last Thursday so at least the boat had a good wash (so did we looking like 3 drowned rats(pigs)). Generally seeing nothing out here – saw a fishing boat about 2 miles away a few days back and the lights of another yacht in the distance (had a chat on radio and they’ve got 3 on board including an Israeli tank commander!?).

Day of chill & rest yesterday and day of boat duties today – including getting Nelius to clean out the black tanks (toilet tanks),Oh it’s so nice to have crew! The wind has dropped off to a paltry 10 knots so only doing 5kts, compared with 8-9 previously. Still the boats very calm, but if it drops anymore we’ll try the cruising chute (probably should be flying already, but maybe later).

Latest update – lost the wind so cruising chute now up and looking magnificent, but we’re still only doing 6kts – however just passed the ‘1000nm to go’ point so feels like we’ve now broke the back of the voyage!

So wishing everyone a happy Easter and already missing the family get together’s .

Love & Hugs,

Paul & Trish