We are still in Hiva Oa, one of the Marquesas islands where we arrived just a week ago. This was such a good landfall as it happened on 1^st June, Lorraine's birthday, one of the best birthday presents ever after 21 days at sea.

The Marquesas are one of the five island groups that make up French Polynesia, they are 755 miles north-east of Tahiti comprising an archipelago of 11 islands and an atoll, only six of the islands are inhabited with very small populations. The island groups of Polynesia were gradually annexed by France over a period of about 70 years during the 19^th and early 20^th centuries and eventually have become French overseas territories. Today they still have their Polynesian languages but learn French in school as the official language of this vast region. Despite all this European control and influence, cannibalism continued in some parts and in Hiva Oa persisted until the 1950's. Meeting the wonderful people here it is hard to imagine this ever having happened.

Since we arrived we have spent time meeting all the other boats we met by radio on the way across and generally restocking the boat and doing various jobs including cleaning off the grippy orange coloured gunge that sticks itself to the hull on these long crossings. We also have a resident crab on the sugar scoop stern whom we will transport with us for as long as he/she desires.

During this 3,020 mile crossing, the shackle on our cruising chute halyard broke and another halyard chafed through so there have been several trips up the mast to replace them; we have now added a spare halyard at the mast head in case of any future chafe or breakages so we shouldn't have to run without cruising chute or spinnaker in future. About 5 other boat skippers have had to go up their masts to do various jobs. The most serious problem was on another English boat that broke its fore-stay about 250 miles from here. Fortunately they did not lose their mast but sailed rather slowly for the last part of the passage. Now they have the problem of getting replacements parts from New Zealand to this rather remote spot. There are no facilities or resources here for boats other than a 'Mash' type open shower. water from a tap on the quay and fuel after the fuel barge has been, weather permitting.

Hive Oa is very French with good baguettes and a love of the long lunch hour. The standard of living is high with some very nice houses that are built on the banks that surround our anchorage. At night it is like being in Dartmouth with the lights of the houses twinkling from the hills. It is rather a long walk into the town but so far we have been lucky with the locals giving us lifts in their air conditioned 4x4 automobiles. Not quite what we were expecting to find in Polynesia but wonderful to find the local populace of the Marquesas is a thriving economy. The people are very friendly and helpful even with the halting French that we speak.

Tomorrow we are hiring a car, with another English couple, to see the rest of the island. It is very lush and high. There is agriculture but. we do not really know how the locals make their well endowed living. They do grow and export coconuts and its products. Another crop is a fruit called Nomi from which a drug is made that is supposed to be a herbal cure for just about everything including cancer.

We visited the Gauguin museum the other day which was very good. They have no original paintings but instead have many very good copies which means they have so many paintings that they make a very impressive display. We also visited the reproduction of his "House of Joy".... where he presumably got the syphilis he died of! We have not yet visited his grave. The other person who sailed here, lived here and is buried here is the Belgian singer Jacques Brel, whom some of you may know more about than we do.

One minor irritation here is that we cannot get a good Internet connection which means we cannot really update this blog with photos. It is surprising how much we rely on our computer. The one we had from the start was repaired in Panama after a power surge but recently made some nasty noises and died. Fortunately when we flew back to UK in October we bought a second one which, touch wood, works well. An Australian friend with more technical know-how than we have has managed to retreive most of our saved files so all was not lost – we hope!

On Wednesday we will move on to some of the other islands in the Marquesas and then onto the Tuamotos. The Tuamotos are totally different as they are all coral atolls and the highest point on them is the tallest palm tree. We hope to spend 2 or 3 weeks there before we go on to Tahiti and the Society Islands.....all still part of French Polynesia. We have to pinch ourselves every now and then to remind ourselves of where we are and how far we have come in the last year.