I have started working on the blog post covering our last few months in Makemo but that is going to take some time.. if it is even possible to summarise so many moments and memories in mere words.

In the meantime I thought I would put out a little update on our current passage from Makemo back to the Marquesas where we have a rendezvous to lift Hamble Warrior for a month to do some routine maintenance work on her in Hiva Oa.

Going back just a couple of days; on Monday (25th February), our friends Roger and Thomas came down to the quay to help us untie our lines and lift our anchors where they had helped us set them before the tropical depression rolled through a couple of weeks back. We had moved to a spot inside the reef between the reef and the quay; a protected spot where our friends were able to guide us in and secure us with lines to the reef and the quay and help us lay out anchors. Reversing all of this to get us free again was an even trickier task and we were grateful to Roger; and to our friend Mare-re for free-diving down and releasing our lines. We had an uncomfortable moment as we tried to pull up our main anchor; the last thing holding us, and began to gently swing towards the reef as we took in the chain but between Roger working below the water to free the anchor and chain from coral; Jamie's skilled helmsman ship and me standing on the bow operating the windlass we managed to get the anchor onboard and maneuver the boat back safely into open water without any drama.

We anchored back in our old spot for the night; carefully buoying the chain again to avoid snagging any coral and I swam out to check everything was set correctly.

That night we had one final night with our friends; starting with a beer with Punua who then joined us with Roger, Mairie, Manutea and Marama at the snack in the village for a final meal together. It was a lovely way to sign off our time in Makemo. It was hard to say goodbye to Roger and Mairie at the end of the night - they have been so kind to us and we will miss them; and the whole Tepuhiri family, so much; another emotional goodbye. We walked with Punua back to his house where we sat a while at his father's graveside. We placed some shells and fresh flowers on his grave and lit a candle for him. Punua held us tight and promised us that his father and mother would both be sailing with us. This was the hardest goodbye of all; we have spent so much time with Punua since we arrived back and he has become our family now. Despite leaving him all of our contact details he has no phone, tablet or laptop and the only way we have of staying in touch with him is via our other friends on the island. They have, however, promised to pass on messages for us and we know how close everyone is that all news will travel quickly. We said one last goodbye to him; to Pancake the kitten and the dogs Siggy and Toria who always come out to greet us as we pass the house. We left them all standing in the road waving us off as we walked back to the waterfront.

The following morning we got up and left the boat early kayaking to the beach outside Tehono's house where we had so many memories of Sunday afternoons and evenings with our friends. Tehono came out and we had a chance to say a final goodbye to him. We walked into the village and stopped to say goodbye to Tahi and his kittens. The dogs came running out at the sound of us approaching as they always do since we used to feed them when Tahi was away working at the sector. I had given Tahi some medication for his back a few days ago and was glad to see him moving with a little more ease this morning. There was a problem accessing this medication on the island and I was glad that we were able to help with our well stocked ship's stores; one of the reasons I had always been keen to keep a fully equipped medical case onboard.

Tahi filled a copra sack with Uru (breadfruit) and coconuts for our journey and we said our goodbyes promising to come and see him when we returned and keep in touch on messenger in the meantime.

Next we visited the Boulangerie and picked up 3 fresh baguettes for our trip and said our goodbyes to Noëline. On our way back we passed Roger's house just as his truck pulled away; Mairie came out and we had a final hug and final goodbye promising to visit as soon as we returned.

We walked back to the beach and launched the kayak with all our provisions in. Once back onboard we quickly finished the last of our stowing and got the anchor up. As we secured the deck gear and brought Hamble Warrior around to head out of the lagoon we saw friends Fred and Suzanne walking along the quay waving to us. We brought Hamble Warrior as close in to the quay as we could to shout our goodbyes; Mare-re was there too and over at the Copra House Punua was waving to us from the building site. As we turned to leave, the island Police Car came along the quay waving to us and pulled up at the end of the quay flashing it's lights and waving us off.

We cleared the reef and lifted the mainsail. As we approached the pass Jamie began to question his calculation of the tidal flow; the tide was absolutely ripping out but it was too late to do anything but go with it. Fortunately the wind wasn't strong and Jamie was able to hold Warrior on a steady course as 7kts of current carried us through the pass and spat us out into the open ocean at 12kts!!!! It was an exhilarating way to start our passage!

We set full sail and pointed ourselves North. I exchanged several messages with our island friends and received several photographs of Hamble Warrior as she departed Makemo. I posted a goodbye message on the island Facebook group and saw several well-wishes before our signal finally ran out and we were officially "gone".

We left Makemo laden with kind gifts including a huge stalk of bananas; half a dozen papayas, several coconuts and a bottle of coconut water, three large Uru (breadfruit) and a huge piece of freshly cooked fish which means we are eating like royalty on this passage! We were also given so many beautiful handmade gifts from the island that we will treasure forever. These include traditional hand-woven hats made of palms; shell garlands which are traditional leaving gifts in Polynesia (we were also given a stunning flower garland and flower crown by our friend Mairie on Valentine's day which I had always coverted; it was a dream come true to wear that crown of sweet-fragranced Tahitian Tiare flowers for a few days). We were given several gifts of jewellery including tahitian black pearls and mother of pearl necklaces and earings; shell bracelets, earings and necklaces, Boar's teeth and a shark's jaw. Our friend Mare-re had made us a stunning chandelier of shells strung from half of a painted pearl-float; Punua had especially designed a beautiful "Nacrace" piece for us made of Mother of Pearl. It was two highly polished Oyster Shells which he'd had etched by his cousin with a special message for us adorned with palm trees and Hamble Warrior at the centre; so beautiful. Our friend Nooroa who is an artist gave us a beautiful traditional carving he had made from hardwood. On our final night together Roger gave Jamie a Makemo Petanque shirt from the tournament Makemo competed at in Tahiti a few years back. It is a wonderful souvenir of our many Sunday nights spent playing Petanque; some of our happiest memories. We have been overwhelmed by all the kindness we have been shown here. All of these treasures were carefully stowed away for our trip; we couldn't believe how many beautiful gifts we had received. Each one a reminder of our Island friends and our special time here. Along with the treasured gifts we stowed onboard we carry with us our new Polynesian names; "Aito" ("Warrior") and "Vahine" ("Woman"). All of our friends here have at least two names; usually a European and a Polynesian name. We were often introduced to people by their European names only to learn later that they were better known by their Polynesian name. I would carefully note down both and try to remember which was preferred. Since we arrived we both adopted a number of nicknames.. as usual we introduced ourselves as Magpie and Jamie; Punua was delighted to learn my given name was Victoria and would frequently call me Queen Victoria. Our other friends called me Magpire; Magfire and Magpower! Jamie was regularly Jammy and Jymmy. Now we have Vahine and Aito to add to our monikers we feel like we have our full set of Polynesian names! They were given to us by Thomas (Tu) after we spent a lovely evening with him and his wife Rava and son Tehauarii at their home one special night. The Tepuhiri family; 4 brothers, 5 sisters and their families, became good friends of ours during our time in Makemo. We spent a lot of time in their company and they were very kind and generous friends. We hope to meet their sister who lives with her husband in Hiva Oa when we arrive there.

Back to the present moment and now we were finally in the open ocean once more and reflecting on the last few days and weeks and all of a sudden it felt very quiet just the three of us onboard surrounded by ocean once again. No sounds from the quay; no familiar voices calling to us and each other.. just the waves lapping on the hull.

The first two days of this passage were quite calm. After putting Makemo in our wake we found ourselves struggling to stay on course and even had the motor on for a couple of hours at midday that first day after we tracked a squall for a mile or two which seemed to suck us off of our track. After that we managed to hold our course and sailed under full sail in a comfortable sea. It really was the best possible start to a long passage we could have asked for at that point. Especially after our last few trips getting from Tahiti which had been so uncomfortable. We enjoyed the cooked fish with rice for lunch and ate fresh bread at dinner time.

Since our inverter broke after we took on water below decks during the tropical depression a few weeks back we have to be careful to manage our laptop battery. We fully charged it at Punua's house before we left but since we need it to download weather and emails on passage we can't afford to be using it to watch TV shows and films from our hard drive which we would usually enjoy on a trip such as this. Instead we sat scrolling through the many pictures and videos I have taken with our friends on my phone these last few weeks. It was quite emotional re-living all of those wonderful moments as we continue to put miles between us and our island home.

Otherwise we have been entertaining ourselves by reading; practicing our French, writing (Magpie) and sitting with Meep as he explores the cockpit on the leash we insist he wears underway for safety reasons.

On the morning of our second day out (28th February) we had logged 100nm day's run which we were happy with. We were still on a course for the Marquesas and had made a healthy start. Jamie had spent his night snoozing in the cockpit with a regular alarm set to check about. At 5am I took the sunrise watch; my favourite time and watched as the cool glow from the ample moon gave way to the warm rich glow of the sun rising over the Pacific Ocean. Magical.

I noticed a bite on my ankle that I had been scratching at over the last few days was looking a little nasty so I got out the medical case and cleaned and dressed it. I am aware how easily tropical ulcers develop in these conditions so I am being cautious. I suspect I will have a tan line in a ring around my ankle for the foreseeable where I have wrapped a small bandage to hold the dressing in place! It isn't easy keeping your legs out of the sun during the day unless you sit below decks!

As forecasted we had a few squalls on the second day. We had hoped to sail far enough NNE to stay clear of them but we caught two or three. None were too bad but we reefed down nonetheless.

We ate breadfruit curry for lunch and again had our fresh bread for dinner. We are watching the bananas closely as we think they will be ripe soon.

Despite a bit of squall activity the second night out we were treated to an amazing starry sky and later another large chunk of moon illuminating the sea around us which is always a treat when night-sailing.

Day 3 - 29th February:

A squall shortly after 4am had Jamie rattling me from my bunk. We reefed down and rode it out but it never came to much. After that Jamie went below for some sleep and I stayed on watch once again to see the sun come up.

When Jamie re-surfaced a few hours later Meep accompanied him into the cockpit and spent an hour climbing about on everything (including my head) whilst constantly tethered to one or other of us by his harnesss. We can't risk him doing his usual dare-devil antics when we are bounding along at 5kts so he has to be tethered when he is in this kind of mood and we are underway!

We calculated our day's run again at 8am and noted we had put another 113nm under our keel towards the Marquesas - we are happy with that! The exciting news this morning was that the bananas were finally ripening!

We had breakfast of scrambled eggs and noticed the sea-state had risen and things were getting a bit more lively onboard. The conditions remained like that for a couple of hours before smoothing out once more.

As I write this update (1600hrs, Thursday 29th February) we are now over halfway to our destination; the sea state remains a little more smoothed and we are making a respectable speed of between 5 and 5.5kts. It is fine sailing in good conditions. We haven't had a squall since daybreak and looking around there doesn't seem to be any imminent threat of any more. If we are lucky (very lucky) these conditions will continue through the evening and tonight.

That's all for now. I will continue to try and write up the blog for our time in Makemo and post that at a later date along with some photographs. In the meantime we hope wherever you are reading this from that all is well.