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 4^th 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…..