Glorious days sailing – despite the big waves, the sea seemed to settle down a bit more during the day to give a smoother ride.  Blue sky, sun shine and zinging along in 20 knots of wind at speeds between 7 and 11 knots!  Stayed with the same sail plan all day – goose winged on a course of around 260 degrees.  Same during the night.

As the dawn broke this morning, I was sitting in the cockpit thinking that the seas had calmed down and got themselves more organised – wonderful.  Then the sun rose and the wind got up and the waves with it – we’re currently bowling down the waves with around 25 to 30 knots of wind!  The grib files do say the wind and waves will start to diminish a bit today so you never know I might eventually get some work done on our February website!

We managed to have a great chat on SSB with Brian and Sue on Darramy last night – 2200 miles apart on a frequency of 6 MHz. 

As we now have around 755 miles to go – whoopee – we have been looking at the choice of islands we have when we arrive in the Marquesas.  We are supposed to go to one of the three official entry ports where there is a ‘Gendarmerie National’. However the group lie in a windward to leeward pattern, making it logical to stop at the most windward first – Fatu Hiva. Unfortunately this is not a port of entry. Our friends, Bob and Elaine on Pippestrelle who crossed the pacific last year, also told us that the Fatu Hiva is not to be missed so we are currently planning on making land fall there.  Besides all that, the write up for the Hiva Oa anchorage  (with Gendarmerie National), doesn’t sound great (rolly) for an extended rest – for goodness sake can you imagine being in a rolly anchorage after spending 3 weeks in this lot!!!  The other factor is that there are 40 boats in the world arc about a week behind us, who are going to Hiva Oa, so another good reason to delay our arrival there.

For those not impressed (Matt included) with our inability to hit 200 miles for a second day, bear in mind we are running goose winged dead down wind, with zero current assistance.

24 hour distance:  196 miles   Position: S10.08.250 W126.02.592