The Marquises, Te Henua Enana.

The Marqusies,
10° South, 149° West. They lie, at about 1 400km from Tahiti.
Called "te henua Enana" the land of the men!
They were first discoverd in 1595, but left alone for a while longer before Captain Cook made some connections with the locals in 1774...
They became french by 1838, very little did the local chefs know what they were signing; tryed to rebel and lost their fight!
The priests that came then were really the firsts to stay, and they did a grand job at converting the islands to Catholisime...Ridding them of their traditional beliefs...That have been lost even since!

Some of which are maybe a good thing, cause they were cannibals here!!!

Like the guide books say, this is not a beach destination, nor are there any fancy Resorts, or much night life, or shopping!

Hight Volcanic Islands that do not have the reef barrior that its Tahitien neighbour have.

Beautiful sceanery, that allways seem to change with the clouds.

Very rich soil, that produce so much fruit: Mangoes, Bananas, oranges, grapefruit, Coconuts, Corosol, Custard-apple, Papaya, Kava, Breadfruit, star-fruit and some more that I dont even know their names! As well as a huge number of seeds for jewerlly, to my greatest joy!!!
In the wild, goat's, pig's and Horses live...Cow's too!
Fish are pletyfull, and its a good thing cause they LOVE their fish here!

They are far from everything, but with the modern world today, there is internet (not on every island or valley)and cell phone's. Yet poeple here do not seem to have been overtaken by it all. Maybe the only thing they have been taken buy are fancy 4x4 toyota pick-up truck's...There are so many cars!
The houses are not fancy, there are hardly any shops to buy cloth (I have seen 2), there is definatly NO fashion victimes here...This is still the land of woman walking around in Pareo's (Sarong), flowers in their hair and monoi (coconut oil with flowers) on their skin!

Life is lived day to day, men going out fishing, or producing Coprah...Its coconuts that they dry and Tahiti turns into oil for exporting...
Woman taking care of the children or the garden, that is their pride!
They are also avide artist's, woman like men!

Our first landing was done on the Island of Ua Huka, for 2 days...To stretch our legs after 35 days at sea!
Where we celabraited our arrival, my fathers birthday passed at sea and met lovelly poeple that gave us lots of frech fruit!
What a delight, we are in the Marquises!

6 Months

Here I am with my 6 month Belly!

The Pacific Ocean Crossing

The Galapagos to The Marquises….3000 nautical miles, that would be 5400 kilometres...

Yet when one takes a road to go somewhere, the road will take you straight there, and apart from some maybe bends and twits in the road or some slow drivers (like myself and my "L" plates), you hit the gas, and off you go!

On the water its another story!

Our direction depends on the winds, and sometimes we may be going the right way, but the swell will put us off course, and then there is current! Yet, on this leg, the current was all favourable!

All of that put together, and one can not be sure of how long it may take, cause from one day to the next everything can change!

It has taken us 35 days!!!!

Most days go by without being noticed, time just runs by like the waves on the hull!

After the first 3 days, we all got into our own little routine, watches were set:

8h am to 10h-stephen

10h to 12h-jojo

12h to 14h-sarah, lunch that was prepared by whom ever...

14h to 16h-stephen

16h to 18h-jojo

18h to 20h-sarah, a cup of tea for all and then night falls....

20h to 12h30-stephen, dinner prepared by the boys....

12h30 to 5h am.-jojo

5h to 8h-sarah, I get lucky, more sleep, less night watch. Sun rise!

In all of that, there are the normal daily living duties, cooking, dishes, washing, and naps!

Plus lots of fishing!

What excitement it can be, jojo, has his one line out, but he then decided that Stephen needed his own line, so here we were with two lines out, and a fish at the end of each! That day we got 5 fish, but only 2 made it aboard! Good thing cause after a week of eating fish for breakfast, lunch and dinner I could not take it any more!

Then came in the personal past times, reading for all, jewellery for myself and Stephen too! Jojo always seems to find something that needs mending or attending to on the boat!

Then there is the sea life, birds, flying fish, dolphins, and the ever changing clouds and ocean!

All in all, it has been a good trip, constant winds, of about 10 to 15knots, relatively calm sea's, I say that cause going back wind tends to make boats rock a bit more! and beautiful sunny days, that strangely enough got warmer and warmer as we went along, even though we were also getting further away from the equator!

Like this 3 weeks went by….

Then, one evening as Jojo was doing his daily check of the rigging, he noticed that the back Stay was unwinding! (for those who don’t know, it’s the cable that holds the mast at the back of the boat).

BAD BAD NEWS. Potentially the mast could fall on our heads! So we pulled all the sails down, set ourselves adrift for the night! Called “Magot”, who started making route towards us!

We spent a rolly night, drifting in the pacific. By sunrise “Margot” was close to us, and Roger and Jojo were making plans as how to make a temporary fix…We spent the day together, I on “Margot”, the boys on “Kerzo”, up the rigging, pulling up another cable and chain that was secured down to the rear cleats with a cable ratchet, and by the end of the day we had a secure mast once more!

On our way we were again, but a few days later while we wanted to start the main engine to charge our batteries, that too broke down! The head gastket joint in broken! It will have to wait for us to get to port to be fixed!

By then we are all wondering what’s gonna come next? We are all very careful with the mast, and without a doubt, I notice that the starboard shroud is also unwinding! GREAT!

Once more we set a drift for the night, and “margot” comes to our rescue!

Another day spent together. The boys kept busy inventing another make shift temporary fix, and a great big lunch for all! How lovely it is to get off “kerzo” for a while, have a hot shower, be able to walk and not roll!

And once more with the expertise of Roger and Jo jo, without any fuss it is fixed again. No problems seem to hard for this father and son team….. we set sail toward the sunset again.

Slowly, we get closer and closer, its like a dream, not quit real yet somewhere ahead the Marqusies are awaiting! Yet the wind is dying down, and we are all eager to get there. Not willing to spend 3 more days at sea, Roger decides to tow us.

Our last night at sea was the calmest of all.

Like a lake, not a bit of wind, and no more shifts! What a treat! I get to do a full night sleep and wake up at 6am, to see the Island of Ua Huka on the Horizon, not far.

We will be there by lunch time!

I was about 6 ½ months pregnant when we left Galapagos and it has taken us a marathon 5 weeks to do the trip without an auto pilot….We are all very tired and relieved.

We have finally crossed the great big blue Pacific Ocean!