Photo Update - The Best of the Galapagos - Part 3

Isla Isabela, Galapagos

Our final stop in Galapagos was the island of Isabela.  While it is the largest of the Galapagos islands, the small village of Puerto Villamil has only recently begun to see tourism (within the last couple of years).  As such, it is still pretty undeveloped, with one central street that has a few restaurants and shops and the roads are all still dirt.  We loved the vibe of this little village and spent a couple of days here exploring the surrounding areas.  Isabela is also the home of the equatorial penguin, which we were lucky enough to see in our anchorage!  This was our last stop before our big Pacific crossing.

You may need to zoom in a little, but here they are...the little equatorial penguins!!

These guys greeted us every day on the path from the dingy dock.

A newly constructed (beautiful, wooden) sign letting you know you've arrived in Isabela!  The stretch of road behind it was the only paved road that we saw on the island.  The village itself and all other surrounding roads were still dirt roads.

On Isabela we took a bike ride to the "Wall of Tears", a large, purposeless wall in the middle of nowhere that was built by the prisoners on the island when the Galapagos was still used as a penal colony back in the 1800's.  It was a long, hot ride out there, but it was pretty spectacular to see!

There is a reason I'm PUSHING the bike and not riding it - it was definitely uphill, but that's not an excuse!  I think I may have gone back to get Ben's bike, since he's walking without one...yes, that's most definitely it!!

A hike to the top of a lookout provided beautiful panoramic views of the island

Another view of Isabela

We finally made it to The Wall of Tears!

Ben and Gaby at the Wall of Tears.  Isla Isabela - Galapagos
June 2016

A view of the wall from the top

And one more...just in case you didn't get it from the first 3!

One thing they certainly got right in Isabela is the numerous beach bars!  They are mainly private homes that had little bars attached to them.  Very cool and lots of fun!

Gaby samples fresh coconut water - directly from the source
Beto's Beach bar - Isabela, Galapagos

Beach Bar at the end of the road

Outside Beto's Beach Bar - Isabela, Galapagos
June 2016

Photo Update - The Best of the Galapagos - Part 2

On the island of Santa Cruz, we visited the Charles Darwin Research Station, and also hiked to a grotto, Las Grietas, which was a canyon like cleft in the rocks with a beautiful, crystal clear pond to swim in.

Studying fossils at the Charles Darwin Research Station
June 2016 - Santa Cruz, Galapagos

Look!  A Giant Tortoise!

All fingers point to the Equator that we crossed to get to the Galapagos Islands
Darwin Research Station - June 2016, Santa Cruz, Galapagos

Charles Darwin and the Bounty
Darwin Research Station - June 2016 - Santa Cruz, Galapagos

A Land Iguana. Much larger and more colorful than the marine iguana
Santa Cruz, Galapagos, June 2016

On the way to Las Grietas, we came across salt pans, and enjoyed the hike through some lava rocks.  Looking back at these pictures now, it is amazing to me how dry and barren it all looks.  What we see now is so much more lush:  greens and blues of palms and turquoise water.  But of course, everything a wonderful experience!

A view of the salt pan - on the way to Las Grietas
Santa Cruz, Galapagos, June 2016

Ben and Gaby next to salt pan

Adrian and an iguana - on the way to Las Grietas.
Santa Cruz, Galapagos, June 2016

A beer and ice cream stop!  On the way to Las Grietas
Santa Cruz, Galapagos

Las Grietas
Santa Cruz, Galapagos, June 2016

At the grotto swim platform

Dave taking a leap into the water!
Las Grietas - Santa Cruz, Galapagos. June 2016

And last, but not least, another beer stop at the beach!

I think they actually had to SHARE this Panama Light!

The day we took this hike, was also Garrick's birthday, so we celebrated on the way back. This turned into quite a party with the arrival of our friends on Cheeky Monkey and carried on well into the night!

The crew celebrating Garrick's birthday - June 2016
Santa Cruz, Galapagos

Birthday Boy

Cheeky Monkey arrives!

Our next stop after Santa Cruz was Isabela - part 3 of the Galapagos Photo Update will highlight our time there!

Photo Update - The Best of the Galapagos-Part 1

For the first time since Panama, being in Tahiti has given us access to internet fast enough to upload pictures!  So I thought I would make the most of it, and do some photo update posts, to share some of our experiences through the eye of the camera lens.  I'll start with the Galapagos Islands:

The Cool Runnings crew stop at a tiny restaurant on the way back from Puerto Chino, San Cristobal, Galapagos.  This is also where we bought that beautiful bunch of bananas for $2!

Ben and Gaby enjoying the beach at Puerto Chino, June 2016, Galapagos

Gaby makes friends with a sandy seal - Puerto Chino

Time for haircuts!!  San Cristobal, Galapagos, June 2016

Darwin's finch:  This little fellow was sitting on our boat

The seals were EVERYWHERE!  Here a baby lies with its mom, while another plays in the water behind them
San Cristobal, Galapagos


And when I say everywhere, I mean everywhere:

Then of course, we had the marine iguanas.  Charles Darwin found them so hideous, he called them "Imps of Darkness".  I actually thought they were so ugly they were cute!

Speaking of Darwin, Gaby and Ben meet with the man himself:

Well, that doesn't seem like many pictures, but my connection seems to be giving me trouble, and I am unable to upload any more tonight.  So, consider this Part 1, more to come!  Enjoy!

On our way to Tahiti

Well, we're on the move again! This is Gudrun reporting from night shift for a change! We are 111 miles from Tahiti, and should be there around 4:00/4:30pm tomorrow afternoon.

We enjoyed the rest of our time in beautiful Tikehau, spending most of yesterday in the water. Unfortunately it was to clean the hulls, who had gotten a fine green fuzz growing on them. It is this horrible bearded algae and it is very difficult to get off!! Poor Dave and Adrian did the lion's share of the work, I jumped in after school and 2 loads of washing were done. We did the best we could but eventually ran out of daylight.

We had a yummy dinner of baguettes and cheese. Adrian had gone into the village at 4:00pm to pick them up. Our love affair with baguettes started in Panama when we discovered the little store at Shelter Bay Marina sold freshly baked loaves every day...$1 per loaf! We've managed to find fresh baguettes in most places, and of course now we are in FRENCH Polynesia, so the baguettes are delicious!!!

This morning we pulled up our anchor and headed to the pass. I am happy to report that getting out was no problem at all! It was low tide, for starters, so there was less water in the lagoon flowing out, combined with a much calmer sea state, and it made running the pass a breeze! Phew!! We said farewell to Tikehau and the Tuamotus atolls, and were able to put up Guy, our spinnaker, in about 10 - 12 knots of wind. Well, actually, we first put up the main, then Puff, then took Puff down and put Guy up, then dropped the main and flew only Guy!

The wind was light, which we were expecting, but we've had a nice, mellow trip so far. We eventually had to take Guy down and motor, but again, we were expecting that. This afternoon Dave saw a whale shark. The kids were quick enough to come on deck to see it, but unfortunately I didn't see it. Dave said it was right next to the boat, maybe it thought it was another whale shark (we were sailing at the time, so just gliding through the water)? It must have gotten a fright, because it suddenly thrashed its tail (which was huge!) and then dove down...between the hulls!! Maybe it's a good thing I didn't see that...my heart is still recuperating from entering Tikehau's pass!!

Now it's back to passage mode again, even though it's just one night. We did, however, manage to do the one thing we've not yet done on passage, and that is to have G&Ts on the deck to watch the sunset! We've never had a calm enough passage to do that...and it was awesome!!

So now I am sitting here on watch. The only negative is that there is no moon, so it is pitch black. However, it is a clear night and the stars are out in full force again. I've already seen 3 shooting stars! There is effervescent glowing in the water as we slice through it...It is so pretty. I am going to try and enjoy this as I'm sure the hustle and bustle of Tahiti will be a shock to our systems!!

So, until next time, farewell from the Cool Runnings crew!


Sent from Iridium Mail & Web.

Running the Passes

Hello from Tikehau!  We are anchored in the beautiful, smaller atoll of Tikehau, Rangiroa's neighbor. We are the only boat here and are enjoying the solitude.  Even though Tikehau is right "next door", getting here was an all day affair.  Over dinner on Friday night, Adrian, David and I discussed and studied the tide tables for Rangiroa, and picked the brains of locals to get an idea of tides for Tikehau. We were told the tides were pretty much the same, so we worked on the Rangiroa tides for entrance into Tikehau.  In theory, you should leave and enter the passes on a slack tide.  Because the water in the lagoons have only the one pass to enter and exit, the tides rip through at incredible velocity, causing rip tides and eddies, and standing waves...fun, fun, fun!

So, again, in theory, we should have left on Rangiroa's slack high tide, which was at 10:00am...however, that would not have given us enough time to sail over to Tikehau and make the 3:00pm slack tide here.  So Saturday morning dawned, and the winds seemed calm.  We decided just to take the boat over to the pass to see what it looked like.  It was about 7:30am when we left, probably around 8:30am by the time we were at the pass.  From inside, it didn't look that bad.  Dave started motoring toward the pass entrance, and the next thing we knew, the boat was swept along in the outgoing tide, and doing 11.6 knots!  Dave says "should we just go?" and Adrian and I just say "yes"!!  While it was a little hair-raising, it only lasted maybe 30 - 45 seconds (but seemed like forever!) because the tide was so strong and just swept us out!  We had to crash over a few standing waves, and then we had cleared that pass!  Phew!!  The first part of the trip over to Tikehau was a bit bumpy, but then as we cleared the top of the atoll and were able to change course toward Tikehau, we had a great reach over in about 15 knots of wind.

We arrived at Tikehau at around 2:30pm.  Perfect, we thought!  We could enter on the 3:00pm slack tide and we would be golden.  Well...Dave's not one for waiting, and while we could see the current RIPPING out, we went for it anyway.  I'll admit, this one had my heart pumping a little (ok...a lot!).  We were full ball on the engines, with Dave keeping the boat in the center of the pass...coral on both sides.  No room for error, or for being swept out the center of the pass.  We were doing 1.6 knots through the water...it felt like we were not moving at all.  I just remember the roar of the engines and the roar of the water, and I was just willing the boat to go forward. EVENTUALLY we made it out of the main rip tide and we were in the atoll!  That was enough for one day...running the passes...not my favorite past time.  But the reward is this:

Cool Runnings at anchor n Tikehau

Today we took the dinghy to shore and explored a bit.  This atoll used to be a coconut palm plantation, so the amount of palms is astounding.  However, it also has a lot of other trees such as pines, making it very "green".  The sand is almost pink...absolutely beautiful!

Pink sand and turquoise water

There is a small settlement here, with a couple of pensions/bed and breakfasts.  There was not a whole lot going today, since it is Sunday.  We were very anxious to find out where we could purchase our daily baguette, and eventually found out that we have to place our order at the bakery in the morning, and then the bread is ready at about 4:00pm in the afternoon  (so no baguette breakfast for us tomorrow!).  We found where the bakery is, it just looks like someone's home (and probably is).  The wind is pretty strong right now, and is forecast to be strong again tomorrow. According to the forecast, it dies a bit on Tuesday, so we will probably use that window to sail to Tahiti.  That will be an approximately 24 hour trip.   Let's hope the weather forecasts are accurate!  I'll have to report on exiting this pass in the next blog update!  Just for the record, it's just me (Gudrun) who has this fear of running the passes...Dave is quite comfortable with them (and I trust his ability completely!).

We were also pleasantly surprised to find a (very slow) WiFi hotspot, so while I have access, here are a few more pictures:

Uninhabited motu in Rangiroa

Updated Hibberd Family Photo!

That's all for now - until next time, farewell from Tikehau!

Hello from the middle of nowhere

Hi all....Guds reporting from the middle of the Pacific ocean, anchored inside the second 

largest atoll in the world (still have not figured out which is biggest). 

Sorry It's been a while since an update but we have been enjoying finally doing nothing but

relaxing, reading, catching up on school, swimming, snorkeling and researching our route 

ahead.

This atoll is so large you can't see the other side....it's incredible. We initially 

navigated through one of 2 entrances into the atoll early on the morning of July 21st. 

Since then we have literally chilled for the first time in many months. Up until now it had 

seemed like we had been chasing one deadline after another...always rushing to get to the 

next place....touch it....move on...repeat. We caught a break when Garrick announced after 

a rough passage from Marquesas to here, that he was going to fly out of this atoll on 

the 24th. We no longer now had to continue to rush to get him t o Bora Bora. With that 

announcement Dave and I took the opportunity to replan our way forward and life has 

considerably slowed and quietened down to more of what we had in mind and had dreamed of 

for the last 10 years!

After spending a few days at the anchorage near the atoll passes, we decided to go and do 

some exploring. Yesterday we raised the mainsail, put out Puff, and had a wonderful sail 

across the lagoon to the other side of the atoll. We discovered uninhabited "motus", 

these little islands that are joined by coral reefs, and make up the ring of the atolls. 

We continued close along the inside of the reef, marvelling at the beauty of one motu after 

another. Pure white beaches (that we later discovered to be broken coral), Coconut palm trees

and crystal clear turquoise water. We couldn't stop looking at them, and probably took way too many photos!! We often found ourselves saying to each other .... "can you believe what we are seeing".....so few humans have ev er had the privilege of seeing this remote and uncharted part of this atoll. The charts are vague with no details and state "uncharted" so everything is done by sight and watching the depth sounder!!!!

Eventually we decided that we would simply anchor and stay here overnight. We could not 

resist the urge to anchor off such beauty and in such remote isolation. 

(If you click on our "track us here tab" you can see where we anchored. We were somewhat 

protected and the wind was not too strong. So we took our time finding a good sandy spot 

with no coral heads, and dropped anchor. Dave and Adrian jumped in the water to check the 

anchor, and all looked good! Gaby, being the water baby that she is, was also immediately 

snorkeling around! We then put the dinghy in the water and headed for shore. 

Walking on an uninhabited island in the middle of nowhere was pretty cool! There were no 

other footprints, except ours. The hermit crabs came to check us out instead of scurrying 

away, and a curious eel type creature came to say hello and nearly gave me the fright of my 

life!! Dave and Adrian circumnavigated the motu on foot while the kids and I took a more 

relaxed approach! We can't even begin to describe the color of the water...It ranges from 

dark blue to different shades of turquoise to almost white. This is by far the clearest water

we have seen thus far.....Simply stunning!

After our excursion we had G&T sundowners on deck and watched the sunset. We could hear the

ocean breaking on the reef, and it was nice to know we were safely anchored inside the reef. 

After our fish dinner, the stars came out, and it was the most spectacular view of the stars

 and milky way we have ever seen with the boat being so stable and no ambient light from any 

other boats or a village. We thought what we saw when we were sailing across the Pacific was

 amazing, but last night we literally had an arch over us...stars from one horizon to the 

other. We had to throw in a bit of education and identified planets and constellations! :-)

Now it is morning and we are sipping our coffee and contemplating the days' activities. Bacon

 & egg are on the breakfast menu :) We will probably continue heading down the edge of the 

atoll for a while and then sail back to the other side to another remote anchorage for 

tonight. But then again, we may not.... :-) We are enjoying our new, less stressful, slower 

paced approach to cruising and allowing the day to unfold without to much structure ;)

All the best from Cool Runnings!!!!!!



Sent from Iridium Mail & Web.

Bonjour from Hiva Oa!

NOTE..edit by Dave....THIS IS AN OUT OF DATE ORDER POST THAT GUDS HAD DONE, BUT NEVER GOT POSTED9(suspect internet)..BUT IT HAD SOME GOOD INFORMATION, SO AM POSTING ON HER BEHALF....here goes:

...Wow...we have so much to update you all on!  We finally have (slow) internet access, so hopefully I can post a few decent quality pictures and bring you up to speed on our comings and goings!

Sadly, we had to leave the Bay of Virgins at Fatu Hiva yesterday, but we have been rewarded with a lovely stay at Hiva Oa, our next port of call!  But before I get ahead of myself...


Monday was probably one of the best days we've had so far...pretty much what I imagined a typical day in a cruiser's life to be! :)  We woke up with the silhouette of our friends "Cheeky Monkey" on the horizon.  They had just finished their crossing and were coming in to anchor after completing their crossing.  After "hello's" and a lay of the anchorage, they went off to do their thing, and Garrick and Adrian went into the village to buy more bacon!

While they were there, the kids' friends, Antoine and Paul paddled over to play.  The kids swam behind the boat and soon Garrick and Adrian came dinghying back and whipped up a lovely breakfast of bacon, eggs, sausage and fried bananas! Yum! After breakfast, Dave got in the water, Garrick and Adrian went back to town to take a ride over the mountains to the other village and I took up position on the bean bag on the bow with my book!  Soon one more "boat kid" came over (Lola, from another Lagoon anchored next to us).  She is also French, but her English was also pretty good.  So there we had 5 kids snorkeling, Dave cleaning the hulls and Guds just chilling.  The kids saw fish and a huge Manta Ray!  After a lunch break, the kids got back together again.  More fun on paddle boards, Garrick and Adrian returned from town, and everyone ended up in the water.  It was a lot of fun!

We had been told that it was Liam on "Cheeky Monkey"'s birthday and we had been invited over for a birthday celebration.  Everyone in the anchorage was invited, and in fact, almost everyone came!  There was a fantastic party on Cheeky Monkey and everyone got to meet everyone else!  We had a real United Nations with representatives from New Zealand, South Africa, USA, Germany, France and England!

Tuesday morning dawned with howling wind.  We had gusts of up to 30 knots in the anchorage, but we decided to stick with our plan and head on over to Hiva Oa.  We had to come here to officially check in, and couldn't put it off much longer.  It was very sad to leave our boat friends, Cheeky Monkey and Toomai, since we'd just reconnected, but we had to keep moving.  We will keep in touch with both of them, and have no doubt we'll meet up again.  The sail over to Hiva Oa, while only 45 miles, was not much fun.  The wind was strong, and there were big swells from the side, so it was a rough, rolly ride, but no problem to stick it out for 6 or so hours.  We arrived here at Hiva Oa at about 5:30pm last night.  We'd heard terrible stories about how bad the anchorage was, but we were pleasantly surprised.  I think it was because there were only 7 other boats, here, when usually there can be up to 20!  We were thrilled to see "Mary Ann II", the other boat we were in touch with via SSB during the crossing.  We were anchored and relaxed in no time at all!

We started our day off today with fresh baguettes and then headed into town for our clearing in and provisioning.  We had the most pleasant clearing in procedure we've ever experienced!  After the drama and formalities of Galapagos, this was incredibly laid back and friendly!  The Gendarmerie welcomed us with open arms, big smiles, and lots of stories about cannibals eating little girls (Gaby)!  We are now officially cleared in.  We also provisioned, and have a new supply of fruit, cheese, crackers, canned veggies and such.  It was very expensive, but we are in the middle of nowhere!!

We've also made it up to this wonderful hotel where we are sipping drinks in order to use their wifi signal!  This place is up on the hill overlooking the bay where our boat is anchored.  It is beautiful, and we are enjoying civilization again (even be it with very expensive beer and wine!!).  Tomorrow is Bastille Day (Dave is uploading a video of the celebration on his youtube channel...so search "David Hibberd youtube or Cool Runnings and you should find it) and there is a parade in town at 8:00am which we will definitely go and see.  Then we have planned a tour of the island - apparently there are some great archaeological sites on the other side of the island.  I will hopefully be able to report on that tomorrow!  For now, it's time to end off.  Our thanks again to everyone for all the comments and emails - they definitely keep us going!  Until next time, au revoir from Hiva Oa!

Hanamoenoa Bay and Rangiroa

For those of you following the blog, and Facebook, apologies in advance, as the posts are identical! I find Facebook is quicker with the upload of pictures, so when we do have some internet, I quickly upload some photos there, and then if I still have WiFi, I will come over to the blog to try and do an update. Today, in the interest of WiFi time, I am going to cut and paste my FB posts to the blog!  I was unable to upload multiple pictures to this blog...I tried, but I lost connection right before my 5th picture loaded, and I lost everything I had uploaded!! :(  So I'm going to try again with one or two, and get this post posted!!

Below in red is a quick link to the youtube video Dave took from his cell phone in "Bay of Virgins", from the top of our mast 70ft above the water. This was the 1st spot we anchored in after being at sea for 19 days!!!!!:
Bay of Virgins from top of mast!

Gaby enjoying the anchorage with Cool Runnings in the background

As I had mentioned in my previous post, we spent a blissful 2 days in Hanamoenoa Bay on the island of Tahuata in the Marquesas. This anchorage has the distinction of having a beautiful sandy beach, which is hard to find in this volcanic group of islands, as the islands tend to rise out of the sea with huge cliff faces. When we arrived, there was one other boat in the anchorage, but it left the next morning, and we had the anchorage and the beach all to ourselves! We left there on Sunday, July 17th, headed to the Tuamotus group of atolls. We sailed for 4 days and 4 nights, arriving in Rangiroa early in the morning, on Thursday, July 21st.

Our first approach and entrance into an atoll was a little nerve wracking, but our skilled captain got us in, no problem!! The Tuamotus archipelago had, for many years, been a place to avoid, with the rings of coral reefs being feared by many a cruiser! However, with better charts and GPS navigation these beautiful atolls are now visited by many, or most yachts on the way to Tahiti from the Marquesas. Having read about the dangers of the atolls, we chose one of the larger ones, with a deep, well defined entrance to be our first atoll experience. We still had to be aware of the rip tide (up to 8 knots!!) and eddies caused by incoming or outgoing tides and with the help of tide tables (thank you, Tracy for researching and sending us high and low tides for Rangiroa!!), we were able to time our entrance, and it was no problem getting into this atoll. 2 wrecks at the entrance were just a reminder of what can happen if you don't do this properly!

The pass entrance with a wreck to remind us to be careful!

Our own Polynesian beauty!

But we are now anchored in the second largest atoll in the world. It is stunning...the water is a turquoise that we had not yet seen up to this point. Yesterday we went snorkeling on the reef with some black tip sharks (who were not in the least bit interested in us), and saw tons of amazing, colorful fish. We plan to spend about a week here, just taking some time to relax and enjoy. The kids are doing schoolwork in the mornings, and the afternoons are for swimming, snorkeling and exploring. This is what a cruiser's life is all about!!

There are a few more pictures on my Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/gudrun.hibberd) if you would like to view them there. Dave is also trying to upload some videos to YouTube.  Just search david hibberd on You Tube.  Thanks also as always for all comments - we read them all and love hearing from everyone!!

The view from our boat

Bonjour from Tahuata!

We are anchored in the beautiful Hanamoenoa bay on the island of Tahuata here in the 

Marquesas Islands.  I wish the images we attach were not reduced to such poor quality, 

because we have so many gorgeous pictures we would love to share with you!   We had a very 

brief moment of internet access while in Atuona on Hiva Oa, and I had written a long post and

 was uploading a bunch of pictures, and before I could finish, I lost connection and was 

never able to post the update with the photos.  So back to Iridium satellite it is...

Since our last post we have left Fatu Hiva after a great reunion with our friends on 

Cheeky Monkey and a party with almost the entire anchorage on board their boat.  It was one

 of their crew member's birthday and everyone was invited.  There were people from all over

 the world on board that night:  South Africa, U.S., New Zealand, Germany, France and 

England!  Great fun was had by all!

Sadly we had to leave the next  morning, and we had a rather bumpy 7 hour sail over to 

Hiva Oa, where we had to check in.  We we thrilled to find that the normally crowded 

anchorage had only 8 boats in it, so we found a good spot and that was home for the next 

3 days.  We had a very pleasant check in process, with the friendly Gendarmerie (police) 

welcoming us to French Polynesia!  The town of Atuona was about a 45 minute walk from the 

harbour, but we never had to walk it once!!  The people are so friendly, we were always 

offered a lift!  The most we ever walked was maybe 10 minutes before some kind soul picked 

us up!

We arrived on Tuesday night, got all our provisioning, check in and refueling done on 

Wednesday, and then Thursday was Bastille day.  We went into town early on Thursday morning, 

and were treated to a parade through the town, with the procession ending in a big field, 

where there was traditional Polynesian dancing.  It was great to experience the festivities!  

Sadly we heard about the  attack in Nice during their Bastille day celebrations.

We then had arranged for a tour of the island, with the end destination being the Iipona

 archeological site near the village of Puamau, where there are huge stone tiki carvings 

perched on massive stone pedestals, which are estimated to be over 2,000 years old!  The 

ride there and back was breathtaking, with the road at times being somewhat questionable, 

with hairpin curves like we've never experienced before!  The whole outing was amazing, 

giving us a great overview of the island, and tiki were fantastic to see.

The kids also hit the jackpot, when we made friends with Stewart and Louise, and their 

2 daughters, Eleanor (10) and Hannah (8) on "Skylark".  The girls even had a sleepover on 

our boat the one night!   We also finally met up with John and Julie on "Mary Ann II", the 

boat we were in daily contact with via SSB during the crossing.  It was great to put faces

 with the voices and also to meet their  ship's dog, Murphy, a cavalier spaniel.  Gaby and 

Ben were thrilled to have a dog to pet again!

Yesterday, after a last, quick trip into town, we headed over to this anchorage.  It is 

simply stunning.  We are the only boat here...There was one other boat, but they left this

 morning (we may have scared them away!).  The water is crystal clear and turquoise, the 

bottom is sandy and there is a beautiful, big, Palm tree lined beach, (where we had 

sundowners last night).  This bay is known for its manta rays.  These gentle giants sweep 

through with their huge mouths open, vacuuming up the plankton.  We have not been 

disappointed...We've snorkeled with them a couple of times, and as I write this, the alarm 

was sounded again: "Manta!"  Everyone is scrambling to get their fins on!!  

We have downloaded the weather and it looks like a good weather window to head over to the 

Tuamotus atolls, about 580 miles from here, if we leave tomorrow morning at about 6:00am.     

We  expect a 4 day passage with good winds of 15-20 knots.  While we would love to 

spend more time exploring the Marquesas Islands, we do need to keep moving to get Garrick 

to Bora Bora, where he will hop a flight to Tahiti, since he flying out of there on August 

1st.  But we have no doubt that the next spot that awaits us will be as beautiful as the one

 before!

So for now, au revoir!

Sent from Iridium Mail & Web.

Life is good :)

Hi all...Dave here sipping a beer in the Spectacular Bay of Virgins in Marquesas Island. 

Apparently this is one of the top 3 most spectacular anchorages in the world. The attached

 pic I took this afternoon does not do it any justice!!!!  I also took a video on my phone

 which is pretty cool and does capture much more so will post when we get internet....Maybe 

in a few days.....

Yesterday when we arrived we anchored in record time, put the dinghy in the water and were 

ashore in no time. Everyone was a little off balance walking for the first few minutes.....

it was pretty amazing.

Nineteen days at sea almost to the hour....and finally we had arrived!!!! We wasted no time 

and walked through the beautiful tiny town being greeted by locals. The village consists of

 around 300 people and is lush and tropical beyond description!!!! The mountains rise up 

steeply from the sea and are covered in lush vegetation and Palm trees.....very    very  

beautiful!!!!

We ended up taking a walk to a most spectacular waterfall, together with some folks from 2 

other boats:  a German couple who have a 9 month old son and a 2 year old daughter...now 

that's hard core!!!  The other people were from the boat anchored behind us; the guy was a 

kiwi, his wife from Bulgaria and there was also a German girl (we think the au pair ?), 

and they have a little girl, about 4 or 5 years old.  That's the cool thing about this...

you meet many different people from all over the world!

The waterfall was incredible...probably about 200ft high, falling down a sheer cliff face.

  There is lovely cool pool at the bottom that we all swam in.  We've also come at a great 

time, since July is the month they celebrate Bastille day here in French Polynesia, and the 

villages are all practicing their dances.  Apparently they celebrate all month long.  We've

 had the luxury of watching them practice and as we sit here, we can here the drums from the

  village.

Today we were treated to lunch at a local lady's house.  She prepared chicken, goat 

(yes, goat), rice, Papaya salad and pampelmousse, and bananas- a traditional Marquesian meal.

  She sat with us and ate the meal with us and told us all about life in this tiny village on

 this tropical island in broken English...unfortunately our French is extremely limited!!!  

Pampelmousse is a local fruit that is like a big grapefruit, but a little sweeter.  

Yesterday one of the villagers gave us 2, so we had already had some for breakfast.  It was

 a great experience!!

Then, as we were walking back to the dock to take the dinghy back "home", we saw another 

boat anchoring...and the kids realized it was "Toomai", their French friends from Panama!!

So a happy reunion this afternoon as the kids reconnected.  Paul and Antoine came over to 

our boat and their mom dinghyed over this evening to pick them up! :-)

Tomorrow we expect the arrival of Cheeky Monkey - the  other boat we crossed the Pacific with

.  They left the Galapagos a few days after us and we've been in touch via email.  It will 

be nice to see them again. 

That's about it for now.  I'm off to enjoy the drums from the stern of the boat!

All the best,
Dave and the Cool Runnings crew!

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Another landfall pic....this place is spectacular

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LAND IN SIGHT AT 6am

We made it....almost ...6 miles out and attached pic of Ben & Gaby in PJ's :-)

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