As soon as Jeff set his hefty anchor weighing over 100 lbs with a snubber, the kayaks were unleashed and floated along the boat. The girls immediately paddled over to sv Banyan for a chance play on the water before the sunset.

I was really curious about the island so I paddled onto shore. It looked like the locals had just finished a soccer game. It was a bit of a surprise to find a very nice official size soccer field on Fatu Hiva. Since I was eager to procure some fruits, I was on a look out for friendly locals who were willing to engage. Soon, I met a group of young guys who finished playing soccer. One of them spoke pretty good English and asked where I was from. Understandably they were curious of my ethnic origin. The guys seemed unsatified when I told them I had come from Washington State from US. So then, I quickly announced that I am Korean. They quickly exclaimed with satisfaction and started to spout off everything they know about South Korea. Our exchange involved the recent winter Olympic there and how one of the guys is a professional boxer and is Olympic level. With stunted English, very broken French and sign language, I somehow understood that they recently caught a pig and that I should come to a feast tomorrow afternoon. This may have been a gross misunderstanding on my part but there was no get together that involved myself nor my family.

The next day, we decided to head to shore for mass. Once we were able to pull our towing dinghy off of the slippery cement ramp, a woman who approached us to exchange things we have on board for fruits. We were surprised to find such forwardness as soon as we got on shore. Another woman mentioned a tableau, which we understood as a cooked meal for a price.

After mass we showed up to the house where the meal was being prepared. As I was examining how the hostess was frying breadfruit chips, I was asked to look after the last few chips while our hostess moved into other dishes she had to finish.

For lunch, we had barbecued pork, chicken, and beef, bread fruit chips, something that resembles poi, poisson cru, and rice. It was a lot of food. We had heard about polynsian portions being large and indeed it was. We were stuffed.

Sv Banyan and we wanted to check out the famed waterfall. But getting there was a harrowing journey. Along the way we got directions from a French cruiser who mixed a bit too much French with his sprinkling of English and we quickly got confused by his directions. At the end we made it to the waterfall and had a refreshing swim at the bottom of the fall.

As we hiked throughout Marquesas, we foraged constantly for mangos.

One of the first stops we made was on a hill with several mango trees. On the ground were several freshly dropped ripe mangoes. John, our tour guide, picked up several nice mangoes, expertly sliced them with his machete and handed us the sweet morsels to try. Soon after, we searched and picked up several good mangoes on the ground.

We stopped at many beautiful vistas and Tiki sites.

We inquired John about where we an buy some pomplemousse, the famed fruit of the Pacific. First he gave us samplings that he brought from his home and told us hat we can stop by a farm where many fruits can be bought.

After we got off the truck, we started walking on a path following John. He stopped by a tree near the entrance and handed us star fruits to try. By this time we were all totally entranced by the fruits of this island.

We stopped by a postcard picture perfect beach. The waves of Puamu bay was breaking on to the black volcanic rock beach while the coconut trees swayed in the foreground. John started unloading table settings and pots and bowls of food. The lunch menu consisted of chicken with green peas over rice, poisson Cru, bananas and water. All were very delicious especially in such idyllic setting. Poisson Cru is raw fish marinated in lime juice, coconut milk with cucumbers.

Despite the rain, the island was beautiful with its lush green shrubs, trees with fragrant bright flowers. The girls quickly resumed their foraging and picking up oddities on the ground. I was happy to see that oddities were mostly tropical flowers.

We entered the church after peeling off our wet rain coats and wiping our muddy feet. As anticipated, the mass started off with its wonderful Polynesian vocals sung in rounds: first by a female singer, men in chorus, and finally the women’s chorus.

I decided to record the singing on my phone. The mass was conducted mainly in Marquesan with the final notice announcements in French. We didn’t not comprehend either but since the Catholic mass is universal, we knew the order of mass.

The green blob in the distant seemed so far away. Was it really land? Yes, our navigational chart confirmed it.

We were greeted by Jean Rene on sv Baloo, another family boat we met in La Cruz, Mexico. It was so nice of him to give us a quick lay of the anchorage. “Don’t anchor too close to the break water since the big supply ship will be coming in soon and will require you to move. Inside the breakwater is cleaner but is quite crowded with perhaps a spot or two available.” We opted to stay out of the breakwater and drop our anchor close to our friends, sv Banyan and sv Baloo. It was rolly as an anchorage as we had heard but this was nothing compared to the rocking we endured during the crossing.

Typically we don’t move very fast to get our dinghy in the water on the day of arrival but this time was different. Having not set foot on land for 23 days meant we desperately wanted to land our feet on something that didn’t sway back and forth. We got our smaller dinghy, Fatty Knees, and we paddled ashore. There we were congratulated by our fellow boat friends, who had arrived a day to two days earlier. We didn’t make it very far from the dinghy dock. The girls from sv Banyan ran off to look at roaming chickens, the guys went off to check out boatyard, and the women sat by the dinghy dock recounting our high and low moments during our passage.

We knew we would be approaching the equator when we got up today. Many have made momentous events out of this crossing. Most have kept the tradition of toasting to King Neptune for safe passage. We also decided to make it a celebratory event but with food. Although it was festive, Monica spent most of her waking hours preparing a Key Lime Pie, ginger ale, and a nice dinner. Since we were in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, our motion on the boat determined our pie design. The oven was gimballed to keep the oven upright at most angles of our heel but the pie came out with a definite slope on its surface.

In order to capture the moment, we took lots of posed pictures. The order was to don our swimsuits so that we looked somewhat coordinated not in our varying degrees of wearing as little fabric as possible to keep cool.

After lots of pictures, we gave the girls the gifts they picked out for each other to gift at our Equator Crossing. They picked out Legos and Playmobil. The new toys broke up their daily monotony.

Dark looming clouds are coming our direction from the East as we point 330°T. Jeff was able to set up a nifty function (MARPA) on our radar to detect movement detected by our radar. It’s all good to have technology but it’s a bit daunting to look at the computer screen to see that you are surrounded by all kinds of movement (weather) that is headed right for you. It’s as if we were an innocent gazelle that happily pranced into a den of hungry lion, lioness and their cubs. All of sudden an innocent naive steel sailboat shows up and the clouds can’t wait to wreak havoc on it for some long overdue entertainment. It was dramatic in our minds as we sailed into the epicenter of where the storm clouds we’re closing in. We have heard of squalls causing 40-60 knot winds with torrential down pour, and lightening accompanied by clamorous thunder. Soon we were surrounded by squalls and no way out.

W

hat did we get in reality? We got a lot of heavy rain which our girls were so happy to be dancing in. Sophia and Anna had several bowls and jars out to catch the rain so they can play with it. We should have been more practical and devised a raincatchment system. The winds were stronger but manageable. The high winds often were too strong for our windvane so that meant handsteering to get us back on course. Perhaps our luck during this passage brought us only mild squalls but nothing broke and spirits were high and feeling refreshed.

Another day I left my shift feeling thankful.

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UTC 0013 Apr 13 2018

Latitude20°18.113N Longitude 105°59.544W Windspeed 5 kts Boat speed 4.5 kts Course 220deg M

Crew on Board: Jeff, Monica, Anna, and Sophia Crew Condition: All in good spirits. Anna is a bit seasick and Sophia is bored.

We pulled up our anchor in Punta De Mita at 9:30 local time on April 12, 2018. As Jeff finished putting the anchor away, I drove over to our friends’ boats, sv Banyan and sv Free Spirit, to say goodbye. Preparing for nearly three years and probably a lot longer in Jeff’s mind, we are setting sail to French Polynesia. Good bye Mexico. We look forward to visiting you again.

The winds were light for most of the day. We raised our sails once we cleared the Marietas Islands. Averaging 4 kts most of the day I wondered if this speed would delay our arrival in Nuku Hiva, Marquesas. Most people arrive within 3 weeks though I have met people who took 45 days to get there. I know it’s not a race but I always had affinity for speed.
When we were stashing away our huge bundles of junk food, Jeff and I promised the girls that we will have plenty of opportunity to indulge once we were under way. Of course without much delay, the girls asked as soon as the anchor was up when we are going to start opening in the chips and cookies. My mind was so preoccupied with our crates full of ripening produce that I told them we’d have to make sure we eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. Then Sophia remarks, “I am afraid that by the time we eat all the fruits and vegetables the junk food will have gone bad.” Then Jeff chimes in and says, “Yeah, I have this fear that there are lots of little holes in these bags and they will become all moldy. ” In order to calm these fears we had to commence our junk food eating.

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In the midst of our chaos, one of the other boaters prompted me about getting our boat blessed. Immediately I thought it was a great idea and prompted her to ask the local priest to get our boat blessed in the marina. Having had our boat blessed back home by our parish priest, I knew what to expect but I was a bit nervous about how it would work in Mexico. Our friends boat went first.

Why get our boat blessed? As we prepare limitless safety measures like having emergency locator beacons on board, a float plan as who to contact in an emergency, and buying an insurance plan to evacuate us in case of grave health concerns, we often forget enlisting the protection and guidance from God. What are we expecting when we get a blessing? Our hearts and minds are combined in asking God for His mercy and grace to be with us so that we complete our journey safely. Over the centuries, many Mariners sought blessings from their priests before departing on a journey.

After the blessing we sat around to get to know the priest a bit better.

Father Alfonso from La Cruz church.