Land Ho!

Not much farther now.

Hiva Oa. We are here! Spent last night from around 0300 until 0700 hove to about ten miles off the island. The radar was acting up, so I didn’t want to get any closer until daylight. Once dawn showed, we heading the last ten or so miles into Atuona Bay where we are now anchored. There are about 14 boats in total here. This place “feels” a lot like an older Hanalei. Very rural, small town. Very nice people. We’ll stay here for three or so days and then move on to less traveled areas. Our next step will be a clockwise trip around this island and we’ll likely take somewhere around a week and stop at a few different places for hiking and playing. Customs was very simple thanks to the agent we had hired through Lattitude 38. Cost was somewhere in the $200 range, but given the Gendarme only spoke French and all the hoops you need to jump through in a French protectorate, it was worth it. “Sandra” was our agent and not only gets you through customs but is also your contact while in town. Just call on VHF Channel 11 and ask and she will do her best to help out. Ride to town, ride back, need to know how to get fresh vegetables (there’s not many, but she knows where to get them), etc, etc.

This evening, we had a delightful dinner with Mark and Ann on Blue Rodeo and Bill and Kat from Island Bound. We all got in this morning from La Cruz. Even though we didn’t see each other for the 2600 or so miles, we three converged at the same time. We had fresh Mahi caught by us and fresh Wahoo caught be Bill and Kat. Nice.

That’s it for today, I can see I’m rambling from need for sleep. We’re very tired after a long, long day and night yesterday. Time for some sleep now, then boat clean- up tomorrow. It’s wet inside from the long trip and we need to dry out, air out, clean, laundry (Sondra’s going to take care of that one) and do some repairs.