Pacific Passage Day 17

Hello Everyone,

Just wanted to give a quick update. We are all good on board and are cruising along at a pace of 7-8 knots. We are on course with the marquesas and are heading directly there... taking into account the current. We are hoping to be able to say "LAND HO" on Thursday 4/19 in the am... we are all so excited and are making plans on how to start enjoying being on land again... The town is a little village that is an hours walk down this path... you go straight and then either turn left to town, right takes you to the airport... or straight takes you to a ranch/farm that sells fresh fruit... decisions, decisions, decisions...

We are currently at 5.52S and 136.23N. We were having some issues with our generator, but we feel that we may have fixed that so we are crossing our fingers that it stays that way... otherwise it may delay our departure from the first bay we arrive in for a little while. There are so many beautiful places to go see that we are anxious to get checked in, provisioned, fueled up and off to some remote pristine, white sand, turquoise water beach. I am hoping that before we venture off we will be able to go on a horseback ride up mountains, swim in a fresh waterfall, hire a guide to take us their famous archeological site... etc.. Whoopee! Again, did I say that we are all excited to see land.

Today has been a fairly nice day... the seas had calmed down for most of the day which made it a very comfortable fast ride. We are still sporting a double reefed main and jib, but it doesn't seem to matter with the wind that we have... we keep having to slow the boat down... it just gets to uncomfortable. I was actually able to do my first load of laundry today... It was actually quite easy and I did it in the kitchen where I could boil the water and pour it into my fancy little washing machine... Loving fresh smelling clothes... now if I could only get them dry. It seems more of a challenge than I was anticipating... I thought I could hang them under the bimini.. with the wind at 20MPH they should air dry in now time... right? UGH>>.. not so much... 2 hours later still damp because of all the moisture in the air... Maybe if we don't hit any squalls tonight they may dry tomorrow.. Anyway it gave me something to do.

The kids and I were talking about how week we feel. Since all we have been doing is sitting or lying down for the last 2 1/2 weeks it is funny how slothish you feel... We are looking forward to going for a walk that is longer than 10 steps in either direction. Everyone is in good spirits with anticipation for getting there. We are a little barn sour and may be cruising a little faster than what is typically comfortable for us... but for now is say, Giddy Up Little Doggy!

Hugs and love to everyone,

Heath

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