We are still in the beautiful little bay here in Tahuata – and
now there are 9 boats here. After a beautiful morning spent
paddling around in our kayak and snorkeling, we saw that a Coast
Guard boat had arrived and they were checking all the boats. It
turned out to be totally painless and easy for us. They came on
board, asked us when we arrived in the South Pacific ( yesterday
of course), asked to see our passports, asked us if we had
firearms on board, and how much liquor, and then told us
everything was ok, and we should just get our papers stamped
tomorrow or Monday at the police station in Hiva Oa. They
didn’t spend more than 5 minutes with us and were very
pleasant. Apparently they went on board some of the boats and
checked every cupboard and cabinet looking for drugs and/or
firearms. If they had done that on our boat they wouldn’t have
found much except cans of tuna fish and dried soup. There is
another boat here that has a family with a 5 year old, a 1 year
old, and the mom is pregnant and expecting in a few months. The
rest of us are absolutely amazed – the thought of doing this
type of sailing while being pregnant and taking care of an
infant is more than we can imagine. They seem to be doing fine
though – so I guess anything is possible.
We are really enjoying this bay – the water is beautiful – it is
calm – and best of all there are no no-no’s (no-see-ums). We had
read that people get eaten alive by them here, but we have not
been touched at all. We are becoming good friends with 3 other
boats – 2 Austrian, and one German. All are younger than us,
but age is not a factor here ( at least to us). One of them
loves Jerry Seinfeld as much as we do.
We heard such a funny story. Apparently there were quite a few
European boats in the Galapagos who decided that they did not
want to sail to the Marquesas ( where we are), because they did
not want to run into lots of Americans. They all decided to
sail down to the Gambiers, which is several hundred miles south
of here. Apparently there was absolutely no wind for people
going that direction, and there is no place to buy fuel in the
Gambiers, so all the boats who went south to escape the
Americans, had a terrible, slow, uncomfortable sail – not enough
wind to sail, but they couldn’t afford to use up the fuel they
had to run their engines because then they would be stuck in the
Gambiers without fuel. Some people who left the Galapagos when
we did are still en route to the Gambiers, making about 22 nm
per day ( as opposed to the 150 to 180 that we made). What is so
funny is that there are hardly any Americans at all here in the
Marquesas – and those Americans who are here ( like the Pitts)
are exceptionally nice. So there is a lesson there – never
change your travel plans to avoid the Americans. You will get
screwed. Ha!
L