Day 23- Making Landfall in Hiva Oa Marquesas.

Day 23- Making Landfall in Hiva Oa Marquesas.

May 7, 2018. Sophia was first to spot land as Monica was busy working with the bread dough. ” Mama, I think I see land!” That statement was enough to keep our heart alight with hope and anticipation .

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.

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