23-April-2006 Position

6'59.4S/135'14.7W
23-Apr-2006 Noon

• 135nm made good last 24 hours
• 2860 Miles from Z-town
• 318 Miles to Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands
• SE 10-15knots wind, sunshine and no squalls 5ft swell
• Making 5 knots, motor sailed from 11pm to 7am

We are so close!!! It's going to be weird all of a sudden to see land. I can't wait. Everyday someone tells us on The Net how beautiful it is there. I want to see for myself!

We are hiring an agent to help with the check in procedure. This almost guarantees us our 90 day visa. We wouldn't want to screw that up. 90 days isn't really that long of a time when you consider French Polynesia covers such a huge area. The French control the Marquesas, Tuamotus, Austral, and Society Islands. The later is most popular and recognized because of Tahiti and Bora Bora. Just to give you an idea of how big it is, it is at least a 5 day sail just from the Marquesas to the Tuamotus.

Tom took a look at our GRIB files (emailed files showing us where the wind is and how much we can expect). They say it looks like it should be good all the way to Hiva Oa, our first port. We asked another boat today on The Net what time it was there, and it was only 8:30 am. We gained 4.5 hours since leaving Mexico, which makes sense because the sun wasn't setting until 9:00 pm. For some strange reason, the Marquesas is on some half-hour time zone.

One nice thing to come out of the squalls is that we haven't been taking watches. There is nothing you can do when it is raining sideways and winds are gusting. So we both go below. Well lucky for me Tom is relaxed enough now that he doesn't care. Even if it is nice out. So at night we eat dinner, climb into our bunks, and watch movies. Last night was the rest of 'Munich', and an episode of 'Deadwood', Tom's favorite. I also think the watches were starting to get to us. It is really nice to be able to sleep more than 3 hours at a time.

For any of you blog watchers in the Bay area, Tom and I are written up in the latest issue of Latitude 38. I believe it gives a brief description of all the 'Puddle Jumpers'. For everyone else, Latitude 38 is the free sailing magazine for the Bay area. They were the ones that sponsored the Baja Ha-Ha. They also have a web page you can follow. They sometimes fly to the South Pacific and host a party for all of us cruisers to reconnect. So stay tuned.

The ice cream is getting closer. I can almost taste it.

Love to all,
Amy