The Marquesas are the youngest of the islands in French Polynesia. But they must be older than the Hawaiian Islands, since there are not active volcanoes. (I’ve never googled that, though, so don’t quote me on it.) The landscapes are stunning with high peaks and lots of tropical greenery.
OK, I have to dip a little into the guidebook for some of the following history, however, I’m somewhat shocked that my “Guide to Navigation and Tourism in French Polynesia” still refers to the “discovery” of the islands. As if they didn’t exist before Europeans visited. But I digress.
Anyway, the islands were really first discovered and settled by people believed to have migrated from Melanesia, sometime around 1-20 AD. The first Europeans to *cough* discover *cough* them were the Spanish. They went to Fatu Hiva and Tahuata, but first they were like, “what,” and then they were like, “huh,” and then they just got bored. So, they didn’t stay long. The Marquesans are famous for repeatedly repelling occupation by various French, British, and American explorers, militaries, and missionaries. It was only in 1838 that French Catholic priests were there to stay on the island of Tahuata. During all the contact with the Europeans, the Marquesan population was severely decimated, in fact, they came close to disappearing altogether. While we were there, I noticed a concerted effort that has been made in recent decades to preserve the Marquesan language and culture. One archaeological display in Taiohae (on the island of Nuku Hiva) said the Marquesan language was almost entire replaced by Tahitian at one point. Fortunately, they are not reviving the practice of cannibalism, but the art of tattooing the body is making a strong come back. Their dancing is concentrated on a yearly festival where there are competitions among the islands. I heard it said that the missionaries frowned on the erotic and suggestive nature of the dancing, but I don’t know if that ever really came close to dying out.
The Marquesans are quite religious, with Catholicism being the most obvious Christian sect on the islands, and that is here to stay, there is no chance of the ancient Marquesan religions making a comeback.
They are in an odd time zone, being 9.5 hours set back from UTC time. Their currency is the French Polynesian Franc, and we didn’t notice any signs of any poverty. They are highly subsidized by the French, but at the same time they are a proud people who are proud to be Marquesan, not French. So, this creates a sort of love/hate relationship.
I loved the Marquesas, and I’m saddened by the fact that we had so little time there.
After 22+ days at sea we arrived in the town of Atuona, on the island of Hiva Oa, about mid-day on Wed, 2 April. We spent longer there than we thought we would, about a week, decompressing, welcoming our buddy boats, and seeing the island. And oh, my, the baguettes. But when the week was up, we were way more than ready to leave.
Tim delivering baguettes to True Blue V when they arrived
Our first stop after Atuona was a short sail across a channel to the northern end of the island of Tahuata to a “secret anchorage.” It was secret because Craig and Leann got the tip (and a waypoint) from a friend, and it isn’t described in the guidebook. It was a bit rolly, but we set a stern anchor to keep us pointed into the swell. Unlike most of Hiva Oa, there was a beautiful, white sand beach, and the boys were all very excited to be able to swim again. When Tim and Steve (Lady Carolina) went ashore they met an extended Marquesan family, and one of the women was a retired teacher, and she spoke very good English. We ended up having a huge potluck with them on shore the next day.
Potluck on Tahuata
Our next stop was the northern side of Hiva Oa. We had great winds as we once again crossed the channel, but then the wind died and became gusty when we got in the shadow of Hiva Oa. Then, when we rounded the northwest corner, we got blasted with 20+ knots wind right on the nose. We were headed for Hanaiapa, which is about midway along the northern side of the island, but True Blue V was ahead of us, and they said the wind just keeps getting worse, so we all decided to abort and pull into Baie Hanamenu just around the northeast corner. This was a pleasant anchorage, but we stayed only one night, and I never even bothered to go ashore. Tim’s notes in in our logbook says “Fresh water spring with pool on shore. Beautiful and Cold!!” (Yes, occasionally he writes something, and he tends to use a lot of exclamation points.) The next morning, we left on the early side so we could motor the 6 miles east to Haniapa before the winds kicked up, and we skirted the uncharted coastal section hoping to catch a fish. No white sand beach here, like most of the Marquesas, and we stayed a couple days including a shore excursion to the village and a visit to the “yacht club” although there were no services at all in town. We had good holding in the anchorage, but the guidebook wasn’t lying when it said don’t proceed too far into the bay due to scattered coral heads.
With William at the Hanaiapa Yacht Club
On 15 April (happy Tax Day) we were planning to leave Hiva Oa for an overnight passage down to Fatu Hiva, but we felt a little restless in the morning, so we moved around to the next bay, Hanatekuua, for the day. It had a beautiful beach, but we never left the boat, just prepped for the overnight passage. We left just before sundown, a little later than our buddy boats, and we knew it would be an upwind slog until we rounded the NW corner of Hiva Oa and headed south, so we just motor sailed while hugging the coast rather than attempt to sail north and tack. We still tacked a couple times (I learned the next morning, because all that action was on Tim’s watch), but we made it around pretty painlessly. Once headed south to Fatu Hiva we were still on a close haul, but we were able to make it there on one tack, which is good. It was a lumpy bumpy passage, and I was worried Fatu Hiva wouldn’t live up to all the hype, but when we approached the anchorage called Bay of Virgins, I was in awe. Absolutely stunning. People think the photos look like Jurassic Park. See below for all of our adventures in Fatu Hiva, including the much-hyped waterfall hike, but for now just know that we stayed 5 days, but we could have stayed much, much longer.
Fatu Hiva Arrival
We made an early morning departure and had a nice day sail back down to the island of Tahuata, this time working our way up the west side. We started at Hapatoni, where we got hammered by a squall right as we were arriving to anchor. This is a two lobed bay, and since we were anchored in the northern lobe, we were technically in Baie Hanatefau not Hapatoni. We had a group shore excursion with Lady Carolina, True Blue V, and Chara, and we didn’t find the guidebook quite accurate when it said this village has the friendliest people in the Marquesas. Not that they were unfriendly or anything, but they certainly didn’t stand out. Paddle boarding around the two bays was nice, and I also had my first and only snorkel in the Marquesas here. And again, contrary to what the guidebook said, it was NOT good snorkeling. We certainly weren’t in the Sea of Cortez anymore. Visibility was horrible, and there weren’t that many fish.
The next morning, we left a day ahead of our buddy boats and motored up the west side of Tahuata and did a drive by of the village of Vaitah, which has a nice, big anchorage where there were lots of boats. It’s supposedly a nice village, but it just didn’t draw us in, so we kept going north up to Hanamoenoa. This was a phenomenal anchorage with a beautiful white sand beach. We had a nice afternoon playing on the beach and a nice evening on board with just our family. I would say this was the perfect anchorage, except for two things. We didn’t think the holding in the anchorage was that great since it took us a few back downs to get the anchor to dig in, and, oh yeah, Alex got stung by a jellyfish, so that put a bit of a damper on things.
Playing on the white sand beach at Hanamoenoa
On 24 April we said good-bye to the southern Marquesas and headed for Nuku Hiva. We made the difficult decision of skipping Ua Huka, and we were going to leave Ua Pou as a game time decision, depending on how many anchorages we decided to go to on Nuku Hiva. Our first stop was Controller Bay in the SE corner of the island. It is a very large, deep bay with several lobes and different anchoring options. We were the first of our group to arrive, and we chose the main lobe off the village of Taipivai. Herman Mellville fans will note that this is the setting of his book Typee (which I keep trying to read but keep putting down in favor of some other tasty morsel.) It is a HUGE bay, and there was only one other boat when we arrived. We explored the town, hiked to another waterfall, and caught up with our old friends from Sara M and True Companion. Then we motor sailed just a bit west to the main bay, Baie de Taiohae, which also happens to be the administrative capital of The Marquesas. We spent 5 days in the very crowded anchorage getting all of our chores done and getting our wifi fix on before motor sailing just a few more miles west to Daniel’s Bay.
The official name of the bay is Baie de Taioa, but it is called Daniel’s Bay after a Marquesan man called Daniel who used to live there and was very friendly to cruisers. The story we heard of why he doesn’t live there anymore is that the TV series Survivor paid him to relocate, and they tore his house down and used the area as the setting for “Survivor Marquesas.” We heard that at one of the seminars back in Mexico, and I have no idea if it’s true. There was a small settlement on the shore and what seemed to be a bit of construction, so maybe he’s moving back? The highlight of our stay here had to be “Wahoo! Tuna!” when Tim and Steve came back from dinghy fishing. (If you haven’t seen the video yet, check it out, it’s hilarious.) Daniel’s bay was nice and sheltered and was one of the least rolly anchorages we had been in. Not to be missed there was a fantastic hike to yet another beautiful waterfall. Our friend Alan from s/v Sara M went with us, and that was lucky since he had been before and knew the way. Although he did throw Joel in the water at one of the river crossings. Or maybe it was Joel who threw Alan in the water. Or maybe Alan was just trying to help Joel and they both went down. Anyway, no one was hurt, but they were both a little wet. The waterfall was amazing, and I say that even though I never even saw it. The fall was embedded back within a vertical crevasse, and there was a large pool at the base. All the guys jumped in the water and were able to swim under some boulders to get to the pool at the base of the crevasse, and therefore, the base of the waterfall. They had a lot of fun. I just sat along the edge of the outside pool with my feet in the water not letting the crayfish nibble at my toes.
Wahoo!
When we left Daniel’s bay, we were headed up around to the north side of the island over to the NW corner to Baie de Anaho. But once again we had an aborted passage trying to go upwind on the north side of an island because we got slammed with 20+ knots of wind. We had heard that this island was easier to navigate around than Hiva Oa. We heard that the wind funnels through the valleys and if you stay close to shore on the north side, you’ll get a nice beam reach on your starboard side. WRONG. When we realized we wouldn’t make it all the way to Anaho, we pushed forward another couple miles to Hakaheu, but Lady Carolina turned around and went to Haahopu, which was actually on the west side of the island. Hakaheu was a nice bay, and we were the only boat there. It’s not discussed much in the guidebook, and it’s listed on our charts as uncharted, but it was a great place to duck into. We had planned to stay just the one night and then press on to Anaho, but Tim went to shore and met a father and son who live there named Albert and Germain. The boys and I joined them ashore, and they showed us all around their property where they have many animals and fruit trees. They were very nice, and their English was only slightly better than our French, so communication was challenging, but we all were pretty motivated and just tried our best. We had a nice time and Brenden especially like the baby goat that followed him all around. They loaded us up with Pamplemousse and invited us for a meal with them the next afternoon. There’s no way we would miss that, so we would stay an extra day. Lady Carolina joined us the next day for the meal on shore and since Albert was doing the cooking, Tim and I showed them around the property. They had a ton of dogs and Albert explained that they are for hunting pigs, which got Steve’s attention, and he asked if he and Tim could go hunting with him. They made a plan to go the next morning, so we would stay yet another night. They all got up very early but came back with backpacks full of fresh fruit but no pig meat. No worries, our freezer was full anyway.
We were pushing our stay in the Marquesas a bit long, but we still had one more bay to visit, Anaho, which the author of one of the guidebooks I used said was his favorite spot in all of the Marquesas. I could immediately see why, it’s one of the loveliest anchorages we had been in, well worth the bash to get here. Unfortunately, it rained quite a bit while we were there, so we didn’t quite get to fully enjoy it. On the 6 or so mile trip to get here from Hakaehu Lady Carolina landed a huge wahoo. We were on the radio with them, and Steve was telling us to go ahead and pull in our lines since we are set for fish for a while and then… whrrrrr…. fish on. Tim also wrestled aboard a 5.5 ft wahoo. So, then we were REALLY set for fish. We traded some with some locals for bananas, traded some to another boat for some dorado, and gave some away to another boat we’d seen several times previously at other anchorage. We had a HUGE wahoo dinner on Lady Carolina and another HUGE one on Exodus. Tim, Steve, Carolina, and I went on a hike (sans kids) up over a ridge to the next bay where there is a town and we heard you can get baguettes there. It was a long hike, and I enjoyed it because it gave me that same feeling I get from running (getting the heart rate a little bit up and then just pushing along). We scored some baguettes, but they were frozen and since it was such a small town, we tempered our desire to buy 8 each and cut it down to 4 each.
A view of the anchorage at Anaho
Tim, Steve, Carolina, and I also hiked over to an organic farm and picked our own green beans, lettuce, radishes, and eggplant, and we also got some tomatoes and peppers that were already picked. The owners of the farm were very friendly and gave us fresh coconuts to drink the water out of. They also let us try some of the various melons they had. The part of the hike back that was along a trail just off the beach was amazing and I regret I didn’t have my camera with me. White sand, blue water contrasted with dramatic black volcanic boulders. No, it wasn’t a quick trip to the store for veggies, but it was a journey worth taking. While we were at the farm the boys all hiked up to the top of the ridge the other direction towards the town in the next bay to collect mangoes. Would you believe they came back with 96 nice green mangoes? Our plan was to give or trade them to people in The Tuamotus, since we had heard they have far less access to fresh fruit than they do in The Marquesas.
Sadly, on Sat, 10 May, we said good-bye to the Marquesas and headed south to The Tuamotus.
It is difficult to describe the feeling of Euphoria you get when you have finished setting your anchor after a 22-day ocean crossing. The boat is still and peaceful. There are no watches to stand. There are other people around. You feel relief. You feel a sense of accomplishment. You feel happy. The closest thing I can compare it to is finishing a long-distance race that had a particularly grueling last couple of miles, but you still managed to PR. Oh, and the race had to be in some exotic location, and you got to stay and explore afterwards. Surprisingly, we weren’t in a hurry to get off the boat. We were just happy to be there. We opened a bottle of 2000 Spanish red wine we had been hauling around for a while, and the boys got to drink sodas for their “safe arrival cocktails.” We made snacks and hung out in our cockpit all afternoon as others from the anchorage came by to say hi and welcome us. (No one brought us baguettes, though.)
Peacefully at anchor in Atuona, Hiva Oa
People say that you can smell the land as you get close. I tried, and I didn’t notice much of a difference, but as we were entering the anchorage Brenden, who has a much more acute sense of smell than I do said, “it smells sweet like pollen.”
1045 Oh crap! engines on, sails down – up to 40 kts, gusts to 47
1322 Arrive Hiva Oa, Atuona, The Marquesas, French Polynesia
Daily Notes
Brenden says, “It smells sweet, like pollen”
2000 Spanish wine
Land Ho!Squalls on the port sideSqualls on the sternSqualls aheadThe pink blobs are radar returns from the squallA gray and stormy day to make landfallRaising the Q flagEntering the harbor at AtuonaThe boys went out to adjust the length of the line on the stern anchor floatAnchors set and ready for the safe arrival cocktails…
Email to family and friends dated April 2, 2014
Subject: PPJ Day 23 – The End
Departure from Punta de Mita, Nayarit, Mexico: 11 March 12:12 (UTC – 6 hrs)
Arrival at Hiva Oa, Iles Marquesas, French Polynesia: 2 April 11:52 (UTC – 9.5 hrs)
Days at sea: 22 days 1 hr 10 min
We had a hell of an arrival, though. We had a lot of squall activity through the night. On my first watch I was faced with a parade of squalls and was trying to run parallel to them, but the last one in the line nailed us and I saw heavy rain and a max of about 28 kts, with full canvas. Not ideal, but not terrible. On my second watch I was faced with another parade of squalls, this one longer and with bigger pink blobs (on radar), so even though Tim had asked me to wake him at sunrise, I still had to wake him early because I didn’t want to get nailed again. I reefed the head sail alone, but needed Tim to reef the main, so I got him up, and we reefed, and… the squalls dissipated. Of course.
When we were close to the island, all the squalls on radar were behind us moving across our path, so we were clear and in the home stretch. I even turned the radar all the way off, not standby, off. When we reached the tip of the island the wind shifted suddenly and hard to the NE, which meant the squalls were now being blown right towards us. We got hit suddenly, and a little bit flat footed, with a doozy. We saw low 30s with full canvas before we put one reef in the main and 2 in the genoa. Then we got seriously nailed. Sustained 40 kts with gusts up to 47. (Sound familiar?) The second reef still wasn’t an option due to a fully chafed line, so we needed about a half a second to decide to just engine up and drop all sails. We were so close, we did NOT need this drama. Turning into the wind and dropping the main was a bit of a hobby horse ride, but we are a pretty well oiled machine at that maneuver by now, so it wasn’t too bad. However, we really weren’t prepared for that maneuver in terms of the mess all around the boat, and the boys were awesome at tending to the fishing pole that almost blew out, and the BBQ cover, and the dinghy painter that was trailing behind us (which would have been a disaster had it fouled an engine)
After that, of course, the wind subsided. A bit later, I take a seat at the salon table, glance at the electrical panel (which we all do by habit, now) and notice a bilge pump is running. What!!! A quick inspection reveals the head on the SB side (mine and Tim’s side) is full of water and it’s splashing out and into the bilge. Luckily, the bilge pump does its job and we are able to pump most of the water out of the bathroom through the shower drain pump. It didn’t take long to realize that the small portal in our shower was left open. Stupid, stupid, stupid. So, when we turned into the wind to reef, and then to drop the main, sea water just poured into there. We should really be pulling everything out of the bilge and drying it out now, but we’re not. That will come tomorrow.
Just minutes after anchoring and turning our engines off an alarm on shore went off. We poked our heads out, looked around, and no one was reacting. Colin had emailed us about the quake off of Chile yesterday, so we had Tsunami warning on our minds. So, I radioed our contact on shore that we are going to check in with tomorrow to inquire, and luckily, she told us it was just a test the do on Wednesdays.
We’ve met a few new people already even though we haven’t ventured off the boat yet. All are from Europe and have come via the Galapagos. Would you believe it that one guy told us that we had good timing, that the entire anchorage was evacuated yesterday for, yes, you guessed it, a TSUNAMI scare.
All that aside, we are in paradise now. And we are soaking it up. We arrived to a VERY crowded anchorage, in fact, we were the 12th one in here and everyone is stern anchored, so we all fit. All eyes were on us as we threaded the anchorage to the very back near shore and dropped stern and bow anchors. NAILED IT!
We will sleep well tonight.
—– At 4/2/2014 6:30 AM (utc) our position was 09°48.18’S 139°01.86’W
Logbook – April 1, 2014 (Punta de Mita to Hiva Oa)
Passage Log Highlights
1209 main + genoa
1706 D–>B main + genniker
2307 T–>D main + genoa
Min TWS 14 kts E
Max TWS 19.4 kts E
Daily Notes
Day 22
No photos
Email to family and friends dated April 1, 2014
Subject: Day 22
We’ve had steady SE trade winds for 2 days now, making our last days at sea quite a sleigh ride. We should make landfall by sunrise, and I told everyone I would be waking them up. You know how when you don’t like something but you know you are going to have to endure it for awhile you can do all sorts of subconscious mental gymnastics to not even acknowledge it. Like if you don’t actually think it it’s not actually bothering you? Well, I fell off the balance beam today, figuratively and somewhat literally. Today, for the first day, I absolutely could not tolerate any longer not being able to stand or move about or do pretty much anything without holding on!
It was a good school day, because you don’t usually have to hold on to sit down, but you do have to keep your core muscles engaged at all times. Brenden finished his second test lesson today, which means he’s 1/4 of the way done with 5th grade.
I made homemade mac and cheese today (with bread crumbs on top and everything) and it was a huge hit. Boxed mac and cheese is one of the few packaged food items I have not relented and used on board. Oh, that and boxed mashed potatoes. So, it had been over a year since we’ve had mac and cheese. It was a huge hit, but kind of a pain to make, since it didn’t follow my usual rule of dirtying only one dish (it used a pot and a casserole dish). The boys, who do the dishes, didn’t actually mind, though.
—–
At 4/2/2014 6:30 AM (utc) our position was 09°02.56’S 137°49.21’W
Logbook – March 31, 2014 (Punta de Mita to Hiva Oa)
Passage Log Highlights
0632 main + genniker
2319 main + genoa
Min TWS 10.1 kts E
Max TWS 14.2 kts E
Daily Notes
Day 21
B – test lesson 40
Awesome pork tenderloin dinner w/ coffee tequila night cap
Squalls
No photos
Email to family and friends dated March 31, 2014
Subject: PPJ Day 21 – Week 3
Nothing much to report other than we are under 2 days away and flying along at 8 kts right now. I’m up for my 11pm watch, and I barely slept a wink, mostly due to waves crashing into the hull jolting me wide awake. We had the most awesome pork tenderloin dinner, if I do say so myself. I don’t know if it really was the best tenderloin I’ve ever prepared or if it had just been so long we forgot how wonderful it was, but wow, did we enjoy it. So much so that it called for an after dinner drink, and we lifted our alcohol ban to enjoy small glasses of the coffee flavored tequila I bought when we went tequila tasting in Puerto Vallarta. We are dodging squalls tonight and getting a little bit of rain, so it’s nice for Exodus to get a bit of a shower before we arrive. Tomorrow we will tidy up and make final preps for a (hopefully) Wednesday arrival.
—–
At 4/1/2014 6:28 AM (utc) our position was 07°16.44’S 135°34.70’W
Logbook – March 30, 2014 (Punta de Mita to Hiva Oa)
Passage Log Highlights
1200 D–>T main + genoa
Min TWS 10.3 kts E
Max TWS 14.9 kts NE
Daily Notes
Day 20
No photos
Email to family and friends dated March 30, 2014
Subject: PPJ Day 20
Distance to waypoint = 356 nmi. We should arrive Wed afternoon or Thurs morning. I am looking forward to exploring the town. French bread and pastries… mmmmm
I did a tally of our engine usage, and it hasn’t been all that bad. We’ve run one engine on four occasions totaling 11 hours, 34 minutes. Our approach has been that we run one engine when both of the following two conditions occur: 1) Light winds, such that we would be traveling < 3.5 kts, mas o menos, over ground. 2) It’s time to charge the batteries and we would need to run the generator anyway. If you’ve got to burn fossil fuel, might as well burn the one that will also propel you forward.
Yesterday’s GRIB files showed that we should see 10-15 kts of wind the rest of the way, so if that holds up, we won’t need to run the engines anymore. Of course, right now it’s blowing about 8 kts. We had a strange wind shift in the afternoon to the ENE, that certainly wasn’t in the GRIBs, so you just really never know what you’re going to get.
—–
At 3/31/2014 12:31 PM (utc) our position was 06°03.73’S 134°03.15’W
Logbook – March 29, 2014 (Punta de Mita to Hiva Oa)
Passage Log Highlights
0510 SB engine on 1600 rpm
0752 SB engine off
0910 genniker only
Min TWS 4.7 kts E
Max TWS 11.2 kts E
Daily Notes
Day 19
No school – baked bread and cookies
Alex & D drop the main
No photos
Email from family and friends dated March 29, 2014
Subject: PPJ Day 19
We had decent wind yesterday and most of the night, but around 3am it died and never came back today. We ran the engine for a couple hours in the wee hours of the morning since we would have had to run the generator anyway to charge the batteries. But once the sun came up I could no longer justify it, so I shut it down. Then we were going a blistering 3 kts (half of that due to the current in our favor) so Alex and I dropped the main sail since it wasn’t helping and was only flogging. Yes, that’s right, Alex and I dropped the main without Tim. I know it’s been over a year already, but there are some (OK, most) sail changes that I just don’t do alone. I contemplated waking Tim up, but after I thought it through, I figured Alex and I could do it. And it really wasn’t one of my most stellar parenting moments. A little less yelling and a little more coaching would have gone over a lot better. I hadn’t already coached him on the new main halyard, which has A LOT more friction than the old one and twists and knots up much more easily. I’ve told Tim a few times that it concerns me if we ever need to get the main down quickly in deteriorating weather, but I digress. Anyway, Alex had a hard time paying out the halyard. And I was not mother of the year today. Perhaps a bit out of guilt, or laziness, or both, I let the boys talk me into no school today. To celebrate getting out of the counter-current… yeah, that’s it. So, we baked bread and chocolate chip cookies and pretty much did nothing else all day.
Just another day at sea.
P.S. Perhaps I should provide a little more detail. When we drop the main, usually I am on the halyard and Tim is on the hard bimini top guiding the sail down into the stackpack. So, today, Alex was me and I was Tim. Yes, I had my harness on, and yes I was clipped on, but while Alex was struggling to pay out the halyard I was getting knocked around by the boom and trying to pull the sail down. Fun times.
—–
At 3/30/2014 6:08 AM (utc) our position was 04°04.18’S 131°48.59’W
Logbook – March 28, 2014 (Punta de Mita to Hiva Oa)
Passage Log Highlights
0909 main + genoa
Min TWS 9.1 kts SE
Max TWS 13.4 kts SE
Daily Notes
Day 18
No photos
Email to family and friends dated March 28, 2014
Subject: PPJ Day 18
We made it out of the countercurrent finally once we got to about 2 deg, 45 min south. The sea state has settled down and we now have about 1 kt of current in our favor. We had good winds all day in the 8-12 kt range and we are now just pressing on a course directly to the Marquesas.
The boys have each started new reading books for school, and as usual, I read them too so I can be prepared to discuss things with them. Coincidentally, both of the books are survival stories about boys who have been left alone. Alex’s is set in medieval England, and Brenden’s is set in 18th century northern New England. The boys aren’t left alone because their parents have died or are negligent or anything. They are left alone because life is hard and times called for the boys to shoulder a bit of responsibility. And it made me start thinking about how sheltered kids are today. I’m glad that out here cruising the boys have a bit more independence and have a bit more responsibility than they ever did at home, but sometimes I’m not sure we go far enough. I guess I still need to work on taking off ALL of the bubble wrap. 🙂
All is well on board, we are about 5 days away if the winds cooperate (which they aren’t right now, though).
—–
At 3/29/2014 2:22 PM (utc) our position was 03°34.48’S 130°55.20’W
Gresham Family Exodus 