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Is the vessel US registered? US boat insurance is totally messed up right now due to recent hurricanes supposedly. Liability only is not really profitable and policies are now very expensive if...

I actually really like Belfast, spent 2 weeks there for work. A few days might be enough for tourism. Some really great pubs, the best ones appear to be partisan, but keeping the conversation on...

Run the brush in a pattern, first across the grain in overlapping strokes, then with it. This helps get an even coat without gaps. Don't sweat it too much, you'll get them with the next coat anyway.

After some 7000 miles this year on a (rather small for her size) 38 footer, I'm looking lustfully at the 54' next to me. I bet they have a shower in there. And room for crew so they aren't sleep...

I have the raymarine quantum and love it. Not truly stand alone in my setup, but maybe they have an option for that.

The modern radars that are solid state are great. Very much lower power draw,...

We've been in the remote parts of french polynesia. Just arrived in moorea, which is much more developed. I'm wandering around looking for a salad right now!

So excited.

Probably not your intention, but after living largely on canned and dried goods for a couple months, that looks so fantastically good. It has lettuce! Tomato!

I would pay $20 for that monstrosity...

I run my nature's head all the time. Power draw is nothing, less than a tenth of an amp. You don't have solar or shore power of any kind? A $30 solar panel will cover the load and keep your batteries...

We carry one 20 lb tank, and it lasts us 2-3 months. We tried to buy a second smaller tank to use with the BBQ and as backup, but prices for a good aluminum tank in Mexico were too high.

A...

Early the next morning we were awakened by the sound of 4" chain dumping down into our cockpit. The Aranui was docking, they dropped an anchor and were using it to turn them parallel to the dock....

We popped up to the next bay, which has a rare white sand beach. There is not much coral in the Marquesas, no barrier reefs, just plunging cliffs of black lava underwater. But a few places have...

The next morning we were woken by the sound of dolphins that live in this bay. They are spinners, and did some interesting acrobatics as they wove around the boats. This is our friends Wild Rye, out...

We didn't beat the sunset, anchoring in the dark near a couple of our friends. It rained in the night, and in the morning the cliffs surrounding the anchorage had waterfalls everywhere.
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The next two days were absolutely flat calm. But we headed out for the crossing to Tahuata anyway, hoping the forecast wind would fill it. It never really did.
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Continuing our walk through the village we were waved over by this guy, wood carving in his shed.

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They were carving...

Thanks everyone. Yeah pompelmousse are like massive grapefruit that are a bit sweeter and make a full meal for two.

From Hanavave we went a few miles down the coast to the other village on Fatu...

A nice offer of a nice boat! Did you put it upstairs? Down here it's mostly people who had a boat once but got rid of it so they could spend more time inside debating politics on the internet.
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This is the main hiway on Fatu Hiva. This island is the only one without air service, so is the most off the grid and unspoiled. It is the only place they still make the tapa cloth, and has a very...

During our wanderings we ended up going down a dead-end street in the village, and while trying to sort that out we were invited up onto another front porch where some women were making crafts. They...

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A proper tiki gaurds the boat basin.
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We...

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We were very excited to reach Fatu Hiva. It...

Wild goats are everywhere, and their combined efforts with the pigs as well as wild horses and cows (!) have been quite destructive to the landscape. They would be extremely easy to shoot, and the...

Everywere in the Marquesas, the villages feel like manicured gardens. The people have gardening in their blood. But this village more than any of the others was just amazing. There were only a few...

The next day we started to get in close to Hiva Oa.

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We anchored up in the first bay we came to, Hanamenu. We bouyed...

To be fair to those partners who aren't really up for sailing a small boat halfway around the world, it is actually quite difficult much of the time. We do laundry in the same bucket we shower out...

The best anchor to haul by hand, meaning most holding power for weight, is an aluminum fortress. I think lewmar makes a version too. They are essentially danforths made in high strength aluminum....

For a larger cruising boat I would want the ability to anchor in 80 ft with 4.5:1 scope at least. So total rode length of 360 ft. There are a number of deep anchorages in the pnw, Port Townsend and...

A light bead of your favorite tube caulk in the lap of a softwood lapstrake boat will go a long way to eliminating the issue of leaking when launched. As will proper storage between uses. It will...

Sad indeed. Pat sent me a lovely letter with the plans set for Begaduce that I purchased from her. I have spent many, many hours perusing her website of the Atkin plan catalog, and it has had a...

Yes the wood and stone carving here is amazing. Here is another view, you can see a stone tiki in the background. These tiki are everywhere, all different.
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They Typee were a populous group, and many old home sites are found in the valley.

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It is a very dense and lush...

We walked over the ridge to a little farm. It is kind of a you-pick type place, little veggie plots carved into the jungle. 2 men run it via horse and person power, it is completely off grid. We...

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Sunset from Hakaehu Bay

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The next day we continued along the coast. What an amazing, dramatic, green place.
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The bay is two lobes, and when a rally of giant outremer cats left (just don't ever sail together in a rally, please....) we moved over to the other lobe of the bay. Just as beautiful and completely...

Do you own a short piece of rope and a little stake? You have all the infrastructure required to own a horse! The horses are used for transport, 4x4 vehicles are becoming common but are a recent...

After a week or so, we decided to do a loop of the island and check out a few more bays.

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Due to covid related policy changes, boats are now obliged to land at Nuku Hiva at the far leeward end of the group. I'm not sure what the resoning was for this, but it is the absolute opposite of...

That's a great story. The swiftsure can be a very tough race.

Teslas run via your phone?! WTF???

Thanks everyone! In all it was a very good passage with as good of conditions as one could hope for. I put some of the stats on the predictwind page when we made land, but to keep it all together:
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I practiced my navigation, cheating somewhat with an app that does the table look-ups and math, as I haven't found a copy of the almanacs to keep on board yet. I generally got sights that placed us...

We caught rainwater out of the bunt of the mainsail to do laundry with.

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Conditions were pretty good mostly. The rickety craft project on the boomkin did a really good job of steering, I was truly impressed with it.
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The recaulking was the proper way to handle the repair and it stopped most of the leaks, thank god. We were very much in the shipping lanes for ships transiting from Panama to West Coast ports, and...

Alright, lets loop back and try to cover some of the passage. Still working with pretty bad internet, but will make do.

The checkout via the Capitania in Mazatlan took an entire day, so we were...

We listened to Melvilles Typee on night watches, it's cool to look at the same ridges that he was looking at when plotting his escape.

I'm glad some people found the tracker interesting, it was...

We made it! 24 days and change. It was a great passage, though we were pretty wiped out by the end.


We are in Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas. It's beautiful here. So green and lush after all the...

Thank you everyone!

Well we are way behind schedule as always, but if the authorities are willing we will check out of Mexico tomorrow and set off for French Polynesia. The leg is about 2800nm,...

I used an eye splice in the end of each cross member and seized that eye to the perimeter line with seine twine. Easier to do all the splicing with 3 strand but maybe an idea there.
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