Day 19 -- There Should Be Land Out There

We have just completed Day 19 and are now 70 miles from Nuku Hiva. I expect that we will be anchored in the morning, check into the country and then sleep. We should be seeing the first sights of land but there are a lot of clouds out in front of us so we have not yet been able to see the islands. That said, we will begin picking up land on our radar in the next hour or two which is very exciting. By the end of this trip we will have traveled nearly 3,000 miles. We have been through calms and squalls, sunny and cloudy days and big and small swell. Out of all those, I can't say we will miss the swell. When it is short period big swell and particularly when it is coming on our beam it can be a very uncomfortable ride. However, when it is long period and from behind it makes for a great, fast, fun trip.

Interestingly, we will be arriving into Nuku Hiva on the same day as another 3 or 4 other boats (in addition to one that arrived there today) and all of which left La Cruz Mexico on the same day. I expect we will spend some time celebrating with them. Then the clean up and boat repairs/maintenance will begin. As they say, cruising is all about doing boat maintenance in exotic locals.

We are also looking forward to getting on land. That will actually be quite weird. Nearly 20 days living on a boat at sea will surely make walking on land an adjustment. Will we get land sick and is there any medication for that?

Also, after 20 days it is interesting to note that until today we have not had any of that "Are we there yet Dad?" questions. Other than the last few days of swell (and a mainsail that needs repairing) its been a very cool and memorable experience. Ironically, there has been very little down time. Originally, I would have thought we all would have gotten bored, but quite the opposite. We've been very busy on board tending to boat life living and the kids have kept busy with home schooling and the odd projects. I've only read one book (Tales of the South Pacific by James Michener)and even Danielle has ONLY read two Harry Potter novels. And, we have only had three game nights. We also have a 1000 piece puzzle that needs to be done, but I guess we can save that for another passage. We still have many more passages (fortunately none more that six or seven days) as we island hop our way approximately 4,500 miles MORE to Australia.

More stats on the trip (including Barb's synopsis of what is left in the food department) in the next day or so.

Michael (70 miles from Nuku Hiva, French Polynesia)
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At 4/29/2011 08:28 (utc) our position was 08°40.98'S 139°29.32'W