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4/24/2006 8:00:00 AM
Hiva Oa, Atunona
The main anchorage on Hiva, the place to check into the Southern Marquesan Islands

Part 1 of 3 - Lawur's Retrospective on the Puddle

Part 1 of 3 - The first installment of our look back at the Puddle Jump ... today Robert has the floor.

Exactly a week has passed since we got to the Marquesas, we have sailed from our first island to make landfall, Fatu Hiva, to Hiva Oa, and we are officially checked into French Polynesia and we have finally gotten a few nights of good sleep (not every night though but more on that in a future report) and it is time to look back at our 21 day journey from Mexico to the Marquesas Islands.

After we finished writing the whole retrospective, it turns out it has gotten a bit too long, so now after a break of a week from Lawur, here is the first of three new daily installment of Lawur's retrospective and it starts with my thoughts, the kids will follow tomorrow and in closing Niki gets the last word sprinkled in with some stats every day.

ROBERT - "I THOUGHT ... " After planning this trip for over 3 years, I wanted to reflect back on my expectations and what I prepared myself for and see where I was on and where I was off target, so here we go: - I thought the trip would be a safe one and it was. - I thought the trip would be long and so it seemed despite the fact that we went faster then I ever hoped to go ... might that be because we had friends around all the time nudging us along, which I didn't expect, or might it be the boat but foremost it was the lucky weather window we got by whatever god was looking out for us. - I thought it would be windy at times and the wind was better and more abundant than we could have ever hoped for. - I thought it would be calm and following seas and was I wrong ... not sure if it is expectations, how hardy we are or just the cards we were dealt, but the swell was very rolly at times and only truly calm for 2 days or so ... the so much talked about 'following seas' I don't think we had for more than 2 or 3 days. - I thought Lawur would sail faster than a Catalina but Bruce was a better sailor than me ... congrats to an amazing trip Bruce ... one day I will take you along on Lawur and you will show me how to make her go as fast as your Ohana Kai ... well as my Dad said maybe I ski faster than him ... LOL - I thought I would be physically extremely tired but I got used to the shifts better than expected. - I thought the kids would go stir crazy after 2 days but they were great beyond belief ... they played a lot, they played with each other and they were plain amazing. - I thought Niki would totally get into it and she did ... wow I cannot even start to say how impressed I was with how balanced and relaxed Niki was most of the time ... I would like to think I can take some credit for that with good planning and captaining but in the end, it was Niki's ability to adapt to any situation. - I thought I would be able to relax and truly enjoy the trip as I do when doing day trips but I did NOT ... this needs some explanation but what it comes down to at the end was that for a good part of the trip I was thinking and analyzing our options may it be sails, course or boat setup for 24 hours and 21 days ... I got really mentally tired, not being able to turn off ever and that stopped me from truly relaxing. - I thought I am a passage maker but I am not ... in this case the saying 'the path is the journey and not the destination' is as untrue for me as it can be ... I guess I won't start delivering boats for a living ... LOL - I thought the Marquesas would be gorgeous and they are ... this is the most beautiful place I have ever been to ... the vegetation is lush and green, the landscape is rugged with black lava rock overgrown by greenery and palm trees, the cliffs come out of the water almost vertical which makes a spectacular sight and great mountain ranges, the water around the islands is turquoise ... the kind you see in dark bottom pools in brochures but nothing I have ever seen in nature. - I thought I really did this trip beside being with the family for seeing the South Pacific and it has been all worth the 21 days of hard work to get here ... last but not least ... - I thought the ocean is blue and it truly is ... :-)

SOME INTERESTING AND SOME LESS SERIOUS STATS Let me close this with some stats, some more interesting than others, some more serious than others, hopefully one interesting one for each one of you who came along this journey.

MILES - The distance along the route from Zihuatanejo to Fatu Hiva (rather then Hiva Oa) was 2948 miles. HOURS - It took us 20 days and 7 hours which results in an average speed of 6.1 knots over course. GARBAGE - We filled five 8 gallon bags with garbage ... doesn't that sounds amazing when you compare that with the amount of garbage we produce in our regular lives - granted kitchen scraps went overboard just like compost...

Thanks for all your emails and in case you are expecting some pictures to follow soon on our email or a call on Skype, I am sorry to report that Hiva Oa has 1 public computer connected to the internet and no wireless so this will have to wait a bit longer.

Tomorrow, you will see what the kids had to say and how they experienced the 20 and a bit day trip across 3000 miles of blue water ... actually, I am thinking any book ever to come out of this trip has to be called "Is the ocean blue? A family on the search of the true color of the ocean." ... Thoughts!?

Happy voyaging,

Robert and Co

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