< Back to Overview << Prev | Next >>

4/18/2006 2:10:00 AM
130 miles to Fatu Hiva
On a sraight line to Fatu Hiva

Day 20 of 25 - Less then a day to go

DAY 20 of 25 - Less then a day to go with all our attention on getting there.

OK ... I am not making this up but quite a few people wrote us saying our logbook emails are their first email of the day before all the exciting office news and updates and all the real important info ... well friends and virtual passengers, beside the fact that this statement strokes our egos quite a bit but you better get a new source because most likely tomorrow will be our last edition  ... we are less then a day away from landfall.

SAILING UPDATE I have one point of correction to make to our report from yesterday ... the biggest difference between sailing in the SE trades at 9 degrees latitude and going to the Farallon islands from SF is probably the temperature of both the air and the sea ... I probably wouldn't quite enjoy the experience of horizontal rain as much if it weren't for standing around in shorts with sea temperature at 77 deg and the air at 86 ... ;-)

As to be expected with all the winds, we broke another record yesterday with 165 miles per day ... not quite the 180 miles of Ohana Kai yet but not shabby for us people from a land lock country. Talking about Ohana Kai, they are about an hour away from making landfall ... a truly impressive run they had and they will clock into the Marquesas after a little bit more then 19 days.

So what is the one island you all know by now ... Hiva Oa ... since I probably mentioned it in every other email. So here is another one ... Fatu Hiva. Fatu Hiva is the most southerly island in the Marquesas Islands and with the predominant winds from the E or the SE, it makes more sense to go to Fatu Hiva first and then work our way to the NW, Hiva Oa being second. Fatu Hiva is supposed to be one of the most pristine and beautiful of all islands without an airstrip to keep tourism down but you cannot check into the country their, which will limit our stay there to 4 days. We so much are looking forward to decompressing a little bit so this place in paradise just suites us fine.

BOAT UPDATE Not much new to report, fortunately, except that with the limited download time and the problems connecting to email lately our flow of personal replies and responses has been cut to ZERO ... yes I put a computer ban on Niki because if you think I write a lot, you should see Niki ... WOW. Anyhow, please be patient and we will get back to you personally but it might be a few more days or so ... nevertheless, please keep the replies to our letters coming.

FISHING UPDATE What shall I say ... let me say it in French ... "rien" ... nothing

FOOD PLAN OF THE DAY Breakfast - Oatmeal Lunch - Soup Dinner - Mushroom Pasta

Someone asked what we eat in-between. As to be expected with Niki, we have a full assortment of different snacks with Niki bringing out the best during our 4pm 'Happy Hour' ... today for 'Happy Hour' we had crackers with goose liver pate ... yam yam. To list a few other snack items, lost of dried fruits with Mango being my personal favorite, little cheese snacks, nuts, tons of yogurt still ... too much to mention here.

HIGH OF THE DAY Hearing that our friends on Ohana Kai will arrive before sundown today ... anchoring at night after a long passage like ours isn't the greatest idea but they made great time ... when didn't they ... and now they should have dropped their hook just about now ... HURRAY we will be there tomorrow.

LOW OF THE DAY In the morning, we were pretty beaten up with having slept only OK during the night and all the rolling around ... Niki was joking today though how much more adapted we are now to sailing in different conditions. Though San Diego was a great place to outfit our boat, it isn't a good place to test things since the winds are just too light there most of the time, so they are in Mexico. Thinking back to Santa Cruz and Monterrey Bay reminds me a lot more to the typical conditions we are experiencing here now in terms of swells and winds though our foul weather gear has gotten a lot thinner... shorts and a rash guard ... ;-)

That's it for today folks ... looking forward to an email tomorrow that will most likely break the mold of the past few weeks ... keep your fingers crossed and we all see you in Fatu Hiva.

Happy voyaging,

Robert and crew

TheSchmids Family Sailing on Lawur --------------------------------------------------------------------------- !!! PLEASE DON'T INCLUDE ORIGINAL WHEN REPLYING TO REDUCE DOWNLOAD TIME !!!

---------- LIST MANAGEMENT ---------- DIGEST - To get a digest version of our postings on a bi-weekly basis, send an email to STServ@TheSchmids.org with the following text in the message body:

Set mode digest EnglishLogbook

UNSUBSCRIBE - Send an email to STServ@TheSchmids.org with the following text in the message body:

Unsubscribe EnglishLogbook

< Back to Overview << Prev | Next >>