#50 NOW May 14, 2005 0300 Zone Time = UTC -9 hours S10’15 W139’40 Temp 82.8, Water Temp 90.1 Wind from the North @ 12 kts, Seas are 5-feet, Para-vanes down, Heading 228’M Miles Completed 47, Miles to Go 466, SOG (speed over ground) 5.7 kts. Greetings, We are finally leaving the beautiful Marquesas Islands and heading straight for the Tuamotu islands, actually Ahe atoll. This is one of the northern atolls and is reported to be one with an easy entrance into the lagoon and good protection once inside. However, I must back up and bring you up to date on all the events that have taken place over the past week. We completed our circumnavigation of Nuku Hiva (the largest of the Marquesas group) and returned to Taiohae Bay to take on fuel. Getting fuel is not the easiest thing to do down here. Most important is the duty free fuel document that you must have to get the reduced price. Now when I say reduced price, I mean $2.67 per gallon duty free or $6.79 per gallon with out the duty free document, which must be faxed, to your agent from Papeete. With the magic piece of paper in our hands, we proceed to the fuel dock. The Marquesas Islands are known for the surge that comes into their harbors, and Taiohae Bay is no exception. We tried to pull up to the side of the concrete dock with the boat dancing up and down about 3 to 4 feet. It was obvious that this was not going to work. So we did what is known as a “Mediterranean moor.” You start out a couple of hundred feet from the dock, drop the anchor, continue backing up to the dock, throw out some lines to the dock personnel and tie off about 10 feet from the dock stern to. This can be a little tricky with crosswinds and surge. Then with the use of another line, the hose is passed to you and you start fueling. Well, that is you start fueling when power is restored to the pump. This was not the best time for a power outage. After bouncing around for a couple of hours, we finally had our 2000 liters of tax-free fuel. The next morning we departed Taiohae Bay for Ua-Pou, the island of Pillars. This is one of the most picturesque of the islands with its beautiful bays and tall spires in the background. However, due to a storm we had a couple of nights before all the bays were plagued with large ocean swells, making them poor anchorages. We decided to continue during the night down to Hiva Oa, and pulled up to the breakwater at Atuona. This small harbor was full of boats rocking around with bow and stern anchors set. There was not much room for us, so we continued to the small island of Tahuata that is just South of Hiva Oa. Here we found beautiful, peaceful, Hanamoenoe Bay. In addition, we were delighted to see "Gunner Too" with Phil and Laura, whom I had met in Puerto Vallarta. We invited them to come over and enjoy our air-conditioning, which they did. It was fun swapping stories of our adventures. In this bay, I had my first scuba lesson under the skilled tutelage of Capt. Jim. However, the details of that will have to wait until my next newsletter. Life is a Cruise, Larry and Jim Larry Rick Done Dreamin' Nordhavn 40 #33 Site: http://gricknet.homedns.org/ Email: <mailto:donedream@pacbell.net>donedream@pacbell.net