Day 3: Passage to the Tuamotos

My last post was a little rushed as we were busy pounding along in 24 knots and the beam seas were making typing a little tiresome-to say the least! I was busy trying to regain my sea-legs,and after firing off that little post, I scurried back up on deck to get some air and have a last look at the islands...

Thank Tiki that I did, because otherwise I would have been wedged behind the navigation desk, in a stiflingly hot cabin, going on and and on, about how amazing it was to have gotten to visit the Marquesas....
and I would have missed saying goodbye to Nuka Hiva as it disappeared behind us in a perfect sunset.

The whole Marquesas island chain is so profoundly beautiful, fertile, fierce, remote, primitive and so completely unlike anything I have ever experienced before...there aren't enough bad-ass words in the English language to describe them.

As we sailed off into an evening that was dissolving from deep blue-to-dark-purple, we raised our arms above our heads and sang a farewell to these islands;

"TENEO-ATEH TOH-AH_KAH-KI..."
WHOOOYAHHHHHHH!
"TENEO-ATEH TOH-AH_KAH-KI..."
WHOO-WHOO WHOOOOOOYAHHHHHHHHHH!

The Marqueseans chant this before hunting or when calling out their totally awesome connection to everything around them and it tells the world what completely stunning powerful people they are and that they still belong to the earth in a way that we have, sadly, forgotten. You cannot believe how it sounds when they do it. We tried, as best we could to imitate them-- it helps if you imagine your voice is incredibly deep and you are ripped and powerful and your face is beautiful and inked in swirls of tribal tattoos and looks as if you were carved from the very stone of these islands.

Afterwards, there was nothing to do but sit on deck and watch as the islands disappear into sea behind us and the stars came out like a glittering cast of chorus girls.


Since then, its been a lot of fast sailing-which has been vexing poor Jon to bits as he must constantly recalculate our course and ETA to be in sync with slack tide on either Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning... Even when we reef our girl in, in an effort to slow it all down for the sake of arrival time...
the current still has us buzzing along in the right direction!

Well, hard to complain. Haven't touched a sail in three days other than to reef her in to slow down,
and we have all read about three books a piece on this trip.

As long as you're really sailing, (YES!)...
and the color Blue (YES!), because that's all there is out here...
and warm days (YES, YES, YES!)
Then this is the crossing of your dreams.

I was having my doubt about this whole "coconut run" moniker they give this South Pacific thing--because frankly, it was a bit of an ass-kicker, there for awhile.
But this....
This, is the stuff of dreams.

Oh yeah,
and that secret atoll we are headed to...
is still staying a secret for now.