Tuesday, April 15

Hi all,

Well , we made it to The Marquesas Islands. It was an interesting 25 day trip without land and no way to get off the boat. I will recap the days that were most interesting. Mostly , the weather was great, with hot days and nights, very humid, lots of stars, small rainstorms, one rainbow on Easter, and 10 to 25 knot winds most of the way.

3/17/97 (day 28, Pacific passage day 1) Up early all packed and stowed, We left the side tie in Cabo Marina and went to the anchorage. Michael and I donned our wet suits and jumped in the sea to scrub the bottom of the boat. We dropped anchor at 3:30 p.m., course heading south west, with sails full of 25 knot winds. Next stop, Marquesas Islands. Approximately 26-36 days, 2500 miles of ocean. It took the first couple of days to get used to the motion of the boat and the watch schedule. Most days we had winds enough to hit our projected 100 miles a day. Some days were really good, with 150 miles and one day we hit our high at 163 miles. We caught our first fish on 3/18. Little did we know that we would only catch 3 fish during the whole crossing, the last fish being a 30 lb tuna caught on 4/8, two days before we hit land. Which at this point was a blessing. Too much canned spam and corned beef even for me! It took us a week to eat 2/3 of it. We are now eating the last bit of fish of which I pickled on 4/11 After about a week out we all gradually fell into our own routines. We also had our first boat talk (the first of many) to air out any differences of opinions and such. It is hard to live in such a small space even with your spouse, let alone someone you have never lived with before. On about day 10 we hit our first rain squall. Just after My watch began at about 8 p.m., we hit 30+ winds, and rain coming down so hard and fast I had to take off my glasses so I could see to steer the boat. This lasted only 30 min., but we were not prepared and were all jumping around the boat like headless chickens. The more experienced Pacific cruiser, would have had the sails rigged and trimmed, and be standing on the deck with shampoo and soap in hand, taking a bath and washing out their clothes. We managed later to get the hang of the rain squalls; however, this turned out to be our only heavy rainstorm of the trip. During the small rain storms we learned that it was nice to sit out on deck and get washed off by the fresh water. I didn't wear shoes for about a month. We learned how to wash out our clothes with salt water after unexpectedly running out of fresh water. We also found out that the solar cells will generate enough volts to run the water maker for 5 hr a day, this giving us 5 quarts of fresh water an hour without draining the batteries. On Day 32 we had to repair the sail sluggs once again. Darrell and I worked together for two hr fabricating a slug out of stainless banding ribbon and a nut and bolt. This one will not break! We only run the refrigerator for two hr a night when the engine is on. This does not keep the fridge super cold, only enough for the mayo and cheese. I have managed to cook everything in the pressure cooker even the bread. This keeps the cabin cooler and saves the propane. On 3/22 we ripped the spinnaker sail. I turned the dinette into a sail loft and with my trusty sewing machine I repaired a jagged 3 ft rip in the bottom 8th of the sail. On 3/23,3/26 and 3/27 we were able to talk to our families via the Ham phone patch. Michael has been keeping us in contact with everyone back home through the radio. He also checks in on three ham nets every day . One is for the weather, one is a net that tracks our trip in case of an emergency and one for personal contacts. Michael has about 20 regular contacts on the last net. These people have been responsible for a lot of our family contacts and info for Steve (Mike's brother) who is taking care of the home page. We are glad that these people are out there. One Ham, Bob, is helping us with an electrical problem we are having with one of our regulators on the wind generator. He has gone way out of his way to help us. Another Ham, Bill, is printing off the home page and sending it to my mother and keeping her updated on our progress. And last but certainly not least is Ralph. He is wonderful. Every night he talks to us and does phone patches for us to the US. He is very reliable. Great people these HAMS!!! We lost the use of the engine on 3/28. Several things were broken, the last one was the fuel pump. It was clogged and Darrell put it back together wrong. It took him about 10 hr to figure that out. In the process we missed the check-in on the emergency net . They were all looking for us the next day, as the last time we talked to them we reported a small leak. Not a good thing for a boat!!

3/30 Easter day I cooked a ham, potatoes, candied yams, and we had the last of Mom's pumpkin roll for desert. We had a rain squall in the afternoon. With a big beautiful rainbow. We could see both ends, one end directly behind the boat. Thank you Lord. 3/31 We saw a blunt nose dolphin. My back went out this day. Just at the change of watch 12 mid, I stood up and bam, I could not move. I had to lay down on the deck bench. Later Darrell and Michael helped me down the stairs.

4/1 day 43 We crossed the equator at 4:23 p.m. We did the Shellback ceremony that Dewey gave to us. We didn't have raw oysters so we ate tuna, we ate boiled eggs instead of green ones, and we will start the 1000 sit ups so to have them done by the time we cross back over. We popped a bottle of champagne, gave some to King Neptune and toasted with the rest. We also each had a blow pop sucker that Mike McCawley gave to me. Thanks Mike for the goodies.

4/2 Darrell is antsy He wants to get off the boat.

4/7 day 49 We had 15-20 knot winds. Just after noon I heard a loud pop. The wind had put so much wear and tear on the wind generator that it popped it right out of its fittings. It came down onto the side of the boat, shattering the prop. Luckily it didn't hit the solar cells. The alternator is fine, we will try to rig it back into a water tow generator. We are now down to only two out of four of the original generators.

4/9& 4/10 barely moving along only 3 knots an hour. As I was on watch 4/10, the wind in the sails and the auto helm tending the wheel, I was writing and looked up and to my surprise there was LAND! It turned out to be Ua Huka, not the island we are headed for, but what a nice sight to see, even though we were not stopping there! We got to the back side of Nuka Hiva at 6 pm. We would not be close to Taiohae Bay in time to anchor in the light. We pulled the jib in and put up the storm jib and the main to the second reef. We pulled in to the Bay at 6 am. A very beautiful place. We met several cruisers this day. Robert and Rose on Tillicum from Canada, Christy and Mike on Sea Glass from L.A., Allen and Michelle on Grand Duc from France, Jamie, Gerry on Lazy Lighting from Long Beach, Tony, Rick, Robert on Nercades from Long Beach, Heidi and Wolfgang on Kalagan from Berlyn. and our friend that we met in Cabo, Rick and Jeff on Eskimo from Alaska. We did our running around this day and checked out the happy hour at the Keikahanui Inn. This a nice place. I would like to own something like this some day. It has a restaurant and six bungalows in separate places overlooking the bay. Great view.

Sat 4/12 We went to the Keikahanwi Inn for a 25 dollar dinner. A roasted pig in the ground with baked bananas covered with coconut milk , bread fruit, taro root, plantain bananas (taste like a sweet potato), pineapple chicken, fresh water shrimp, cevechi, coconut cream pie and the best lemon pie I have ever tasted. Sunday we went to the next bay over, Daniels Bay. We met the owner of the Bay and talked to him awhile. He gave us some bread fruit, it cooks up like a potato. and then we went to see if we could walk to the second largest waterfall in the world. . We needed a guide. We went to Augustine, Carolyn and Carlos' farm. We were told by Heidi that Carlos could take us. Unfortunately he had already left to take others. We stayed and talked to Augestine and Carolyn. We traded with them and became somewhat friends. We arranged to come back on Wed to do the hike and they asked us to eat with them when we got done. Monday we did more boat stuff and went into town to pay our 1000 dollar a person bond for the French Government. We will get 1800 back when we reach Tahiti. Michael and I went shopping and Darrell stopped to talk to Rick from Eskimo. I bought a phone card for $10 and called Mom. We only got to talk for 4-5 min. then we got cut off. Tuesday 4/15 I stayed on the boat to do chores while Darrell and Michael went to do boat business. When they got back we all put on our mask ,snorkels, and fins and scrubbed the bottom of the boat. Michael and Darrell spent the rest of the day in town finishing up the boat chores (getting propane, bread shopping, fixing the water generator). They got back late so we decided to leave for Daniel's bay on Wed morning. Wed 4/16. Up early (5:00), ate a quick breakfast and dropped anchor for Daniel's. We convinced Rose and Robert on Tillicum to come with us to the cascad, as the French say. This was a 5 hr hike which included 2 hr hike through two rivers up to the thigh, mud to the ankle, and lots of volcanic rock hills with green moss. One hour at the waterfall which you could get to from two ways . One, to swim about 50 feet to a big rock that you have to go under about a foot to get through, or climb in through a small cave that had just enough room for three people. Directly on the other side was water with a couple of rocks to stand on . The water was deep there. Then you swim about another 50 feet to the side of the rock that you can climb up on . Just past that is the water fall where you could swim under and get behind, still too deep to stand but there was a ledge to climb and jump through the waterfall. I think our guide had more fun than we did jumping and swimming under the rocks. And then a 2 hr hike back. What a beautiful place. coconut trees everywhere, tropical flowers, like a rain forest. The cliffs of the mountain are volcanic, straight up and down covered with light green moss. The mountain was very impressive. We then were invited to eat with Augestine, Carolyn and Carlos. They served deep fried bananas , bread fruit with onions and guess what ? corned beef ! I told the guys "See there,we have been eating traditional Marquesan food all along". We got back to the boat and visited with Tillicam a bit more. It is nice for me to have a "normal" conversation with another female. The guys then went to visit Daniel and I cooked dinner . Oops they are back! They brought back some more fruit (pompamoose), It's like a really big ( less tangy, more sweet) grapefruit. We will stay in Daniel's bay tonight.

4/17 back to Taiohae bay.

4/18 Will check on dive lessons. We started dive lessons on Friday 4/18. One dive today ,all went well. We went to a Marquesan dance this night . We saw our "Amis" (friends) Augustine and Carolyn there. It was fun to see the native dancers.

Sat 4/19 We had our second dive. After our dive the instructors took the boat to a place where the dolphins stay during the day. There were hundreds of dolphins here. All just floating on the water, some with their heads out of the water and some even on their backs with their tummies to the sun. We put on our snorkle gear and went in the water there. There were so many of us that the dolphins went away. The Instructors then tied a rope to a BC ( like a lifejacket) and one by one we put on the jacket to be lowered into the water at the bow (front ) of the boat. They then started the boat and moved slowly forward. The dolphins like to play in the bow wave so they were all around very close to the boat. There were about 20 dolphins directly in front of the boat, and hundreds all around the boat. It was so neat to be so close to them. I stayed down for about 5 min. I didn't want to get out! I have already said that the waterfall was the neatest thing so I will say that this was the most marvelous experience. We went to another dance this night .It was a dance group from Tahiti. They were very good. Darrell was chosen to dance with one of the fem ( female) dancers. He had fun . Some of the other cruisers were also chosen to dance. All the cruisers had a great time.

4/20 Sunday Darrell went to church. Michael and I had a dive lesson at 8:00 so we didn't go. Our third dive we just practiced staying at the same depth. We did however see a hammerhead shark and a white reef shark. This was ok, but I really wanted to learn how to buddy breathe and take off our masks under water. I have taken dive lessons before, so I know basically what to do I am just a little rusty.

4\21 our fourth dive we did a lot of work. It was good to get the buddy breathing down. I really need Michael to understand what to do! We lost our ladder for Escapade 4\20 so Michael and I tried to dive down for it 4/21. We had to stop because my ears were hurting. Michael went to another boat near us with William and his family, from France. William said that he will help us find it in the morning 4/22.

4/22 Michael and I are fini with our plungee' lesson today. We both did well. We did not see any reques (sharks) , Manta (manta ray) or papalali kos (big South Pacific dolphins). But we had a good dive (plungee').

Wednesday 4/23. We will do chores today and get ready to got to Anaho bay on the other side of Nuka Hiva. We will stay there maybe deaux jours (two days), then we will go to Oowa Pou, an island about 28 miles across the deep blue sea from here. We will stay there maybe deaux jours and then off to the Tuamotu island chain. We will go to the island of Rangiroa, then to Papeete Tahiti. This will take about deaux semenne (two weeks). You should just be getting this letter then ( around may 12).

Steve, I have enclosed a pic of our first " BANK" of fruit. We also have a good pic of us at the waterfall, but it needs to be developed. I will send it to you in a larger package. Please copy letters and send to Poole Family. I thank you so very much for the great job you are doing on the Web page. We would like to keep in contact with the schools and others; will you please put on the home page that we need their mailing address also ? We will have to relay them through Ralph our faithful Ham operator. Will you also put on the page our most sincere gratitude and thanks for all the help we are receiving from Ralph, Bob, Rich, Tony ,Tony, Chuck, Varis, Dave and any others we have talked to on the radio. And last but not least our thanks to Barb and Alicia for forwarding our emails. Merci Beaucoup (Thank You very much!) I miss you all! God Bless and take care.

We LOVE You All ! Na Na ! (Marquesan for See Ya Later) .

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO