Day 1 - We have started the journey back home – 10-21-24
We left the comfort and beauty of Taiohae Bay at 4 PM this afternoon, It feel like yesterday when I first sailed into this same bay, exhausted from crossing the Pacific, and excited for what lay ahead. Before heading out of the bay, the crew and I had a moment to just sit on the deck, and look at the peace and beauty around us. Emotion poured in while thinking of all that had gone on in the last 7 months. I was so sad to leave, yet so happy to be heading back home.
Since my last update I was joined by the 3 crew members that are sailing back with me. My old friend from college, Dean Prophet, and two young men fresh out of YWAM’s school of navigation, Luke and Mateo. So we have a combo of old, experienced sailors, and young and enthusiastic ones. We have spent the last week prepping the boat to the upcoming 3,000 mile journey, and training everyone on the boat systems.
Most of the week we were anchored atTai ohae Bay which is where the main village is. We did shopping, admin work such as checking out of the county, and lots of small projects to prep the boat for the crossing.
On Saturday afternoon we headed over to Taioa Bay, which is just spectacular Its only 5 miles from the main village, but feels like another world with its sharp peaks going straight out of the sea and up to the clouds, The mountains lead to a beautiful valley with a waterfall. We did not have time to do that trek up the valley this time, but we did it when we were her last May. Taioa Bay is also know for being the location that Survivor Marquesas’ was filmed.
We were planning to leave directly from Taioa Bay, but while doing some work in the bilge, Dean found a cockroach! This is NOT a good thing. Cockroaches can quickly get out of hand and make a mess of your boat. Not what we need while spending 3 weeks across the ocean. So we head back to the main village at Taiohae Bay this morning and did some last minute shopping that included bug spray and roach hotels.
After getting that all sorted, but pulled the dinghy on board, got it strapped to the bow, and hoisted anchor to head out of the bay.
John, our weather router, has us heading due north for the equator. At the equator we should catch a 3 knot current that is moving eastward. This is a good thing since we need to head north AND east to make it back to California. The northerly course also means we are sailing on a beam reach with the wind coming directly on the side of the boat instead of off the bow, so it is faster and easier sailing, but not pointing us directly to home yet. We will see in a few days how this works out!