The trip to the Tuamotu's is about 550 nautical miles. At 8 knots it will take about three days. We are hoping to fish all the way. Saturday night the sky is clear with thousands of stars. We woke up on the first morning to find the weather has deteriorated, with strong winds and large swell. It is still very relaxing reading all day, light meals from the galley, no internet due to the direction and nearest satellite location. We are entertained at night with m...

We have a four hour cruise south to Fatu Hiva. This is the most southerly island of the Marquesas and the least populous, with 650 inhabitants. It is a very high Island up to 1100 meters above sea level. It's steep cliffs are not easy to access and there are only 2 sheltered bays located on the west coast. We will anchor in 'The Bay of Virgins' or 'Hanavave Bay'. Wow what a back drop to this small village, with lush green rugged high mountains. On our way to th...

We leave at 6am on this 80 nautical mile cruise, south to Hiva Oa. Rather than anchor at the principle town of 'Atuona' in 'Traitors Bay', we have decided to go to the smaller neighboring Island of 'Tahuata', as it supposed to have less rolling swell in the anchorage. The wind is blowing constantly about 20 knots in a slight swell but JB has not found her sea legs yet and feels a bit nauseous. When we arrive at Tahuata the sea is flat calm and to our surprise th...

We take a early morning flight from Papeete on a 'Air Tahiti' prop plane, to the Island of 'Hiva Oa' then one hour further on to the largest Island in the Marquesas, 'Nuka Hiva'. The Marquesas are a group of mountainous Islands approximately 700 kilometers from Papeete. We learned they were the first Islands in Polynesia to be discovered by Spanish Europeans in 1595. Even though Captain James Cook visited the Islands in the late 1700's, the French claimed them...

We left Melbourne on an Emirates flight to Auckland NZ at 8 am. We did not realise how exhausted we were from stress and strain from family and business issues that we have needed to finalise in the last two weeks before we left. New Zealand to Papeete is a 5 and a half hour flight on Air Tahiti. We arrived about 10 pm the day before we left, and stayed at the Intercontinental hotel near the airport. We left very early the next morning for the Marquesas Islands....