Jun 5

Written by:
6/5/2010 5:36 PM 

The day before yesterday I upped anchor from Fatu Hiva and made the 50 mile day sail to Hiva Oa, the administrative center of the Southern Marquesas. This bay faces the swell and the water is every bit as brown as the water I left 7000 miles behind in Galveston Bay, Texas. I am up early today so I can be one of the first to the fruit truck which brings down fresh produce from small farms in the hills. With that and a few other small items Jargo will be ready to sail again.

Plans can always change, but I think my next jump is a small 10 mile downwind run to the island of Tahuata and Hanamoenoa Bay. It is said to be one of the prettiest in all of Polynesia so I don't feel I should skip it.

Upon arrival here at HIva Oa I discovered that for $5 USD an hour I could get online again. I've never paid so much, but watching the hundreds of emails pour, albeit very, very slowly, into my inbox I was touched. I've always written the blog without much thought about who may be reading it. I write mostly for myself which is why I am still amazed how many of you take time to read along. The encouragement received via Facebook, blog comments, and direct emails is priceless to me. So, thank you for taking the time to follow along and for taking the time to let me know what you think.

I may be doing the sailing single handed, but it turns out there are many people on this voyage with me. Forgive me those of you to whom I've not yet been able to respond.

 

Flipping back through the blog comments someone asked if I was driven more by the sailing itself or by the destinations at which I arrive? To be sure, I do love the sailing. My first motivation however was to see the world, all of it. I came into sailing because it seemed the only way to me to see the world on a budget short of donning a backpack. Like the turtles of Galapagos I take my little home with me wherever I go. No hostels, hotels, or expensive air fares. Sure, I have to upgrade the boat, but who doesn't have home improvement projects?

That said, sailing makes up the words of the paragraph and the destinations are the punctuation. One lends emphasis to the other. I've no desire to run the world non-stop in a sailboat. To me that defeats the purpose of breaking away in the first place. On the other hand, I wouldn't trade my solo pacific passage for the world. Who needs psychoanalyses with three solo weeks at sea on your hands?

Kind of a disjointed blog today, but plugging back into the interwebs has done that to me. I won't lie, four weeks without internet made an impression. I didn't miss it towards the end and now that I have it, I don't seem to be able to log in and keep a single thought. I am just drawn to flashing icons and the black hole of Facebook. It is kind of scary, but I bet half my waking life was spent in front of a keyboard and computer screen.

On that note, its a beautiful day, I am logging off, and going for a walk. Cheers everyone.

Lee