Hmmm...well, looking at it that way, I'm now one dream dream poorer!

7. June 2011, Tuesday
0° 44' 49" S, 90° 17' 52" W


I'm no longer quite sure how many years or even decades I dreamed of sailing my own yacht in the South Seas.
The magic that these South Sea islands have been exerting on mankind for generations, from Captain Cook to the Bounty mutineers, to Paul Gauguin or Jaques Brell, hardly anyone can escape this magic.

It's just a little over 30 hours by plane, but with Odin it's now been almost 4 years since we took off in the Mediterranean, albeit with beautiful detours.
Italy, Croatia, Greece, Turkey, Malta, North Africa, Balearic Islands, Spain, Gibraltar, Canary Islands, Martinique, St. Lucia, San Vincent, Grenadines, Dominica, Grenada, Venezuela, ABC Islands, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Cayman Islands, San Andres and Providencia, Colombia and Panama and many more.
All the places, off the beaten path, where we lived for weeks or months, the people we met, the friendships we made. Something like that just takes time ;o)
Best of all, this journey is far from over.

Believe me, it's like a reward when, after weeks of hardship at sea, the goal finally appears on the horizon. You get excited like a little kid at Christmas.
When we dropped anchor off Fatu Hiva, in the Marquesas Archipelago, we were overwhelmed by the magic of this island long before we set foot on land. All the hardships of the last few weeks were forgotten!

Speaking of forgetting: I almost forgot to write something about the crossing!
Well, the first part of the crossing from Panama didn't go so smoothly.
Calm and some bad luck forced us to call at the Galapagos Islands as an “emergency” after 9 days.
Our desalination plant, which turns seawater into drinking water, gave up the ghost on the first few miles. So far not bad, we have almost 900 liters of fresh water in the tank. But during an unfortunate tacking maneuver, which I messed up, our headsail tore and could not be repaired with on-board equipment.
We were allowed to stay 2 days in Galapagos without a visa to do the necessary work.
Honestly:
Apart from the wildlife, a desolate piece of earth!
If Darwin hadn't set up his theory of evolution based on the finches, this animal world would certainly have been exterminated long ago and the Galapagos would have been the arse of the world!

In any case, after a super fast 29 days and nights at sea, with a lot of wind and lots of rocking, we arrived safely in Fatu Hiva on May 29th.

Well the reason you haven't heard from us for so long is that there was no internet on this island and we had to sail this far to Hiva Oa to update our homepage.

Oh, yes...my lost or fulfilled dream
Not that bad, because after all I still have so many dreams that I would like to fulfill for myself and Uts so that there is no shortage of them ;o)