Author: Scott
We awoke ready to leave. We were a little sad to say goodbye to the place we had spent so much time anticipating on the crossing but it was time to move on now. It was interesting how this place that was such a mystery to us on our trip from Mexico felt so well know to us now. In twelve short days we had managed to meet a number of great people, pamper ourselves at the hotel, reacquaint ourselves with food that does not come out of a can and even find a temporary solution for our engine trouble. There will be much to remember on Nuku Hiva and unlike Mexico it is likely that neither of us will make it to this remote spot again, but I guess you never know for sure.
We made final preparations to depart, stowed the dinghy and outboard, lashed everything down, and put everything it its place. I had a little setback when checking the engine I noticed the new belt we had used to drive the alternator had twisted requiring me to completely remove it and then install it again. This was not the setback; the problem came when the boat rolled and all my tools and screws flew off the counter into the engine compartment and required a massive hunt that took nearly two hours.
It was now past noon and with a little trepidation we fired up the engine and proceeded to hoist the anchor. Pam steered us out of the bay with me giving directions from the bow and we emerged into a fresh fifteen knots of easterly wind. We made it out onto the sea with no problem and Stephan’s exterior pump worked like a charm. We will still only use the engine whenever it is absolutely necessary but we have much more confidence than we did upon arrival. We logged our actual departure time as 1350 local time.
As we settled into our life back on the sea we were immediately plunged back into the conditions we had become accustomed to on our crossing. The trades continued to blow an average of 14 knots with waves large enough to occasionally dowse the cockpit and one open hatch. We were sea creatures again! We settled into our respective books and read until the sun began to set. Dinner was our freshly roasted chicken purchased the prior day with rice and corn. After dinner we relaxed in the cockpit enjoying some “chill time” with our Puddle Jump CD that got so much play during our crossing. The moon was nearly full and all the stars were out in full force. The water was brilliantly lit with flashes of white water glowing from the moonlight. .
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