Au Pou , Marquesis Islands

here we are , finally with internet, its very slow and spotty.. Will add just a bunch of pictures for now. Enjoy!
Happy Belated Birthday Erryn!! sorry but the ham is also spotty , couldn't get anything out but we thought of you!!

update...

Hey there, have finally been able to get out on the ham. we have left Tahuata Island ( Baie Vaitahu) and are heading over to Hiva Oa Island - Baie Hanaipa with O'vive and hope to see Dorothy Marie there. they left yesterday morning for there and we stayed with all the kid boats ( there are 6 of us) Emma has made a new friend - Tara, of Shamballa from Australia. they are the same age. we will meet up with them again in a couple of days, along with Malachi. WE are hoping to have us all together for
Emma birthday as well as a few other cruising kids and adults. there are a lot of us born in May - We went for a dingy tour with Ovive and Malachi to the villages here on Tahuata, managed to get a ton of mangos, bananas ( don't need much of those anymore,kinda banana'd out) pomopemouse and what they call Marquesan apples. nothing like our apples!! had a great time, took lots of pictures. will be loading the blog once I get to Nuka Hiva. We are heading to a bay where there is a fresh water water
hole with lots of mint growing around. looking forward to that!! Veggies are a prize here as we don't get much of them and they are expensive. tons of fruit and usually just given away to us. Am learning all kinds of ways to cook bananas!!

We had a nice pot luck dinner onboard orca III last night, 3 other boats - O'vive , Malachi, Shamballa. lots of kids (9) to be exact!! boy can we hold the people in our cockpit and down below. that was 17 for dinner and we still had lots of room. good time was had by all! looks like Kyle has a little relationship happening with Emilie ( O'Vive) they are quite cute together! Maya is thrilled to have a bunch of girls her age and teenage around . and there are a couple of boys around her age as
well. lots happening here for the kids. Still have 6 other boats that we know of with kids that we are hoping to meet up with as well.

we have had lots of rays swimming around our boat and the fish!! coolest ever, and Kyle is good at catching them, course he throws them back as we were told not to eat the reef fish. the kids have been swimming, and using the kyack all day. and going to the shore as a pack. even managed to find a lime tree and pompemousse tree and coconuts. don't think we will starve!

it rains a lot here for a short time, sure feels good to wash down with the rain. gets all the salt off. and its warm out as it rains. not like BC.

Well time to sign off. lat and long approximately 9*43's 139* 1' W

we are at Tahuata

Well we finally got ourselves checked in!! what a bloody pain in the ass that was!! On Friday we arrived at the island Hiva Oa town of Atuona, where we are supposed to check in with the gendarmerie. need bond or plane ticket out of French Polynesia first. (unless you are from Europe) so off we go to the bank, both of our visa cards and bank cards won't work in the bank ( bank card works at the ATM, but can not get out 473840 French Franks, yes folks that is $6500 cnd) so we phone our bank, nothing
wrong with our visas , we try again... still no go.... come back at 1:30pm ( we started this at 8am) no go again, so we wait until Monday. try again, no go.... try to by plane tickets at Air Tahiti, in Hiva Oa, but they only fly in French Polynesia, must go to Tahiti to get ticket to Canada... so off we go back to our boat decide to leave with out checking in here, then our friends on Dorothy Marie offer to put it on their visa and we will pay them (their visa card worked on the Friday for them)
so off we go Tuesday am ( 7am and yes we did the same on Monday and its an 1 hr hike to town from the boat each way- we are getting in shape and have tons of blisters!!. and boy can we sweat ! it's hot here.) get to the bank wait in line ( don't mind each time we've done this cause its an air conditioned bank!! nice and cool) try ours again, no go..... try Dorothy Maries and .......... NO GO!! boy we all were suprised. a few other boats same problem,, then our friends from Malachi offer the same
so we stand in line again and YES it works!! 1 hr later after I signed 30 pieces of paper. ( 6 per person, don't really know why so many) we are done at the bank, Steve already went to the post office to get our stamps for the 60 day extension then the we hear the gendarmerie decides to close its office at 9am to go work out but will open for one fellow at 11:30am then close til the following am. well that was enough for me............ I sat at the locked gates of the gendarmerie until they openned
up for the fellow . she then asks if we could come back tomorrow. Well I started to cry saying no we have been here since Friday trying to check in ... She felt so bad she let us in but no one else. But we are checked in!!! I forgot to mention the gendarmerie office decided to close early on Friday (9:15am-she had to pick lup her kid from preschool and they opened at 8am) and then didn't open at all on Monday. appears they have no real schedule even those it says mon -fri. All of us boaters where
just shaking our heads. what an experience.
Everything except baquettes (french bread) is expensive!! Dorothy Marie bought 2 6 packs of beer and 2 2litres of diet coke and guess how much American? yes of course $57.00 can you believe that!! we are all taking a calculator with us to figure out how much everything is in Cdn . and only buy what we absolutely need or is a decent price. internet is $27 for 3hrs and you have to buy 3hrs min. so we skipped that.

so we have arrived to the Island Tahuata in Baie Vaitahu with all of our buddies - must be 15 boats here. lots of kids and we will be swimming tomorrow . nice sandy beach, clear water , can see the bottom and its 35 ft deep!!
until tomorrow......
and now we are in paradise!

Dionne

left Futa HIva

Well we have just pulled out of Baie Hanavave - same bay we were in just two names, it's 2129 utc and 11:45am local time ( have no idea what time that is in vancouver) we are on our way to Hiva Oa to do our check in. we loved this place!!! have made many friends with the locals and even the policeman want s us to come back there after we check in at Hiva Oa.. but we will be moving on....... could live there though if I could get some of you to come !! I have fresh basil and mint, and all kinds of
fruit. loads of bananas!!!! Steve fixed the headlight switch on that puegot diesel pick up he was working on before and they gave him a tiki carving . the man Jack , does the carvings and his wife does the tapa. she gave Steve a tapa the other day for working on her truck. they really want us to stay and have Steve be the village mechanic. It's so lush and green and so full of beautiful flowers!! the smells here are to die for. tons of trees , a real paradise!! The village people will be in Papeete
at the end of May for artisan exebition and we hope to see them there. The people here are so wonderful!! very sad to leave....
yesterday was Steve's birthday and we ( all the cruisers) were invited to a special festival performance by the school children, it was excellent ! they were dressed all in the traditional Marquises style of dress, flowers and palm leaves everywhere, the younger children wore the tapa cloth and boy they all looked so beautiful. they sang and danced and did a play and I even got picked to dance with them at the end of the performance!! those young ( 3-10 yrs old) girls can sure move their hips! had
a big feast afterwards and we were all very welcomed.
later on in the evening we ( cruisers ) organized a big jam on the dock and invited the village , lots of the men came and played guitar and sang. we did "happy birthday to 'Steve" and he lucked out with on cruiser ( Ovive ) baking a cake, I made lemon merangue pie and squares ( lemon to die for here!!) and Dorothy Marie made white chocolate macadamia nut fudge for him!!! had a blast.
there was a altercation with another cruiser boat with the village family we have become close to. The cruisers ( Swedes,can you believe it?!) thought the village had stolen their camera and they made quite a fuss, very loud and awful. Lauralie - ( one of the girls that has become a very dear friend of mine) she is from the village family was so upset when she saw me last night , trying to find it. I felt so bad for her. turns out the cruiser had it in his bag the whole time.. but he made such
a scene he was asked to leave the island. Sally ( Dorothy Marie ) and I went and saw the family, and gave hugs and let them know that no one thought they had stolen it. and that we were very sorry the cruiser reacted that way, makes it look bad for all of us. They were so touched to have us come up there!! They gave us food from the dinner they had done... and I returned their dishes with banana bread and chocolate white fudge !! they loved it and gave us more bananas, pompemousse, and basil. They
are very sad to see us go. will miss them!!

The only way to get to this island is by boat! I feel very lucky to have come there. never know , we may end up living there

hugs to all,
Dionne

LAND HO!!

yeah we made it to Futa Hiva!! we arrived 3am monday April 21, this place is absoulutely beautiful!! very lush and green and very high . the whole place is made of lava and is a giant crator left over from a volcano. We are anchored in Baie des Vierges ( Bay of Virgins)

We have also met up with other cruisers we were talking to on the ham. O vive, has 2 kids - teenagers ( 14 and 12) just perfect for our kids and have been hanging out all day the last 2 days. We went into town and Steve already got himself some work, working on the local police vehicle and then another villagers truck ( Puegot diesel pick up truck!! not so fun) got paid a whole bunch ( like a tree full) of bananas and pompemousse (grapefruit) and 3 baquettes . still more to come tomorrow for the
villagers truck.( however she did offer Steve some land and would build him a house so he could fix her car all the time) So Steve's really bringing home the "bread"!!! that's how they pay here, money not the means of trade or payment. Steve also traded some of our floating rope for a wooden carved bowl, beautiful. Maya traded some of her make up for papaya and tappa ( local paper painting made out of the bark of tree. they pound the dickens out of it to make it thin and wide- they also use 3 different
types of trees, will get the name tomorrow) Steve also traded 2 harmonicas for 2 fabrics used like a sarong. one for Emma and one that both Maya and I will share. I have been trading stickers for different fruits, lots of lemon & grapefruit which is so good here that even Steve and Kyle are eating it. no veggies and no real store at this village to buy anything. We hiked up to a waterfall and had a great swim. About 5 different cruiser boats hiked together. Its so neat , just meet them and feel like
you've known them forever. We are the only Canadian boat here at the moment, lots from Europe ( UK, France, Holland,Sweden,Germany) 2 American boats , one from the west coast and one from the east coast ( that's O'Vive) there are about 12 boats here now. Quite different than Mexico where it was all mostly Canadian boats. We treated ourselves to a dinner at one of the villagers homes, she put on quite the spread for 20 cruisers. Chicken in coconut milk, rice, some kind of papaya salad, breadfruit
( we don't like this!!!) and banana that was pink ( looked like hot dogs at first, but not!!) they even played music and her 3yr old granddaughter did the polynisian dance. then a couple of the villager ladies did the dance and you guessed it! ME too. I was up there swinging my hips ( not as good as them though , you have to see them move, just awesome!) and yes Steve and Glenn Dorothy Marie, got out the harmonicas and Sax and " We be jammming!"" it was a grand time!! Definately worth the crossing!!

We have these 2 inch long tube barnacles all over the water line. so many!! we will be cleaning these off tomorrow, also going to the school to watch a special festival , all the children are in costume and will be dancing. we are looking so forward to seeing this as we have watched them practice. They are so cute!!! Emma even was given a crown made of palm leaves to wear tomorrow with the other school kids.
They speak French here and boy what a challenge to try to remember the french words after doing Spanish, I keep saying Hola, instead of Bojour, but each day I get better and better. the people here are so lovely!!

.Well that's the update for now. We are all doing great and glad to be at land for a while, we will be leaving here on Thursday and heading to either Hiva Oa or Nuka Hiva.l will keep you posted! by the way the ocean water here is like a warm bath!!

for those "spying" on us here's the lat and long of where we exactly 10* 27.83'S 138*40.22'W

love Dionne

orca update for Sunday April 20

We will be making landfall tomorrow early morning, all the crew of orca III is looking very forward to anchoring!! It has been quite along time out at sea..... 26 days so far and many miles.... the kids are wondering if we will be walking around leaning cause thats what we have been doing the last 26 days. it will be nice to have a full nights sleep and to not be rocking and rolling and having things flying everywhere!! We will be at the island Futa Hiva and will spend 2 days there and move on to
check in at either Hiva Oa or Nuka Hiva, we haven't decided where yet. My preference would be where there is a place to do or have my laundry done. We have a lot to do!!!

Thankfully the last couple of days have been slower winds and lighter seas......makes for a way easier ride. also look forward to washing off the boat , we are so covered in salt spray as is the inside.

heres our lat and long. 09* 02'S 137* 43'W

almost at land!

we are sailing along at a good pace, still have lots of waves and the entire boat inside and out has gotten covered in salt spray. Everything is sticky!! Hope to hit land sometime between tomorrow and the next morning. Dorothy Marie is still right beside us. We all want to be on land for a while!! all very tired and need a good solid nights sleep. I look forward to doing the laundry!!!! We caught another fish yesterday this time a maui maui - excellent eating fish!! It was funny cause Dorothy Marie
had just called us on the vhf to say they caught one ( first fish this trip) and then not 10 minutes later we had the same!

our location is 07* 15's 136* 28'w

Dionne

orca3 location 03*18'S 13*59'W

we are sailing at 6.5 knots and have 20knts of wind, but with wind comes seas, so we are quite heeled over about 20*-25* depending on the wave. we are all feeling a little queezy when down below and have had to close up the hatches for all the salt water coming in. but if we keep this speed up we will hit land in about 3.5 days ! Yeah!!!! Dorothy Marie is right behind us, I mean right behind us and is working on passing us as I type this. All the other boaters on our nets are quite amazed that we
have been able to stay this close together. we have traveled over 2000 nm with only 480 to go!!
OUr water maker is still troublesome. we are making it into our 5 gallon jug and then dumping it into our tanks to try to flush out all the salty bad water. We have turned off one tank in hopes that we can flush out one and use that water then flush out the other. We also are still having troubles with the battery charger on the inverter so have resorted to charging the batteries off the main engine until we make landfall. so glad we are so close to land. other then those two things everything
else is working excellently. love the autopilot, not a single problem, he just keeps on working.
We caught another marlin last night around midnight.... a blue marlin around 3.5 ft long. and also a squid 1.5 ft long we put the squid back. but what a strange thing to catch on a fishing line.!! our buddy Glen of Dorothy Marie is quite jealous as he has caught nothing so far.... we will be sharing our marlin with him. we told him to come closer and we will throw it at him and he can " catch" it in his net and this would count for catching fish on the way to the Marquesas - hahaha

we seem to have picked up some speed and are heeling over more now, which makes it very hard to stay at the chart table......

by for now

Dionne orca III

just siling along 01* 44.184' s 132* 47.660'w

We are sailing!!! slowly mind you, but got some good wind last night, got up to 5 knts. looking forward to the south trades. hope we get some 20 knowt so we can really sail, turns out I ( Dionne ) love the speed, so have been playing with the sails and course to get some. too bad our spinnaker bit the dust, these winds we have right now could use that sail. We have actually got ahead of Dorothy Marie , which is quite the feet as they have been ahead of us most of the time ( except we crossed the
equator first) we are only 10 nm apart so have been yacking on the VHF again and Emma and Maya have been playing hangman again with Sally. good fun. Our friends on Tillicum hit landfall yesterday afternoon and are quite happy to be there. Other cruising boat Tin Soldier hit the day before and went for a hike to a waterfall. We are all looking so forward to hiking there!! Steve managed to get some good water out of the water maker yesterday. he is taking it off each membrane seperately ( we fill
our big water jug and fill all water bottles) turns out one of our membranes is either plugged or trashed. The water we have in our water tanks has salt in it because of that membrane. glad we a temporary fix until land fall. We were getting a little low on drinking water, and I was not feeling to well. but all is okay now. At least we had the Dorothy Marie ready to give us some water if need be. good to have them back close.
I forgot to mention the time we crossed the equator . it was 0130 utc. Have not seen any sea life for a while, the big sea turtle being the last thing we saw and he was about 300lbs. no fish either. hope to catch some more soon though.

thats about it for now.... hoping to hit the westerly current soon, sure helps with the speed. we'll take all we can.

Dionne

crossing the equator

The Tremblay troup of Orca III left March 24 to sail the big blue sea,
We stopped at Sacorro for a couple of days , loved watching the whales and manta rays play.
Three weeks later, we crossed the equator......
April 14th is the big day, made even better, cause true to the letter it is my mom's birthday!
The stars and the moon were a treat late at night, and us finding the Southern Cross was sure a delight!
We struggled through no wind, light wind and rocky rolly seas, - that's when we discovered "TOMATO THERAPY'!
A rip and a tear... the spinnaker no longer there! taken by King Neptune , we gladly set free....
Anything to keep us in fairly calm seas.
Buddie boating most of the way with "The Dorothy Marie", they soon sailed past us and far out to sea.
Keeping in touch via the net, the ham radio and VHF are the best entertainment yet!!
And now once again close at hand , our buddies, Dorothy Marie, Shilling , Tillicum and the rest of the clan!
As we approach the last leg of our trip, we realize we had only one day of rain falls and drip.
HOw lucky we were able to stay...
away from the squalls day after day!
The boat she was wonderful, the autopilot the best - unfortunately the watermaker gave us the test...
The water tastes yucky! and we hope to find,
Some way to fix it to ease Dionne's mind!
The Crew is in great spirits as we understand... that only a few days to a week before we hit land!!
And now as we come to the end I must confess.. This EXPERIENCE for us has been quite the test!!
Emotions ran high, good days and bad - but we've all come through this without going stark raving mad!
We thank you all for being a part of our days.....
Your spirit being with us in many many ways!!

Love Dionne, Steve, Kyle,Maya and our Emma

orca location 05*46.70' N 130* 42.66'W

we are getting close to the equator!! right now we are motor sailing and have been for the last 36 hrs. We are in the ITCZ and are wanting to get through to avoid as many squalls as possible. the wind is about 3-5 kts and we have had only one bit of rain and missed a big squall - we were tracking it on the radar and kept it to our port . good for us!! we now have another boat " Shilling" just 15 miles away . they are from the UK and have 30,000 offshore miles under them, we have been talking
on the VHF. and as of this morning we are back in VHF range with the Dorothy Marie!! yeah!!

The only bummer part about having the engine run so long is that it heats up the boat, and it is already hot out!! Emma and Maya have been listening to the audio book collection "Narnia" they look so cute sitting side by side plugged into the same disc man. Kyle has been reading and building more Dungeon and Dragons stuff..... watch out Lincoln and Grant! not much else to say, just plugging along. my list of net check in's has gotten smaller as the boats arrive in the Marquases . We are now the
head of the pack as the next two boats should be hitting port in a day or so.

Trivia Question : what does ITCZ stand for?

Dionne and her crew of Orca III

here is something fun for you to try

here is your trivia all you trivia buffs. we are playing games with our fellow cruisers on the Dorothy Marie. we got them all - good luck to you and have fun, post your answers cause there is a prize for the most correct, my mom emails me the comments. to be judged by Kyle ,Maya and Emma
my friend Sally of Dorothy Marie sent this to us to play, we are not in VHF range anymore.... we had fun and thought you'd like to try

I was looking through our game cupboard and found a list of brain challenges. Thought you guys might like to give them a try. They are number related. For example... Problem 7 = D. in a W. Answer 7 = Days in a Week

26 = L. in the A. 12 = M. in a Y.

A bit harder... 7 = W. of the W.

1001 = A.N.

12 = S. of the Z.

9 = P. in the S.S.

54 = C. in a D. (with the J.'s)

update from Orca three

Well shock of all shock its raining here out in the middle of the ocean!! good for a wash down on the boat and get the salt off. We are also busy collecting water for drinking cause our watermaker is still making not so good tasting water. Hoping the vinegar with help clear that up. looking for any ideas on what to do..... Ron Tremblay has been great at relaying info from the village marine watermaker people, thanks Ron.

today is a good day...... we have had some not so good ones, but thanks to tomato therapy.... what's tomato therapy you ask, well the other day I had had enough rocking and rolling and everything flying around especially while making lunch and sea water coming through my center hatch soaking my table and part of my forward bed and then my dishwater dumping all over the counter and into my fridge after a wave dumped us on the port, that I lost it and pounded the heck out of the nice cut up tomatoes
and orange rings with my fist. seeds and juice everywhere, even orange juice squirted in my eye.... Maya was helping me and she left to carry what was left of the lunch up stairs trying not to laugh, cause her mom had flipped ...... but it sure felt goood and we all laughed , then changed course and the boat settled a bit, until the next day.....
Life is a challenge out here most days with the movement of the boat, the wind gusting and then dying , we finally took down the main as it kept driving the boat upwind, trying to get enough sleep. those dam night watches are not so easy. and then losing VHF contact with our buddies. we now just do the ham, I am still the net controller for the evening and it has been great talking to all the boats.. boy there are a lot with kids, about 3 more than I knew of.
Steve has had to rebuild the water pump for the fresh water, twice the stupid thing, still waiting for calmer seas so he can change the inverter and add the alternator to the generator, currently it can't keep our batteries charged so we have had to run the main engine for 1-1/12 hrs in the morning, which of course makes the pilot house rather warm, but we are making it. never seems to be nothing to do around here. have been catching lots of fish .. skipjack tuna but we have enough of those so
we have been releasing them.
Poor Emma has been getting sick for the last couple of mornings, it has been so rocky and rolly!! I wonder if we will fall on our race when we finally get to land? hmmmmm .... anyway,we all have enough bruises to keep the arnica people in business, thank god I brought a ton of it!! hahaha

Well Kyle, Maya and Emma say hi to all their friends and will email so as we get to port. off I go to bake some peanut butter cookies with Emma.
You all enjoy that flat land now you hear!!

Orca III position as of 2209 utc is 05*40.94' N 129*57.18' W cog 228*T boat speed 5.4 knots have fun plotting us. for those who don't know you can go to winlink.org and type in VA7ORC and you will see us there with a lot of other boats.

here is something fun for you to try

here is your trivia all you trivia buffs. we are playing games with our fellow cruisers on the Dorothy Marie. we got them all - good luck to you and have fun, post your answers cause there is a prize for the most correct, my mom emails me the comments. to be judged by Kyle ,Maya and Emma
my friend Sally of Dorothy Marie sent this to us to play, we are not in VHF range anymore.... we had fun and thought you'd like to try

I was looking through our game cupboard and found a list of brain challenges. Thought you guys might like to give them a try. They are number related. For example... Problem 7 = D. in a W. Answer 7 = Days in a Week

26 = L. in the A. 12 = M. in a Y.

A bit harder... 7 = W. of the W.

1001 = A.N.

12 = S. of the Z.

9 = P. in the S.S.

54 = C. in a D. (with the J.'s)

here's a picture of the kids

Hey all thought you'd like this.

this is when we stopped at Socorro Island for the night. So glad I figured out how to send them. but it takes quite a while so only the odd picture will be sent.

love you all

Dionne

Update from Orca3...

hey there all, as you have noticed i have figured out how to send photos through the ham. I have to adjust them so small, hope they look okay. It takes 25 minutes for one picture to go through so you will only get a few here and there. Enjoy!! notice how blue the water is!!!!
we caught 2 tuna yesterday and one first thing this morning! yeah we needed them!! I ( Dionne ) am now the net controller for the 0200 time for the Pacific Puddle Jumpers net for the week. I call all the boats who are underway to the Marquesass and get their check in. there are 28 boats so far.

Steve is working away polishing , and boy it looks great!! even has the girls helping out. Still battling the battery charging but Steve has a plan today to put the bigger alternator on the generator. this should help quite a bit.

Check out our buddies blog at sailblogs.com/member/thedorothymarie this is the boat we are travelling with and she posted a picture of us on our boat iln the open ocean , have fun looking at us sailing along!!

its getting hotter and hotter!!

april 5 update from Orca III

Hey everyone!!
still sailing along here at 6 knots wing on wing - genoa on the port using the boom as a pole and the staysail on the starboard with the pole. works great!! have pictures to post later. Yesterday we had some big fish just tear out lure right off, kinda glad he did cause he must have been big. This was the lure that caught us that 6.5 foot marlin. made for some excitement.

thought you'd like to hear what a typical day at sea aboard Orca III is. As we use the full 24 hours in a day a starting point is hard so I will start with Don's weather report on 8122 at 7:15am local time or our time 1415 utc. on for around 1/2 hr. then we start the generator if it wasn't already going.... our biggest challenge is keeping the batteries charged!! hope on the computer as we can only use it when the generator is running cause the invertor is acting up ( will replace with our original
one once we hit the Marquesas) Check in with our buddies Robert and Rose of Tillicum at 1545 utc and then at 1600 uct its is check in with the Pacific Puddles Jumpers net on 6224 . throughout the day and evening we have been on the VHF with Dorothy Marie ( our travelling buddies) checking each others speed and position and course and anything else just for fun.
the last watchers generally go down for a sleep, (usually Steve and Kyle but today its me and Maya) I get my buckets of fresh water and start to desalt the windows and deck and oil some of the stainless. Breakfast is everyone for them self, the odd time I make French Toast. - or something.....

then its reading for the kids and also they are currently doing the travel workbooks ( thanks Andrea and Auntie Bon) they are loving them. boat projects for Steve and myself - Steve is polishing all the stainess work he did with a wax that should keep it shining. I bake and help with whatever, taking reading breaks for Steve and me also, the kids and Steve are back reading the Harry Potter again. I am reading To kill a Mockingbird. ( just maybe Kyle will after me.. one can only hope!) adjust the
sails once and while, the kids have been going on the VHF to play hangman and do math with Sally on Dorothy Marie. before you know it its 2330 utc and time to check in with Blue Water CRuising net on 14.347 . Every couple of days the kids have a check in with fellow cruiser kid Jayred of Tin soldier at 0055 utc ojn 14.347 and then our final check in for the day is back to Pacific Puddle Jumpers at 0200utc on 6224. somewhere in there Steve and I squish in a game of crib. Lunch and dinner and
snacking of course are in there. and Kyle constantly is checking our lines for fish. He is our true fisherman!!! Generator is run again, and every 2-3 days we run the big engine to make water and help with the batteries. We are currently double flushing the water as the taste is not so good. first we make water from the salt water then we flush the freshwater out of the tanks through the watermaker and fill all water bottles, bags whatever for drinking. this tastes good!! will be cleaning that once
we hit land also.
Then we settle into our watch routine with the fist ones on, and the others sleeping and we switch every 4 hours. We keep a record of our position , course barometer wind speed, boat speed in our pilot log. check the radar, yack with Dorothy Marie, look out for other ships ( haven't seen any in about 5 days) then read, doze ( watch alarm goes of every 15 minutes) stare at the stars.

the days go by so fast !! Haven't been bored yet

I do miss going out for lunch or dinner once in a while. don't think I have cooked so much..... 3x a day 7 days a week ( so far thats 14 days straight) one of the first things we are doing when we hit land is going out to eat!!!! Steve and the kids do help once in a while with the food stuff.

Dionne, Steve Kyle, Maya Emma

ps lat 11*51068'N 121*05.52'W - its warm at night and we are doing our watches in shorts and t-shirts ( steve no shirt) even in the middle of the night. how cool is that?!

are in the trade winds now!! (5:48 PM)

Well we've made it to the trade winds!! they are blowing 20 knots and we are having a great sail! we picked them up earlier than our friends on Tillicum - we got them at 118* w , they got them at 119* w. also had our spinnker blow out, and I mean blow out. the top ripped of the halyard and ripped the whole thing in half. we were unable to get the other half so king neptune has himself some sail cloth for clothes. and we have the other half and the sock for something. quite the excitement!! and
now no spinnaker. Steve is going to try to have 2 head sails up. gonna try that tomorrow. run the jib up on the side of the genoa. apparently this works well for these down wind winds.

our buddies on the Dorothy Marie also dumped their spinnaker. Their halyard holding the spinnaker broke , they managed to retrieve their spinnaker! no ripps

our current location is 14*12.91' N 118*39.26' W sailing at 6.5 knots. COG 228*T

other than all the flying fish everywhere not much else to say

Dionne

good morning canada!! (7:54 AM)

just a quick position update for the emails and blog. we are at 14*45'N 117*56'W doing 3.8 knots ( still waiting for the trades, should be here in the next couple of days) COG 205*T wind speed about 9 knots.

Everyone is doing excellent, I am making french toast today - Emma says yeah!! I have been making chili to freeze and baking lots for when we have rougher weather. Still have Dorothy Marie right with us and we talk regularly on the VHF. well its is 1545 utc ( zulu, gmt whatever way youi want to call it - it's all the same) and time to check in with our other buddies on Tillicum and then 1600 utc is the puddle jumpers net check in.

getting closer and closer to the equator!!

take care all

Dionne

April 1- april fools day and Greames birthday!!

good morning all, and a happy Birthday Graeme.

we are plugging along at 4 kts. not a lot of wind over the last 12 hours. We have had full main and genoa and even had the spinnaker out. Orca III is not a light wind boat!! our current position is : 15*51.35'N 115*24.88'W our compass heading is 255* . Apparently the trade winds are at 119* W so we are getting close to having our winds to make us move. Our buddies on the Dorothy Marie are loving being ahead of us, cause they know it won't be for long.

Last night during Steve and Kyles watch a flying fish landed in our cockpit! Bummer I didn't get to see it. but it was very blue and had big wings for such a small little guy. So thats one squid and one flying fish so far.

We are having to make do on some things, the generator is now wired right to the panel which means no inverter. Steve switched inverters before we left and now this one is glitching out. so in order to use the computer we need to run the generator, so that means not a lot of computer time. But that's okay , he will switch back to our other one once we are in the Marquesas. Everything else is working well.

The kids will be playing hangman over the radio today with The Dorothy Marie- this should be fun.

well signing off for now.

love ya Dionne