Arrived in "îles Marquises" : We did it !

Dear families, friends and Infinity followers !

We sailed from Hawaii to Marquesas Islands ! It took us exactly 2 weeks, 6 days and 22 hours. We are all very proud of our trip !
Everything went well, everybody is fine and I guess that we all loved that experience!
I was amazed that we didn’t see another sign of life during the crossing. Not a boat or even an airplane for that matter. Just us, in the middle of the South Pacific, all alone. Actually that’s not really true, we shared some sailing time with some dolphins around the boat, just as if they were showing us the way to go.
The weather was a good compromise : great wind (Traudl went up to steer the boat up to more than 8.5 knots !), calm afternoons favourable happy hour times, sunny days, … And I will always remember our first rainy day, when we all went on the deck, enjoying a fresh shower outside, running everywhere with a happy face !
The crossing was made of a lot of memorable moments :
-waking up in the middle of the night for putting the sails up or down because of weather conditions changing,
-watching beautiful sunsets and sunrises with our shift team partner and counting the “étoiles filantes”,
-running at the back of the boat to bring back Tuna caught on the fishing line
-becoming crazy with the big swell making the boat rolling a lot, and everything flying in the galley,
-the crossing equator party when we all went swimming, getting dragged by a line at the back of the boat, and drink a beer magically found somewhere on the boat …
-our music session made of singing, Ukulele, drums and happy sounds
It is hard for me to describe all the feelings that I had during this trip but I definitely will never forget it !

Well, we are now in Hiva Oa for a couple of days. We all went on land, met with people, talked with them (in French for me, what a pleasure !), enjoyed this beautiful island, spent some time to know more about Paul Gauguin and Jacques Brel who are buried on this island. We also started interviews with local people around our main focus on climate change. Duncan and Chad had a really good exchange with Pifa, a local teacher.

We will leave today for next Marquesian island : Tahuata !

Everyone is great, more news and pictures to come soon, as far as our internet connection allows us to upload pics of everyone !

Last thing, a personal hello from Jeremy to Neil Roosevelt : “I received your messages but haven’t had a connection for long enough to respond “

* Claire *