We returned to Mexico on February 28th after leaving Zoe out of the water for 9 months at the Opequimar shipyard in Puerto Vallarta. In preparation for the crossing to French Polynesia, we had planned about fifteen days of maintenance work, but as of…

Wednesday, April 10th: The departure day has arrived. After completing the formalities at the port authority to leave Mexico, we hoisted the sails and set off for French Polynesia! The boat is packed with food and supplies for the next month of saili…

We arrived at the island of Socorro at the first light of dawn. This island, as well as Clarion further ahead, is a paradise for scuba diving; there are giant manta rays, whale sharks, tiger sharks, and definitely whales, as one came to greet us u…

Departed! This morning at 8:30, we left the island of Socorro heading towards Hiva Oa, the first stop on the route of the Marquesas Islands, one of the three archipelagos of French Polynesia that we plan to visit. The route from Socorro to our destin…

Tomorrow we will have covered about 1/3 of the distance from Puerto Vallarta to Hiva Oa. As we hypothesized in the last post, the new weather forecasts have led to a significant update of the route, which had to take into account unexpected wind hole…

Today is Sunday, but it won’t be a very different day from the others. Sunrise is around 7:45, often hidden by thick clouds on the horizon; sunset is around 8:15 PM, also obscured by clouds. The hours mentioned are purely conventional, as we have mai…

Since yesterday, Hiva Oa, our destination, is closer (as the crow flies…) than Puerto Vallarta, where we departed from. We are “only” 1400 nautical miles away! Also yesterday, we officially entered the ITCZ, and immediately experienced one of its p…

Hurray!!! We’ve exited the ITCZ and “officially” entered the trade winds, or at least it seems that way! We have a 15-knot wind from the southeast, and we’re proceeding at an average speed of over 6 knots. The forecasts indicate this steady wind, per…

The first time Sergio was in South America, upon arriving at the Buenos Aires’s house of his hosting friends, he went to the bathroom and satisfyingly noticed that the water flushed in a counterclockwise direction, opposite to what happens in the nor…

If someone thinks that crossing the Pacific is something for a select group of people, the image below instead tells a situation reminiscent of Via del Corso in Rome, perhaps on the occasion of an extraordinary event such as the opening of a new comm…

May 6th, 6:00 AM local time. Hiva Oa at dawn We’ve arrived at Hiva Oa! What a beauty! What a relief! All the unforeseen events that could have happened fortunately didn’t! Or rather, some did, but were easily manageable! The generator broke …

The following day after our arrival, we had planned to rent a car to go to Atuona to complete the entry formalities into the country. However, due to national holidays in French Polynesia, we had to change our plans, so we first dedicated ourselves t…

Saturday morning, May 11th, bright and early, we set off with the rental car, accompanied by Joe and Lupita, towards the northeast part of Hiva Oa to visit the archaeological site of Lipona, near Puamau, which hosts the most important collection of t…

After returning the rental car, we decided to complete our exploration of the island on foot. From Hanaiapa, we took the walk to the adjacent bay of Hanatekuua, which, according to the information we received, was an hour and a half walk away. The pa…

Once we finished exploring Hiva Oa, we couldn’t wait to reach the southernmost island of the Marquesas, Fatu Hiva, often described as the most beautiful in this archipelago. To cover the 55 miles that separated us from this island, we decided to make…

Starting from Fatu Hiva, we headed towards the island of Tahuata where we had been told it would be possible to swim with Manta Rays (a species of giant rays). Upon arriving north of the island in Hanamoenoa Bay, we indeed noticed intense snorkeling …

After visiting the arboretum in Ua Huka, we set off for Nuku Hiva, which is only 27 miles away. This is the largest and most populated island of the Marquesas, whose widest bay can accommodate more than a hundred boats; indeed, we had no difficulty f…

At dawn on June 11th, we hoisted the sails bound for Raroia, the island we chose to land on in the Tuamotu Archipelago. The Tuamotu Archipelago, occupying an area comparable to Western Europe, comprises 80 islands, or rather atolls, which are comp…

On the afternoon of June 19, we set off for Makemo, 80 miles to the west. We were accompanied by three other boats, all Amel ketches (two-masted). We had timed our departure from Raroia so that we could arrive at the pass of Makemo at the time of min…

On June 25, with a following wind, we set off for Kauehi, a small atoll to the northwest of Makemo. We chose this atoll because its layout provided an ideal anchorage to shelter from the expected “maramù” for several days. The “maramù” is a wind tha…