AdventuresAboardAvatar: Passage to Gambier Islands

Our dear friends in Hanavave gave us two large bunches of bananas from their tree for our 8 trip. This is the first time I have ever seen a bunch, where only a few of the bananas are ripe already. Usually they all ripen at once!!

The sun is setting on our first day at sea, January 9, 2018.

Feels good with the sailing motion of the boat as the sun goes down and we get into our routine.

Ahh, the after glow....

Pretty much each day looked like this, blue sky with puffy clouds and a nice breeze to push us along.

The trade winds have made a swing to the ENE, which is good since our course is ESE. Just a close reach, not a noserly! Spray splashes from the bow wave.

Uh oh, we need to eat the bananas faster!!!

The sun rises through the overnight spray on the dodger windshield.

The beauty of the ocean never ceases to amaze, as the light shines through the clouds.

Squall ahead! Dark rainy cloud. And seas picking up.

Two days before we got there, Mike catches a Wahoo! Yea, fresh fish!

Wow that guy chomped up our plastic squidly!!

Sunset

Our first welcome committee, a Masked Boobie!

Squall, isolated thunder head, but we can sail around it!

As daylight is just rising on January 16, we get our first glimpse of the islands.

Land Ho! Only took 7 days!

Mike was sleeping in the cockpit, knowing we would be arriving right about sunrise.

There is the gap between the islands we need to pass through.

Shelly at the helm of Avatar. If you noticed we are both wearing sweat shirts. We are now at 24 degrees South, the same Latitude North as La Paz!!

The glisten of the sun on the water in the distance, as we are still in the shade of a cloud.

Looks like our friends Tapio and Eva of the vessel “Irene” just beat us here from Hao island in the Tuamotus. They are from Finland and we know them from our SSB radio net.