We left the island of Toboga 7 miles from Panama and headed towards the Las Perlas Islands, 35 miles away. We traveled in company with a French boat Maeio, crewed by Bruno and Catherine. The first island we visited was Contadora, the millionaire's paradise. The island was very well kept, but had no facilities, such as water or fuel or shops. Luckily we had supplied in Panama. After Contadora we visited several other islands in company with Bruno and Catherine, all of them uninhabited, and we were the only two boats there. Our final island was San Jose where we spent 5 days preparing the boat for the voyage to Galapagos 850 miles S.W.

Friday 21st August. We waved goodbye to Bruno and Catherine, who are heading for the west coast of America, and motored into the calm waters of the Gulf of Panama. The Humboldt current is against us and the prevailing winds are S.W., during the first day we motored for 6 hours, seeing lots of debris, obviously carried by the current. At one time we were hit by a whole tree, we were not moving very fast at the time so no damage was done. The wind finally arrived and we started to make slow progress, after 2 more days of light winds it increased to force 5 and blew from the S.W. exactly where we wanted to go. Progress is terribly slow our daylight hours were made enjoyable by a school of friendly dolphins who escorted us until dark, and the night watch was enlivened by the presence of a blue footed booby bird which spent the night on the pulpit.

Monday 24th August. We still can't go in the direction we want. We had a bad storm during the night and had to take down all the sails except the headsail. The Pacific Ocean seems to be mis-named.

Tuesday 25th August. Still making poor progress, we can only sail South East or North West.

Wednesday 26th August. We saw lots of Korean fishing boats today, and lots of Tuna jumping, obviously they go together. After 4 more days of frustrating winds we decided to sail south towards Ecuador, and pick up the equatorial current. This proved to be the best tactic, and as the wind got stronger we laid a good course south.

By 3rd September we were making good progress in the right direction, and the last 2 days we had a good force 5 or six as we sped towards Wreck Bay, San Cristobel at a good five and a half knots. We sighted the island at 0600hrs on Saturday 6th September, and sailed into the harbour entrance. We are the only yacht here. When we went to clear customs we were informed that as we had no visa we could only stay 72 hrs. It had taken us 15 days to sail 850 miles.

Some local fishermen came by and said hello, in Spanish, later in the evening they returned and brought us 8 small lobsters as a welcoming gift. What a welcome! Our first night we went ashore we went to a small harbourside restraint and met Cecilia, the owner and her family. The food was really cheap and tasty. Later in the week Cecilia visited the port captain on our behalf, and got us an extension of stay to 8 days. On Sunday some local people came by and took Dave and Sarah to visit a seal colony and bird sanctuary, on an island 15 miles away. On Monday 2 more yachts arrived and we all clubbed together to hire the local school bus for a tour of the island and a visit to a volcanic lake, in a crater at the top of the island.

We saw all the birds and local fauna and in the harbour we had iguanas and seals swimming around the boat. A very old large tortoise that we visited proved to be very bad tempered and we decided to make our visit to him short. On our last day our fishermen friends brought us some black coral as a going away gift. We really enjoyed ourselves in there lovely islands. All preparations were made and we left Wreck Bay at 07.00am on Sunday 14th September. We were heading for our longest sail yet 3600 miles to the Marquesas Islands. We stopped the engine at the harbour entrance and didn't start it again to propel the boat until Nuku Hiva 26 days away.

The crossing was beautiful. The first 2 days we had strong winds and made 148 and 150 miles a day. Then the winds got less but there was still enough to move us on comfortably. For 5 days and nights we flew the spinnaker non-stop. The only problem we had was the sacrificial piece on the Aries paddle broke, we think it hit a piece of flotsam, and Dave made a quick repair. Most of time we goose winged and seldom had to alter the sails or self steering. It was a classic sail, but during the 26 days we were at sea we never saw another boat or plane although we kept watch all the time. Also we never caught any fish despite trailing our tasty looking lures continually.

When we were half way we made a sign with 2 pointers saying Galapagos 1800miles and Marquesas 1800miles to mark the occasion. We sighted Ua Huka, one of the Marquesas at Sunset on 10th October. During the night we passed it and made a wonderful landfall at dawn in Taiohoe Bay Nuku Hiva. The island was beautiful, green and mountainous, exactly as we had dreamed it would be. Customs, however, were a different kettle of fish. All captains and crew have to post a bond, equal to an air flight home. Ours worked out at $3000 each for the three of us. Luckily we had US visas and were able to bargain with the bank, finally paying $750, equal to the air fare to Hawaii. This bond was later recovered at Bora Bora as we left French Polynesia.

We stayed 2 weeks at Taiohoe then sailed to the next bay, Daniels Bay, which was almost landlocked, and difficult to see from seaward. From this anchorage we went on a walk into the mountains, along old Polynesian tracks, rather similar to our roman roads. After 3 miles we reached our goal, a spectacular waterfall, en route we had passed old tikis, statues of gods, and maraes, old temple platforms, and several locals on horseback, there are no roads in the interior. It was a truly wonderful place.

Our next island in the Marquesas was Ua Poa, crowned by exciting pinnacles of rock. Again we were the only boat there and had a lovely time walking inland to explore the jungle. After 4 days we set sail for Hiva Oa, the second largest island, 60 miles to the south east. Unfortunately we had a head wind and couldn't make the island so we decided to go to nearby Tahuata and anchor in Resolution Bay, named after captain Cooks craft, a previous Yorkshire yacht which visited the island 200 years before us in 1774. This tiny island was completely unspoilt and we spent 2 days exploring and meeting the friendly islanders.

We sailed for Hiva Oa 25 miles away, but had to beat all the way into a fresh breeze, and finally gained the harbour at Atuona by the light of a full moon. The entrance was easy, with good leading lights and we anchored safely between several other cruising yachts. Next day was spent making friends with fellow sailors and collecting information on shopping etc. One of the highlights of our visit was the walk to Gauguin's grave overlooking the harbour, it has a magnificent setting and was really worth the uphill walk

Our final destination in the Marquesas was Fatu Hiva 45 miles south. The most beautiful island of all. We had a brisk sail down with a following wind and dropped anchor in 60ft of water in the Bay of Virgins, an incredible anchorage inside a volcanic crater, surrounded by pinnacles and high mountains. The village chief welcomed us with a stalk of bananas and some grapefruit and told us of some lovely walks. The first one we did was to the top of the mountain surrounding the bay, We took a photo of Blue Spurr, but it was really tiny. Next day we set off into the interior through wild orchards of mango trees and abandoned houses. We collected a rucksack full of mangoes and a stalk of bananas, the following day we went back and filled our bags with wild lemons and oranges which lasted us 6 weeks. It was a really beautiful island and the most spectacular scenery we have seen so far.

Sunday 23rd November. We sorrowfully left Fatu Hiva to head for the Tuamotos, a string of atolls, 800 miles west en route to Tahiti. Our landfall was to be Manihi, one of the eastern group. The wind was very light and after the first day we were becalmed for 2 days. Forgetting about sharks and monsters of the deep we took it in turns to swim from the boat, putting on mask and snorkels and looking down into 2 miles of deep blue Pacific Ocean.

On November 30th about 20 miles from Manihi we were hit by a storm with gale force winds and were a little worried about our proximity to the atoll, so we laid ahull until dawn. The atoll is only visible 6 miles off and we sighted it early in the morning, but were worried about making it in time, as the tide can be very strong 4-5 knots in the entrance pass. We worked it out using the moon, that slack water was at 2pm. And reached the pass at 2.30pm. This was our introduction to Polynesian paradise. We could not enter the lagoon as it is too shallow, so we tied to the copra boat dock. There are only 20 families on the atoll and our arrival caused quite a stir. Everyone came out to welcome us. That evening and every following evening the locals came to the dock with their homemade ukuleles and guitars and serenaded us. The next morning Dave was taken spear fishing and given half the catch, the lagoon was teeming with fish of every colour and variety and they made easy targets as they had no fear of humans.

People started inviting us to their homes and every time we entered a house we were given a shell necklace as a gift, if we admired anything it was offered to us immediately. The main income of the island comes from black pearls, and we were given a tour of a pearl farm, and saw them growing in about 60ft of water and the divers going sown to clean them. Sarah was given 6 small pearls as a going away gift. We only intended to stay 2 days but were invited to a double wedding so decided to stay an extra day. Finally after 4 days we said that we must leave and that evening all our friends brought a case of beer and a going away cake for a party which lasted until 6.00am. Needless to say we didn't leave that day. The same thing happened 3 nights running and eventually we had to say that we really must go. The children of Manihi now know a new English word "tomorrow" it means that the English boat on the Quay is not going anywhere!

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