Closing in on Hawaii, 65 miles to the nearest land mass!
A good sum up of the conversation and feelings on board right now would be anticipation for the new places we are about to discover and dread that we will be pulled back into civilisation and the coming end of this voyage. Just a few more days and we will hopefully enter Honolulu harbor. A place where millions of people live. A bigger society then we have seen in a long time. Our little bubble on board has become quite comfortable, with good conversations, easy silences, a salty shower every now and then and also our strange questions for the dark night hours (like would you rather be ‘cat in boots’ or ‘shrek’? or would you rather have Ham for clothing or a salami blanket? Or would you rather be Batman or Superman?). And soon this comfortable bubble will be over and we will be back in cell phone reach, with internet and we will be able to step into a mall and wonder at all the products we can buy.
During the day we replaced the French Polynesian flag with the American curtesy flag (picture of the day by Cecile). We are getting so close now.
The mountain on the first Island we’ll see, Hawaii, is 4200 meters high. Enormous. We have bets going on, on board, when we will be able to see the island. With just 65 miles to go, the moment should be soon. Right now it is still dark and we can not spot any light on the horizon. But with a little luck, maybe at sunrize, we will see the high rise of the mountain come up on the horizon.
The last few nights we have been under attack of flying fish. We try and save them, but do not always hear them. Yesterday we found 15 on the deck, behind ropes, under the wooden boxes and even in the mainsail that is being mended, we were only able to save 3.. Just now Maartje came back up after doing some chores down below and nearly stepped on one that we did not hear fall on the deck.
We also have a booby keeping us company, it has tried to rest on the topping lift of the jib boom, on the halyard of the fore staysail before deciding the navigational light high up in the mast, must be the most comfortable. Some times it squeals or shrieks, I think to keep us on course or to tell us off for shaking around too much.
Saw your S/V moored in front of Aloha Tower today as we were departing on tug/barge. Beautiful! Wish I had spent my years at sea the way you are. Hope you tried eating those Malolo you find on deck. They are really delicious. Fair winds and following seas.