Well, we crossed over to the southern hemisphere

00deg20.4155S 131deg18.880W 10:55L

We just had the welcoming committee for the southern hemisphere, a group of 50 or so porpoises jumping around on our starboard side. The equator was crossed during the night, and we sailed past the line slowly with light winds from the SE. We celebrated the crossing during the sunset the night before with a good bottle of bubbly and some smoked trout, after having landed a big sailfish (the same family of fish as marlins and swordfish) on our now fairly beaten up fishing reel. It was a long beautiful fish with nice meat, and so far we have caught a wide variety of different fish which is a proof how alive this ocean is. So today it will be fish for lunch and dinner, we can probably feed a family of 20. H�kan and I are having good conversations and reflection about our lives and families, this is one of the advantages of sailing on a long passages like this one, you have the time to just hang out. Our destination, Hiva Oa, is currently 718 nm off to the southwest. Hiva Oa is the second of the large Marquesas islands from the south. The most southerly island Fatu Hiva is one of the most beautiful islands in the world, and is very well described in the book by Thor Heyerdahl by the same name. The problem is that you first have to check into the country at either Hiva Oa or Nuka Hiva, and then it is a hard beat back to Fatu Hiva which is SE of Hiva Oa and against the wind. So, considering that, and that I have already been there, and that our time is limited, and that we kind of want to be following the rules, we will start our exploration of the Marquesas with Hiva Oa and then sail to the other islands in the chain in a northwesterly direction. Hiva Oa is famous for being where the painter Paul Gauguin is buried among other things. The trade winds are blowing nicely today, and they are being more ESE than SE which is great for us. Life can be full of simplified beauty if you just let it happen.

Fredrik,

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