June 29th, 2011

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Volpaia Time: 16:00
Zulu Time: 01:30
16 37.78 S
143 34.42 W

Speed: anchored
Wind: 10.7 knots 088 T
Course: N/A
Seas: 0 ft
Destination: arrived
Crew: Liz, Colby, Shay, Brett, Alix & Cyrus celebrating with champagne

Comments:

At 3:15pm today Volpaia and crew arrived in Makemo atoll, the final destination of a journey that started almost 1 month ago from the tip of the Baja peninsula in La Paz, Mexico. A journey that included both joy and challenge, sloppy seas and awesome sailing, countless meals eaten from bowls on a slanted deck, a broken autopilot (repaired at sea), a concussion acquired from being thrown from a bunk, swimming at the equator with 3 miles of ocean below us (and apparently with a large shark), the gift of a Mahi Mahi, Yellow Fin & Bonito tunas from the Pacific, and incredibly after moving a 44 ton vessel more than 3,000 miles, the usage of less than a 1,000 liters of fuel.

If the lush green islands of our last brief stop of the Marquesas have an opposite, they would be the atolls of the Tuamotus. Located only 500 miles apart, the Marquesas signify the beginning of an island's life cycle, while the Tuamotus represent the end. Having long ago been stripped of their lush green vegetation and eventually reclaimed by the sea, all that remains of these islands is their barrier reef, the island itself having sunk and degraded to nothing and eventually replaced by a massive lagoon. The atoll of Makemo is no less than 30 miles long and 10 miles wide. Like most of the atolls of the Tuamotus chain, it's Southern portion of reef is also, now sinking back into the sea, leaving only the Northern portion, a long strip of sand and coral covered by endless palm trees, to be barely and sparsely habited. It is close to one of these small settlements of no more than a couple hundred people that we now calmly, and finally, sit at anchor.

This atoll, and it's brothers and sisters will be Volpaia's cruising grounds for the summer of 2011. We anticipate visiting the inhabitants of a host of tiny villages, great diving in clear warm water, probably what will be way to much sunshine for our skin, small grocery stores (if you could call them that) with just about nothing in them, making every drop of freshwater that we use with a watermaker, good fishing, endless palm lined beaches, millions of hermit crabs, excellent kite surfing and maybe impossibly great surf. But most importantly we anticipate smiles... and lots of them.

To all of you who have followed our latest journey, we appreciated your quick witted, humorous and sometimes heartfelt responses to our varied logs and postings. There were many, some were written in calm seas with beautiful sailing conditions while others were written with one hand on the keyboard while another one clutched the desk in an attempt to counteract the violent lurching of the vessel. These ones most likely were either short or had an "abrupt ending" for the obvious reasons that staring at screen on a hot, yawing and pitching boat will provoke. All were written from unique perspectives, and all were written with the hope that some of you could join us on our adventure... if only for a brief moment in time.

We are signing off until our next big passage in October takes us from the islands of French Polynesia to the friendly lands of New Zealand, another 3,000 mile sail into the depths of the southern hemisphere where Volpaia will be spending the "summer" months down under. Some might say we are chasing something, others might say we are running. I just say we are living, and we hope you are too. It's an incredibly beautiful world we inhabit... get out and see it.

You won't be disappointed... I promise.

Cyrus

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