From the last entry to July 4th

On June 26 the screech of tires touching down on the tarmac is heard by a wild rooster pecking at a coconut and a wild horse. Out of the plane emerge my dad, his wife, their son and my cousin, Johnny. They bring spices and music; two things we starve for. We is us Three, but now we are seven. But allow me to describe our own arrival to Les Iles Marquises, The Marquesas Islands. Two weeks earlier, after 28 days at sea, the image of Nuku Hiva, along with the sweet smell of coconuts and shrubbery fills our senses to the rim. After the sun slid behind the hill overlooking the Bay Taiohae, but before it slipped under the horizon, we drop anchor. One, two, three beers, to celebrate. A bottle of wino. And wow. We are here, after so long and so much of ocean and blue sky and miles and miles of water under the hull.
That first night we admire the large amount of cars (for such a small town) gliding along the mountainsides and the crackle of the VHF in the Swedish language. Truly a strange first night. The next day we do our check-in and explore the small town. In the evening (the next, or the one after that) we are sitting under a coconut palm enjoying a bottle of Merlot when the local Gendarme approaches to say 'Hello'. He checked us in, but now he's in civilian clothes and eager for some conversation. And so we deliver and a beautiful friendship blooms into existence. After hiking around a number of times, and meeting more Gendarmes, we are set to meet up again in Papeete, for we have now left Taiohae and are cruising around the numerous bays around the island of Nuku Hiva.
Things I've seen here that I've never seen before: Chicken eating a coconut, a horse a mango, a Marquesan girl (roughly my age) galloping bareback along the beach, her torso tattoos flashing by in the midday breeze.
Slowly we adapt to the cruising life. First it was mental preparation, then it was all the mechanical and so on preparations. Then the jump across that blue puddle, and now this. But all variations on a similar theme.
Adios,
Lukasz

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