ALL PEANUTS - July 19th

Hana Moe Noa Bay , TUHUATA Island, Marquesas

Lat 9 degrees 54 min S
Lon 139 degrees 06 min W

This is paradise, no question. Tropical in the South Pacific and we are here and it is postcard beauty and it is very good.

Sail or laze all day, anchor off white sandy beach, swim, fish and then swap parties throughtout the night with new cruising friends from all over the world. Austrian, Australian, Swiss, American, Brits, Kiwis, Hungarians and us. Everyone from far away and yes just like us. We have lots to talk about, swap sea stories, distant lands and great scare stories.

The Peanuts. After all the above of course we love our boats and I love comparative anatomy. I wanted to compare Terrwyn with the 2 dozen boats with whom we have been watching and gunkholing down wind here in the Marqueses.

Thirty five years ago in NZ I met a similar "cruiser" initially as my patient who had just crossed the Tasman Sea in his yacht. A 29 foot glass sloop. We talked all night i.e. I asked and he answered sailing stories. I was hooked and now we are here in Terrwyn. These boats here are all bigger than Terrwyn. Averaing 43 feet I guess, glass, half are retired charter boats from the Carribean and now very much "off white" i.e. dirty and bruised, littered with stuff on deck after years afloat . We are newly out a whoe 2 months, they are 2 years out. Basic, beaten up working sails all furling gear and an inflatable dinghy with outboards hanging off their painters. They - large, spacious windows; we small portholes.

About 1/3 are big boxy catamarans. Big and loaded with children, no safety anything, minimal visible supervision and scary as heck but they are happy and the young parents relaxed. Power to youth.

The guys all love Terrwyn (we all love everyone else's boats) and its great sport comparing gear. Below decks in the few we have gone below are palatial and lovely. (Terrwyn is a boat, small and largely filled with stuff).. Cathy's eyes have been dilated for sure. But it is amazing these big boats all have water makers, use electronic charts virtually exclusively, generators, no sextants, no paper charts, and no pee bucket that I have seen. Amazing. Out boat is 10 feet 10 inches and our breeboard id 13 feet. These boats are 14 - 16 feet across and 5 feet freeboard at least. We have a tiller and a windvane, they have a big wheel often double wheels and internal electronic auto helms. I grew up reading the Hiscocks' (Wanderers 31-35 feet; the Roths' (Whisper - 35 feet) and the Pardeys' (Serrafyn and Taleisin at 24 and 28 feet) and felt BIG and

Boorish with Terrwyn's lengthy 37 feet, but this generation of boaters are at least 1/2 as big again or double our size and displacement and we look small. Amazing. We are smaller for sure, however every bit or more seaworthy (I believe.) but as my English yachtsman in NZ back when was saying "29 ft - 60 ft yachts in the big open ocean are all peanuts ' big or small'. All just peanuts." Coming from the smallest peanut around... I just love that phrase.

Back to business, just putting about on this boat,

Love
Billy