I love the look on your face when the falcon snags his treat but the fiercest and scariest image is the one with the hyena standing on your back to get his food. Eek!

Where is Chopstick?

en route to Panama to join a catamaran headed to French Polynesia! Will try to chain together a sailboat combo after that to make it all the way to Oz via some of the smaller South Pacific islands like the Cooks, Tonga, etc

Might be stuck in FP for a couple of months while waiting for a boat but there are worse places in the world to be stuck.

Stuck in paradise? Oh, the horror!

Still highly jealous of your life. Enjoy!

Joined up with the catamaran a few days ago just south of the Panama Canal. We sail out tomorrow bound for the Marquesas in French Polynesia. Should take around 28 days or so depending on weather.

Have to get off there as their family will fly in and join them. Will look for another boat to continue on to Tahiti but most likely will end up flying over, not many boats in the Marquesas. May be able to find another boat in Tahiti headed west with a little luck, we'll see. Or may just chill in Tahiti a couple of months if the Irish people want more help onward and leave FP soon enough. Guessing they'll want to stay in FP a while so default is another boat.

Likely onward route would be the Cook Islands, maybe Niue, Tonga, Fiji, maybe New Caledonia, then either New Zealand or Australia. Would be sweet to find a boat headed more northerly tho and get up to Samoa and the Marianas.

If I end up "stuck" in Tahiti I'll catch the thread up to present. It will be the shoulder season when I arrive so hopefully will be able to find a hotel or airbnb with a rate somewhat below actual extortionary. Being willing to commit for 30+ days should help, will see what's available on VRBO/Homeaway as well. Hopefully I just lock up another sailboat right away so I'm not selling plasma for my daily baguette.

Confirmed alive. Dropped anchor a few hours ago in Fatu Hiva, the easternmost island in the Marquesas archipelago in French Polynesia, after a 28 day (& change) sail. Pleasantly surprised to find that Google Fi works here but best speed is E, so not much more than texting and WhatsApp. Fine by me. Cracked open a cold one at 09:00 local time shortly after dropping the hook cause that's how we do after a month at sea.

About a week or so chilling here in the Marquesas, then on to Tahiti via the Tuamotus archipelago, which is mostly made up of coral atolls. That should take about 10 days. Then off the boat and who knows what.

Chop I like google-mapping your locations & scrolling out and this was one of the better ones. You are literally on a dot in the South Pacific. 28 days at sea sounds crazy nuts to me.

Chop makes this look easier than it is. I'm now on my third ship that has agreed to take me on as crew for the trans-Atlantic and he's doing a bunch of repair work that may or may not finish in time for us to make the jump.

Didn't catch as many fish as I would have liked, but made the ones we did catch count:



That's a 1.8m/6ft short bill spearfish, which de cap helped ID mid-route thanks to a satellite link emailed fish ID request. Got something like 15kg/33lb meat from it.

Also had a few mahi and a few skipjack tuna, but nothing impressive. A massive marlin surfaced to steal both lures once, had to be 200kg/500lb minimum, head the size of a kitchen table. No photos of him unfortunately. Snapped 300lb test mono like it was sewing thread. Never seen anything like that before, was impressive.

Still in the Marquesas. Just sailed up to Hiva Oa today from Fatu Hiva. Here for a day or two, then up to Nuku Hiva for a few days, then sailing down thru the Tuamotus to Tahiti. One ATM card failed so far despite travel notification in place but the second one worked so haven't had to start teaching English yet to make ends meet.

Keep it coming, Chop.

The few ships I've been on just had tiny little fridges, and nothing like a freezer to keep things for a long time.

How do you keep 15kg of fresh fish from spoiling? Seems like it would take a long time to eat through that much.

The people's champ.

Dry it and/or smoke it?

Ya, ya, ya, how do you keep it lit?

Chop I'm pretty sure that fish is saying no.

Most of the bigger ships that are live aboard are equipped with decent sized fridges and freezers so you can easily freeze it. Plus chop and at least 2 other people on a boat, assume they eat fresh fish for two days which is a couple kilos of the 15kg gone already.

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This is the best thread on 2+2.

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Fyp

remember how I was putting together music for this trip for chop, took some 2+2 recommendations, threw it all on a USB stick, and gave it to him?

chop loaded up the stick, first random track was a live version of Breakdown by Tom Petty, played for 5 seconds, and then shrieks and feedback. USB stick corrupted, gg

appreciate the effort by everyone but China manufacturing got us

I'll briefly add that, after making him a playlist and meeting up, chop was kind enough to give me a USB stick in return for the one I gave him

They were both from the same ****ty Chinese manufacturer and chop knows how exactly what he was doing, trying to pawn a POS drive on me

It's 2019 and karma is still around. Check yourself before you wreck yourself

Not to take anything away from chop, but ICYMI.

AMA about sailing around the world feat. de captain

Anchored in Nuku Hiva and internet is lol2G at best so not much 2p2ing for me.

NoSoup: lots of last minute crewing ops right now to the Marquesas if you want to come over here and crack open a cold Hinano with me. Check the usual sites. Also keep an eye for ARC-E last minute spots from Annapolis & BVI if we're not past the start date already.

golddog: 15kg of fish is a lot, but I'm on a Lagoon 450S with a decent size freezer, and the spearfish was later in the passage so some space has freed up. Put 3 of the gallon bags in the freezer and one in the fridge. Going thru just under half a bag per 4 person meal, should get about 9-10 total meals out of the fish.

Obv don't listen to any lies from BdC, he is clearly in league with Big USB.


We are anchored in Taiohae Bay which is the primary south bay of Nuku Hiva atm but will sail around to the north end in a day or two in order to anchor at Anaho Bay. A few days there, then back here to reprovision, then off to Tahiti, sailing thru the Tuamotus archipelago. That should take about 7-10 days or so.

All is well and Nuku Hiva is fantastic. Highly recommend coming here if you ever get the chance.

Chop!

Saving OOT, one post at a time.

Details on catching the fish? I used to fish a lot. Tackle? Lure/bait? How long was the fight? etc

200lb mono handline on a yoyo, 6" cedar plug w/ large single hook, trolling at about 6kts roughly 50m/150ft behind the boat.

Took about 20 minutes to get it up alongside the boat. Saw that it was hooked thru the upper bill and relaxed a bit about losing it.

Kept it just aft of the sugar scoop for another 25 minutes to tire it out, then went for the gaff. Clean hit just behind the gill plate allowed me to pull it up onto deck and sit on it for the next 20 minutes after a quick knife to the gills and watching two liters of dark arterial blood jet out in a matter of seconds.

Held the bill down with the other hand to prevent getting speared until it gave up the fight. Was filleting shortly after. Got six massive fillets. Really nice firm white flesh, great for frying up in a light flour coating or in fish tacos.