After our relaxing cruise of Tahuata it was time to return to Hiva Oa and drop off Deena. She was flying back home. “Naná” means goodbye in Tahitian…

Before this voyage, Deena had been on three short sailboat trips, ranging from 2-5 days: Panama’s San Blas Islands with an Italian boat, then joining Aldebaran in the Channel Islands, and once again in Oaxaca, Mexico. This trip was in a whole different league… She was aboard for an entire month and sailed 900 nautical miles, with no land in sight for a several days!

This leg was special for the wildly different islands we saw. In a short seven days, we crossed nearly 14 degrees of latitude, heading almost due north. (We ended up in Marquesas at latitude 9 degrees south).

Not only was this a remarkable shift in climate, but we were able to see three distinctly unique archipelagos. First we began in the lagoon-enclosed Gambier Islands, a remote corner of French Polynesia; then went through Reao, an 18 mile ring of low lying coconut trees around a blue lagoon; and finally ended up in the fabled islands of Marquesas, with their sheer size and power.

(You can see the map of our passage on this post:
https://greencoconutrun.com/2017/06/06/map-of-marquesas-passage/ . Our core crew Spencer was also aboard, this being the final stage of his three months on the boat.)

Besides being an awesome crewmember (=staying positive+helping on the boat), Deena also brought unique gifts to the crew: a log of our travels in the form of watercolor paintings.

We will try to share some of her beautiful artwork with our limited internet bandwidth in the next few posts. It captures a subtle feeling that even the best photos struggle to convey.

Deena we will miss you! Big hugs and till next time… Naná, naná…