Part 3 - Auckland to Easter Island Voyage

Noreen Hill tells of the 34 night voyage across the Southern Ocean to the furthest corner of Polynesia.

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We enjoyed the company of the albatros, and only the albatros during the 40°s and until the 23rd of March we did not see a single thing. The call for pilot whales came around dinner time and there was a mad rush onto deck to get the best view of the beautiful marine mammals, they stayed with us for what seemed an eternity after not seeing anything, it gave us a hope that we were into shallower waters and therefore getting very close!
March 24 at 1137 land was sighted, after 31 days at sea, Easter Island was growing larger with each minute that passed. The ship was buzzing with excitement by the time we dropped the anchor around 1730, there were hoots and hollars and cries of “we made it”! Pliers were also brought out, as we had 9 competitiors enter a beard growing competition. There were many dropouts and many who just had little luck growing a lengthy beard so Peter (who by coincedence organized and judged the event) beat Stinge, Rick, James and Nic, with the longest whisker! It will be nice to see clean shaven faces, unfortunatley it is only part of the contest, those wishing too (Nic and James) are competing for who can go the longest without shaving! Boys will be boys.
In the evening, we sat gazeing at the lights from ashore and took in the sounds of dogs barking, cars running and the smell of the grass and trees! What an awesome occasion. Sarah celebrated her 21st birthday today, March 25th and boy did she receive some great home made gifts. Alan created a cute rope doll sporting a fancy leather outfit and even had her own harness! Paul put the old baggywrinkle to use and made Sarah her very own cat. Very creative woodwork by Peter and Nic produced a precious jewlery box and hair pin. Stacey managed to make a topographical replica of Easter Island on a birthday cake, volcanoes and Moai included! We had some bubbly in the foc’sle to congratulate Sarah on her day and sat back reflecting on how far we had all just come, does not seem as if a month has gone by, wonder what has happened in the “real world”! Peter’s 25th is in two days, I imagine he will have a great day, as it is his first day off in over a month!
As for the rest of us we wait in anticipation for our time ashore; phoning home and exploring one of the most remote places in the world!

We had a farewell dinner for our three departing voyage crew, Marie from Norway and Reg and Tom both from the UK. They were apart of a great bunch of voyage crew, most of whom will remain with us for our 49 day trip to Tahiti in a little over a weeks time.

soren larsen 042.	soren larsen 045.
stiinge suning himself.	stinge making bread at 0100hrs.
soren larsen 048.	stacey and chris doing acid wash.
sunrise march 25th, hanga roa.	sunset with albatros.

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