Day21: Pacific Crossing. Laaaaaaand
I woke up and my first thought was:
Damn… I missed it.
Was I too late already?
I remembered there had been around forty-four nautical miles left to the first island when I went to sleep. I still had the blinds in my cabin closed, so half asleep I quickly checked Google Maps on my phone.
And then I realized: The island was literally right next to my window.
I threw open the blinds and there it was. Massive. Misty. Covered in fog and morning clouds.
I got so excited I basically jumped out of bed and rushed outside. The whole boat was already awake and moving around chaotically.
Land.
Finally land.
And what a view. And what a relief..
No — honestly — this was probably the most beautiful island I had ever seen in my life.
Huge cliffs rising vertically out of the ocean. Deep green vegetation mixed with golden grass and black volcanic rock. Palm trees everywhere. Sharp ridges disappearing into clouds. It looked absurdly rich in nature. Almost unreal.
Like somebody had sat down and designed the perfect tropical island from imagination. ...Jurassic Park. That was my first thought.
As we slowly entered the bay, the captain grabbed a shell horn to greet the few sailboats already anchored there and the locals onshore. There were maybe four other boats in the anchorage.
The captain had a pretty bad cold though, so his attempt sounded less like some majestic Polynesian arrival and more like what Germans would call a “Rohrkrepierer” — basically the sound of a broken engine coughing itself to death.
Jason tried next and did significantly better.
Then it was my turn. After three failed attempts and almost passing out, I finally managed to produce an actual deep horn sound echoing through the bay.
Our official greeting to the island.
The small village itself was still hidden behind the rocks from where we anchored. Only a few tiny figures could be seen walking in the distance along the shore.