We have arrived in Hiva Oa. A beautiful island paradise. The cruising and travel literature does not do this island justice. Everything that we have seen and experienced about Hiva Oa makes us think that we have arrived in the South Pacific. This is not a resort. When we arrived, four sailboats were anchored in the small, protected anchorage. Tall mountains that drop right into the sea protect the anchorage. A short breakwater reduces the rollers coming in from the ocean. Over the breakwater and through the opening, we can see another small island that rises right out to the ocean with 200-foot tall cliffs.

I am enclosing a chart that shows our approach to the island. It gives both a hint of the geography, and shows how inaccurate charts can be. This is a screen print of the electronic chart with the tracking and the final anchorage of Cosmos. You can see that the chart shows us anchored about one mile inland. Good thing we came in during the day, which is our usual practice.

I will write more about Hiva Oa later. We have been here for almost three days, so we have seen a lot. The pictures I am sending will show some of the beauty that I will never be able to express in words.

Before I close, I have to mention Nils, a single-handed sailor from Sweden. He came in this morning and after anchoring, came to our boat to find out what we have learned of the geography and clearing in at Hiva Oa. He is a good example of some of the amazing people that are sailing the oceans, that don't tell their story and therefore we don't read about them in the sailing magazines.

Nils left Sweden 11 years ago in a eighteen foot canoe sailboat that he built for himself after a career of teaching 13 and 14 year olds to build racing canoes. Of course now he is retired and taking his time going around the world. I am sending a picture of Nils sitting on Cosmos with his sailboat, Peter Pan in the background (See Marquises Pictures).

Joe Dorr,