Yesterday the squalls have kept me busy for quite a while but they tired down in the evening, just like me. And after a few more teasing hazes they disappeared. This morning the sky cleared up and what shimmered on the horizon grew and became more real all the time. There are still 16 nautical miles [30 kilometres or 18 land miles] to go to anchorage and I am growing more and more impatient with every single mile. Arriving is one of the greatest and most exciting moment and one of the most dangerous. There is a swell of about four metres [13 feet] and Guppy is getting ever closer to… the most present and greatest threat, land!! I cannot stay still for even one minute and I keep staring at the rocks which are now taking place of what was only water for the past 17 days. It is really unbelievable that those high cliffs are the Marquesas Islands for real! Till now it had been a vague dream that seemed so far away, but now it is very real and so very close.

Laura