Marsden

Finally made it out of Ship Despair and down to Marsden Cove. Buffalo Nickel (Val and Stan) pulled in before we left and were getting ready to do their fuelish thing. Problem was that the fuel truck broke down and, last we heard, Val and Stan are now a captive of Ship Despair. Seems like Ship Despair is the black hole of the FPB fleet – we get sucked in and can’t get out.

John on Tiger emailed us and mentioned that a Catana cat was also on its way down to Marsden and was bound for French Polynesia as well. They rolled in shortly after us and we stopped by to say Hi. Not only are they bound for FP but 4 other boats were on their way as well and they had set up a sched on the SSB radio to talk to each other each night. As they will all be ahead of us, it will be a great benefit to hear about the conditions they are seeing. One more arrow for our weather bow.

Also engaged in the usual small talk and David Berg, the Captain asked me where we hailed from. Told him Pittsburgh and he wanted to know where. Told him the South Hills and wanted to know what township. Told him Upper Saint Clair and he promptly said that he had grown up there as well. Turns out our houses during our growing up years were not much more then 300 yards apart. We also graduated the same year from High School although he was in a private school at the time. Now how small a world is that – meet someone who grew up down the street from you in Pittsburgh and run in to them in Marsden Cove Marina in New Zealand 1/2 a world away who is bound for French Polynesia on a boat the same time as you. That’s almost scary.

Had a nice dinner together at the cafe and New Zealand put on one of her spectacular sunset displays for us.

Saturday window still looks good.

Cheers