Day 19 Update: We made it!

Summary: We arrived at 2:30 am local time at Hanamoenoa Bay on Tahuata Island and are busy catching up on sleep and meeting up with Galapagos cruiser friends.
Position: 09 54.42 S 139 06.40 W at 09:00 UTC-9.5
Last Day Distance: 101 nm Total Distance: 3209 nm Total Time: 18 days 12 hours Total Average Speed: 7.23 kts
The evening before arriving we heard on the SSB net from that it was easier to arrive at Hanamoenoa Bay at night plus we had received news via email the several of the boats we had met in the Galapagos were headed there. It is only 7 miles past Atuona on Hiva Oa so we headed there instead. We anchored with no problems and immediately went to sleep relishing the limited boat motion and relatively peacefulness of finally being at anchor. Yesterday we spend time cleaning up around the boat and assessing the bottom growth (not too bad on both counts). Friends came over to say hello from their dinghies and planned to meet on the beach later so the kids could play. Of course we were eager to get our feet back on land too.
Unfortunately the boat work never seems to end, and the normally reliable Honda dingy engine wasn’t putting water out of the little tell-tale hole which indicates cooling is working properly. We tried rowing for the beach as the strong winds pushed us sideways to Counting Stars, a neighboring friend’s boat. He noticed our predicament and came out to give us a tow into the beach. Dave spend the remainder of the afternoon troubleshooting the engine, checking the impeller pump, and the drain hoses for trouble. Everything looked fine but water is still unfortunately only trickling out of the tell-tale so we still have a problem on our hands as the dinghy is our critical ship-to-shore transportation.
Everyone is doing well and we are grateful for finishing the longest passage of the trip, reconnecting with friends, and getting some much needed rest. Thank you to everyone for following along, posting comments, and sending words of encouragement our way. They really helped when we were bored and tired. We’ll have real Internet soon and will get your posted comments approved and upload some photos too.