Hanavave and the phallic skyline at the back

Marquesan garden and houses

Tiki, a Polynesian carving in wood

The wind has been coming from wrong direction again (the plague of this trip!), we cannot get West, so we already overshot the island of Hiva Oa, where we intended to land in Marquesas. Now the main concern is to arrive at daylight. It has been an incredible fast passage, averaging 150 miles daily, with 2 knots of current giving us a push all the way. In other hand it has been a long trip, tedious and mentally hard. The wind and seas were moderate all the way. The best of all is that we sustained no damage to the boat in this trip.

 5th June

Finally we made it, 3173 miles in a respectable 23 days. Of course the wind had to throw a final trick on the last day. Last night the wind completely died down and later on during morning picked up to gusts of 40knots of wind and heavy rain. Loads of dolphins followed the boat, a lot of wind helped us to pick up the mileage lost overnight so we can arrive during daylight. We changed the arrival place to Fatu Hiva, the  southernmost of the Marquesan islands. The island is lush, with spectacular high peaks. Also the wettest of the islands. We entered the Baie the Vierges mid afternoon with heavy rain and poor visibility, but also very curious to see the infamous skyline.  Its phallic shaped peaks given the well deserved name of Baie de Verges ( Bay of Penises) some time ago. Outraged the missionaries added a redeeming "i" to make the name Baie de Vierges ( Bay of Virgins). We were promptly greeted by Claudia,  Erick and their little dog Floyd. They are sailing on Tahaa and are daughter and father from Austria. We met them earlier in Galapagos.

07th June

We stepped on land for the first time in a month! Hanavave is a small village with around 300 inhabitants. There are only a few houses, a church and one shop selling produce at the price of gold. Half a dozen of eggs cost us 8 dollars. Graham and I hiked up the hills intending to get to Omoa, the next village. One third of the way we were exhausted from the steep climb and turned around. Later we found out from  Herbert that the village is  5 miles  away. He managed to get to the next village but also paid an exorbitant 60 dollars to get back by water taxi. Zazoo with Ben, Rosangela and the kids, Luke and Josh also arrived, they damaged their foresail and had a really slow trip.

09 June

Money is worth nothing in this island. Graham's Brazilian football t-shirt has more value than dollars here. We traded 10 metres of rope for 15 grapefruits the size of melons, 5kg of lemons and bread. The children from the village want lipstick, bracelets and magazines. They are all very chatty, shame we don't speak French that well. In the evening we went for a meal organized by Teresa. She is the Chief's village daughter. She organizes dinners once a week for visitors. She prepared typical Polynesian food, octopus with  coconut, mutton stew and raw dorado marinated in coconut (after catching so many dorado during our crossing, that was the last food in our mind). She told us that it took her 2 days to prepare the meal, including a walk up to the mountains to collect coconuts to make the milk.

10 June

Another day of torrential rain. The water in the bay is muddy due to the rain. Graham tried spear fishing with Ben, so for a change we could have fresh food. Meanwhile I went over to Tahaa. Claudia gave us a big piece of Marlin. She had traded it for t-shirts and a fishing rod, it was much to big for her and her father. Graham was least  successful catching a fish than I was.

Paul Gauguin's Maison de Jour , a replica of his house in Atuona, Hiva Oa

12 June- Hiva Oa

We sailed over yesterday and we saw untold amount of whales and dolphins  on route to Atuona. This is the administrate village of the Marquesas. This is where Gauguin and Brel lived and died. From the harbour, Atuona is 2 km away. To get into town we hitchhiked. 

13 June

After a disastrous day with engine service we decided to find to the petroglyphs to cheer us up. As the  fuel gauge metres is broken we overfilled the tank, making a big mess inside the boat and on deck. As is everything else, fuel is also very expensive.  In the afternoon we went for a walk in Faakua Valley to find the  giant carvings in rocks. We got covered in mud, bitten by mosquitoes and as it was getting late we turned back without finding the giant carvings. On the way back we attacked a lime tree and filled up the rucksack, also knocked some grapefruits off the tree, so at least the trip wasn't fruitless. To our horror we found that the dredger had anchored just 20 metres in front of us. Things got worst as it got darker. The stern anchor wasn't holding the boat in place and we were swinging into a boat next to us. At the same time we had  a major oil spillage from the engine, making it unusable. Graham managed to fix the engine in a record time. Meanwhile I was watching the dredger getting closer to us. It had "danger explosive" written on the back and 2 crane jibs pointing our way! We re-anchored 3 times without luck. In the end we used the dredger's buoy to secure our stern. It was a sleepless night.

14 June

Hane Moe Noa beach, watch out for the Nonos!

15th June- Tahuata

Hane Moe Noa bay is less then 10 miles from Atuona through the Canal de Bordelais, separating Tahuata from Hiva Oa by 4 miles. It has a deserted sandy beach. The anchorage was quite busy with yachts. Again we met Zazoo there. In the afternoon we went fruit picking in the woods.  Untold amount of mangoes, limes, coconuts and sour sop were dropping of the trees. We just had to deal with the Nonos- fierce full mosquitoes that leave a very itchy bite. After 5 minutes fruit picking we had to run into the sea to relieve the bites. Luckily this mosquitoes don't transmit diseases, they are jus very painful.

17th June

Ben and Graham had a very busy day. In the morning they went spear fishing and in the afternoon, goat hunting with a crossbow. I wasn't to keen on their hunting skills so I made sure dinner was ready when they got back empty handed and covered with cuts. That was the end of their Neanderthal man moment.

18th June

The one sign that is time to move on is when we start gossiping about other boats and  getting bad voyeuristic habits. So we set off sail from Tahuata even it looked a bit windy out there. With full sails out we left the anchorage straight into gusts of 30 knots, the boat heeled badly turning into wind, impossible to helm her back to a run. That got our harts beating fast! After reefing in we crossed the Bordelais Channel back to Hiva Oa. We were heading to Puamau. There are a lot of "Tiki's"  in this bay, large Polynesian stone statues. It wasn't our lucky day. With strong winds and current against us we sought refuge in Hanamenu Bay. The swell made it impossible to overnight there so we left late afternoon to Nuku Hiva. It was a fast passage with strong winds gusting up to 37 knots and rough seas. We arrived into Taiohae Bay as the sun was coming up. We found Tahaa and Ursa Minor here as well.

19th June

Now we have been awake for almost 30 hours after the night passage. Still we managed to go to Rose Corser's happy hour, where all the yachties gather for a sundowner. Rose, originally from Oklahoma has been living in the island for 30 years. She is an arts researcher and currently is writing 2 books about Marquesan art. She told us that tattoo's were forbidden since the missionaries arrived here, but in the last 8 years has been a renaissance of them. All the Marquesan have tattoos and the more the better. It is a sign of status.

20th June

Hakahetau Bay and the amazing skyline

24th June- Ua Pou

By now we had our fair amount of rain, without much effort the boat's deck was pristine and our moods turned a bit due to the miserable weather. So we were ready to leave. The wind still strong but calmed down a little in the lasts days.  The crossing over to Oa Pou was a fast beat. We arrived in Hakahetau Bay amazed by the scenery. Another phallic skyline, with giant basalt stones growing from the mountains up to the sky.  Definitely every ocean sailor should see it! Best of all, the bay was sunny. We came here to catch up with Pete & Fliss on Nadezhda. They came over for a BBQ. Apart from catching up since Galapagos another theme of conversation was our next destination, the Tuamotus- or Tomatoes , as it is called by Fliss. The "dangerous arquipelago" has claimed many yachts in the past, so we were wary of navigating around the atolls .

25th June

Late morning we went ashore with Pete and Fliss. There is a tiny village and a church. All the locals are getting ready for the celebrations of Bastille day, on the 14th July. The week preceding the celebrations, there is a canoeing competition, so everybody is out in their canoes training. These canoes are not the old fashioned ones, carved out of wood. They are modern aerodynamic, made of fiberglass. As it is Sunday , the locals had a bbq in the beach front with live music, after the Sunday Mass. They were stopping to greet us with "kaora", which means hello.

Hakahetau Bay