At anchor in Fatu Hiva

Our current position is:

10° 28'0 S
138° 40' 0 W
(at anchor in Hanavave Bay, Fatu Hiva)

Approximately 3200 nautical miles and 20 days 2 hours later, we have arrived in the Marquesas on the island of Fatu Hiva. And what a magnificent spectacle this is! Until we came right into the bay, we could see absolutely no single sign that a human had ever been anywhere near this volcanic island. When I can finally send off some photos, you'll see what I mean. Even from the anchorage, we can only see a couple of building including a church.

The towering peaks resulting from volcanic activity have created a magical land, something out of Lord of the Rings. When we regain some energy, we will start exploring.

At this early stage, we haven't done anything other than admire the scenery from our deck. We dropped anchor just after sun up this morning, did the bare minimum necessary to tidy up and then literally crashed. We have been so sleep deprived for almost 3 weeks now so have a lot of catching up to do.

All we know of Fatu Hiva at this time is that it is the most southerly island in the Marquesas, is small and one of the least populous with only 630 residents. It has no airfield so everything must be brought in by boat and apparently a supply ship calls about once a month. The mountains climb straight out of the sea and there are only two tiny bays where it is possible to anchor and even then, they are very deep. We have only 65 metres of chain and were concerned that we'd have to add some rode but we did manage to squeeze in between another couple of yachts at 16 metres. Surprisingly, there are 29 boats here - can't believe there are that many daft people floating around this world in tiny boats!

More when we can get out and about and, hopefully, get a connection to send this off. We've really been struggling on this passage to get adequate signals.