Nuku Hiva, Marquesas, French Polynesia

The village of Taiohae is the administrative capital of the Marquesas and, as such, we were expecting a fair sized town. Instead, we arrived to a gorgeous little community set in a beautiful bay with a magnificent mountain range as a backdrop.

And, wow, we are back in the land of fresh baguettes, brie and pâté! At these prices, we can't really over indulge but I can feel those kilos sneaking up on me already. They also seem to be very good at baking all the other French goodies e.g. creamy pastries, éclairs and croissants. No wonder the folk here are all a little on the rotund side of the scale (and that's putting it mildly).

The village is spotlessly clean and spread out with a little supermarket here, another one there, the hardware shop half a mile up that road and the pharmacy a mile or so up another. There's a fresh veggie market right beside the dinghy dock, along with some displays of the wonderful Polynesian arts and crafts. As one wanders around the roadways, there are any number of fruit trees to be found; papayas, coconuts, mangoes, grapefruit, passion fruit, mangoes, guavas, pomegranates, nonis, mangoes, bananas, limes, lemons, mangoes, oranges, star fruit and, oh, did I mention mangoes? We're in mango heaven! Back to bottling mango chutney again. Yum. And the grapefruit; here they are sooooo sweet with no pips and growing absolutely everywhere. I don't know if they ever did a Survivor series here but that would have been cheating, no one could possibly starve in a place like this.

We only officially checked into French Polynesia upon arriving here which has given us an additional three weeks on Paul's three-month visa. Now we're no longer concerned about running out of time with the Tuamotus and Society Islands still to come.

Baai D’Anaho

Next stop was Baai D'Anaho, a protected anchorage in a beautiful white sandy bay. Well, it was Vagabond and Calypso back on the hiking trail again, this time over the mountains to the village in the next bay to visit the archeological sites; several maraes nestling in the hills above the village. The hike over the mountains took about two hours and led us up a horse trail through hundreds of wild mango trees as well as noni bushes and a few other fruit trees for which we still have not learned the names. The trail took us right into a gorgeous village against of backdrop of spectacular rock spires. We still haven't got over how magnificently all the gardens and properties are maintained. Even the road along the beachfront was beautifully landscaped and kept pristinely clean. After spending so many years in Africa and then a few years around the Caribbean, South and Central America, this is, indeed, a refreshing pleasure.

We stopped at a lovely little restaurant serving local cuisine of goat and seafood then hiked further up the mountain behind the village to the two maraes. These are the sites I mentioned previously that served as ceremonial centres. A local guide informed us that they dated back to the 12th century and, in the first, the sacrificial platform could easily be seen.

The second was enormous and was apparently built as a temple to the goddess Tevanaua'ua'a (I defy you to pronounce that one) with a huge sacred banyan tree. Throughout the villages we've visited as well as at sites such as these, there are numerous tikis, carved stone statues of strange looking figures. Looking at these, one could easily get the impression that creatures from space must have visited the early Polynesians, as they don't have a lot of resemblance to the human form. Whether these were carved in the likeness of their gods or this is how they saw themselves is hard to say. We haven't really been able to learn much of the origins of these carvings as yet.

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Fruits Galore

We sailed out of Daniels Bay after a few days and continued clockwise to circumnavigate the island. There are still many beautiful and interesting bays to visit.

The next stop was in a little uncharted bay where we had read that there was an abandoned farm. We found that it was no longer abandoned, however, the two gentlemen we met there welcomed us and allowed us to pick whatever we wished. The entire valley was filled with coconut palms and fruit trees; we've never tasted such sweet guavas before. We found an enormous old avocado tree but, sadly, we were too early for the fruit; we'd have to come back in a month or two. Pity, that would have been like manna from heaven. We stocked up on mangoes, guavas, lemons and limes as well as a few coconuts.

There were dozens upon dozens of pigs and piglets running wild, as well as horses (most of these islands have hundreds of wild horses and goats), cows and chickens. At first the pigs ran away whenever they saw us but it didn't take long before they became curious and we amused ourselves by feeding the little piglets with guavas as they came closer and closer. One actually took a nibble of Paul's toe when he was sitting on the ground shelling a coconut.

There were also many examples of marae ruins (ceremonial sites), which indicate that the valley must have been fairly heavily populated in days gone by. Another phenomenal day ended with us sipping caipirinhas (with all those fresh limes) aboard Vagabond, watching the sunset and the new moon.


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Anse Hakatea, Nuku Hiva

After almost a week at Taiohae, we moved just a few miles west to Anse Hakatea, (or Daniels Bay as it is known to cruisers). Here there is a great hike up to the Vaipo waterfall which is purportedly the third highest in the world. Put that one in your next Trivial Pursuit evening. (What, where – never heard of it!) And what a fabulous hike this was.

We started out walking through the beautiful gardens of the few individuals who reside in the bay and then progressed upwards. The scenery was amazing and the waterfall (which was, unfortunately, almost dry at the time) was in the most spectacular blind canyon with massively high sheer rock faces creating an amphitheatre around a crystal clear, cool and refreshing pool. Quite an awesome sight with brilliantly white fairy terns and long tailed tropic birds hovering above against the backdrop of black volcanic rock formations.

This, we now realize, is what we dreamed of when we first started to play around with the idea of cruising and the good news is we know there is lots more to come. The Marquesas have proven to be such a delight, mostly untouched by the pace of life found in the more heavily populated islands such as those in the Caribbean. They are lovely happy people who appear to be proud of their heritage, their lands, their properties and themselves. There are no large tourist hotels or resorts to mar the scenery, no jumbo jets (or even small ones) landing thousands of sightseers daily and no gigantic cruise ships spoiling the natural inlets and bays around the islands. Just simple tiny communities where, with the exception of the odd satellite dish, cell phone and 4X4 Toyotas, one could imagine that not much has changed in the last hundred years.

The entire population of all the islands is now around 6,000; some are not inhabited at all. When Captain Cook visited in the 18th century, these numbered about 100,000, but they were weakened by imported diseases and decimated by tribal wars and were reduced to a mere 2,000 at the start of the 20th century. We have come across many maraes, stone structures which were the sites where all important decisions were made and were the centres for social, political and religious activities, including sacrifices (often human) made to their many gods. Most of these are hidden in the rain forest or amongst coconut or banana plantations. Cannibalism was also very much part of their culture in the past as was the art of tattooing their bodies. The early missionaries banned tattooing but today it is part of a strong renaissance. I've never been an advocate of tattoos but the Polynesian style, especially that of the Marquesans, is really quite beautiful, a real art form and, I have to admit, were I a lot younger, I might well be tempted as most of the cruisers have. Maybe just a teeny little manta ray somewhere!

Speaking of manta rays, we were thrilled to see quite a few swimming just below the surface of the water in Daniels Bay; such magnificent and graceful creatures.

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Paul's view on things

Hey, my turn again!

I get to write about the struggle and strife. That's not Maureen, read on if you dare and you'll get the picture.

Our second day in the beautiful Marquesas brought a totally unexpected experience when I was awakened to repeated bilge pump activations. Upon exploring the reason, I discovered a bilge full of oil and an engine without any. Not a good start to the day.

Further examination showed a loose engine oil filter, the vibrations in our Pacific crossing had played tricks. This led to an examination of all other connections during which time a brief juggle of a thick diesel hose connecting the two large tanks to the lower main one inexplicably broke loose of it's mounting and refilled the bilge, this time with diesel.

The automatic bilge pump of course worked perfectly and dumped 200 litres of precious fuel into the Pacific before I managed to staunch the flow.

Well sometimes it's good having a couple of bad experiences, things can only improve.

So, it proved as we thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Fatu Hiva. My turn to expand on the blog occurred a few days later in passage from our third Marquesan
landfall, Viatahu, to our intended fourth at Ua Poi.

Sailing in the company of Vagabond, we left in the late afternoon for the overnight trip of 72 nautical miles. An hour and six miles out, we were travelling too fast with a fresh breeze on the starboard beam and the benefit of a knot of current but we still had the engine running as we were making water. At our speed of 8.5 knots we would be arriving in the wee hours, so I put the engine in neutral and then detected an unusual engine sound. Immediately alarm bells rang in my head. I immediately checked the bilge; we had switched the automatic pump off as whilst sailing on a heel, it tends to go off too frequently.

Sure enough what looked like a thick covering of black oil shone back in the light of my torch. I unhesitatingly shut down the water-maker and stopped the engine.

The final proof was mine in seconds, not a trace of oil on the dipstick. I had all
the evidence I needed, strange metallic noises like loose tappets from the
engine, a bilge full of oil and an engine without any.

Otto called breezily over the VHF radio asking "How's thing going?" "Couldn't
be much worse" I replied and repeated the symptoms we were experiencing. "That's bad" he agreed and suggested a return to Tuahatu where we knew a cruiser in the anchorage was a Swedish diesel mechanic.

We agreed to return and started sailing back but with no engine to charge batteries we were forced to hand steer. The wind was naturally now dead on the nose, forcing us to beat and tack to windward. Fortunately, we had only travelled a little over six miles so we should be back at anchor in a couple of hours, or so we thought.

First the wind reduced to a point where we were pressed to exceed the speed of the current, now against us, but it was too low to permit coming about, forcing us to jibe. The only problem with jibing whilst beating is the time it takes in light winds as well as the amount of lost ground. Nevertheless, we sailed on reaching a point when the only wind was during a number of short rain squalls so, whilst we were soaked making the most of the squalls, we managed to make a little progress but then it was back to flogging sails and moving backwards in the current.

The expected two hour return dragged on until daylight the following morning which found us within sight of our anchorage. Otto, who had slept with his
radio beside him all night waiting for the call, kindly came out in his dinghy
to tow us in over the last half mile. Thank goodness for cruising friends, it would have been nigh impossible to get into the bay and anchor as the gusts inside the bay were incredibly strong.

After a good rest, I rechecked oil in the engine - miraculously it had reappeared. Next I checked the bilge and, sure enough, it showed the unmistaken reflection of oil. However, the oil layer proved to be only a molecule or so thick. The unusual sound of the engine I can only now assume was the result of an idling engine with reverse rotating prop shaft caused by un-driven propeller. Having had so many things go wrong in the last short while, I think we were becoming a little paranoid.

Suffice to say, the Swedish diesel mechanic described the sound of our engine as "sheer sweetness." All ended well and what could so easily have spelt the end of our cruising was nothing more than a wake up against complacency. Also on the positive side, after so many weeks of sailing without really having to tack or touch the sails, we were given some invaluable experience of boat handling in tricky circumstances and we're happy to report that we managed it all without difficulty.

Hiva Oa & Vaitahu, Tahuata, Marquesas, French Polynesia

As we arrived at Baie Tahauku, on the island of Hiva Oa, we were treated to an amazing escort of twenty to thirty dolphins playing in our bow wake; something which never fails to thrill us. However, once we got into the shallow water near the village of Atuona, the waters became very muddy looking and not at all appealing.

The anchorage was a bit small for the number of yachts and this meant placing out a stern anchor so as not to bump into your neighbour in the middle of the night. We immediately knew that we would do what we had to in the village and then leave the next day.

The two important issues were to get some Polynesian francs and to buy some diesel. We walked into the village in the rain, got ourselves some funds and stopped long enough to buy some baguettes and croissants – there is definitely something to be said for a French island. Couldn't quite get ourselves to splurge on a piece of brie and some paté to enhance the baguette but the time will come.

The Marquesans take a long siesta so we had to sit around for quite a few hours waiting for the petrol station to open only to find that they ran out of diesel JUST as we got there and wouldn't receive more supplies until Tuesday (this was a Friday). Someway, somehow, we'll just have to manage without.

We upped anchor and headed off 12 miles south to the little bay of Vaitahu on Tahuata to meet up with Vagabond. On the way, Otto radioed us to tell us to pull in our fishing lines as they had caught a huge Wahoo on their way there and had far too much for the freezer and would we please help them eat some tonight. Fabulous but too late! No sooner had the conversation finished than I looked back at our lines and noted something rather large causing a wake. We hauled in, by far, the largest fish we've ever caught! It was a humungous Wahoo as well and way too much for our tiny freezer.

Between Vagabond and ourselves, the others in the anchorage did very well. Of course that evening, it was a case of a mines-bigger-than-yours spitting contest between Paul and Otto but it was graciously agreed that ours took first place. What a lot of fish and what fabulous, tasty fish it is too. I think its just become our favourite.

We stayed in this one anchorage for a week, wandered up through the hills amongst a thousand mango trees, collecting mangoes, oranges and some other fruit for which we still haven't found a name. We didn't dare pinch any of the bananas but had to admit that we could all quite happily stick around eating fresh fish and fruit off the trees for many weeks to come.

We went snorkeling, (Lil came face to face with a hammerhead and is still wary) watched dolphins in the bay and visited the beautiful church with its amazing stained-glass window; quite unexpected in such a tiny and remote village. Otto and Lillian attended the service on Sunday and after hearing their story, I regret not joining them (just couldn't get this old body out of bed in time).

Something that has really impressed us since arriving in French Polynesia is the structured lifestyle they appear to lead. Homes are kept neat and clean, gardens are well maintained and colourful, the paths and streets, however small, are swept, there are rubbish bins everywhere and the people definitely seem to keep pride in their appearance and belongings. And, the girls actually DO wear hibiscus or frangi-pani flowers behind their ears!

Time to leave on the overnight passage to Ua Pou so we lifted anchors just before sunset and set off. The winds were right on tap and all seemed perfect until…… Well this is where Paul has come forward with his version so I'll hand over to him for this saga.

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