April 4 – May 10, 2014
After 22+ days at sea we arrived in the town of Atuona, on the island of Hiva Oa, about mid-day on Wed, 2 April. We spent longer there than we thought we would, about a week, decompressing, welcoming our buddy boats, and seeing the island. And oh, my, the baguettes. But when the week was up, we were way more than ready to leave.
Our first stop after Atuona was a short sail across a channel to the northern end of the island of Tahuata to a “secret anchorage.” It was secret because Craig and Leann got the tip (and a waypoint) from a friend, and it isn’t described in the guidebook. It was a bit rolly, but we set a stern anchor to keep us pointed into the swell. Unlike most of Hiva Oa, there was a beautiful, white sand beach, and the boys were all very excited to be able to swim again. When Tim and Steve (Lady Carolina) went ashore they met an extended Marquesan family, and one of the women was a retired teacher, and she spoke very good English. We ended up having a huge potluck with them on shore the next day.
Our next stop was the northern side of Hiva Oa. We had great winds as we once again crossed the channel, but then the wind died and became gusty when we got in the shadow of Hiva Oa. Then, when we rounded the northwest corner, we got blasted with 20+ knots wind right on the nose. We were headed for Hanaiapa, which is about midway along the northern side of the island, but True Blue V was ahead of us, and they said the wind just keeps getting worse, so we all decided to abort and pull into Baie Hanamenu just around the northeast corner. This was a pleasant anchorage, but we stayed only one night, and I never even bothered to go ashore. Tim’s notes in in our logbook says “Fresh water spring with pool on shore. Beautiful and Cold!!” (Yes, occasionally he writes something, and he tends to use a lot of exclamation points.) The next morning, we left on the early side so we could motor the 6 miles east to Haniapa before the winds kicked up, and we skirted the uncharted coastal section hoping to catch a fish. No white sand beach here, like most of the Marquesas, and we stayed a couple days including a shore excursion to the village and a visit to the “yacht club” although there were no services at all in town. We had good holding in the anchorage, but the guidebook wasn’t lying when it said don’t proceed too far into the bay due to scattered coral heads.
On 15 April (happy Tax Day) we were planning to leave Hiva Oa for an overnight passage down to Fatu Hiva, but we felt a little restless in the morning, so we moved around to the next bay, Hanatekuua, for the day. It had a beautiful beach, but we never left the boat, just prepped for the overnight passage. We left just before sundown, a little later than our buddy boats, and we knew it would be an upwind slog until we rounded the NW corner of Hiva Oa and headed south, so we just motor sailed while hugging the coast rather than attempt to sail north and tack. We still tacked a couple times (I learned the next morning, because all that action was on Tim’s watch), but we made it around pretty painlessly. Once headed south to Fatu Hiva we were still on a close haul, but we were able to make it there on one tack, which is good. It was a lumpy bumpy passage, and I was worried Fatu Hiva wouldn’t live up to all the hype, but when we approached the anchorage called Bay of Virgins, I was in awe. Absolutely stunning. People think the photos look like Jurassic Park. See below for all of our adventures in Fatu Hiva, including the much-hyped waterfall hike, but for now just know that we stayed 5 days, but we could have stayed much, much longer.
We made an early morning departure and had a nice day sail back down to the island of Tahuata, this time working our way up the west side. We started at Hapatoni, where we got hammered by a squall right as we were arriving to anchor. This is a two lobed bay, and since we were anchored in the northern lobe, we were technically in Baie Hanatefau not Hapatoni. We had a group shore excursion with Lady Carolina, True Blue V, and Chara, and we didn’t find the guidebook quite accurate when it said this village has the friendliest people in the Marquesas. Not that they were unfriendly or anything, but they certainly didn’t stand out. Paddle boarding around the two bays was nice, and I also had my first and only snorkel in the Marquesas here. And again, contrary to what the guidebook said, it was NOT good snorkeling. We certainly weren’t in the Sea of Cortez anymore. Visibility was horrible, and there weren’t that many fish.
The next morning, we left a day ahead of our buddy boats and motored up the west side of Tahuata and did a drive by of the village of Vaitah, which has a nice, big anchorage where there were lots of boats. It’s supposedly a nice village, but it just didn’t draw us in, so we kept going north up to Hanamoenoa. This was a phenomenal anchorage with a beautiful white sand beach. We had a nice afternoon playing on the beach and a nice evening on board with just our family. I would say this was the perfect anchorage, except for two things. We didn’t think the holding in the anchorage was that great since it took us a few back downs to get the anchor to dig in, and, oh yeah, Alex got stung by a jellyfish, so that put a bit of a damper on things.
On 24 April we said good-bye to the southern Marquesas and headed for Nuku Hiva. We made the difficult decision of skipping Ua Huka, and we were going to leave Ua Pou as a game time decision, depending on how many anchorages we decided to go to on Nuku Hiva. Our first stop was Controller Bay in the SE corner of the island. It is a very large, deep bay with several lobes and different anchoring options. We were the first of our group to arrive, and we chose the main lobe off the village of Taipivai. Herman Mellville fans will note that this is the setting of his book Typee (which I keep trying to read but keep putting down in favor of some other tasty morsel.) It is a HUGE bay, and there was only one other boat when we arrived. We explored the town, hiked to another waterfall, and caught up with our old friends from Sara M and True Companion. Then we motor sailed just a bit west to the main bay, Baie de Taiohae, which also happens to be the administrative capital of The Marquesas. We spent 5 days in the very crowded anchorage getting all of our chores done and getting our wifi fix on before motor sailing just a few more miles west to Daniel’s Bay.
The official name of the bay is Baie de Taioa, but it is called Daniel’s Bay after a Marquesan man called Daniel who used to live there and was very friendly to cruisers. The story we heard of why he doesn’t live there anymore is that the TV series Survivor paid him to relocate, and they tore his house down and used the area as the setting for “Survivor Marquesas.” We heard that at one of the seminars back in Mexico, and I have no idea if it’s true. There was a small settlement on the shore and what seemed to be a bit of construction, so maybe he’s moving back? The highlight of our stay here had to be “Wahoo! Tuna!” when Tim and Steve came back from dinghy fishing. (If you haven’t seen the video yet, check it out, it’s hilarious.) Daniel’s bay was nice and sheltered and was one of the least rolly anchorages we had been in. Not to be missed there was a fantastic hike to yet another beautiful waterfall. Our friend Alan from s/v Sara M went with us, and that was lucky since he had been before and knew the way. Although he did throw Joel in the water at one of the river crossings. Or maybe it was Joel who threw Alan in the water. Or maybe Alan was just trying to help Joel and they both went down. Anyway, no one was hurt, but they were both a little wet. The waterfall was amazing, and I say that even though I never even saw it. The fall was embedded back within a vertical crevasse, and there was a large pool at the base. All the guys jumped in the water and were able to swim under some boulders to get to the pool at the base of the crevasse, and therefore, the base of the waterfall. They had a lot of fun. I just sat along the edge of the outside pool with my feet in the water not letting the crayfish nibble at my toes.
When we left Daniel’s bay, we were headed up around to the north side of the island over to the NW corner to Baie de Anaho. But once again we had an aborted passage trying to go upwind on the north side of an island because we got slammed with 20+ knots of wind. We had heard that this island was easier to navigate around than Hiva Oa. We heard that the wind funnels through the valleys and if you stay close to shore on the north side, you’ll get a nice beam reach on your starboard side. WRONG. When we realized we wouldn’t make it all the way to Anaho, we pushed forward another couple miles to Hakaheu, but Lady Carolina turned around and went to Haahopu, which was actually on the west side of the island. Hakaheu was a nice bay, and we were the only boat there. It’s not discussed much in the guidebook, and it’s listed on our charts as uncharted, but it was a great place to duck into. We had planned to stay just the one night and then press on to Anaho, but Tim went to shore and met a father and son who live there named Albert and Germain. The boys and I joined them ashore, and they showed us all around their property where they have many animals and fruit trees. They were very nice, and their English was only slightly better than our French, so communication was challenging, but we all were pretty motivated and just tried our best. We had a nice time and Brenden especially like the baby goat that followed him all around. They loaded us up with Pamplemousse and invited us for a meal with them the next afternoon. There’s no way we would miss that, so we would stay an extra day. Lady Carolina joined us the next day for the meal on shore and since Albert was doing the cooking, Tim and I showed them around the property. They had a ton of dogs and Albert explained that they are for hunting pigs, which got Steve’s attention, and he asked if he and Tim could go hunting with him. They made a plan to go the next morning, so we would stay yet another night. They all got up very early but came back with backpacks full of fresh fruit but no pig meat. No worries, our freezer was full anyway.
We were pushing our stay in the Marquesas a bit long, but we still had one more bay to visit, Anaho, which the author of one of the guidebooks I used said was his favorite spot in all of the Marquesas. I could immediately see why, it’s one of the loveliest anchorages we had been in, well worth the bash to get here. Unfortunately, it rained quite a bit while we were there, so we didn’t quite get to fully enjoy it. On the 6 or so mile trip to get here from Hakaehu Lady Carolina landed a huge wahoo. We were on the radio with them, and Steve was telling us to go ahead and pull in our lines since we are set for fish for a while and then… whrrrrr…. fish on. Tim also wrestled aboard a 5.5 ft wahoo. So, then we were REALLY set for fish. We traded some with some locals for bananas, traded some to another boat for some dorado, and gave some away to another boat we’d seen several times previously at other anchorage. We had a HUGE wahoo dinner on Lady Carolina and another HUGE one on Exodus. Tim, Steve, Carolina, and I went on a hike (sans kids) up over a ridge to the next bay where there is a town and we heard you can get baguettes there. It was a long hike, and I enjoyed it because it gave me that same feeling I get from running (getting the heart rate a little bit up and then just pushing along). We scored some baguettes, but they were frozen and since it was such a small town, we tempered our desire to buy 8 each and cut it down to 4 each.
Tim, Steve, Carolina, and I also hiked over to an organic farm and picked our own green beans, lettuce, radishes, and eggplant, and we also got some tomatoes and peppers that were already picked. The owners of the farm were very friendly and gave us fresh coconuts to drink the water out of. They also let us try some of the various melons they had. The part of the hike back that was along a trail just off the beach was amazing and I regret I didn’t have my camera with me. White sand, blue water contrasted with dramatic black volcanic boulders. No, it wasn’t a quick trip to the store for veggies, but it was a journey worth taking. While we were at the farm the boys all hiked up to the top of the ridge the other direction towards the town in the next bay to collect mangoes. Would you believe they came back with 96 nice green mangoes? Our plan was to give or trade them to people in The Tuamotus, since we had heard they have far less access to fresh fruit than they do in The Marquesas.
Sadly, on Sat, 10 May, we said good-bye to the Marquesas and headed south to The Tuamotus.
Gresham Family Exodus 