Hanaiapa, on the north side of Hiva Oa, was a nice little town. There were no stores or services there, but it was clean, the houses were well looked after, and the people were friendly. We went to shore with Lady Carolina and True Blue V, so we were quite the gang walking around. We passed a house with a well-cared for yard and noticed a sign saying “Yacht Club” which caused us all to smile a bit. Before we had completely passed by the house, a man came out who spoke a little bit of English, and he introduced himself as William. Well, we had read in the guidebook about William and his yacht club, so I asked if it would be possible for us to sign his guidebook. He said yes, if we could come back, maybe in about an hour.
So, after our walking tour of the village, we returned to the yacht club, and William gave us a warm welcome. His house was modest, with a small entry way with a table and chairs, and he had enough chairs for all of us. He served us lemonade in only slightly dirty glasses and passed around coconut and banana. Then he brought out his guest books, and they were fun to look through. Many, many cruisers from years past have signed. In fact, Steve was pretty sure his parents had met William and signed his guest book 20 or so years before, but we learned that the older books had been destroyed when William’s house caught on fire a few years back. We had a pleasant time, signed the guest book, and William gave us stalks of Bananas to take with us.
Then came the punchline. He started talking about how he would not take any money for any of this, but if we had some things to trade, that would be good. Specifically, wine or rum. We asked him if there was anything else he needed, like rope, or fishing hooks, or anything. No. He was adamant, he would like rum or wine. We told him OK, we would return likely the next day, and he said he would prefer to walk with us down to the dock to get it. I guess he was desperate. We ended up giving him two boxes of wine, and wouldn’t you know he asked about the fact that there were 3 boats among us, but we just responded that True Blue V didn’t drink. (Ha, yeah, right!)
We had a pleasant day, and the visit with William was very nice. But something about it felt icky afterward. We like giving, and would give almost anything we had, but it became apparent that he runs the yacht club to get alcohol and only alcohol.
Gresham Family Exodus 