Gresham Family Exodus

Anaho Photo Log

May 7-9, 2014

This was my second favorite anchorage in The Marquesas (after Fatu Hiva). I only regret that we saved it for last and didn’t have nearly enough time. We only have 90 days on our visa for all of French Polynesia and we were pushing 5 weeks in the Marquesas, so it was unfortunately time to go. But we did manage to hike over a ridge to the next bay to a town to buy baguettes and hike to an organic vegetable farm and pick our own veggies. We left with 4 stalks of bananas and 40+ mangoes, so we hoped to give some to the locals in the Tuamotus (spoiler alert, our first motu was Raroia and we didn’t meet any locals, so we were forced to eat all that fruit ourselves. We were on banana quota patrol.)

Depart Hakaehu May 7 at 1011 – Arrive Anaho at 1245

Logbook – May 7, 2014 (Hakaehu to Anaho)

Passage Log Highlights

1245 Arrive Anaho * No speedo

Daily Notes:

Wahoo! 49 lb 5’6”
D – paddle board along the reef. 2 turtles – beautiful
Potluck on LC. Wahoo!

We caught a Wahoo en route. Lady Carolina was on the radio telling us about the Wahoo they just caught and that we should pull in our lines since we were set for a while and before we said “standing by” we heard, “Whirrr….” So, then we were REALLY set for fish.

Logbook – May 8, 2014 (Anaho)

Daily Notes:

Hike over the ridge to hatiheu w/o kids. Frozen baguettes.
Rainy day

Email to family and friends dated May 8, 2014

Subject: Anaho

We made it to Anaho and it’s one of the loveliest anchorages we’ve been in, well worth the bash to get here. Unfortunately it’s been raining all day today (Thursday)so we haven’t been able to fully enjoy it. We are down to just a day or two left in the Marquesas, so it’s a bit disappointing. 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 awhile and then… whrrrrr…. fish on. Tim also wrestled aboard a 5.5 ft wahoo. So, now we are REALLY set for fish. We have traded some with some locals for bananas (although the bananas have not arrived yet), traded some to another boat for some dorado, and given some away to another boat we’ve seen several times previously at other anchorage. We had a HUGE wahoo dinner on Lady Carolina last night, and we’ll be having another on Exodus tonight.
Tim, Steve, Carolina, and I went on a hike this morning (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.
We will likely leave for the Tuamotus on Saturday and we will hook up again with True Blue V for the passage, so we will be convoy of 3. Chara is already in the Tuamotus but hopefully we will catch up to them in Tahiti if not before.
Love and miss you all,

-D.

At 5/6/2014 3:25 PM (utc) our position was 08°49.34’S 140°03.89’W <—- just noticed the date and time are wrong. Not sure why… it’s currently Th May 8 4:50 pm Marquesan time (UTC – 9.5)

P.S. I have discovered a process error which has caused many of the dates attached to these location messages to be erroneous. Anyway, since I do these manually, it’s best to take them with a grain of salt. The best way to check our location is on the inReach page.

Logbook – May 9, 2014 (Anaho)

Daily Notes:

Hike for veggies – picked fresh veggies @ the farm
Boys gather 92 mangos (green)

The boys went on their own hike to gather mangoes, and they came back with 92

Email to family and friends dated May 9, 2014

Subject: Anaho

We made it to Anaho and it’s one of the loveliest anchorages we’ve been in, well worth the bash to get here. Unfortunately, it’s been raining all day today (Thursday) so we haven’t been able to fully enjoy it. We are down to just a day or two left in the Marquesas, so it’s a bit disappointing. 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, now we are REALLY set for fish. We have traded some with some locals for bananas (although the bananas have not arrived yet), traded some to another boat for some dorado, and given some away to another boat we’ve seen several times previously at other anchorage. We had a HUGE wahoo dinner on Lady Carolina last night, and we’ll be having another on Exodus tonight.

Tim, Steve, Carolina, and I went on a hike this morning (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.

We will likely leave for the Tuamotus on Saturday and we will hook up again with True Blue V for the passage, so we will be convoy of 3. Chara is already in the Tuamotus but hopefully we will catch up to them in Tahiti if not before.

Love and miss you all,

-D.

—–

At 5/6/2014 3:25 PM (utc) our position was 08°49.34’S 140°03.89’W <—- just noticed the date and time are wrong. Not sure why… it’s currently Th May 8 4:50 pm Marquesan time (UTC – 9.5)

Email to family and friends dated May 10, 2014

Subject: Adios Marquesas

We are planning to leave Anaho around noon today (Marquesan time) for the Tuamotos. Our planned first stop is the atoll of Raroia, and we expect it to take between 3 and 4 days. We want to arrive on the lee side of the atoll where the pass is by Wed morning in order to make it through the pass at slack tide around 12:30. We’ll have the inReach on so you can track our progress and I’ll send another email if any plans change. Right now Tim is trying to find a leak in our dinghy and I just finished preparing passage food and I’m doing all the other pre-passage activies (testing EPIRB, getting sails ready, etc.) The boys changed the water maker filters and cleaned the sea water strainer and are currently trying to talk me into having the day off from school. They took yesterday off to go on a hike with Kyle and Joel to collect mangoes, and would you believe they came back with 92 nice green ones? We are trying to take extra fruit to the Tuamotus, because unlike the Marquesas it is not very abundant and we want to share with the locals. Tim, Steve, Carolina, and I hiked over to an organic farm yesterday and picked our own green beans, lettuce, radishes, and eggplant, and we also got some tomatoes and peppers that were already picked. 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.

Love and miss you all,

-D.

—–

At 5/9/2014 1:57 AM (utc) our position was 08°49.34’S 140°03.89’W

Photo Log

Hakaehu

May 5-6, 2014

Unfortunately, I didn’t take many photos here. We met a father and son who treated us with such hospitality, including a tour of their property, a meal to share, and a bunch of pamplemousse. The animals in these photos are theirs.

Depart Daniel’s Bay May 5 at 0928 – Arrive Hakaehu at 1425

Logbook – May 5, 2014 (Daniel’s Bay to Hakaehu)

Passage Log Highlights:

0928 Engines on
Depart
1002 Engines off main + genoa
1107 SB engine on + main
1258 P engine on + main (1 reef)
1425 Arrive Hakaehu

Daily Notes:

Met Albert and Germain – many animals (baby pig & goat!)

The view of Ua Pou as we traveled from Daniel’s Bay to Hakaehu. This island wasn’t in our itinerary, but we viewed it from afar.

Just playing with a baby goat on the beach…

Logbook – May 6, 2014 (Hakaehu)

Daily Notes:

T – help fix LC main sail
T/Steve – spearfish. T – lost bolt (gun broken) Steve – afraid of sharks
Dinner w/ Albert & Germain. Pig, breadfruit, breadfruit puree

Email to family and friends dated May 6, 2014

Subject: Hakaehu

Once again, we tried to navigate east around the north side of an island and got slammed with 20+ kt winds on the nose and didn’t make it to our destination. We heard this island (Nuku Hiva) was better. We heard that the wind funnels through the valleys and if you stay close to shore, you’ll get a nice beam reach on your starboard side. We heard wrong. Anyway, we didn’t make it to Anaho yesterday, instead we stopped at a less visited bay called Hakaehu. We won’t be leaving for Anaho today either, because we are in for another treat today. Tim met two guys, a father and son, who live here, and they showed us around their property where they harvest copra and grow many other fruits (they gave us pamplemousse and papayas) and they have many animals. Brenden especially enjoyed the baby goat that followed him around. They speak only slightly more English than we do French, but with a little bit of gesturing and had signals we were able to communicate. Today they have invited us to a meal with them where they are going to cook up a wild goat they caught (we actually saw it tied to a tree yesterday). I wish I had more bananas right now because at our last meal with Marquesans on Tahuata the banana bread was about the only thing we brought that they liked. Maybe I’ll make pumpkin bread (I’m sure I have a can of pumpkin rolling around somewhere). I will also be sure to bring my French book this time.

Love and miss you all,

-D.

—–

At 5/6/2014 3:25 PM (utc) our position was 08°47.27’S 140°10.89’W

Video

Wahoo! Tuna!! (Video)

May 2, 2014 – Daniel’s Bay, Nuku Hiva

Photo Log

Daniel’s Bay Photo Log

May 2-4, 2014

Baie de Taioa became known as Daniel’s Bay because of after a Marquesan couple, Daniel and Antoinette, who lived there for a very long time and were quite welcoming to cruisers. Thanks to the TV show survivor, which used this bay as the set for one of their seasons, they no longer live here, but we enjoyed our stay none the less. The highlights were a hike to yet another waterfall, and our first taste of Wahoo, courtesy of Tim and Steve.

Depart Taiohae May 2 at 1027 – Arrive Daniel’s Bay at 1154

Logbook – May 2, 2014 (Taiohae to Daniel’s Bay)

Passage Log Highlights:

1027 Depart
1041 Port engine off
Port engine on
1154 Arrive Taioa (Daniel’s Bay)

Daily Notes:

*Speedo didn’t work the whole way
T/Steve dinghy fishing. Wahoo! Tuna! Dinner on Exodus with LC

Email to family and friends dated May 2, 2014

Subject: Daniel’s Bay

After several days of provisioning and internet we finally made it a few miles out of Taiohae to what it commonly called Daniel’s bay. There used to be a Marquesan here called Daniel who would befriend cruisers, but those of you who watch Survivor might recall that when they filmed Survivor Marquesas this is where they did it and they paid Daniel to move and tore down his house. (At least that’s the story I heard at one of the seminars I went to). We’ll stay here a couple days, enjoy another hike to another spectacular waterfall, and then decide if we will visit one more anchorage here on Nuku Hiva before we leave the Marquesas for the 3-day passage to the Tuamotus.

Love and miss you all,

-D.

—–

At 4/25/2014 3:54 PM (utc) our position was 08°56.60’S 140°09.81’W

Logbook – May 3, 2014 (Daniel’s Bay)

Daily Notes:

Potluck on Exodus more fish – wahoo & tuna

Email to family and friends dated May 3, 2014

Subject: Wahoo!

Daniel’s bay is nice and sheltered, so it’s one of the least rolly anchorages we have been in, but the best part so far was the WAHOO!! Tim and Steve went dinghy fishing yesterday afternoon and came back with a 4.5-5 ft. Wahoo. And for good measure they also caught a good size yellow fin tuna. So, we at very well last night.

Love and miss you all,

-D.

—–

At 4/25/2014 3:54 PM (utc) our position was 08°52.85’S 140°02.88’W

Logbook – May 4, 2014 (Daniel’s Bay)

Daily Notes:

Hike to waterfall & pool. Boys swim. GoPro video.

There are phone booths in the strangest places.

Blog Post

Catching Lobsters

This is actually an excerpt from an email sent out by Steve from Lady Carolina. He writes much more than Tim, so he’s given me permission to include things like this when he describes things he and Tim do together.

On a completely different note: Catching Lobsters. To tell you the truth, I am not much of a lobster coinsure, I can take them or leave them however Kyle and Carolina LOVE them. This means that we go lobster fishing every now and again.

There are several methods of catching lobsters. One, you dive during the day and look for their antenna sticking out of rocks, you then dive down and spear them in the face with a pole spear, drag them out and put them in a dingy. There are a few problems with this method. Firstly, they really do not want to be found and tend to hide really well during the day. Tim and I have dove on reefs for hours and never saw any signs that there were lobsters there. At night on a full moon, just before the moon rises however, they do come out a bit more and are easier to spot.

Secondly, when you stab a lobster in the face it’s pretty much game over for them and it is difficult to tell the sex before you stab them. Also, during the stabbing process the lobsters have a bit of a freak out (understandable) make a lot of noise and flop around violently. Freaking out, making noise and flopping around are the top three items on any shark’s ToDo list. In other words, spearing lobsters attracts sharks.

So, what Tim and I do is dive a night with flashlights. Search around for them clinging to walls or moving from den to den (they are surprisingly hard to see and are camouflaged very well) then you sort of gently swim up and try not to disturb the water around their antenna. If you do, they are gone. Right now. Amazingly super-fast. If you touch their antenna? Gone. It is quite a sight to see how fast they go from zero to out of grasp to out of your view.

We dive, locate and grab them. (The big ones take two hands to grab, and you seriously have to use your feet to pull them off the rock after you grab them.) After we have them secure in our hands, we straighten the tail to see if it is a male or female. Females we let go, males, well, sometimes it’s hard to be male. Bring them to the surface and put them in the dingy. Typically, 2 divers down and one person in the dingy floating along close to the rocks.

Oh, yes. And wear gloves, thick gloves. Those prehistoric spiney spear defenses they have are certainly painful……even with gloves if you grab them the wrong way!!!

Blog Post

Confessions of a Cruiser

So, I haven’t shaved my legs since we left Mexico. My first dabbling with unshaven legs was way back in college, just after Andrew was born. We became good friends with Angela and Uwe, a couple from Germany who had a son just a couple months older than Andrew. I noticed that she didn’t shave her legs, and that totally appealed to me at that time in my life. I was busy, mostly focusing on Andrew and school, and mostly not focusing on how I looked, so I embraced my newfound granola-ness. I also became a vegetarian around that time, but that’s for another story.

This time, I mostly stopped shaving out of practicality. In order not to waste the fresh water, I typically shave sitting on one of the back swim steps using sea water, and you can’t really do that while underway, so I figured for the long passage, I would abstain. But then we got to the Marquesas, and I learned that hairy legs have a very real benefit that comes in most handy in the tropic, that is, as mosquito repellant. Not really repellant, per se, but more like shield. Tim has always commented that he has a natural mosquito barrier, and now I do to.

Fun fact: It is now the year 2022 and I’ve lived back in San Diego for 5 years, and I still don’t shave my legs.

Blog Post

Seven Memories from Taiohae

Post author By cruisingrunner
Post date August 20, 2022
No Comments on Seven Memories from Taiohae

We spent 5 days in Taiohae, the capital of The Marquesas. Here are my memories, in no particular order:

1. Busy, crowded, rolly anchorage

2. Hours and hours at the coffee shop at the dock for internet. Buy a $2 coffee, and you get all the wifi you want. I would often purchase a fresh squeezed pamlemousse juice too. Mmmmm.

3. The dinghy dock ladder. First, if you parked too close to it at low tide your dinghy could get caught underneath it, and then as the tide rose it could pop your dinghy. Second, the sides of the ladder stopped at the top wrung, so there was no higher leverage point to pull yourself up with. It made for very awkward dinghy deboardings.

4. Fruit and Veggie market at o’dark thirty on Saturday morning. Chaos.

5. Bad burgers, but good brick fired pizza.

6. Tim is becoming quite the seamstress. He made a cover for our generator.

7. Finishing all of my chores before Tim was ready to leave, so I had a full day to take a solo walk around the entire bay. It was a holiday and there were many families gathering for picnics and fun.

Photo Log

Taiohae

April 28 – May 1, 2014

Taiohae is the capital of The Marquesas, so we took care of laundry, provisioning, propane, and we also enjoyed eating out a few times.

Depart Controller Bay April 28 0851 – Arrive Taiohae at 1053

Logbook – April 28, 2014 (Controller Bay to Taiohae)

Passage Log Highlights

0845 Engines on
0851 Depart
0803 SB engine off
1022 SB engine on
1053 Arrive Taiohae

Daily Notes

Bad burgers & slow internet

Email to family and friends dated April 28, 2014

Subject: Taiohae

We just arrived in the main anchorage of Nuku Hiva called Bai Taiohae, and we have wifi!!! We’ll be going ashore for awhile, but hopefully I’ll get to upload photos and movies by days end.

We had a great time at Baie du Controleur where we hiked to a waterfall and caught up with old friends from our summer in the sea of cortez.

Love and miss you all,

-D.

—–

At 4/25/2014 3:54 PM (utc) our position was 08°52.85’S 140°02.88’W

Logbook – April 29, 2014 (Taiohae)

Daily Notes

Early to markets for baguettes and veggies
Fuel & laundry
Internet!
Pizza dinner on shore

Putting the boys to work plunging a little laundry

Logbook – April 30, 2014 (Taiohae)

Daily Notes:

Massive provisioning – tons of veggies
Mint – mojitos and Thai stir fry
T – cover for the generator

I noticed the rainbow above them, and yelled, “quick, pose!” Kyle wins for the best pose, while Craig continued showing us his better side.

Logbook – May 1, 2014 (Taiohae)

Daily Notes:

Confessions of a cruiser – weeks w/o fresh fruit/veg… shaved legs?
No baguettes or fuel – have to wait until tomorrow to leave
D – walk around the bay
Music on the dock then drinks on Exodus with LC

A view of the dock area where the cruisers hang out

I took a walk around the bay and captured a few shots

Blog Post

A Distress Call from Grace

As cruisers we are no strangers to being jolted awake during a peaceful slumber. Sometimes it’s a gust of wind through the rigging or sometimes its rain falling into our open hatch, and still other times it’s a little bit of boat motion at anchor that makes you jump up and check the time because you are sure you are underway and must have overslept your watch. This particular morning at anchor in Controller Bay, we were awakened by a voice on the VHF radio asking for assistance. Steve on Lady Carolina was first to respond, and it turns out it was someone he knew, a single hander, from back in Mexico. The vessel is called Grace. From what I gathered during that initial transmission, Grace’s engine was not working, and he was coming up on the rocks that were just at the entrance to the very large bay. He suspected he was possibly out of fuel, but maybe the fuel gauge wasn’t working, so he wasn’t sure. Steve responded that he’d launch the dinghy and be out to help him as soon as possible. Shortly after, Craig on True Blue V responded that he’d be out to help too.

At this point I got on the radio and asked Grace what his position was, so we could see how far away from us he was and how close he really was to rocks before we entertained going out in a dinghy to help. Seconds after that Steve got back on the radio and resumed his conversation, so I just listened, but didn’t really gather any new information beyond his position coordinates that I had asked for. Tim quickly plugged those into his iPad, and responded with, “F that.” Grace was just at the edge of the bay and nowhere near the rocks. It’s about as big as any anchorage ever gets, and he should be able to sail in and anchor no problem.

I don’t remember exactly how it went, but Tim got persuaded to go out and help. True Blue V’s dinghy outboard is only 8HP, so it wouldn’t be practical for the trip, so Tim and Craig went in our dinghy and Steve and Kyle went in their dinghy. At some point I suggested they take some diesel, in case that’s the problem. Tim was very cranky about all this and refused to go too far out in the anchorage until it was clear that 1) Grace actually needed assistance, and 2) There was anything an additional dinghy and 2 people could do to help. Following the VHF traffic, it appears that Grace started sailing away from land, and at that point Tim absolutely refused to follow. Grace was clearly out of danger of any rocks and was clearly moving under sail.

Steve and Kyle went after him, though. And to make a long story short, Steve boarded Grace from his dinghy and left Kyle in the dinghy being towed, since that was safer than trying to board. Grace’s skipper did not seem to be firing on all cylinders and seemed to be more interested in serving tea and chatting then doing anything about the situation. Steve helped him sail all the way NOT to our bay, but to the next bay over, Taiohae, which is the capital of Nuku Hiva. He helped him anchor, and then he and Kyle drove all the way back in the dinghy. He believes that without his help Grace may have just sailed back out to sea and something bad could have happened.

At first blush, it might seem that Tim was being cold and heartless. But after doing an objective assessment of what happened, it’s clear that Tim was being sensible. And I’m not the only one who thinks this. Leann, from True Blue V, took this as a learning opportunity and put together a checklist of things to ask and do when responding to any sort of call for help. Being nice and helpful is a good thing, but not at the expense of putting yourself or any of your own crew at risk.

One of my reference books actually says the following:
“Anyone who encounters another person or vessel at sea who is in need of assistance must render that assistance as long as it can be done without endangering the passengers, crew, or vessel rendering aid.”

In hindsight, Grace didn’t really need physical help. His problem was he was out of sorts a bit after completing the Pacific crossing alone and while hand steering most of the way (his autopilot failed). Perhaps with a little more careful handling of his initial VHF call for help we could have calmly talked him through it and could have led him safely to anchor in our anchorage by voice. I don’t know. I wasn’t there. I did not personally assess his state of mind. I do think, however, that understanding the facts a bit better before rushing out of the anchorage in the dinghies would have been the more prudent thing to do.

I learned a lesson that day, and I’ve taken Leann’s checklist, added my own thoughts and commentary, and I keep it in my comms notebook.

And I’m so very glad Tim was as levelheaded as he was that morning.

Blog Post

Thoughtful Thieves

While in the village of Taipivai (called “Typee” by Herman Melville) we took our dinghy into the river (at high tide so we could get through the shallows) to the town and tied it up to a concrete wharf. We walked around a bit and checked out the few stores. At one of the stores, we ordered bread for the next day, and they wouldn’t let us leave without also taking a box full of bananas, “gratis.” It rained on us a bit, but we still enjoyed stretching our legs and getting out a bit. When we got back to the dinghy, we noticed something was missing. Our dinghy painter! The painter is the bit of lined used to tie it off to a dock or whatever. However, they were thoughtful thieves, in that they didn’t just take the painter and let our dinghy drift away. They took our spectra harness that we mostly use when anchoring the dinghy and tied that to the dock. They took our very cheap Home Depot painter and left the very expensive spectra harness. We got a good laugh about it.

The next day our friends on True Blue V parked their dinghy on the beach and tied their painter to a tree, so it wouldn’t float away when the tide rose. Would you believe that when they got back their painter was also stolen. And the thieves were thoughtful enough to pull their dinghy up higher on the beach to avoid the tides.

Our next time to shore we all brought extra line and just set it on the dinghy for the thieves, but I guess they had fulfilled their rope needs, because they didn’t take what we left. Or maybe they just don’t like handouts.