Day 30 and 31 – May 6 and 7, Friday and Saturday

We were still in position over the stern anchor when we awoke, the night’s activities were reported to the captain. We had coffee and all jumped into the little Pudknocker to row to shore to shop for groceries and see the sights. Judy, riding in the bow, was ejected from the dingy when it came to a sudden stop on the beach when we ran out of water, but no harm was done to her bod or gear. We walked around town and shopped up a little grocery storm - fresh baguettes, more beer, Dom’s special French cookies, some fruit and vegetables. As usual, everybody was helpful and friendly and happy to talk. We didn’t check in with the gendarme. We noticed that Shanti had drifted off of her stern anchor as we walked back to the beach, and had swung out into the harbor. Rowing out, one of the oarlocks broke so we paddled canoe style. Judy lost her sunglasses as we passed under the bow line of a boat that was bow tied to the dock, with the stern anchored out away from the dock. I went back with my fins and snorkel to look for her sunglasses next to the concrete wharf area where the freighter docks. I dove down 8 or 9 times and made passes along the bottom, but it was too dark and murky, there were abandoned steel cables laying on the bottom and making loops up into the water trying to catch me, it was about 20 feet deep, and there weren’t any landmarks that remained visible from dive to dive because of how murky the water was, so I returned to Shanti, defeated and empty handed rather than as a hero.

We upped anchor and headed for Nuka Hiva about 25 miles away. None of us were very impressed with this anchorage at Ua Pao, except for the spectacular geology, or maybe we are getting burned out on the Marquesas! Maybe we are longing for really super duper crystal clear water and the world’s greatest reefs and coral! The Marquesas are physically stunning and the people are so friendly and handsome and open to stopping and talking with us cruisers. The water is a bit cloudy compared to what we hope to find in Tahiti, and the coral isn’t as great as what we expect to see, though we did see some nice coral in a couple of spots. The Marquesan anchorages are all pretty decent and safe, at least for the mild weather we had with prevailing trade winds. Many of them were a touch rolley, and had a few annoying black flies and/or nonos on the beach, but none were worse than, oh, maybe a B average. My favorites, so far, were the scene of the beach bonfire and the William Yacht Club anchorage. Hapatoni wasn’t bad, either.

Our sail to Nuku Hiva was a mild beam reach kind of sail. We made 5 or 6 knots, with beam seas and winds, each crew member taking an hour watch at the helm as it is a 4 hour passage, more or less.

We dropped anchor in Nuku Hiva’s Taiohae Bay, at 8.54.59 S and 140.55.01 W, about 5 pm, in what could have been a crowd of 31 boats. It wasn’t a crowd, though, because the harbor is so big. The western edge is the calmest place to anchorage, but the furthest from the new dingy dock and cultural centers and grocery stores. The town is called Taiohae, same as the Bay, and it’s the capital city of the Marquesas. In 2007 the population of the entire island was about 2,600 people.

Boats are anchored all over the bay, some very close to the dinghy dock, which is a tall concrete wall with stainless ladders. There wasn’t much surf affecting the dinghy’s today, but rumor has it that there is on other days. There are sharks in the bay because fishermen clean their catch and throw the offal in, and rumor has it that people have been bit or killed. Dom keeps swimming out where we are anchored, figuring the sharks are all over by the fish cleaning station, a half mile away, waiting to be fed. The government, or somebody, built several large roof structures for local craftsmen to set up tables to display their art and sell fresh vegetables and fruit. Two grocery stores are along the water’s edge about a mile walk down the edge of the bay, with a third one rumored to be a bit up the hill with cheaper prices. We saw baguettes, hard liquor, frozen steaks and roasts and chickens and lamb and such, vegetables, pop, condiments, beer and wine, fishing gear, Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, and all sorts of other good stuff in these smallish stores. Local vodka and rum was about 2100 XPF. Jack Daniels was about $65 US, for a 600 or 650 ml bottle. Most of the American bourbon was in about 650 ml bottles and cost at least $65 and higher.

We had a crew meeting last night to discuss the broken rudder and our next destination. Emil ordered a rudder repair kit from Catalina, which should arrive here soon. I got the sense that Catalina wasn’t surprised by the type of breakage we were suffering from. If we get the rudder repaired, we are all excited to go to, and through, the Tuamotus. In the mid-1700s the French explorer Bouganville came through here and called the Tuamotus the “Dangerous Atolls”, as they are low lying coral atolls, swept by currents passing between, and accelerated by, the various atolls. If we don’t get the rudder fixed Dom and I want to skirt around the Tuamotus, which will add about 75 miles to the trip, just out of a superabundance of caution.

Dom, Judy and I walked about town today, looking at the local art and buying a few little things. You have to get the baguettes early, as most stores are sold out by noon or shortly thereafter. And, truly, running out of fresh baguettes is a very sad thing to have happen to a boat. So we were sad, as the whole town was sold out, not a baguette to be had anywhere. And people were walking around publicly displaying the baguettes they had bought just before we arrived!

Saturday:

Dom, Judy and I walked the town again, bought baguettes, hung out, and then came back aboard around two or so. It was a nice gentle day in the anchorage, not much swell, but sort of sweltering with not much wind. We all talked some more about the rudder and the route. Later we all went to shore and had dinner. Emil and I each had poisson cru, which was delicious. Dom and Judy had pizza, which they proclaimed was the best they had had in this island group. The restaurant is the main sit down one in the middle of town, with the brick pizza oven. I think there are only two or three restaurants total on Nuku Hiva, and that the other one or two are towards the west end of the bay, one being at the Pearl Hotel. My dish was 16000 XPF, and the canned Hinanos are 550 XPF. We bought a bottle of local rum (650 ml) for 21,000 XPF at the local store. The local booze is rum, which comes in 650 to 700 ml bottles, and goes for between 19000 and 25000 XPF.


Day 32 and 33 - May 8 and 9, Sunday and Monday

Sunday: We upped anchor about 7 am and scooted around the corner to Daniel’s Bay. Well, technically Baie Hakatea, which is a lobe of Baie de Taioa. Daniel’s Bay, Anse Hakaui, is the western lobe of Taioa. What a stunningly beautiful, perfect, picturesque anchorage. This may be the best one we have encountered in the Marquesas. It is set in an enormous amphitheater of seriously tall knife edged rock cliffs. What is rumored locally to be the third tallest waterfall in the world, Viapo Waterfall, is about a 2.5 hour hike from the anchorage. The total height of the cascade is over 2,000 feet, but the longest single drop is about 1,100, which means it is about the 199th tallest in the world. There is a lot of vertical here. The water in the anchorage was so perfectly pristine that we just jumped right in, more or less seconds after the anchor was down. The temperature was perfect, a touch of cool, but easy to stay in for an hour without swimming hard to stay warm. The water seemed really salty here, as it was very easy to just float on your back while looking up at the cliffs and clouds. Yes, clouds. I’ve got to add that it is a deliciously cool, cloud covered Seattle sort of rainy day, which to me with my aversion to direct sun exposure is perfect. The temperature is about 84, a bit warmer than Seattle, with a nice little breeze. This windward side of the island has been cloud covered for days. So far, the only flies on the boat are the little non biting black ones we brought from our last anchorage and they are gradually flying away.

Today, the guys with wind generators are making amps. The guys with solar panels have not had much luck for the past several days here on the windward, cloud covered, side of the island. I think you really need both. There isn’t as much sun here as there is in Mexico, so the panels can’t be counted on to completely carry the load for the boat. I’m not convinced that wind generators really make that much power, as we try to anchor where there is no wind, and we all prefer downwind sailing, but here they are spinning like mad today….okay, now, half an hour later, they have stopped spinning. They are now running sort of fitfully, as the wind waxes and wanes.

Emil got an email from Catalina confirming that they, based on the rudder photos we sent them, were shipping him an emergency rudder repair kit. He is now thinking of waiting on Nuku Hiva for the kit to arrive, maybe a week we’re guessing/hoping. We’ll see after he calls them tomorrow on the satphone to discuss what level of work the installation of the kit will require, and whether it is an in the water or on the hard type of repair. Rumor has it that there is a travel lift in the Tuamotus, but without much in the way of expert support or boat parts. The next one is in Papeete, and of course there isn’t one here in the Marquesas, nor have we seen any cranes big enough to lift a 42 foot sailboat, nor have I seen any sort of grid to park the boat on while the tide goes out. The pressure is off on the decision over what course to take, at least for a few days.

From his inflatable kayak Emil saw some black tipped reef sharks over on the south side of the bay, the side sort of against the ocean, and then saw some mantas over in Daniel’s lobe. There are a bunch of coral and boulders close to the surface over there on the south side along that shore, so don’t try to anchor close to it. When driving the Pudknocker around, I noticed the same rocks/coral close to the north side of the lobe we are anchored in, so it looks like a boat should stay towards the middle of the bay to anchor. Not sure what the bottom in the middle looks like. The rocks and coral I’ve seen reach straight up maybe 20 feet from the bottom so the depth finder reading can change really quickly. There are about 6 boats anchored here now, including some we have been bumping into from time to time, both here and in Mexico.

The inflatable kayak is really nice. It gets you exercise and a lot of very cool sightings. It provides easy beach access, and a place to be alone. Emil gave me his old one when we were still in Mexico, so now Freyja has one!

Without getting into an argument about minimalism versus materialism, after watching the boats here and exploring in Shanti, after appreciating the seriousness of an ocean crossing, and after living in a land of no boat parts and no boat supplies, my suggestion is that you make damn sure your boat is outfitted the way you want it to be so you can be independent and that you have plenty of spare parts. A really good water maker and enough electrical generation capacity to run it is a must, unless you don’t mind struggling for water and taking on water from risky sources, like the creek coming into the bay here. Some sort of rain water collection thing would be good. Good clean water in Mexico is easy to come by, almost taken for granted. Not so here. Fuel and propane stations are very far apart. Flying in parts from the states through Tahiti to a remote Marquesan Island is tough and time consuming. Buy lots and lots of tools for your boat. This isn’t Mexico, it is much more remote and underserviced. You can’t have your buddy hop into his car and drive a part down to Puerto Vallarta or something. All that said, I’ve met a couple of boats here that are surviving with almost nothing, in a very, very, minimalistic manner, and seemingly happy.

Monday:

We motored back to the main town, Taiohae, hung out, bought groceries, walked to the post office to mail post cards and use their cash machine, took care of internet related stuff such as email (there is a decent ‘for pay’ cloud covering the bay, but you need a good strong external antenna to really use it. Our laptops had some trouble reaching it without an external antenna.), banking, and the news including the follow up on bin Laden’s death. A Valiant 40 left the anchorage the same time we did, hoisted his sails in the 20+ knot breeze and 8 foot swells and just flew through the swells out to sea, looking like it was going south to Ua Pao. Much later we realized that he had tacked after about an hour or so and was gaining rapidly on us as we motored along. We entered the harbor literally at the same moment, Shanti having motored the whole way dead into the wind with no sails up, the Valiant having been under full sail in the 20+ knots of wind. It was a beautiful thing to see.

We spent the night on the hook, very close to the dingy dock. Power fishing boats were occasionally zooming by quite close to us during the night, rocking us with their wake. No bugs showed up all night, perhaps in part because of the nice maybe 10 knot wind that blew most of the night, at least off and on. None of us really like this anchorage, at least on the eastern side of the bay. The guys on the west side report a different, calmer and more sheltered, experience but are literally a mile or more from the dingy dock so have to burn lots of precious outboard fuel or go to shore on that side of the bay.


Day 34 and 35- May 10 and 11, Tuesday and Wednesday

Tuesday:

We upped anchor at 6:30 am and headed around the east and north sides of the island to Baie D’Anaho, “one of the calmest anchorages in the Marquesas” according to Charlie’s Charts, located in the NE corner of the island. We motor-bashed east, pretty much head on to the trade wind and waves, gradually coming out from under the clouds, until we turned the corner and started north when we unrolled the genoa. The swells were maybe 10 feet or so, with some wind waves. The geology of these islands continues to be spectacular.

As we were leaving Taiohae we heard “What Cha Gonna Do” come on the radio letting the fleet know that they had somehow lost their anchor when raising it this morning and needed help finding and retrieving it. It wasn’t clear if they lost both the anchor and chain or just the anchor, or how it happened. They were looking either for divers or for some sort of hook to drag along the bottom to snag it. The water is avout 40 feet deep there, dark and the cloud cover doesn’t help the vis. They had a GPS waypoint for the approximate location. Good luck to them. They are waiting for a rudder repair kit for one of their two rudders, as they lost one of their rudders on the crossing. (We heard later that they found their anchor, but not how they lost it.)

Emil hooked a very nice size dorado on the 15 fathom long handline I gave him (that I got from my pal Geoff in Hawaii), pulled it up to the boat, gaffed it, but somehow it got away. It was just the right size for 4 people for a couple of days and would have been our first dorado. Darn.

We are, or at least I am, just killing time now, waiting for the emergency rudder repair kit to arrive from Catalina, waiting until we can leave for Tahiti. I’m more interested in the sailing, I think, than lying around tropical beaches. We aren’t really sure of what is in the repair kit, of how it works or how it installs, as Catalina’s email was sketchy in details, and thus we can’t be sure if we can even install it here, or of how long the installation might take. I’ve got a mild case of cabin fever, feeling like I’ve spent enough time in the Marquesas and that it is doubtful that the rudder will get repaired in time for me to take part in the sail to Tahiti. My flight home is on the 29th. I want three or four days in Tahiti and Moorea to survey the anchorages and the lay of the land, with an eye to bringing Freyja here and maybe leaving her in Tahiti over the hurricane season. Also, I need to be in San Diego by June 3rd for my son Mike’s PhD (Chemistry) thesis defense and presumably his graduation ceremony. After that he is unemployed, which is a great reward for all those years in school!

Baie D’Anaho is a one of the better anchorages. It is very calm, very clean, peaceful, picturesque, and, importantly after the last couple of days, sunny. The water is nice for swimming and the breeze is blowing towards the shore so hopefully the bugs will stay away. There are a couple of cabins along the beach, but no town or stores. Judy is on shore looking for shells and beach walking. I went snorkeling and had a great time. There is a lot of coral, but the water at the head of the bay, where we anchored, didn’t have great vis – maybe 10 to 12 feet. It was nice and warm, but the coral and fish were hard to see. There was a manta swimming when we first anchored. On my snorkel expedition I saw a large turtle, maybe 3 to 4 feet across his shell, but I can’t be sure of his size as, again, the water was murky and he has high tailing it away from me. Dom saw a similar turtle while kayaking.

Dom and I were talking about the Marquesasan people. Both of us feel that there is a certain modesty here. Men don’t walk around with shirts open, there literally aren’t any bars or drinking establishments, there are religious types of crosses everywhere, there are no women made up or wearing high heels or looking tarty, not even the young ones, nobody drinks in public, not even a bunch of guys sitting around a tree. Of course, we have only seen a tiny slice of life here, but there are only 10,000 or so people in the entire nation.


Wednesday:

While swimming along the reef this morning I saw a 5 foot long black tipped reef shark below me. I was hovering at the top edge of a coral cliff, and the shark passed by down along the sandy base, about 10 or 15 feet away. I don’t think he saw me, as I wasn’t moving at all, just hovering. Wikipedia says there isn’t much chance of them biting you, especially if you are all the way in the water and not freaking out. The most common injury from these is ankle bites when wading in the shallows. There are no reports worldwide of anybody dying from a black tip shark attack. There are tons of beautiful tropical reef fish to watch.

We hiked up a 650 foot hill to a pass and then down into the next bay, to get to a famous restaurant, Chez Yvonne’s, for a famous meal. Unfortunately, she was closed to the extent that we could only have sandwiches. Either egg or fish, in a baguette. They were both excellent and juicy and really good. The timing for dinner would require that you have your boat in that bay, rather than in this one. The trail is too long, and is too much of a scramble to allow one to walk back in the dark after dinner. She serves breakfast and lunch between 7 am and 2, and then 6 to 7:30 for dinner. The hike was beautiful. Old stone ruins, dozens and dozens of fruit trees spilling their fruit onto the ground, including the ripe oranges we found (a variety with green skin and tasty orange colored segments inside). The trail really isn’t too tough, but there are some loose rocks. We found that our calf muscles and Achilles’ tendons were a bit tight after being on the boat so long. I wish I’d gotten the fish sandwich instead of the egg one as the bite I had of a fish one was much better than my egg one…..

We were amazed at how far out the tide had gone and how much rock and coral was exposed along the edge of the bay. Don’t anchor shallower than 35 to 40 feet or so, as it was less than 6 feet deep, and even dry in spots, for about half the distance to shore.