We arrived in the Marquesas on March 22nd to the
island of Hiva Oa. It was good to be on
land again after 21 days at sea! It was more than a week later before all the
boats had checked in and there were the usual lists of breakages and
failures! You are glad if your “failures”
are something easy to manage. So….you
don’t want engine failure, auto-pilot failure, sails ripped and that sort of
thing! You also need energy for water
production and other stuff when you are far from land. Small stuff like head (toilet) problems are
manageable…that is so long as you can hold it or find the rail!!!
The islands are strikingly beautiful with steep intense
green volcanic mountains. They say these
are some of the only islands you can smell (except for Bayonne) as you approach
them. We were knocked over by a sweet
flower like smell overlaid with the scents of various spices as we got down
wind of the corner of the island …breathtaking! Tourists are rare…just cruisers. The Marquesan people are welcoming and
wonderful. You have no worries about
crime. They are proud of their heritage
and their native dances and songs celebrate their Polynesian history and culture. Flowers are abundant and everywhere but most
noticeably behind the ear of every local female… nice! We enjoyed Hiva Oa and travelled across the
island to see the largest Tikis in French Polynesia. This Tiki celebrated his 2,000th
birthday quite a few years ago.
Long trip and the roads are mostly dirt but the Tiki (Unesco)
site was impressive. The Marquesans are
a very giving people and they expect nothing in return. At the Tiki site there was a grapefruit tree
and our taxi guy knocked about 8 grapefruit down for us – nothing like stolen
(given) grapefruit – and these are by far the best sweetest long lasting
grapefruit we have ever tasted.
On the way out he also stopped at a road side mango tree and
went and climbed it and got us about 20 mangos – we had a whole Costco bag full
of borrowed fruit for AURORA stores by the time we got back on board. Their ancient sites are usually inland in
valleys by rivers.
We visited the grave of Paul Gauguin who spent time on the
island…
As we all know from those famous paintings depicting ladies
with Hibiscus flowers in their hair not to mention the other bits and pieces! When we asked one of the locals about the
location of his grave we learned that he was not much loved…the Marquesan
(John) described Gauguin as “a shit” who had impregnated a local 15 year old
girl and had many, many offspring elsewhere in these islands. Nonetheless, we still determined that we
would walk to his grave which overlooks the village. We were able to contemplate the passage of
time, talent and the reality of how one chooses to live their life! 2 local stories about uncle Paul – 1st
is he use to pay for his groceries a the local food shop on Hiva Oha with
paintings until the Chinese shop owner told him “No more paintings”! The 2nd story goes 2 nuns found a
bunch (around 10) Gauguin paintings stored in their local convent, while
cleaning out some storage area. They
instantly proclaimed them to be pornographic and took them out back and burned
them. Ouch x 2.
We left Hiva Oa to spend a few nights on Tahuata. A beautiful island with a population of about
600. Our first stop was the Bay of
Hanamoenoa which is the epitome of the dream beach! One guy called Steve lives there – it’s the
nicest white sand beach we have found so far in the Pacific - Just
perfect! As you can see it is heavilly used.
A wonderful anchorage.
We had dinner aboard Aurora with Doug and Val from Tulla Mhor. A good night!
The next night was spent on anchor at Baie Vaitahu. The local church is strikingly beautiful with
carved local woods and stone. We met the
Mayor and were given fruit by his wife.
Marquesans like to be generous and often will give visitors fruit. They have the biggest grapefruits you have
ever seen and they are delicious. We
were also given Papaya, Rumbuton and bananans on the islands. Next we overnighted on the island of Ua Huka and had a tough night with swells and
winds.
Our last Marquesan island was Nuka Hiva, principal island of
the Marquesas. The ARC met here for a
welcome ceremony, dinner and dancing and singing. It was truly wonderful, not the stuff of
tourism but from the heart pride and welcome in a truly traditional way. We enjoyed the company of our fellow cruisers
and toured the island with Melike and Nejat from North. The Tiki sites on Nuka Hiva are
exceptional. Wonderful carved Tikis:
and petroglyphs:
And the old Banyan tree girls (tree is old - 2K+ years – not
the girls):
Breathtaking views:
and stunning harbors abound - AURORA on right.
A restaurant, Chez Yvonne in a wonderful town by the
ocean…heavenly food! A paradise that
remains virtually untouched! You must really watch the coral heads (dark spots) as you dinghy in or the dingy engine will end up in dingy engine heaven faster than you would like.
But…lest you should think I am now less reluctant…though I
thoroughly enjoy the travelling I remain reluctant in oh so many ways! Do not think that this is luxury travel…we
constantly work on the boat. Always
fixing and checking. The night in Ua
Huka puts it in perspective. A night on
anchor where the wind sends you swinging constantly 360 degrees around your
anchor and leaves you, at certain times, too close to where the waves crash on
the rocks means a night of uncertainty!
We had anchored well and tested her but watching Ken doing his mathematical
testing of movement of boat, proximity to land, swing on anchor…to ensure that
we are not dragging does little to inspire confidence. A stormy night with periods of loud crashing
of waves on rocks (as you swing in that direction) is no lullaby. And I wonder…what did I sign up for.
Then…you have to see us take the dinghy to land. The tides here are such that when you leave
your dinghy tied to the concrete wall and climb up using the tire attached to
said wall you must remember that depending on when you return you may have to
lower yourself several feet from same tire and often you are loaded with fruit
and provisions. It makes for an
interesting life. I was unlucky enough
to fall into the dinghy but a friend beat me and fell into the ocean. You have to dress accordingly and your precious
“stuff” is always in dry bags. I could
go on… but rest assured I remain the “reluctant sailor”.
After Nuku Hiva we said goodbye to the Marquesas and the
wonderful folk who were so welcoming and we set sail for the Tuamotos. These 78 islands are coral atolls and used to
be known as “the Dangerous Archipelago” as they are low lying and so cannot be
seen until you are practically ashore!
They have coral reefs which are most often not visible and so many the boat
has been stranded on them. For years
cruisers sailed by but now charts do a better job and they are visited. However…they are still difficult as there
they have to be approached through a channel in the reefs which is subject to
tides and currents and coral underlies them all. So you pick your passage and then make sure
the time of day is correct, so you can clearly see what you are going to hit, and
you may enter. You also must make sure
the sun is overhead or behind you to best see coral heads and avoid grounding
the boat.
We decided on the advice of the ARC professionals that we
would first visit Fakarava. We had a
good sail to the atoll but had to slow down so as to arrive in the morning when
we could see the passage and determine if we could enter. Going slow on a boat is the pits! It is as if time slows down and you stretch
the night. It is tough going! By about 3:30 am I relieved Ken so that he
could have some sleep before attempting our first passage to an atoll. So I was s-l-o-w-l-y sailing between islands
and could see lights on the reefs and other boats waiting to enter. In the dark it is sometimes difficult to judge
distances and so you are hyper aware of everything around you…I was glad when
dawn arrived and we could see the passage.
There were waves in the passage but we knew that we could
skirt the worst of them by staying to the side but making sure to stay well
away from the reefs. There was also a
current against us but …we knew we had enough engine power to push
forward. And it helped that another
yacht and gone in ahead!!! None the less
it is somewhat nerve wracking to enter an atoll passage for the first
time. Ken had me on the bow to point out
a safe passage through the coral heads.
Luckily the depth was sufficient because there was plenty of coral! We forged ahead and entered the lagoon which
is 20 miles wide and 40 miles long, in the center of the atoll and proceeded
towards the village of Rotoava. It is
difficult to describe an atoll…best to imagine a sunken volcano with a spit of
land that remains around the underwater crater which is the lagoon. The land is flat with palm trees and sandy
beaches. The lagoon side is quiet with
lapping waves while the ocean side has treacherous reefs and crashing waves!
We anchored by the village and contemplated the beauty of
Rotoava.
We dinghyed in with the gang and that turned into a dinghy jousting and ramming - not condoned by our insurers - however we must wait for the real dinghy race in Bora Bora so we can separate the men from the "once were men".
On shore we explored the village with friends from ARC
boats. The locals were friendly and
welcoming. The village is a single road
and to one side you have the lagoon and the other faces the ocean! There were a couple of well stocked
supermarkets, a pearl shop (these islands are famous for their black pearl
farms) and a couple of restaurants. At
the far end of town we found the restaurant which became our favorite for our 3
day stay, La Paillote.
The local languages are Tahitian and French. The people are proud of their heritage and
they are distinct from the other island folk.
There are differences in the Tahitian spoken in each group of islands
and we tried to learn a couple of words in each place…Man-nuwee-ah
(phonetically spelt!) for cheers!
The first night we had dinner in a field where there were
little wooden buildings with woven sides where you could choose your
kitchen/restaurant and sit outside with the villagers to have dinner. Kids played in the soccer field, dogs roam
freely but get along with each other and everyone was friendly. The following day we arranged a football game
between the cruisers and the locals…so many locals wanted to play that they
ended up on our team too! The islanders
won 3 to 1 but all had a great time! A
local lady helped us arrange bicycles for the following day and even called a
pearl farmer to arrange a visit for us. Aurora,
North, Sandvita, Tulla Mhor and Atla explored the island on the bicycles. Melike of NORTH took a selfie -
There was a small airport which we “took over” for a
while. Here’s Ken cleared for takeoff:
We visited the pearl farm run by a lovely lady by the name
of Hinano (also the local beer). She,
Nano, showed us the operation and opened a 15 year old oyster to show us the
pearl in its natural state… and shared the secrets of growing black pearls:
It was interesting to learn about the gradations of pearls
from Top Quality, A, B, C and D. All of
them are unique and the different shapes and colors appeal to different
people. She had a shop where she showed
us the jewelry she had made and we happily BLINGed away! She was delightful and the entire experience
was extremely personal. Ken had been
swimming and she wrapped him in a serape and dried him off! Special moments!!!
The snorkeling on the reef in the lagoon was
incredible. Five of us went out in our
dinghy and explored the reef. The first
fish I saw was a 6 foot shark but we had been told that they were not
aggressive…and I can attest to that!
Nonetheless my breath caught and for a moment I watched waiting to see
if he was going to come my way and if he looked hungry…but he completely
ignored me. The coral was beautiful and
teemed with colorful schools of fish. I
decided this was the best snorkeling I had ever experienced. Coral heads seemed to be alive with fish
which moved with current and wave in the underwater garden. There were schools of fish of all sizes from
those the size of a fingernail to larger ones but all were colorful and
captivating. The water was crystal
clear.
We left Fakarava and sailed with North to Toau, another
atoll. It was a good sail and we entered
into a sheltered bay with mooring balls.
Ken went into shore
and met with Valentin and Gaston who live there and will
cook, sometimes, for cruisers. They were
not “open” but after chatting with Ken who offered to share beers with them (as
they had run out) told us to come on in for lobsters later on. After some drinks with them we left to
snorkel.
The snorkeling was ….awesome. The new “best”. Water was crystal clear, schools of fish and
beautiful coral.
Dinner was quite the experience. Grilled lobster was best ever – slow cooked
in their shells over some sort of exotic fruit tree wood -
raw fish in coconut,
fish cakes… and so on. Gaston and
Valentin sat with us and talked about their lives. Valentin played the yuke and they sang for
us. We sat in a little room perched over
the water…6 of us in paradise.
We had planned to stay the night but changed plans and set
sail for Tahiti around mid-night leaving through a coral shielded passage from
the lagoon about 100’ wide in pitch black, trusting our chart plotter and we
escaped without modifying any coral or our hull. We had problems with the sailgate on the mast
(where your sail slugs enter the
mast…kind of important if you want to raise or lower the sail). Our sailgate popped out when we dropped the
main sail coming in that day. Ken rigged
two slings to keep the main above the gate and it was difficult to manage but
it was good enough to hoist the sail one last time before it would be repaired
(we hoped). We also had some other minor
stuff go wrong (although Ken was fixing the issues he could so I guess he might
not think them so minor!). So off we
sailed - or so we wanted to sail – however one needs wind to sail. We had wind – 6 to 9 knots directly behind us
and we finally turned on the motor after 2 hours sailing at about 3 knots.
And so we motored for 240 miles to Tahiti (except for about
4 hours when the wind, still directly on our ass, picked up to 15 knots). It was by far and away the worst, noisiest,
hotest passage we have made to date. We burned
more diesel traveling those 240 miles than we did on the 3400 mile passage to
the Marquesas. We were happy to transit
the Tapuna pass through the barrier coral reef which got us to the Taina Marina
on Tahiti at 3:30 in the afternoon.
By 4:30 we had a few cool ones
lined up on the bar – how do you spell relief?
Tahiti is the place to go to provision and get things fixed. Even the locals say “In Thiti you fix –
provision – leave”. It’s not that it is
because it is a bad place. It’s still
exotic – it’s still French Polynesia.
But it’s because it is quite populated and built up and we are told that
compared to all of the other Society Islands it is the least desirable so we
will need to judge that as we have 3 weeks to explore at least 4 or 5 of the
other islands before we get to Bora Bora.
So we got all of AURORA’s issues sorted out and did manage to take a day
off and rented a car and circumnavigated Tahiti. Found some waterfalls…
We also took another day off for a dingy ride out to look
for a sunken plane – near the airport.
Did not find the plane but did find one way Tahitian’s party. Invite all your friends, rent a boat that
looks like a house and tow it to a mooring inside the barrier reef and tie down
for the day and enjoy the water.
The one thing we did want to visit was the Gauguin
museum. We got there to find out it was
closed for renovation with no particular completion date set. ‘Think we’ll just need to visit our local
museums instead when we get back to review paintings by “the Shit”.
