Taioa Bay (Daniel's Bay)

We left the main bay in Nuku Hiva and moved about 5 miles west to Daniel's Bay. Our guidebook says this valley (and we've heard the bay) is where the TV Show Survivor was filmed. We have conflicting info from another cruiser, so we don't know for sure, but both of us seem to remember it being in "Daniel's Bay." It is truly beautiful here. The greenery on the side of the mountains makes the most unusual contrast against the rock. And the mountains just go up and up and up into the clouds.

Yesterday we saw giant mantas swimming on the surface scooping up plankton. The water is a bit murky so we're still feeling "sharky" and not chancing swimming here. We did let Jake "body surf" at the beach but the water wasn't more than 2 feet deep. We ended our day yesterday with a fantastic wahoo dinner (thanks to our friends Dennis and Mary Lee on Lardo for the fish) and a nice bottle of wine (or two) to celebrate our anniversary.

There is a 2 hour hike (one way) back to the Ahuii Waterfall, the third tallest waterfall in the world. We were going to give it a shot, but after talking with another cruiser who had just completed the hike, decided it was a bit too much to ask of Jake. So we found our own hike. We took the dinghy to shore and with a lunch packed and plenty of water (and jelly bellies), we set out on a cow trail we found the day before. We were hoping to find a small waterfall of our own or a fresh water pool of some sort but didn't. But it was a beautiful hike through the woods and Jake really enjoyed it without one word of whining. He did great and it ended up being a full 2 hour hike for us.

We're about to go on a longer passage (4-5 days) so of course Savannah has to have a few problems first. Andy went under Jake's bunk to pull out some rum and found a gallon or so of salt water in the bildge. He was under there about 6 weeks ago (storing the rum) when he found the diesel leak so we're guessing it's a small pinhole leak in the hull. It was impossible to find exactly where it was so he rubbed some 5200 apoxy sealant all around the cracks and we're hoping for the best.

We've been following the blogs of some of the boats that left La Cruz after us and found out our friends on Ceilydh lost a rudder about 2 days out. They altered course from landing in Hiva Oa to land in Nuku Hiva due to the ease of getting in the large bay as well as better facilities for finding someone to fabricate a new rudder. The radio was chirping late last night and I jumped up thinking maybe there was someone needing help here in the bay and I heard them talking to others about coming in the bay at dark. So it looks like they made it in safe and sound. We're sorry we won't be seeing them before we leave but hope they getting everything worked out so we can catch up in the Tuamotos or Society Islands down the road.

I'm going to check weather and email and then we'll be ready to get underway in the morning for the Tuamotos. We've been doing our research and have decided on a route that starts about halfway up the atolls and continues going up with the wind to the north. Our first stop will be Makemo. Our expectations are pretty high in the swimming, snorkeling, diving range so stay tuned to see how we fare.

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