Pictures! finally...

After a very uncomfortable five hours, we made it into Nuku Hiva yesterday afternoon.  That means we have internet...... We've got the HP up and running and protected now with the various security programs so I'm going to attempt to post some pictures. There are tons of them so I'm going to spread it out over a few posts and give you guys a break from our day by day account of our trip.

First up...Potluck on the beach in Tahuata.  Forgive me if I don't give all the boat names and people names...we met so many people, I'm still learning.







Next up... underwater photos from our dive last week...

 

 

 

 

Enjoy for now...we're headed off to town to see what we can see.  I'll post more pictures tonight or tomorrow.  I hope everyone is enjoying their end of the week (yes, I do know what day it is)!

Hakahetau , Ua Pou - Marquesas

We just left the nicest little village yet. It was a beautiful bay on the island of Ua Pou. We've heard about the Marquesan hospitality and we've finally gotten to experience it ourselves. We got up early the other day to make the 60 mile trek between the islands. We spent our first night in a really pretty anchorage but lots of bugs and no way to go ashore (Vaiehu Bay). We pulled up anchor yesterday and made the hour long trip to Hakahetau Bay. Before we went ashore, we dinghied over to the other boat in the anchorage, White Wizzard, who we've seen several times but never met. They told us about a restaurant and a trail up to a waterfall. Seeing as I've been cooking three meals for a month now and waterfalls are really the only thing on my list to do here, I was excited to hear about both. After we made the fairly easy landing at the concrete quay and walked into town, it started to rain. That's the one thing I'm pretty surprised about (although I don't know why)...all the rain. It's great for our water tanks, but we're beginning to get waterlogged. We were looking for a store and found it by guessing that the house with the propane tanks in the garage might have other goods for sale too. Once again I was surprised by the prices when our can of coke, bag of skittles, heads of garlic and can of corned beef (totally Andy's idea) cost us $20. But we've been saving lots of money by the lack of stores and restaurants anyway, so who cares, right?

While in the store we saw a big French guy with no shoes buying lots of food. We guessed this must be the chef at the restaurant, so we asked if we could join our friends tonight for dinner. He asked if we wanted meat or fish and then gave directions to his house/the restaurant.

Off we went on our search for the waterfall. The first few signs were easy to follow... After about a mile and half, Jake threatened to shut down. Poor guy is never going to trust us again..."we're almost there... really! we're almost there!" Finally we saw a little path off the road and decided to walk down it to dip our feet in the water. Turns out, this was the trail to the waterfall. We were rewarded with a beautiful scene of water cascading down the side of the mountain and a fairly large pool of water at the bottom to swim in. Jake and Andy swam for a while (I didn't bring my bathing suit) and just before the mosquitos carried us off, we headed back (in much better spirits).

It was raining on our way to dinner and we were surprised when the chef pulled up in his truck to give us all a ride. Turns out it was a good thing because I don't think we would have ever found his house. Dinner turned out to be a very pleasant evening getting to know our new Belgium friends and much to my surprise, it only cost us about $78 (and that included a bottle of wine!).

Before we left, we asked the chef, Peter if he could help us find some breadfruit. I've eaten some and am dying to try cooking it myself. He told us to come back at 10:00 this morning. Again we were met with a ride from his wife. After sitting down and having a soda and chit chatting with Andy about the Navy (He was in the French Navy), he presented us with three breadfruits and a bag of limes and mangoes. We paid him for some pamplemousses that he got from another fellow and gave his young child some toys that Jake was finally willing to part with. We had also printed out a picture we took last night and he seemed to really enjoy this as he promptly hung it up on his dining room wall. He gave us a ride back to our dinghy and helped us load it as we promised to visit again some day.

Now we're on our way to Nuku Hiva in some very angry seas. We just have the jib out in about 25 knots of wind and the seas are coming right at us. It's only about 25 miles so we won't have to endure it too long. Once we get there, we'll have internet...which brings me to my latest issue...

Our keyboard on our Mac is toast. The middle row (ASDF, etc) doesn't work. That's the computer we use to access the internet. without the middle row, we can't even type in our passwords to get to anything. We have an HP that we use for navigation and sailmail only. Our security software is not up to date so we never use it when connecting to the internet. I think we're going to have to bite the bullet and update it first thing when we connect. I don't see us getting another computer any time soon. All this to say, it might take longer than planned to get the pictures up... but they're coming, I promise.

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Hanamenu Bay, Hiva Oa - Marquesas

We had every intentions of waking up and going to the church in town to hear the singing, but then at the last minute, decided to try to make a run for Fatu Hiva, some say the prettiest island in the Marquesas. It's the one that you see on all the pictures and the one I've had in my head since we talked about coming here. A few hours later it was obvious we were just going to be bashing into the waves and we even had gusts of wind up to 38 knots. So we turned around. I was very disappointed. Instead we headed up to one of the anchorages on the north side of Hiva Oa. On our way, we caught a decent size yellow fin tuna to perk up our day.

We pulled into the anchorage where there were two other catamarans. Our guide book had told us there were some abandoned houses on the shore with a little oasis in the back full of fruit trees. The book is about 10 years old so I guess it would be news to the author that new residents have moved in. Some of the other boaters didn't find the folks to be too welcoming but we had the secret...tuna. We made a pretty dicey landing on shore and walked to the house with our tuna in hand. We had another secret too...Jake. Kids always opens doors that adults can't fit through. The other kids offered Jake a piece of their grapefruit (they call them pamplemousse here and they are as big as your head and much sweeter than what we have at home) and the big tall Marquesan that looked in charge started leading us down a path. It took us right by the freshwater pond our guidebook had told us about! And it was just as pretty as they described it too. So Jake swam in the pond with the other kids while I cleaned my feet. The big guy in charge disappeared and then brought back 4 large pamplemousses to Andy. Then he got a machete and chopped off enough bananas to feed a small army. We gathered some mint that was growing by the stream and were on our way. As we reached our boat the guy chased us down with some limes and I found a few fishing hooks in my backpack that I gave to him. He seemed to really enjoy those. We waved "Na na" (good bye in the local language) and he said "Thank you" and off we went.

Later that afternoon another boat pulled in that we had spoken to earlier, a really nice young Danish couple from the Netherlands. They came over to chat for awhile and we ended our night with sushi and rice.

We woke up this morning and I thought we were in the Chattahoochee River. It seems the sand bar that was holding the river water back on shore busted last night while it rained and the whole bay here is brown. We woke up too late to go anywhere (the next island is 60 miles from here) so we decided to go back on shore. The people left yesterday afternoon on a boat so we thought we might be alone. We played in the pond a little more but I was a little weirded out knowing that people lived there...it's kind of like walking into someone's vacation home and using their pool while they're at work during the week...

We're going to leave here tomorrow and head to one of the other islands...not sure which yet. Hopefully it will have internet and I can post our pictures...they're piling up!

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Hapatoni Bay, Tahuata - Marquesas

We've spent a few more days in this beautiful bay with beach potlucks and bonfires, manta rays and dolphins. We met quite a few boats from all over. The mood here is very different than that of Mexico. Everyone is just happy to be here. No grumpy people talking about anchors or reminding us that catamarans flip over while monohulls are designed to right themselves (maybe it's because this place is full of catamarans?), or assuming we're idiots because we're under 60 (not that all of Mexico was like this, but we sure got our share). No, everyone is friendly, funny and we've even gotten a delicious octopus recipe from our new Danish friends.

Today we decided to pick up anchor and move a little further south to a little village in Hapatoni Bay. We got here about noon and decided to go ahead and go to shore as it's Saturday. If we wait until tomorrow, it will be Sunday and nothing really happens around here on Sunday. It's a beautiful walk through the village with all kinds of flora and fruit trees. There are wood carvers here as well and they are pretty amazing. Most of their work ends up going to Tahiti to sell, but occasionally they sell it here as well. Today, there was only jewelry being sold. We heard there was a big feast going on, but we were a little late to partake. They were cleaning up the food as we came in. It only took about an hour to see the whole place (and that was because we had to back track looking for a toy airplane that Jake lost, never found, a tragedy for sure) but it was a really nice walk. This island is exactly what we had pictured in our head...coconut trees, a little rain, beautiful flowers, locals hanging out on their porches. Beautiful.

The only downside so far is our total lack of even remotely grasping the language, both French and Marquesan... I can see where this might get a bit tough if we have any notions of getting to know anyone. We'll keep trying though and who knows, maybe we'll catch up with one of those nice French boats who speak English...for a few bananas, maybe they'll translate!

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Hana moe Noa, Tahuata - Marquesas

If you can pronounce that title, good on ya. We're in the land of "I don't know how to say it." We're also back in the land of no internet so you'll have to hang in there for another week or so to get pictures.

We left Atuona in Hiva Oa hoping for a nice secluded beach. We heard the first anchorage around the west side of Tahuata was the third prettiest in the French Polynesian Islands and since it was just an hour or so away, we thought we'd try it out. We were under the illusion that we were unique in being here and we're always surprised when things get crowded. We were shocked to find 6 other boats already in the anchorage. We almost bypassed it because we were really looking forward to finding something to ourselves (as if we haven't had enough alone time), but as I looked through the binoculars, I saw a friendly boat, Phambili. We met this family of 5 from Canada (where else?) in La Cruz during Christmas. They had done the crossing a few weeks ahead of us. They have a young boy, Cameron (11), and two older girls, Naomi(12?), and Anita(15). We cruised by them looking for a parking spot and waved and said some very loud hellos, catching up on each other's passage. Once we had our hook down, we went for a little swim in the BEAUTIFUL water here. You can see the hook and the nice sandy bottom. Tommy, on Phambili came by on his way back from the beach and invited us over for sundowners. Who can say no to that? So we spent last night getting to know them better and with Jake having other kids to play with. They're a bit older, but what you'll hear often in the cruising crowd is that the kids don't really have ages...they're all so happy to see someone else, they get a long great (most of the time). The older kids are always welcoming to the younger ones.

Today, Andy, Tommy and I went diving while Jake stayed with Fiona and the kids on Phambili. It was a beautiful dive with lots of fish none of us had seen before. We didn't see any sharks or manta rays (of which Andy had seen already on a snorkeling excursion), but we did see a big turtle and Andy got some very nice pictures, of which I'll post as soon as possible.

We're finally here...the quintessential French Polynesia. Jake and Andy are out snorkeling as I write and we have a big beach day planned tomorrow. In a few days we may head down to one of the villages and see if we can test out our bartering skills... I'm a little low on fruit :)

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4/11/2011 - Hiva Oa, Marquesas

You would think after 21 days on the boat that we would get off the boat, right?  Not really.  We spent the whole weekend hanging out on the boat.  We were productive, just not very mobile.  It might have something to do with town being a 2 mile walk one way?  Yesterday was Sunday and we had intentions of going into town and listening to the singing at the church, but we stayed in bed instead.  So that’s my excuse for not updating the blog in the last few days…not much to tell.  I figured you were tired of hearing about laundry (which is what I did).

We did manage to get off the boat a few times to look for a place to swim.  Saturday we took the dinghy out to a little island and took a poke at snorkeling.  Jake was the only one that got in the water as it looked pretty dead to Andy and I.  But we did see a big turtle so all wasn’t lost.  After we let Jake swim back at the boat, I was looking through one of our guides and it said  (I’m paraphrasing here), “not a good idea to swim in this bay due to the large shark population.”  Nice.  The water is kind of murky as there is a small river that feeds into it, so that makes sense.

Yesterday we decided to go back to that river since we saw some locals swimming in there.  It was murky too, but Jake had fun playing in the little stream where the river met the beach/ocean and it was a nice place to cool off as it’s quite hot in the middle of the day here.

Somebody has built a nice little shade for themselves on the beach.

There's a little shower at the boat ramp that proved to be Jake's
favorite part of the day.

Today we’re going to go back into town and pick up a few more veggies and fruit and possibly head out to another nearby island tomorrow.  We’re waiting on our duty free fuel certificate to be stamped by our agent so we can get fuel in Nuka Hiva before we leave the Marquesas (we don’t need any just yet).  

Then tomorrow we’re going to try and head out.  This island is really pretty but it’s more of a stopover to check in.  Not a lot to explore.  Well, that’s not true.  There are a lot of archeological sites and Tikis and there is a tour guide that will take you around to most of them, but the tour is $250.  If we were to find some more people to share it with, it might be worthwhile, but that is proving hard to do as we have 3 people and the car only comfortably holds 4, as well as the next tour wouldn’t be until Wednesday and we have limited time in the French Polynesia Islands and think we should spend our time (and $$) elsewhere on things that interest us a little more (like diving, pearl farms, etc).  But for anyone heading this way, the review of the tour was great, so if it’s something you want to do, go for it…just isn’t in the cards for us this time.

You can see how crowded the anchorage is and how close we
are to shore (Savannah on the far right with her bat wings up).

One item of note is this anchorage...it's kind of tight.  There are 14 boats in here and we're stacked on top of each other, most with stern hooks.  There are a few boats that decided not to use stern hooks.  Yesterday we watched two of them collide.  It was quite interesting to watch all the hand gestures going back and forth.  They were french so of course I couldn't eavesdrop on what they were saying, but in the end, one boat pulled in their chain a little bit and put out a stern hook, but the other one decided to leave things be.  We'll see how that works out.

Two French boats discussing options after a small collision at anchor

Time to make the pancakes.  Stick with us, it promises to get more exciting…we’re just getting our land legs back. 

Trip statistics and long awaited pictures

Here are the long awaited pictures!!!  Surprisingly, we didn’t take a ton of pictures, so hopefully no one is disappointed.

I also thought I would include a few statistics…they’re all approximate as we are horrible at keeping track of things, but it gives you an idea of how the trip went.

Miles:  2700 Nautical Miles

Time:  21 ½ days

Motor time:  approximately 50 hours

Equator crossing coordinates:

Doldrum days:  2

Fuel used:  35 gallons

# fish caught:  3

# of fish that got away:  3

Days without fresh veggies:  0!!!!!

Full night’s sleep:  2

Fights between crew members:  0!!!!!

Growls between crew members:  3 (mostly spinnaker induced)

The infamous Spinnaker!

Working on "Helper Words" during school.

Jake with his shaving cream Neptune crown, becoming a shellback!

The result of Andy having a little fun with us while crossing the equator.
For those that don't know, Andy has crossed the equator 3 times now, so there
was no ceremony for him.

About to swim across

We sent a message in a bottle from the crew.

Our first yellowtail...

Jake measuring our second yellowtail for his fish log.

He had to use all his muscle to get this up!

One of many sushi nights.

The last and best fish...Skipjack Tuna!!

I tried to fight this boobie bird off with a broom, but he wasn't having it.
He bit my broom and stayed around for more than 24 hours.

Our first sight of land

Hiva Oa

The harbor at Atuona as we pulled in.