16 - 18 May 2007  After our early morning arrival, we put the boat to bed and then ourselves for a couple of hours.  When we awoke, the rains had passed through and we had a good view of the anchorage......Wow!  Its the most impressive we've ever seen.  No matter in which direction you looked the views were unbelievable; it could almost have been made as a film set.  The phallic protuberances on the left of Hanavave Bay caused it to be called Baie des Verges (Bay of Penis's).  Outraged, the missionaries hastened to add a redeeming "i" to make it Baie des Vierges (Bay of Virgins).  After taking in the view, we eagerly got the dinghy in the water and went ashore to take our first steps on terra firma for 23 days.  It was strange as we had expected to feel rolly whilst walking, but we didn't!  The people of Hanavave village were very friendly and lived quite simply.  The only place to use money is in the shop and so most things are exchanged on a barter system.  They are so used to having boats coming in that you could exchange anything, any boat bits, old ropes, jewellery, perfume, cosmetics and the highest currency at the moment - head torches!  We exchanged a few things later in our stay for grapefruit, oranges, bananas, limes and papaya.  After going back aboard, we decided to celebrate our crossing with a bottle of champagne with our lunch.  As we were meeting the other yachties for a drink ashore in the evening, we thought it would be best if we got another couple of hours sleep and so lay down at 3.30 pm expecting to wake around 5 pm.  Unfortunately, we must have been more tired than we realised and didn't wake until 9.30 pm!  Some of the other yachts had even been calling us on the radio but we had heard nothing.  After downloading a couple of e-mails, we went back to bed and didn't stir again until 7.30 am!  We must have been very tired bunnies.  

Views of the anchorage at Fatu Hiva

Awake bright eyed and bushy tailed, we decided to clean the boat's hull.  During the passage, we had picked up green weed all around the boat and some wormy barnacles around the stern; glad to say we weren't the only ones, everyone else had them too.  It took several hours to get it all off but the boat is now clean.  We went ashore in the afternoon and went for a walk to find a waterfall.  We set off under cloudy skies and after only 30 minutes had to run for shelter under a tree as the rain started.  It only took about 10 minutes before the tree wasn't giving us any shelter and we were very wet, so decided to continue walking.  We had been told to look for a very small cairn which took you down a smaller track and would lead the way to the waterfall; about an hours walk from the Bay.  The muddy track started going uphill quite steeply but we kept going, despite the spasmodic downpours, looking for the cairn.  We went higher and higher, getting wonderful views over the village and across the tops of the surrounding hills.  After about two hours we were getting concerned that we hadn't seen a small cairn and didn't think we were walking so slowly that we would take twice as long as everyone else to get there.  We then spotted a bright yellow digger and decided that we must have missed the turning as no one had mentioned a digger.  A small cairn might be easy to miss but this digger wasn't!  We turned round and walked back down the hills.  When we were about 10 yards from the tree we'd earlier sheltered under and noticed a small cairn off to the right leading up a small track!  As we'd walked so far we decided to go and find the waterfall.  The small track was well marked, but very slippery due to the rain.  We scrambled over rocks and under trees and eventually found the waterfall, towering vertically above us some 150 feet.  As it was getting late, we didn't linger there as it would soon be getting dark under the trees and we didn't want to lose our way twice in one day.

Views during our short walk to find the waterfall

We were woken early the next morning, around 3.15 am, by a bump in the night!  Literally!  The boat that had anchored next to us the previous day had swung on their anchor and bumped into us!  We eventually managed to wake them and they let out some more chain so that they swung behind us.  The boat that had anchored the other side of us (also the previous day) were also very close.  After having a coffee together, Steve stayed up to watch what happened over the next few hours as the tide would be altering again soon and Hazel went back to bed.  It turned out that the men on all three boats stayed awake after the close encounters.   We decided that we would make a night passage tonight over to Hiva Oa, some 40 miles North of Fatu Hiva.  In preparation, Hazel started baking bread and flapjack ready for the passage, whilst Steve went trading ashore.

Leaving Fatu Hiva complete with Bananas

The plan was to leave Fatu Hiva at dusk to make a slow 3kt passage and arrive in Hiva Oa at dawn the following day.  The weather was not good in the anchorage, with strong winds and frequent showers blowing down the valley from the mountains.  Steve decided that this was a local effect and that once out of the funnel of the valley things would settle down.  Big mistake!  Once clear of the Bay initially they did; however, as we cleared the lee of the island the wind picked up to 25-30 kts, the showers got heavier and the seas bigger!  We had 2 reefs in the main, a scrap of headsail, and our oilskins on making 7 kts, which meant we arrived of Hiva Oa at midnight, but unable to make an entrance until 6 am.  Some plans just don't work.  Steve stood at the helm all night trying to slow the boat and ride the now substantial seas.  It rained so hard that the water was running through his waterproofs and draining out of the legs.  The only good thing about that was it didn't matter so much when the waves came over the top of the boat and drenched him that way!  It was not a good night, and we spent the last 5 hrs hove too waiting for dawn in big seas.  At least the motion was more comfortable, but it was just as wet.  We sailed into the Bay just as dawn broke; however, the weather had one more trick to play.  The wind shifted and headed us so we now made very slow progress for the last 5 miles.  Once in the lee of the island things settled down and we found the anchorage almost empty.  We laid our stern anchor to hold the bow to the swell and set about drying out.  One wave had even found its way down the hatch, so we had a wet boat below as well.  Sometimes, things just don't go as planned!

Anchorage at Hiva Oa

19 - 25 May 2007  After putting the boat to bed, we went for a lie down; only a couple of hours this time.  We went ashore around lunchtime and, after taking the scenic route, we found the village of Atuona.  The Island has a completely different feel to it, its much more cosmopolitan and affluent.  It is also kept immaculate, the grass verges are neatly trimmed and everything looks neat and tidy.  It is also very French, closing for a three hour lunch Monday to Friday and closing completely Saturday afternoon.  Guess what, its was Saturday!  With nothing open until Monday, we had a quiet walk around and then went back to the boat - the short way this time.  After a lazy day around the boat on Sunday, we went ashore on Monday morning to finally complete the arrival paperwork.  It was incredibly easy!  Being Europeans, we didn't have to submit a bond (the cost equivalent to an airline ticket back to your country of origin) and only had to complete a Customs Declaration and then pop to the Post Office for a 60 cent stamp to post it to Pape'ete.  Prices here are very high, e.g. a bar of chocolate 475 CFP (£2), a cheap bottle of wine 2100 CFP (£10.50), internet access 4635 CFP (£23).  We made quick calls home as they were costing £1 for 10 seconds!  Having said that, we had lunch with the people off 'La Mar' and that cost us about £12 per head which wasn't too bad for what we had.

The following morning, we decided to take our bikes ashore and go for a ride.  It looked a little threatening over the hills but decided to go anyway as it might be refreshing on the way back.  However, it started raining just as we started cycling to Atuona which is less than a mile from the port.  Deciding to press on, we found ourselves quickly rising out of Atuona on the road to Taaoa, where we were going to look for Tiki statues.  We went up and up and up, with flashbacks to our walk only a few days previous, but at least we were on a paved road this time......spoke a little too soon there, once we had reached the top of the hill, the road turned into a very muddy track.  We slithered down hill towards the village and the road turned back into a paved one; they are currently paving the bit in the middle and should be completed in about three months time.  The road leading to the village of Taaoa was lined with banana, mango, bread fruit and grapefruit trees, interspersed with flowering hibiscus.  The grounds of the houses were all very neat and tidy, with many variegated plants in their gardens that we would have as indoor plants back in the UK.  We turned left in the village and once again started up hill.  Another very steep hill.  After about two miles we came to the archeologically site we'd been looking for, well almost.  We had been told that we would find Tiki (the stone carved figures) where in actual fact we found Pae Pae (stone platforms).  They were a series of terraced, rectangular, stoned off areas rising up the hillside and I'm sure, with a little tuition, they may have been more interesting.  The heavens then opened!  So we started our decent quickly to the village and onward to our boat.  We looked like two drowned rats when we got back, but it had been enjoyable and it was good to get a bit more exercise and see a bit more of the Island.

Our soggy cycle ride to Taaoa

         Overlooking Tahauku Bay                        A Taaoa Cottage                             Taaoa Church

26 - 31 May 2007  We made up our minds to leave the Marquesas from Hiva Oa, rather than head north again to the island of Niku Hiva, basically to get ahead of a large group of boats that had arrived just after us.  We found the crowds (relative term with about 100 boats crossing the Pacific) stressful in the weather conditions and deep anchorages and by leaving early we felt we stood a better chance of enjoying the Tuamotu Islands in splendid isolation.  The 26^th dawned bright, with no showers for a change and we were underway by 9:30 am and we set course under full sail to pass between the cliffs of Hiva Oa and the island of Tahuata, which looked much more welcoming than it did in the storm we weathered the night of our arrival.  The good conditions held until dusk when we found a line of heavy showers in our path.  We picked a gap between two of them and made best speed at 90°s to their line of advance.  It was a close run thing, but we got through without getting wet and the increase in wind to their lee gave us a nice boast in speed.  This pattern of late afternoon/early evening showers was to repeat itself several times during the passage as we picked our way through a trough, cold front and a convergence zone.  Each time we employed the same strategy and got through between the largest squalls without getting beaten up.  The largest shower of all was a really menacing brute, which chased us down for about 3 hours before disintegrating before our eyes.  In all my time flying around the world I have never witnessed a cloud collapse and disappear so quickly.  It just ran out of energy and disappeared, much to our relief, but not before we had put two reefs in and battened everything down in preparation for the sheer line.  Unfortunately, dodging around these large showers called for both of us on deck so sleep was a rare commodity for the first few nights and we both got very tired.

After our 3000 mile passage a mere 500 miles seemed like a short hop at the planning stage; however, we both felt that the 5 days seemed to drag.  We planned the passage to coincide with the full moon so that we could pick our way through the low lying atolls of the Tuamoto’s at night; however, we saw nothing of them day or night except for a very short line of palm trees when we were 6 miles away from Ahi.  They really are low lying and a 50 foot palm tree is as high as they get.  It’s a bit disconcerting being that close to land in 6000’ of water and seeing nothing of it.  We arrived off of Rangiroa around 1am on the 31^st so we lay hove too until dawn before creeping in the last 10 miles arrive at the the reef at high water plus one hour to coincide with slack water in the pass.  The planning worked out well and, although there was breaking water to starboard as we approached, the pass itself was relatively benign with about 1-2 knots running against us at the narrowest point.  Once inside the atoll we found the South Pacific we had hoped for.  There were only 2 other boats in an ideal anchorage in the lee of a white sand beach and swaying palm trees.  We had the anchor down by 10 am and, as a special treat, we went straight ashore for lunch.

Looking back on the passage, the weather was a significant factor.  We have returned to latitudes where the passage of a cold front has a significant impact.  A comparison would be the area between the Bahamas and Jamaica in the northern hemisphere; coming from the UK it is easy to forget that it is winter in June here!  The weather turned foul the day after we arrived in Rangiroa and the wind picked up to 25-30 kts outside the lagoon, which kicked up a nasty sea.  We were thankful to have beaten it in.  The pass that we had negotiated successfully now had a 18’ standing wave in it!  The Spring Tides had filled the lagoon in the atoll as the water had come in over the reef all around its 17 mile perimeter, which meant that there was no incoming tide in the pass for 3 days and at “low water” the ebb was flowing at 9 kts meeting the large incoming seas.  Very dramatic to watch from the safety of the shore, but not somewhere to venture in a small boat, which meant that no other boats arrived for a week and the anchorage stayed blissfully peaceful!

The waves in the Tiputa Pass