![](\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2254\/2226380585_57250723bc.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWe have not written an entry in our blog for nearly a week now,
\nso here goes. We also found that one of Mark’s entries (labeled
\nHiva Oa and Atuana) did not post on time, so if you want to
\ncheck it out go back two blog entries.<\/p>\n
Saturday and Sunday (May 19th and 20th) :<\/p>\n
Last we wrote we were in Hanamenu on the island of Hiva Oa. We
\nspent two nights there before moving on to the next anchorage in
\nHaniapa Bay. The two bays are very close together ( about 12
\nnm), but the wind was right in our face to get there, so we
\ndecided to do a wide tack to get there so we could get some
\nsailing in. It was beautiful, but just before we arrived in the
\nbay, there was a huge unexpected wave, or trough that we hit –
\nwe are not sure what- and the whole boat shook violently. The
\nouthaul on our tightly sheeted mainsail snapped, making the
\nmainsail flog freely and uncontrollably in the wind. It was no
\nbig deal to furl it in until we could get to the anchorage and
\nfix things. The outhaul is the line that you use to pull out the
\nsail along the boom ( and pull it back as well). Luckily Mark
\nhad purchased an extra outhaul for the sail and we knew it was
\nreadily available, and we knew that we would be able to fix the
\nsail once we dropped anchor. Haniapa Bay is supposed to be the
\nmost protected anchorage on the northern coast of the island,
\nand while that may be true, it was nonetheless a very rolly
\nanchorage the nights we were there, but it was extremely beautiful.<\/p>\n
The first night we were there we were the only boat in the
\nmagnificent bay. Lots of manta rays in the water – but a
\ndifferent kind than we saw in Hanamenu. These were brown and
\nwhite rather than black and white, and they did not venture
\nquite as close to the boat as the ones in Hanamenu did. In the
\nmorning, after a rainy night, with lots of uncomfortably choppy
\nwater in the harbour, we took our kayak in to town. The town has
\nboth a wharf and a beach that you can land on, depending on the
\ntides and the conditions. We started out by taking our kayak
\ninto the beach. Haniapa Bay has a village with about 20 houses
\nand roughly 100 inhabitants. It is not a poor village and in
\nfact it rather looks about as much as you might expect a village
\nin the Garden of Eden to look. It is a rainy part of the island
\nand everything was so green and lush with hundreds of blooming
\nflowers, colorful leafy plants, and more fruit trees than you
\ncan imagine. Everyones home was set amidst gorgeous foliage.
\nMark took some pictures of the fruit that we hope to post on the
\nwebsite soon.<\/p>\n
Since there were no stores or restaurants, we decided we would
\ntry to buy some fruit or trade with the locals. A 12 year old
\nboy decided he would be our guide in the village and help us get
\nfruit. He started throwing rocks and hard mangoes up at the
\nmango trees to knock some fruit off for us, and snuck a few
\npapayas off of some trees which were clearly not his. We
\ndecided we would try to get fruit in a less furtive manner and
\nwhen we walked by a house filled with people all sitting
\ntogether eating lunch, we asked them if we could get fruit. No
\nproblem they said , and asked us what we were interested in.
\nBananas, mangoes, and pamplemousse (pomelos) were high on our
\nlist. The man of the house said we should come down to the
\nbeach later and he would have the fruit ready for us in
\nexchange for a t-shirt and a lipstick that we would give him at
\nthe dock at 5:00. So we continued our walk through the lovely
\nvillage.<\/p>\n
A few minutes later we saw a very crudely written sign for the
\nHanaipa Yacht Club. We didn’t see anyone around, and certainly
\ndidn’t see any structure that looked like a yacht club, but just
\na minute later a very funky character popped out of the back
\nand introduced himself as William the head ( and sole member)
\nof the yacht club. Apparently he tries to meet every boater who
\ncomes into the bay invites them over for a glass of lemonade
\nand bananas and has them write something into his scrapbook.
\nWe obliged and enjoyed talking to him on his very mosquitoey
\nporch. He was an older man (although it is really hard to tell
\nexactly how old), wearing a very old and worn t-shirt and
\nshorts, with a fairly long grey beard, tied neatly into a
\nponytail in the front. He has apparently been collecting cards
\nand signatures from yachters for 30 years, and just recently his
\nhome burned down with all of his scrapbooks. He just recently
\nstarted a new scrapbook, and we were only about the 20th visiter
\nto sign it and we recognized the cards of some of the other
\nboats that had visited him. He told us he would bring some
\nbananas and fruit down to the dock for us later as well and
\nasked if he might come see our boat. We arranged to meet him at
\n4:00 at the dock and continued our walk. Our 12 year old friend
\nwas still with us, enjoying the candies that we had brought
\nalong with us. Then we came upon a beautiful mango tree just
\nfilled with wonderful looking fruit. We asked the owner if we
\ncould buy some , and after filling one of our bags with them ,
\nwe asked him how much, but he said they were free and then he
\nadded a few grapefruit.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We figured by then that we were going to have more fruit than we
\ncould handle so we finished our tour of the town, and went back
\nto the beach. All of the town was getting together for a party
\nat the church, but we didn’t feel like it was the kind of event
\nthat we should crash, so we just went to see what kind of fruit
\nwas waiting for us. Our friend had really prepared a bonanza
\nfor us – there were two huge stalks of bananas ( each with about
\n60 bananas), one huge stalk of plantains, a mountainous sack of
\npomellos, plus several papayas and guavas. We couldn’t even
\nthink of carrying it back on the kayak, so we left it on the
\nbeach and paddled back to the boat.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, we could see our friend William, standing by
\nthe wharf waiting for us, so we dropped off the kayak, set up
\nthe engine on the dinghy (always a pain in the but task), and
\nwent to pick him up. He had brought some limes, another huge
\nstalk of bananas, and a very strange looking fruit , a soursop.
\nWilliam came on board and was more than pleased to have a beer
\nand some peanuts and we gave him one of Mark’s t-shirts and some
\nAdvil which he needed for his sore back. He was a little
\ndisappointed not to walk away with a bottle of whisky, but very
\npleased to have added another yacht to his list of friends.
\nSo, now it was getting late and we had to go get our fruit. We
\ntook the dinghy back to what had been a beach just two hours
\nbefore, but which, at high tide, was no longer a sandy beach,
\nbut just some steep rocks. We dropped William off in a hurry and
\ntried unsuccessfully to hold the dinghy steady so we could pick
\nup the fruit, which was sitting in a beached fishing boat, but
\nthe surf was too strong. So we headed back over to the wharf
\nwhere we thought we could tie up easily, walk the 400 meters
\nback along the beach to pick up our fruit, and finish up our
\nshopping.<\/p>\n
It was not that easy, however. We did manage to tie up to the
\nconcrete dock, but it was rolly and hard to tie up and clamber
\nup the rough sides to the top. Then we started walking back
\nalong the shore, but found that there was a small river in the
\nway! I didn’t want to cross it, but the alternative was to walk
\nabout a mile around through town, and back to the beach. Since
\nit really was quite shallow we crossed easily and were finally
\nable to pick up the fruit that had been left for us. We took as
\nmuch as we could carry, but had to leave behind a stalk of
\nbananas and a stalk of plantains. Mark must have had 50 pounds
\nof pomelos on his back. Finally back at the wharf, we realized
\nit was already close to 5:00 and our friend should be by soon to
\npick up his t-shirt (which he had changed to asking for 2
\nt-shirts at the last moment). We waited a bit, but then,
\nknowing it was getting dark, and that we still had to lift up
\nthe dinghy and engine in preparation for our departure planned
\nfor 3:30 a.m , we decided to just leave the goods for our friend
\non the wharf in a plastic bag hoping he would come by soon and
\nget them. We got back to the boat where we had a clear view of
\nthe dock, but he never came. We felt very bad, but hoped that
\nthe bag would still be there when and if he came by.<\/p>\n
Monday May 20, 2007<\/p>\n
We got up at 3:30 a.m. to start our trip to Nuku Hiva. The best
\ntime to leave in order to arrive during daylight hours was
\nbetween 3:00 and 4:00 a.m.. It is really a nice time to sail.
\nWe managed to get several hours of sleep before we pulled up
\nanchor, and the sky was clear with lots of stars as we sailed
\nout of Haniapa Bay at 4:00 a.m. It was not long before there
\nwas light in the sky, and we had an easy and relatively fast
\nsail arriving in Nuku Hiva just about 5:00 p.m. It is another
\ngorgeous bay , very large, surrounded by green volcanic
\nmountains. There were a lot of boats in the harbor , probably
\n30 or more. We were pleased to find that our friends on Vera,
\nRishu Maru and Yara were all there, and we found a convenient
\nplace to anchor right near them. Lots of other boats there that
\nwe had seen along our journey as well. We were greeted by
\nBritta and Michael from Vera, and then Mark and I set up the
\ndinghy and engine and went into town. The town here, Taiohae,
\nis the largest city in the Marquesas and is the administrative
\ncapital population- a teeming 1,500. We were hoping to find a
\ngood restaurant, but found pretty slim pickings. The only
\nrestaurant we passed had a couple of very bored looking yachties
\nwho looked as if they had been sitting there for a long long
\ntime. The menu was expensive and the waitress was kind of surly
\nso we decided we would join the group of locals standing by a
\nwhite truck that was clearly serving food. The chef, was a
\nChinese man, and he was cooking up a storm, cooking up an
\nunbelievable amount of food and working so fast we thought he
\nwould have a heart attack before the night was out. His wife
\nworked next to him, frying up a couple of wok dishes, while he
\nmanaged the bbq picking up meat with his bare fingers
\nfrom the flame tossing them onto the dishes filled with rice,
\npouring on some type of barbeque sauce and a couple pieces of
\nbread, and slapping on some saran wrap. It really was an
\namazing operation. We ordered a couple of dishes and then sat
\non the adjoining steps of the local supermarket, enjoying the
\nfood and the scene.<\/p>\n
Tuesday and Wednesday, May 22nd and 23rd.<\/p>\n
Although the town of Taiohae was very small, there were a few
\nnice facilities for us there including wireless internet
\nservice that we could get from the boat. We were able to use
\nSkype to talk to Hannah, Ben and our friend Robin Ringer. We
\ncouldn’t get any video of the kids with Skype, but were able to
\nclearly see Robin ( who got up at 1:30 a.m. to answer our Skype
\ncall!). Very cool. Other than the internet we just spent a few
\ndays gathering groceries, and visiting with our friends.
\nWednesday was a big day in town as the supply ship came in ,the
\nsame one we had seen 3 weeks ago in Fatu Hiva. It was a welcome
\narrival as the two grocery stores were pretty much out of all
\nfresh produce, cheese and yogurts. (You can see that our trip
\nis pretty much about getting food). The ship brought in some
\nuseful food supplies. There were supposed to be beautiful hikes
\nfrom town, but it was so hot that we didn’t do any of them. We
\nhope to do more hiking and sightseeing when Mia and Hannah come
\nin a few weeks.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday night we hosted a pot-luck dinner on our boat. We
\nsupplied the fresh tuna, and Britta prepared an amazing huge
\nplate of sushi and sashimi. Alex (from Rishu Maru) brought
\nchili-con carne, and Gesche (from Yara) brought guacamole and
\ncorn-bread. We had a huge feast while the two kids sat below and
\nwatched “Finding Nemo”.<\/p>\n
Thursday, May 24, 2007<\/p>\n
Another supply boat came in this morning so we finished up our
\nprovisioning. I think we freaked the grocery store owner out
\nwhen we asked him for 4 cases of diet-coke. It is terribly
\nexpensive here, but it is one drink that we really enjoy when it
\nis blazing hot out ( as it usually is). We loaded up with
\ncokes and cheeses, picked up our laundry, got some cooked curry
\nfor lunch, and then got ready to leave the bay. We had to leave
\nas the bay was not clean enough to make water and our water
\nsupply was running low. Just as we were getting ready to leave
\nwe realized that the new boat that had anchored near us was
\n“Irie”- a boat owned by Christian and Paukie, whom we had
\nmet just before leaving Fatu Hiva . We talked to them on the
\nradio and they said they had just caught a 5 foot wahoo ( a
\nfish), and since they couldn’t possibly eat it all they wanted
\nto know if we wanted some. We did, but already had everything
\nput away for the sail and could not dinghy over. They said just
\nto motor by on our way out and they would toss us a package of
\nfresh fish. So, they tossed it, we caught it, and now we can
\nfinally say that we have “caught fish”! We then set sail for
\nthe nearby Taioa Bay – known locally as Daniel’s Bay. Daniel
\nwas a Marquesan who lived here forever , welcoming sailers, and
\nkeeping an extensive guest log. Apparently Daniel died last
\nyear, but the bay is still beautiful and calm, and it is a nice
\nplace to spend a few days. Our other boat friends are all here
\nas well.<\/p>\n
L.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We have not written an entry in our blog for nearly a week now, so here goes. We also found that one of Mark’s entries (labeled Hiva Oa and Atuana) did not post on time, so if you want to check it out go back two blog entries. Saturday and Sunday (May 19th and 20th) … <\/p>\n