Tuesday, June 19 – Hakahetau, Ua Pou
\nIt was a very rocky night and no one slept well. One of our
\nfriends on another boat said it was the most uncomfortable night
\nthey have had since they got to the Marquesas. I can’t say we
\ncould give it the same bad rating, but it was definitely a
\ndifficult night to sleep. Even Mia, who is normally a terrific
\nsleeper, had to get up and try sleeping in different places in
\nthe boat because the noise from the waves slapping the boat in
\nthe back, and the side to side motion, kept waking her up. Mark
\nand I left the girls on the boat in the morning and took the
\ndinghy to the dock of the village of Hakahetau to make sure our
\narrangements with the taxi driver Maurice were all set for
\nThursday. Since there seem to be very few taxis here and we
\ndidn’t want to have anything go wrong when the girls leave for
\nthe airport. Maurice was at his house, just a short walk from
\nthe dock, and reconfirmed that we would be all set for Thursday.
\nThen Mark and I walked over the little “restaurant” we had eaten
\nat a few weeks ago run by Pierrot and his wife. We asked them
\nif they would prepare a meal for us and the girls the next day –
\nand they were happy to agree. One more stop at the tiny little
\ngrocery store in the village then to get a baguette (frozen) and
\na bag of carrots (the only vegies available). On the way back to
\nthe boat we met a young Marquesan man named Atai who was very
\nfriendly with us when we commented on his terrific mango tree.
\nHe gave us a few mangoes and told us we could come by the next
\nday for more fruit and also invited us to dinner . We weren’t
\nsure what either we or the girls would want to do on their last
\nnight so we told him we would come by the next day to discuss,
\nand we went back to get the girls. The seas had subsided quite
\na bit by then and we decided to go for a snorkel. This is one
\nof the only places we have seen in the Marquesas where the water
\nis actually clear enough to snorkel. The other bays are clean,
\nbut not very clear as there is usually sediment from run off
\nfrom mountain streams. We had a great time snorkeling – saw a
\nlot of fish and one large octopus just balled up on the bottom.
\n It was hard to tell the octopus from the surrounding rocks and
\ncoral – it was so well hidden – but luckily we saw him move a
\ntentacle as we swam by so we watched him for a while. Another
\nboater was snorkeling in the vicinity with a spear gun,
\napparently hunting langoustine (lobster) for dinner. We stayed
\nfar away from him just in case he couldn’t tell us from a lobster.<\/p>\n
The dinghy anchor got stuck on the coral when we tried to leave,
\njust as it did a few weeks ago when Mark and I were here, so
\nMark had to dive down to get it. It was quite deep – 25-30 feet
\n– and he hurt his eardrum as he dove. We are going to have to
\nbe more careful when we drop our dinghy anchor – it always seems
\nto get stuck when there is any coral around (which is often). In
\nthe evening we had a great fish dinner on the boat. Our friend
\nSusan, from the boat “Infinity” came over to look at a weather
\nforecast that Mark had downloaded for her for her upcoming trip
\nto Tahiti. Mark and I visited with her while Mia and Hannah
\nwatched “Finding Nemo”. Also of interest (to us at least) is
\nthe fact that the boat “Roxi” just pulled into the harbor. The
\npeople on Roxi are very good friends with Vera, and the two
\nboats were supposed to have been doing the circumnavigation
\ntogether. Roxi, however, kept slowing down for various reasons
\nand Vera kept on moving ahead (usually with us), and so the two
\nboats have not seen each other for at least 3 months. We were
\nglad to finally meet them.<\/p>\n
Wednesday, June 20
\nWe tried to pack a lot into the day as this was our last full
\nday with the girls. We started out by getting up early and going
\nto shore for a walk to the waterfall. Before starting the hike
\nwe brought 3 empty diesel containers and 1 gas can to Maurice’s
\nso they would be ready to take with us in his truck on Thursday
\nwhen we took the girls to the airport. The only place to buy
\nfuel on the island is in the town of Hakehau which is several
\nmiles past the airport. The hike to the waterfall is not very
\nfar – only about a 35 minute walk. The path is mostly on a dirt
\nroad which had gotten really muddy after the previous night’s
\nrain. As we got closer to the waterfall there were an
\nincreasing number of mosquitoes, but nothing too bad as long as
\nyou kept walking (and we were covered in Deet). We all jumped
\ninto the pool at the foot of the waterfall which was nice and
\ncool, but despite the spray from the waterfall, and the
\nconstantly flowing water, there were just too many mosquitoes
\naround to be comfortable, so we did not spend too much time
\nthere. We quickly got dressed and sprinted back to the main path
\nand back to town.<\/p>\n
We went straight to Chez Pierrot’s for lunch and washed off the
\nmud and grime in their outdoor spigot. We were the only ones
\nthere for a while except Pierrot’s wife and his two beautiful
\ndaughters and grandson. The “restaurant” is just two tables set
\nup on a terrace beside his kitchen, but the food is very good
\nand the people there are friendly. Just after we got served our
\nlunches the people from Roxi walked up. They were with 7 other
\nboaters, all hoping to have lunch there. It is not the kind of
\n place that can just accommodate walk-ins, as they have to plan
\nin advance and get their food from the next town (about 40
\nminutes away), but after a few minutes of negotiation the
\nproprietress said she could accommodate them all. I am not sure
\nshe would have given us 2 huge fillets of fish each if she had
\nknown so many people were coming, but by then we had been
\nserved. We didn’t get much of a chance to talk to the people on
\nRoxi, but did have a chat with some of the other sailors at
\ntheir table. After lunch we got a large breadfruit from the tree
\noutside the restaurant and directions on how to cook it. As we
\nwalked back to the boat we passed Atai’s house and he gave us a
\nfew bags of fruit – mangoes, papayas and bananas – in exchange
\nfor some sandals we promised him if he came to the boat later
\nthat evening. Since he is out every evening in the bay with his
\noutrigger canoe, we figured it would be fun for him to come
\nover. We got back to the boat, and were all hot and tired, and
\neven though we wanted to go snorkeling again, none of us had the
\nenergy to leave the boat again, so we just swam off of the boat
\nand cooled off for a while. Then Hannah gave both me and Mark
\nhaircuts. We have been looking pretty funny with our long hair,
\nand have given up on finding a hairdresser for at least a few
\nmore weeks, so we figured it was worth it to be Hannah’s first 2
\nhaircut guinea pigs. She did a great job and we now look almost
\ncivilized. After that Atai came by to collect his sandals. We
\ninvited him on board for a drink and some snacks and we had a
\ngood time learning some Marquesan words from him. We ended up
\ngiving him a few extra things – a nice shirt for his wife and a
\nsailing hat – and he left the boat seeming quite happy. The
\ngirls packed up their bags and we spend the last part of the
\nevening watching the stars on deck.<\/p>\n
Thursday June 21
\nUp very early for our scheduled rendezvous with Maurice on the
\ndock. It poured half of the night but luckily it was not raining
\nwhen it was time to put everything into the dinghy and go
\nashore. We got to the dock at 8:30, expecting Maurice any
\nminute, but when it was 9:00 and he had not shown up we started
\nto get anxious. The girls flight was not until noon, but
\nMaurice had told us we needed to leave before 9:00 in order to
\ntake us to Hakehau to buy fuel and provisions and visit the ATM.
\nAlso, after the problems Hannah and Mia had with their flights
\nout here, we did not want to be stuck at the dock without a
\ntaxi. Luckily there was a working phone booth near the dock and
\nI called Maurice’s house, only to be told by his daughter that
\nhe had had some kind of emergency in the morning and he had to
\ntake 2 people to the hospital in the other town. She reassured
\nme that he would be at the dock by 10:00, but we had lost
\nconfidence in him, and the girls were very worried about their
\nflight. We asked one of the local women at the dock if she knew
\nanyone else who could at least drive the girls to the airport
\nwhile we waited for Maurice. We thought it made sense for them
\nto wait safely at the airport rather than 12 miles away, hoping
\nthat Maurice would come. Since practically everyone in the
\nvillage is a relative of each other, it did not take her long to
\nfind a cousin of Maurice’s who lived next door with a nice truck
\nwho was willing (for a price) to take them to the airport.
\nWithin minutes we had to say goodbye and leave them with the
\nhope that before long Maurice would show up and bring us to the
\nairport for a proper send-off. After they left we were
\nsurprised to see our fruit man , Atai, walking by with his wife
\n– wearing the new stuff we had given them – and he was clearly
\npeeved at us. Apparently he didn’t think he got a fair deal was
\nanxious to let us know. It was pretty uncomfortable, and the
\nfirst time we have had a negative kind of experience with a
\nlocal. Before too long Maurice showed up and we were on our way
\nto find the girls. There is a pretty beach outside the gate to
\nthe airport, and when we drove by, we saw Hannah and Mia just
\nsitting by the beach, reading their books. There is only one
\nflight a day into Ua Pou and the plane only seats 10 people, so
\nthere is no need for the airport to be open until 90 minutes
\nbefore that flight arrives. It then immediately returns to Nuku
\nHiva. The girl’s driver was kind enough to park the car by the
\nbeach and stay with them while they awaited either us or the
\nopening of the gates. We all switched to Maurice’s cab and sat
\nby the beach for another 20 minutes before the airport opened.
\nIt was a couple of miles further down the airport road
\nparalleling the runway to the very tiny little airport terminal,
\nand we were the first ones there. With lots of kisses and hugs
\nwe parted. The trip was altogether too short and Hannah hopes
\nto come back on our next leg of the journey for a much longer
\nstay.<\/p>\n
The rest of the afternoon was spent with Maurice driving to
\nHakehau to get fuel (only diesel, they had run out of gasoline),
\nand of course more groceries. We stopped for lunch at a
\nrestaurant where Pierrot was working as a cook – not his own
\nrestaurant in Hakahetau – but a bigger restaurant in Hakehau.
\nWe invited Maurice to eat with us and were surprised to hear he
\nhad never eaten there before. There are probably only 5
\nrestaurants on the whole island and this one was not a
\nparticularly expensive or fancy one, although it does service
\nthe local College of Ua Pou. Once we finished up our errands
\nwe returned to Hakahetau and Maurice stopped to get us bananas
\nfrom a woman at the side of the road and then took us to his
\nhouse where his daughters picked mangoes and pamplemousse for
\nus. We had a huge load of goods to load into the dinghy and he
\nhelped us with that as well. Back on board we stowed
\neverything away, and put away the dinghy and engine for our
\nupcoming passage to the Tuomotos – a 3 day sail. There was
\nhardly time to do everything, but we were anxious to get going
\nas we had gotten very tired by the rolly anchorages of the
\nMarquesas. We checked in with Mia’s parents and got updated on
\nthe girls status – and fortunately – everything went totally
\nsmoothly on the way back to Providence. Hannah even managed to
\npick up a checked bag that she had left in the Tahiti airport on
\nthe way to visit us. It was filled with granola and almonds so
\nnow she will have some goodies to bring with her to Boston when
\nshe starts her summer biology program next week.<\/p>\n
L.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tuesday, June 19 – Hakahetau, Ua Pou It was a very rocky night and no one slept well. One of our friends on another boat said it was the most uncomfortable night they have had since they got to the Marquesas. I can’t say we could give it the same bad rating, but it was … <\/p>\n