by Judy Handley | Jun 5, 2006 | French Polynesia - Marquesas, Sailing Logs Year 1 |
Day 231, Year 1: The Tikis of Taipivai
Date: Monday, June 5, 2006
Weather: Beautiful Day with Wind Returning
Location: Hakahaa, Comptroller’s Bay, Nuka Hiva Island, Marquesas
This bay is a very peaceful place to be at anchor. It is not the most dramatic in terms of scenery, but it is still beautiful. Savoir Vivre sailed out early this morning, leaving just Procyon and us behind. But just after they left, Stillpoint came sailing in. We had been listening to the VHF and knew that Stillpoint was sailing with two other boats-both single-handers. Bamboo is a trimaran with Herbert as captain, and the other boat is Araby with Jonah as captain. On the way here, Jonah lost his dinghy and had to turn back to try and retrieve it. Bamboo went along to help. They made a successful retrieval and sailed into our little bay later in the morning.
At about 9:30 am, we picked up Randy and Sherri of Procycon and headed to the village of Taipivai. We first tried to dinghy up the little river to town, but we went aground in our dinghy and had to turn around. We went back out into the bay and came back to the area where we had landed our dinghy yesterday. We made a successful landing, and then our goal was to walk into the village, follow the road along the river, and find the very steep path to the tikis of Taipivai which are among the best known in the Marquesas Islands. Our only directions were to go past a vanilla plantation to a path that zig-zags up the hill. We had to ask for direction by just saying “tiki” and finally we found the right path. It was steep and muddy, but we made it to the site of Paeke which has several large tikis and a huge me’ae-ceremonial platform. The mud here is like red clay and it is really slick. We felt very good when we got back down to the road and no one had fallen. We also felt very good that we had actually found the archaeological site. Other cruisers who have been here in the past week were not so lucky and never found Paeke.
We returned to our boats and talked with Ed and Candice on Stillpoint. Mark and I invited everyone in the anchorage over to Windbird for sundowners and then proceeded to get Windbird ready for the four-day passage to the Tuamotus. The weather looks good and we feel it is time to move on. So early tomorrow morning, we will be underway.
We enjoyed our evening with Randy and Sherri of Procyon, Ed and Candice of Stillpoint, and Jonah of Araby. Stillpoint will leave with us in the morning for the Tuamotus. Procyon will return to Taiohae to get the contents of their freezer from the hotel that graciously kept their food while they were waiting for refrigeration parts to arrive. They will head to the Tutamotus on Friday or Saturday, but we probably won’t see them again until the fall in Tonga. Araby and Bamboo will head around to the north side of this island before heading to the Tuomotus. We all cross paths, but then we head out in different directions. Meeting other cruisers is almost like meeting strangers in the night. They come and go and then come again. We cherish our time with everyone but we also look forward to our four-day passage to the Tuomotus where we will see no one for the next four days or so.
It is a good life out here.
by Judy Handley | Jun 4, 2006 | French Polynesia - Marquesas, Sailing Logs Year 1 |
Day 230, Year 1: At Anchor in Hakahaa, Comptroller’s Bay, Nuka Hiva
Date: Sunday, June 4, 2006
Weather: Rainy Day with Intermittent Sunshine
Location: Hakahaa, Comptroller’s Bay, Nuka Hiva Island, Marquesas
We continue to have rain squalls that come and go and leave sunny weather behind. We left Taoihae Bay this morning and headed east to Comptroller’s Bay. By the time we got here, Procyon had already arrived and joined Savoir Vivre who has been here for the past couple of days. It was wonderful to enter an anchorage with only two other boats, both boats with great people aboard. Jaimie and Lucy from Savoir Vivre came over right away to greet us and to invite us over for sundowners. They were also inviting Procyon, so it would be great to get together later in the day.
Mark and I headed into the beach around 3 pm and walked into the village of Taipivai.
Even though we had driven 42 kilometers to the village of Iipona on Hiva Oa, this village feels much more remote. After walking through the village, we returned to Windbird and then had cocktails on Savoir Livre and dinner aboard Procyon.
Tomorrow we will explore this area by foot and report on our findings. Life here continues to be good.
by Judy Handley | Jun 3, 2006 | French Polynesia - Marquesas, Sailing Logs Year 1 |
Day 229, Year 1: Getting Ready for the Passage to the Tuamotus
Date: Saturday, June 3, 2006
Weather: Rainy Day with Intermittent Sunshine
Location: Taiohae Bay, Nuka Hiva Island, Marquesas
We won’t be leaving the Marquesas until Tuesday morning, but since this is a three-day weekend here, the last shopping had to be done today. We were up at 4:15 am and on the dock by 4:30 for the early Saturday morning market. We picked up Sylvie on Windcastle on our way in and we all arrived eager to learn about Saturday morning market. We were able to get fresh lettuce, green peppers, greenish tomatoes that we hope will ripen slowly, super long green beans, zucchini, cucumbers, Dakon radishes, cabbage, pineapple, bananas, and the most fantastic fresh tuna we have seen at a market on this trip so far. The local bakery also had the wonderful looking pastries-chocolate filled croissants, chocolate éclairs, fruit-filled pastries of all kinds. It was phenomenal and almost made getting up at 4:15 an okay thing. We visited with friends, returned Sylvie to Windcastle (with a little mishap where she fell in the water but was safely retrieved), and returned to the boat and packed away all of our goodies. We actually tried to go back to sleep, but that just didn’t happen. So Mark contacted Stillpoint and Procyon and went to the fuel dock with their jerry cans, as well as ours, to get fuel as we had prearranged. Mark made a second trip to get fuel for us and for Aqua Magic and Gdansk. We have a duty-free certificate since we have gone through an agent and we can sometimes help friends by getting duty-free fuel for them as well.
Once Mark finished with the fuel runs, it was time for us to head to town. We had hoped to go straight to the grocery store, but by the time we got here, it was closed until mid-afternoon. We walked around town with Candice and Ed, revisited the Catholic Church, and stopped to have a cold drink at a local restaurant. We saw Jaimie and Lucy from Savoir Livre who had walked and then caught a ride here from the Comptroller’s Bay to the East. It was great to see them. The time passed quickly and we went to the store to buy our supplies and returned to Windbird. We actually made another trip to the dock late in the day to rinse a laundry and take showers using the dock water.
Tonight we went to a local dinner with some music and dancing entertainment. It was so very different from what we saw last week in Ua Pou. It appears that the dancing style on each island is very different, but we did have a great time. Tomorrow we will head to the bay just east of here-Comptroller’s Bay. Windcastle, Stillpoint, and Procyon will be heading out with us so we should have great company as we explore our last Marquesan anchorage.
by Judy Handley | Jun 2, 2006 | French Polynesia - Marquesas, Sailing Logs Year 1 |
Day 228, Year 1: Exploring Taiohae Bay
Date: Friday, June 2, 2006
Weather: Blue Skies and Sunshine—Still VERY Warm
Location: Taiohae Bay, Nuka Hiva Island, Marquesas
We no longer know the air or water temperature, but we know it is very, very warm. On passage we keep track of these things, but once on land, there are so many things to do and somehow checking thermometers is no longer on the radar screen.
Our day started early with me taking Mark over to Windcastle. They were making a run to the fuel dock, so Mark, as well as Bob from Figment and Steve from Oz went along as crew. Everyone took their fuel cans so they could be filled up at the same time. The fuel dock is very high and much easier to access by big boat than by dinghy, so this was a chance for all to get that precious $5.00 per gallon fuel. Since both Windcastle and Windbird needed to hire an agent to secure our bond for French Polynesia, we also get duty free fuel. That lowers the price by $2.00 per gallon, but it is still pretty expensive.
While Mark was getting fuel, I was working furiously to get as many of our pictures as possible organized and labeled and ready to send to the website. There are a couple of internet cafés here and I wanted to take advantage of this. I got the work done, but the connection at the café on the dock was so slow that I was only able to send pictures of the passage from the Galapagos, Fatu Hiva, and Hiva Oa. This is a holiday weekend here, Penecost, and the internet spot on the dock is closed until Tuesday. We’ll be long gone by then, but we are hoping the other internet access might be open in the morning so that I can send the other folders. If not, they will have to wait until Tahiti. I hope that is not the case, but we will just have to see what tomorrow brings.
While sending photos, we were also able to check our “land-based” e-mail account for the first time since we were in the Galapagos. Those of you who send comments to the web go through this e-mail account, so today was the first chance we have had to see what you have been saying. More than one person has asked if it would be possible for us to incorporate photos with our logs, but unfortunately that is just not possible. We send the logs daily from a very low speed HAM radio connection. We can only send pictures when we reach land and can get to a high speed access. I’ll have to talk to our son Justin who manages the site to see if there is anyway to post a few pictures with the logs when we do reach high speed access. If there is a way, we will try it. By the way, internet access out here is very, very slow, and very, very expensive. It cost $36.00 American to be online for the three and a half hours that it took to send a few folders of pictures. I sure hope Tahiti has a faster connection.
We spent what was left of the afternoon touring the town of Taiohae. There is a beautiful building close to the dock that houses art from Marquesan artisans. They have wonderful carvings and beautiful jewelry. The prices are not cheap, but the quality of the work is very good. After visiting here, we walked into town and checked out the grocery stores. We then headed for the Notre Dame Cathedral. This place is truly beautiful. The cathedral’s interior is well known for it’s wonderful wood carvings, especially the carvings of the Stations of the Cross which are the product of local artist Damien Haturau. We have seen his carvings in churches on all of the islands. He depicts biblical figures as Marquesan in a most beautiful way. For instance, in this Cathedral, he depicts Jesus in the Garden of Breadfruit instead of in the Garden of Olives. The Cathedral was built of stone and is magnificent, but the grounds were even more impressive. The landscaping is just spectacular.
Just after the Cathedral, we came to an area on the waterfront where many tikis were made for the Marquesas Islands Festival in 1989. There is a tohua which is a traditional structure with a thatched roof and many tikis that were carved for this event. It makes a lovely waterfront park that locals seem to enjoy.
We walked on to the far end of town where the College of Nuka Hiva was hosting a “bowls” or “pa-tonk” competition. There were hundreds of people all wearing white t-shirts with bright red Coca-Cola lettering-obviously the sponsor of the tournament. We know almost nothing about this game, but see kids here playing it everywhere. You basically roll/toss silver balls about half the size of a bowling ball on an area the size of a shuffleboard court. When I figure out the object of the game, I’ll let you know, but I will tell you that the people here play this with great intensity.
We did not make it to the museum owned by American art collector Rose Corset. If we decide to stay here until Sunday morning, we might be able to get to this. We had hoped to visit the 4:30 AM fresh fruit and vegetable market in the morning, make another quick trip to the Cathedral to see the carved Stations of the Cross, head back into town and make our purchases at the grocery store, AND THEN go back to the boat and head over to the fuel dock in our dinghy to get one more run of fuel before leaving this harbor and heading around to the north side of the island. All of that sounds very ambitious, and we hear that there is some sort of festival in town tomorrow night, so we might not really leave tomorrow. I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.
Whether we leave tomorrow morning or Sunday morning, we will then head to Anaho Bay on the north side of Nuka Hiva. And from there, we will leave for the Tuamotus on Tuesday. But that gives us three more wonderful days in these islands, and we promise to enjoy every moment that we are here.
by Judy Handley | Jun 1, 2006 | French Polynesia - Marquesas, Sailing Logs Year 1 |
Day 227, Year 1: From Daniel’s Bay to Taiohae Bay, Nuka Hiva
Date: Thursday, June 1, 2006
Weather: Blue Skies and Sunshine—VERY Warm
Latitude: 08 degrees 55 minutes S
Longitude: 140 degrees 06 minutes W
Location: Taiohae Bay, Nuka Hiva Island, Marquesas
We moved from Daniel’s Bay to Taiohae Bay this morning. It is only three miles, but between getting ready to move, moving, and settling in, it seems that it took most of the day. Sherry and Randy of Procyon left before we did and headed to the northern coast of this island. Checkmate, Necessity, and Stormvalen from Norway had come in yesterday while were at the waterfall, but they all left this morning for Ua Pou. We finally got to meet Jan and Eva on Necessity, and their daughter Helena who is visiting until they reach Tahiti. Then Stillpoint left for Taiohae, and that left only us. This is the first time since we have been on our voyage that we were the only boat in an anchorage. It was wonderful and tempted us to stay, but at this point we need to keep moving. We have to leave the Marquesas early next week for the Tuamotus, so we savored the moment and then moved on.
Taiohae Bay is supposed to be the safest and most welcoming bay in the Marquesas. It is a big bay and the town is the administrative center for the Marquesas, so this is quite a change for us. We are really in a town. The stores are not really as nice as the ones on Ua Pou, but there is an internet café here and other amenities that go along with “town” life. We will fill up with fuel here, go to the 4:30 AM Saturday market to buy fresh fruit and vegetables, and then head to the north side of the island to Anaho. That will probably be our last stop before leaving for the Tuamotus.
We had dinner on Windcastle tonight with Doug and Sylvia. It is always great to meet up with friends. Tomorrow we will explore the town, reprovision, and ready our selves to move on to our last anchorage in the Marquesas. The islands here are beautiful, but there is much more of the South Pacific calling us.
by Judy Handley | May 31, 2006 | French Polynesia - Marquesas, Sailing Logs Year 1 |
Day 226, Year 1: In Search of a Waterfall
Date: Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Weather: Periods of Rain Mixed with Sunshine
Location: Daniel’s Bay, Nuka Hiva Island, Marquesas
Now I know why they would do a Survivor series here. Beautiful, beautiful place, but rough and rocky terrain. There were a few times today when I wasn’t sure I was going to survive the walk to the waterfall, but we all made it with no injuries and it was spectacular.
At 9 AM, Candice and Ed of Stillpoint (sailing out of Bellingham, Washington), Randy and Sheri of Procyon, and Mark and I head off in our dinghies to the next bay over to begin the hike to the waterfall. The guide books are very vague about directions and most indicate that the walk should be about three hours round trip. Our trip took us five hours round trip, and I felt like we were moving as fast. There were problems, however, because of the recent rains. On Sunday we had 24 hours of torrential rain in this part of the world, and the path to the waterfall was flooded and muddy, as well as rocky. This slowed us down quite a bit. We also lost the path on the way up and waded back and forth across the raging little river many times before finding out way again.
When we landed and tied up the dinghies, we found ourselves in a coconut grove with lots and lots of coconut crabs. These are huge crabs that dig holes in the sandy mud away from the beach. We hear they are good eating, but today we just had to move on. We next came to a place where we could see a house on the other side of the river. There was a man and woman waving to us to come across to their side. This was the first of many river crossings during the day. The couple had a neat looking little home with beautiful plants all around. The woman’s name was Monet and the man’s name was Marcus?something. They spoke no English, but they tried to show us with hand directions how to get to the waterfall. We walked on along a very wide grassy path and past two other homes and a little church surrounded by the most beautiful plants I have ever seen. The path got wetter and wilder and eventually we found ourselves at the edge of the river again with no place to go. So we walked in the river, hugging one shore and then the other trying to find our way. We were doing this while trying to make sure that the cameras we brought with us didn’t get wet which required a lot of rock hugging in the water. We finally had to get out of the water and climb the bank as the river was getting too deep. It took us a while, but Candice finally found the real path. We continued on, slopping through mud and rocks. We came to an area that was once the location of a village and marveled at the stone platforms and structures. By now we are deep into a rain forest and have discovered that some nice people before us have left stone cairns to mark the way. We still had to do a couple of more river crossings, but eventually we made it to the waterfall. The cliffs around us rose straight up for hundreds and hundreds of feet, and the waterfall appeared to fall straight from the sky. It really was spectacular and certainly worth the two and a half hours walk. We all jumped into the pool of water, swam across to the huge boulders that were between us and the actual location where the water was falling. We climbed the rocks, but only Ed was brave enough to jump in and fight the current to get to the final pool where the water was pounding down. We had to leave our cameras on the shore, so we couldn’t get pictures here . . . but we will forever have the memories.
We walked back and stayed on the path this time which required few river crossings. This was a good thing and Mark and I were tiring quickly. The age spans today ranged from 44 to 46 to 48 to 51, and then to 59 and 63. We were definitely on the upper end and we could feel it! On the way back, Mark and I stopped to talk to a man who appeared to live in one of the houses we had passed on our way up to the waterfall. We were admiring the ancient looking mortal and pestle sitting on the rock wall in front of his house when he saw us. He immediately came out with a papaya for us and then went back to get us a pamplemouse (grapefruit). He was probably in his upper seventies and could speak broken English. He explained that the mortal and pestle was for grinding taro root. He explained that he lives in the main town on the island, about three miles from here by water, but comes here during the week to work to raise his food. His wife stays in Taiohae, and he travels back and forth by motorboat during the week. His name was Simione and we had a hard time breaking ourselves away. He exuded such kindness. If we hadn’t been with others, we would probably have spent all afternoon with him.
As it was, we didn’t get back to Windbird until about 2:30 in the afternoon and we both needed a rest. Candice and Ed were kind enough to have us over for dinner tonight and it was a wonderful treat to not have to cook dinner. Procyon will be heading to the north side of this island tomorrow morning, and Stillpoint and we will be heading to Taiohae. We might take time in the morning to go ashore once more to see if we can find Daniel and his wife Antoinette. We did not find them in the other bay today.
I told Mark today that I feel like I am in a fairy land. The mountains are so beautiful and as you walk on land, the plants are just unbelievable. Fruit drips from all of the trees and every tree and bush has blossoms. Every tropical plant that is sold in nurseries in the US grows here, but here these plants are larger than life. By this time next week, we will be on our way to the Tuamotus. We will need the break of the passage to get ready to see what wonders will come our way next.
