Ua Huka

0800 Position 8-57S 139-36W. At anchor in Haavei Bay, Ua Huka.

The boys decided to go ashore and do some exploring after we finished breakfast yesterday, so they launched the dinghy and braved the surf to land on the beach. I stayed aboard. It didn't look that interesting and sometimes beach landings don't turn out as well as you'd hope. They made it through ok though, but the beach was unremarkable and they didn't spend much time there.

After the crew returned Van Diement got underway for Ua Huka, fifty seven miles to the northwest. It was a pleasant broad reach in fifteen knots of wind and we arrived on Ua Huka's south coast at about 4PM. Rob had wanted to anchor in a bay near the eastern end of the island because that's where the famous wood carvers are, but the two bays we poked into were too rough so we ended up on the western shore of the island off of a lovely beach.

This morning while enjoying a pancake breakfast in our solitary anchorage we noticed a mast on the horizon. In typical French Polynesian fashion this vessel came in and decided that the only suitable place to anchor on the planet was the exact spot that we were anchored in. I told the boys he was likely either French or German because both species like to see how close to you they can anchor. Turns out they were Swiss. Isn't that right between France and Germany? They circled us a few times and looked about to drop their hook right on top of ours. We beat them to the punch though and got underway before they could mess with us. They are now anchored right where we were.

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