0800 Position 14-58S 147-38W. At anchor in the lee of Reporepo Motu, Rangiroa
We would like to head 150 miles southeast to the island of Fakarava, a marine preserve here in the Tuamotus that is supposed to have fantastic diving, but that would take us right into the currently strong trade winds. A sail like that wouldn't be much fun, so we are procrastinating and hoping for the wind to die off and/or shift direction.
When the boys were exploring ashore the other day they heard that the drift dive in the Tiputa Pass, just a half mile from our anchorage, is one of the best dives in all of French Polynesia. We decided that we would give it a try. One normally does a drift dive in a Tuamotu pass while the tide is flooding into the lagoon. The velocity of the flood tide is less than half the velocity of the ebb tide, and if you get swept away you would end up in the lagoon and not out in the ocean. Unfortunately, we don't have tide tables for this part of the world, so we have to guess at tomorrow's tides based on yesterday's tides – not exactly the scientific approach. We figured the tide would start flooding just before noon so all piled into the dinghy with our snorkeling gear and headed out then.
As we approached the pass it became evident that our calculations were a bit off as the tide was ebbing furiously out the channel. No drift dive today. We also heard that you could snorkel anytime in the lee of the motu just inside the channel, and we saw a number of dive boats moored there. So we altered course, headed for the motu, and anchored amongst the dive boats. It was a bit disconcerting because as soon as we dropped the anchor we were buzzed by four small black tip sharks. Other divers were in the water though, so we ended up getting in to find an underwater world full of fish of all varieties. The fish weren't shy either. Apparently they are frequently fed by the divers. The sharks would cruise through periodically just to let us know that they were there. Good fun and a pleasant dive in the 87 degree water.
We rewarded ourselves for out successful dive with a trip into the café at the end of the pier for an afternoon beer and free wifi. I got to have a nice long leisurely talk with Lori. Later I got into a conversation with the guys at one of the other tables who were off of a fifty eight foot Oyster, a brand of luxury cruising boats built in England. They are participating in an Oyster round-the-world rally. That explains why we've been seeing so many Oysters since we arrived in the Marquesas, and explains the five Oysters currently at anchor here.
This place continues to be a bee hive of activity. The inter-island cargo ship arrived during the night and we woke up this morning to find it at the pier offloading material. During the coffee clutch a 220 foot super yacht and the Aranui both arrived in the anchorage. Since the pier was occupied the Aranui anchored out and is ferrying passengers ashore in lighters. It will be busy ashore in Rangiroa today!
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Wednesday, May 31, 2017
Tuesday, May 30, 2017
Comings and Goings
0800 Position 14-58S 147-38W. At anchor in the lee of Reporepo Motu, Rangiroa
Yesterday I made French toast with lamb sausage for breakfast for the boys. Baguettes make the best French toast.
There is a lot of boat movement here in the anchorage. Five boats arrived yesterday after we did, including an eighty foot power boat, "Askari", that I had seen in Moorea while I was cruising there in both 2011 and 2014. I hope to meet the owner sometime. That guy is using the heck out of his boat.
We spent yesterday morning converting Van Diemen from "crossing mode" to "cruising mode". The interior was wiped down, windows cleaned, cockpit teak scrubbed and brightened, upholstery covers removed, floor vacuumed and wiped, heads and galley sanitized. She looks like a new boat now.
After noon Rob went ashore to try to find his way to the airport three miles away to meet Renee. I stayed on the boat to take a nap. Mike and Bill went exploring. First they went ashore at the nearby resort. "Can we go into your bar to buy a beer and use the Wi-Fi?" they asked.
"Of course", was the answer.
"Can we tie our dinghy to your dock while we are in the bar?" was their follow up.
"No, you can not," they got in reply. Hmmm. Definitely not a cruiser friendly operation, so they headed over to the town pier where Rob and I had landed earlier. There they found a couple of little snack shops with cheap beer and free Wi-Fi.
Rob ended up walking halfway to the airport before a friendly local picked him up and took him the rest of the way there. Renee's flight came in on schedule, and they caught a taxi back to the boat. In typical Polynesian fashion, their taxi driver had some personal errands to run, including picking up her pre-teen daughter after school, during the drive. "Do you mind, Misuer?" she asked.
"No problemo!" would be Rob's standard response. So Rob and Renee got a free tour of Rangiroa and a view into the personal life of a local on their way back to the boat.
Renee arrived with about sixty pounds of boat gear that accidently got left behind in the chaos of departure. Now we can finish up those remaining projects on the work list!
She also brought her culinary expertise and imagination with her. Last night's dinner aboard was a masterpiece.
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Yesterday I made French toast with lamb sausage for breakfast for the boys. Baguettes make the best French toast.
There is a lot of boat movement here in the anchorage. Five boats arrived yesterday after we did, including an eighty foot power boat, "Askari", that I had seen in Moorea while I was cruising there in both 2011 and 2014. I hope to meet the owner sometime. That guy is using the heck out of his boat.
We spent yesterday morning converting Van Diemen from "crossing mode" to "cruising mode". The interior was wiped down, windows cleaned, cockpit teak scrubbed and brightened, upholstery covers removed, floor vacuumed and wiped, heads and galley sanitized. She looks like a new boat now.
After noon Rob went ashore to try to find his way to the airport three miles away to meet Renee. I stayed on the boat to take a nap. Mike and Bill went exploring. First they went ashore at the nearby resort. "Can we go into your bar to buy a beer and use the Wi-Fi?" they asked.
"Of course", was the answer.
"Can we tie our dinghy to your dock while we are in the bar?" was their follow up.
"No, you can not," they got in reply. Hmmm. Definitely not a cruiser friendly operation, so they headed over to the town pier where Rob and I had landed earlier. There they found a couple of little snack shops with cheap beer and free Wi-Fi.
Rob ended up walking halfway to the airport before a friendly local picked him up and took him the rest of the way there. Renee's flight came in on schedule, and they caught a taxi back to the boat. In typical Polynesian fashion, their taxi driver had some personal errands to run, including picking up her pre-teen daughter after school, during the drive. "Do you mind, Misuer?" she asked.
"No problemo!" would be Rob's standard response. So Rob and Renee got a free tour of Rangiroa and a view into the personal life of a local on their way back to the boat.
Renee arrived with about sixty pounds of boat gear that accidently got left behind in the chaos of departure. Now we can finish up those remaining projects on the work list!
She also brought her culinary expertise and imagination with her. Last night's dinner aboard was a masterpiece.
----------
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Monday, May 29, 2017
Rangiroa
0800 Position 14-58S 147-38W. At anchor in the lee of Reporepo Motu, Rangiroa Atoll, Tuamotu Archepelago
We spent all day yesterday doing boat projects, laundry, and relaxing. Lori had emailed me a bunch of breadfruit recipes so I tried boiling half of it in salt, garlic, and chili pepper and turned the other half into ulu chips fried in a pan. Judging by the amount consumed the chips were better, but the boiled ulu was edible if a bit bland. I probably didn't use enough spices.
The water temperature in the lagoon got up to 88 degrees, a new record. Swimming was almost like taking a bath.
We got underway at 5PM and threaded our way back across the lagoon and out the pass just as the sun was setting. It was not a good time to go for visibility, but we had the GPS track for our inward leg and followed it exactly on the way out. If we didn't hit anything coming in we weren't going to hit anything going in the other direction. The tide was flooding into the lagoon at about two knots as we went out the channel, a bit more relaxed than our arrival.
We timed our departure for just before sunset because we were sailing to Rangiroa, 103 miles away. It was too far to sail in daylight hours, so we departed just before dark anticipating an arrival just after sunrise the next day. We weren't in a hurry though, so left the mainsail down and just unrolled the jib. It was comfortable but a bit rolly without the main, and we arrived outside of Rangiroa's Avatoru Pass at 6AM.
Rob had been to Rangiroa before and knew the pass so we powered right in without a worry. Apparently it isn't that easy for everybody though as we saw two wrecked cruising boats high and dry on the motu on the western side of the channel. Once in the lagoon it was clear that this is a big atoll, one of the biggest in the world. It is so wide that you can't see the motus on the other side of the lagoon, and since that is where the wind was coming from there was quite a large chop that had developed. No anchoring here. The cruising guide discussed a sheltered anchorage just inside Tiputa Pass, five miles to the south east so we headed there avoiding the numerous pearl farm buoys that fill the lagoon.
An hour later we were at anchor with six other cruising boats in a relatively calm and protected hidy hole. Rob and I went ashore for supplies and found a store nearby that had the elusive lettuce we have been scouring French Polynesia to find as well as fresh baguettes.
We have a bit more boat cleanup to do to raise the standard of cleanliness from "five guys" to "woman aboard" before Renee arrives at 2PM this afternoon. It looks like some pretty good snorkeling right next to the boat too.
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We spent all day yesterday doing boat projects, laundry, and relaxing. Lori had emailed me a bunch of breadfruit recipes so I tried boiling half of it in salt, garlic, and chili pepper and turned the other half into ulu chips fried in a pan. Judging by the amount consumed the chips were better, but the boiled ulu was edible if a bit bland. I probably didn't use enough spices.
The water temperature in the lagoon got up to 88 degrees, a new record. Swimming was almost like taking a bath.
We got underway at 5PM and threaded our way back across the lagoon and out the pass just as the sun was setting. It was not a good time to go for visibility, but we had the GPS track for our inward leg and followed it exactly on the way out. If we didn't hit anything coming in we weren't going to hit anything going in the other direction. The tide was flooding into the lagoon at about two knots as we went out the channel, a bit more relaxed than our arrival.
We timed our departure for just before sunset because we were sailing to Rangiroa, 103 miles away. It was too far to sail in daylight hours, so we departed just before dark anticipating an arrival just after sunrise the next day. We weren't in a hurry though, so left the mainsail down and just unrolled the jib. It was comfortable but a bit rolly without the main, and we arrived outside of Rangiroa's Avatoru Pass at 6AM.
Rob had been to Rangiroa before and knew the pass so we powered right in without a worry. Apparently it isn't that easy for everybody though as we saw two wrecked cruising boats high and dry on the motu on the western side of the channel. Once in the lagoon it was clear that this is a big atoll, one of the biggest in the world. It is so wide that you can't see the motus on the other side of the lagoon, and since that is where the wind was coming from there was quite a large chop that had developed. No anchoring here. The cruising guide discussed a sheltered anchorage just inside Tiputa Pass, five miles to the south east so we headed there avoiding the numerous pearl farm buoys that fill the lagoon.
An hour later we were at anchor with six other cruising boats in a relatively calm and protected hidy hole. Rob and I went ashore for supplies and found a store nearby that had the elusive lettuce we have been scouring French Polynesia to find as well as fresh baguettes.
We have a bit more boat cleanup to do to raise the standard of cleanliness from "five guys" to "woman aboard" before Renee arrives at 2PM this afternoon. It looks like some pretty good snorkeling right next to the boat too.
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Sunday, May 28, 2017
The Calmest Anchorage Yet
0800 Position 14-27S 145-58W. At anchor in the lee of Pahereroa Motu, Manihi Atoll, Tuamotu Archepelago
I was confident that coming up on the shallow waters surrounding Manihi Atoll would mean fish, but we had no luck with our two lines out. Rob has found another cedar plug, and he put that out next to my contemporary resin head. The plug probably scared all the fish away.
The Tuamotus is an archipelago of approximately seventy eight atolls, the coral remnants of the once high islands that eroded away millions of years ago. The atolls are all similar, a ring of low coral rubble islands atop a circular reef that surrounds a large lagoon. Most of the atolls have one or more channels through the reef that boats can use to get into the lagoons. Manihi has one channel into its sixty square mile lagoon.
There is not much tide here, just a foot or so, but the only way for all the water in these atoll lagoons to get out when the tide is falling is through the channels. It was approaching low tide when we arrived outside Manihi's channel at 10AM, and the tide was racing out. The pass is about fifty yards wide though and the cruising guides say it is deep enough, so we gave it a go. It was heart in the throat stuff. We were powering at seven and a half knots but only moving at one and a half knots over the ground. Six knots of current mixes the water up pretty good, and we were being pushed all over the place at times. The shallowest portion of the channel was at the inner end where we could see the water level drop about six inches as it accelerated from the calm of the lagoon into the rushing river of the channel. We never saw less than sixteen feet of depth though and made it into the lagoon unscathed.
Once inside the sheltered water of the lagoon the only danger was uncharted coral heads, but that was no problem with a good lookout. It was blowing more than twenty knots, and we needed to find a sheltered anchorage. The village by the pass was exposed, so we powered across the lagoon and along the motus until we found a nice spot in the lee of Pahereroa Motu and tucked behind a reef. The anchor went down at 1130AM in fifty six feet of water.
Rob had a list of boat projects he wanted to get finished before we pick up Rene in Rangiroa in a couple of days, so he got started on them. Mike, Bill, and I launched the dinghy and went in to the motu to explore and dive the edge of the reef.
I foolishly forgot my slippers so I couldn't walk far on the sharp coral rubble that forms the motus. Bill and Mike disappeared into the coconut palm and scrub jungle and made it all the way to the ocean side of the motu before heading back. They said it was unremarkable. These motus are all privately owned and most have at least one house like structure on them. Occupation must be seasonal though, and this isn't the season, because nearly all of the structures appeared to be uninhabited.
The water in the lagoon was like a bath. The water temperature here is 86.5 degrees, a degree warmer than the open ocean. When I dive in these lagoons I always tow the dinghy because there are always sharks around. I've seen the black tip sharks get aggressive and when they do it is wise to get out of the water immediately. We only saw one shark, a five foot black tip, that darted into the deep water between Bill and I. The giant clams with their iridescent blue, brown, yellow and green lips were a new experience for Bill and Mike, but there wasn't much else that was special.
This is our calmest anchorage since leaving California. The rolly open roadsteads of the Marquesas are behind us, and we should have all calm anchorages like this in protected lagoon waters until we depart the Society Islands in July.
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I was confident that coming up on the shallow waters surrounding Manihi Atoll would mean fish, but we had no luck with our two lines out. Rob has found another cedar plug, and he put that out next to my contemporary resin head. The plug probably scared all the fish away.
The Tuamotus is an archipelago of approximately seventy eight atolls, the coral remnants of the once high islands that eroded away millions of years ago. The atolls are all similar, a ring of low coral rubble islands atop a circular reef that surrounds a large lagoon. Most of the atolls have one or more channels through the reef that boats can use to get into the lagoons. Manihi has one channel into its sixty square mile lagoon.
There is not much tide here, just a foot or so, but the only way for all the water in these atoll lagoons to get out when the tide is falling is through the channels. It was approaching low tide when we arrived outside Manihi's channel at 10AM, and the tide was racing out. The pass is about fifty yards wide though and the cruising guides say it is deep enough, so we gave it a go. It was heart in the throat stuff. We were powering at seven and a half knots but only moving at one and a half knots over the ground. Six knots of current mixes the water up pretty good, and we were being pushed all over the place at times. The shallowest portion of the channel was at the inner end where we could see the water level drop about six inches as it accelerated from the calm of the lagoon into the rushing river of the channel. We never saw less than sixteen feet of depth though and made it into the lagoon unscathed.
Once inside the sheltered water of the lagoon the only danger was uncharted coral heads, but that was no problem with a good lookout. It was blowing more than twenty knots, and we needed to find a sheltered anchorage. The village by the pass was exposed, so we powered across the lagoon and along the motus until we found a nice spot in the lee of Pahereroa Motu and tucked behind a reef. The anchor went down at 1130AM in fifty six feet of water.
Rob had a list of boat projects he wanted to get finished before we pick up Rene in Rangiroa in a couple of days, so he got started on them. Mike, Bill, and I launched the dinghy and went in to the motu to explore and dive the edge of the reef.
I foolishly forgot my slippers so I couldn't walk far on the sharp coral rubble that forms the motus. Bill and Mike disappeared into the coconut palm and scrub jungle and made it all the way to the ocean side of the motu before heading back. They said it was unremarkable. These motus are all privately owned and most have at least one house like structure on them. Occupation must be seasonal though, and this isn't the season, because nearly all of the structures appeared to be uninhabited.
The water in the lagoon was like a bath. The water temperature here is 86.5 degrees, a degree warmer than the open ocean. When I dive in these lagoons I always tow the dinghy because there are always sharks around. I've seen the black tip sharks get aggressive and when they do it is wise to get out of the water immediately. We only saw one shark, a five foot black tip, that darted into the deep water between Bill and I. The giant clams with their iridescent blue, brown, yellow and green lips were a new experience for Bill and Mike, but there wasn't much else that was special.
This is our calmest anchorage since leaving California. The rolly open roadsteads of the Marquesas are behind us, and we should have all calm anchorages like this in protected lagoon waters until we depart the Society Islands in July.
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Saturday, May 27, 2017
Manihi Landfall
0800 Position 14-13S 145-51W. Days run 233 miles. 7 miles north of Manihi Atoll
All day yesterday we cooked along at close to ten knots with a double reefed mainsail and full jib. As evening approached the squalls started forming, and all night long we had to deal with the rain, gusts, and wind shifts that came along with them.
Rob decided he wanted fish for dinner last night so I put a lure out yesterday. We never saw anything hit it but when I pulled it in at sunset I found that the skirt had been destroyed. Rob doesn't have any kind of a strike alarm aboard, like the clothes pins we use on Moku pe'a, so unless you are watching you won't be aware of a fish strike. I will bring some of my pin alarms back when I go home for a week next month.
It's my turn to cook tonight, and I want fresh fish for dinner. The lines went out at dawn and we are entering the shallower waters surrounding Manihi Atoll. Stay tuned.
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All day yesterday we cooked along at close to ten knots with a double reefed mainsail and full jib. As evening approached the squalls started forming, and all night long we had to deal with the rain, gusts, and wind shifts that came along with them.
Rob decided he wanted fish for dinner last night so I put a lure out yesterday. We never saw anything hit it but when I pulled it in at sunset I found that the skirt had been destroyed. Rob doesn't have any kind of a strike alarm aboard, like the clothes pins we use on Moku pe'a, so unless you are watching you won't be aware of a fish strike. I will bring some of my pin alarms back when I go home for a week next month.
It's my turn to cook tonight, and I want fresh fish for dinner. The lines went out at dawn and we are entering the shallower waters surrounding Manihi Atoll. Stay tuned.
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Friday, May 26, 2017
Smoking
0800 Position 11-43S 142-50WW. Days run 216 miles.
Yesterday morning the boys were successful in finding more local produce, including a breadfruit that they expect me to cook. I made the mistake of telling them that Lori has a recipe that turns this otherwise bland starchy fruit into something that tastes pretty good. Help Lori! How do I cook it?
Ua Pou is famous for its five lava spires. It was overcast when we arrived there so we couldn't see them in the clouds, but yesterday morning the sky was clear and there they were, five lava volcano cores sticking up into the sky in the middle of the island looking like whales teeth. We've read that the rock in these spires is not crumbly like the rest of the islands and that it is relatively safe for mountaineers to climb them. They sure are photogenic.
After the boys returned from their shopping expedition we got the boat ready for sea and were underway for the Tuamotus at 1030AM. We didn't have any luck this time as we passed the point where we had the big fish strike the day before. Once clear of the lee of the island the wind filled in from the east and we were off like a rocket. The wind was just aft of the beam, a bit further forward than it was for most of the trip down from California. It has been blowing between fifteen and twenty knots. It is not the most comfortable point of sail, and we occasionally get doused when a big wave smacks the side of the boat, but it is fast. We have averaged more than ten knots of speed since we departed Ua Pou. At this pace we will complete the 465 mile passage to Manihi Atoll in just over two days and arrive there sometime tomorrow afternoon. The weather forecast predicts more of the same, so we should be able to maintain good speed all the way in.
We've had to modify our watch system now that Longy is not here and we are down to four crew aboard. We are still doing two hours on standby and two hours on watch, but we are off duty for four hours instead of six which is cutting into our sleep time. I got off watch at 8AM this morning and was too tired to write and post today's blog. I'm doing it instead while on my noon to 2PM standby watch. Longy, we miss you!
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Yesterday morning the boys were successful in finding more local produce, including a breadfruit that they expect me to cook. I made the mistake of telling them that Lori has a recipe that turns this otherwise bland starchy fruit into something that tastes pretty good. Help Lori! How do I cook it?
Ua Pou is famous for its five lava spires. It was overcast when we arrived there so we couldn't see them in the clouds, but yesterday morning the sky was clear and there they were, five lava volcano cores sticking up into the sky in the middle of the island looking like whales teeth. We've read that the rock in these spires is not crumbly like the rest of the islands and that it is relatively safe for mountaineers to climb them. They sure are photogenic.
After the boys returned from their shopping expedition we got the boat ready for sea and were underway for the Tuamotus at 1030AM. We didn't have any luck this time as we passed the point where we had the big fish strike the day before. Once clear of the lee of the island the wind filled in from the east and we were off like a rocket. The wind was just aft of the beam, a bit further forward than it was for most of the trip down from California. It has been blowing between fifteen and twenty knots. It is not the most comfortable point of sail, and we occasionally get doused when a big wave smacks the side of the boat, but it is fast. We have averaged more than ten knots of speed since we departed Ua Pou. At this pace we will complete the 465 mile passage to Manihi Atoll in just over two days and arrive there sometime tomorrow afternoon. The weather forecast predicts more of the same, so we should be able to maintain good speed all the way in.
We've had to modify our watch system now that Longy is not here and we are down to four crew aboard. We are still doing two hours on standby and two hours on watch, but we are off duty for four hours instead of six which is cutting into our sleep time. I got off watch at 8AM this morning and was too tired to write and post today's blog. I'm doing it instead while on my noon to 2PM standby watch. Longy, we miss you!
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Thursday, May 25, 2017
Anchor Drills
0800 Position 9-21S 140-06W. At anchor in Hakahetau Bay, Ua Pou.
The boys had great success at the farmers market yesterday morning returning with baguettes, papaya, mango, carrots, onions, cabbage and tomatoes. There was no lettuce to be had because it has been so rainy in the islands. I kidded them about elbowing old ladies out of the way and they said the opposite occurred. Apparently the elderly ladies of Nuku Hiva feel like they own the market and just shoo the haole tourists out of the way.
We decided to head west to Daniel's Bay for the day and hike to the waterfall. It is only five miles down the coast, but the bay is totally landlocked and a perfectly smooth anchorage. We got down there at about 8AM, dropped the hook, put up the awning, got in the dinghy, and headed for the waterfall. There were two other boats anchored in the bay so we spun by them first to say hello. One told us that the locals had formed a hui and now charged cruisers $10/person to walk up the valley to the waterfall. That seemed kind of like extortion to us. We wouldn't be walking on any of the local's private land. So we decided that we didn't need to see the waterfall, went back to the boat, hoisted the dinghy aboard, took down the awning, hoisted the anchor, and took off for Ua Pou twenty five miles to the south.
It was a wet and bumpy sail with the wind forward of the beam blowing close to twenty knots at times. We arrived at Ua Pou's main town of Hakahau at 1PM. There we found the Aranui, the interisland cruise/cargo ship tied to the pier and four other cruising boats at anchor. The other boats filled up the inner harbor forcing us out into the roadstead where we anchored for about ten minutes before deciding it was too rough. Up came the anchor again and we were off for the leeward side of the island.
We poked into a number of bays looking for a good spot to anchor. Hakahetau looked good, but there were already a couple of catamarans there. We proceeded down the coast as far as Vaiehu Bay before turning around. On the way down we passed a point that had a lot of current running. It had all the characteristics of a good fishing spot. We hadn't been trolling because we were tired of loosing lures, but I decided to toss a line in for fun as we passed the point on the way back. Two minutes after putting the line in the water a huge fish hit the lure. The hand line was tied to the backstay and I thought the fish would take the mast down. Fortunately the hook did not set, but the lure has a nice new scar on it.
We tried anchoring in Haakuti Bay where there was a nice little village, but it must have been a river rock bottom because we couldn't get the anchor to set. So in it came and we headed back to Hakahetau where we anchored outside of the catamarans at about 4PM.
After getting the boat put to bed for the fourth and final time of the day, we dinghied ashore to do some exploring. This is a magical little spot with surreal rock formations in the village and five huge volcano core spires in the mountains behind the village. The boys are ashore this morning making a final attempt to find lettuce before we head off to the Tuamotus.
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The boys had great success at the farmers market yesterday morning returning with baguettes, papaya, mango, carrots, onions, cabbage and tomatoes. There was no lettuce to be had because it has been so rainy in the islands. I kidded them about elbowing old ladies out of the way and they said the opposite occurred. Apparently the elderly ladies of Nuku Hiva feel like they own the market and just shoo the haole tourists out of the way.
We decided to head west to Daniel's Bay for the day and hike to the waterfall. It is only five miles down the coast, but the bay is totally landlocked and a perfectly smooth anchorage. We got down there at about 8AM, dropped the hook, put up the awning, got in the dinghy, and headed for the waterfall. There were two other boats anchored in the bay so we spun by them first to say hello. One told us that the locals had formed a hui and now charged cruisers $10/person to walk up the valley to the waterfall. That seemed kind of like extortion to us. We wouldn't be walking on any of the local's private land. So we decided that we didn't need to see the waterfall, went back to the boat, hoisted the dinghy aboard, took down the awning, hoisted the anchor, and took off for Ua Pou twenty five miles to the south.
It was a wet and bumpy sail with the wind forward of the beam blowing close to twenty knots at times. We arrived at Ua Pou's main town of Hakahau at 1PM. There we found the Aranui, the interisland cruise/cargo ship tied to the pier and four other cruising boats at anchor. The other boats filled up the inner harbor forcing us out into the roadstead where we anchored for about ten minutes before deciding it was too rough. Up came the anchor again and we were off for the leeward side of the island.
We poked into a number of bays looking for a good spot to anchor. Hakahetau looked good, but there were already a couple of catamarans there. We proceeded down the coast as far as Vaiehu Bay before turning around. On the way down we passed a point that had a lot of current running. It had all the characteristics of a good fishing spot. We hadn't been trolling because we were tired of loosing lures, but I decided to toss a line in for fun as we passed the point on the way back. Two minutes after putting the line in the water a huge fish hit the lure. The hand line was tied to the backstay and I thought the fish would take the mast down. Fortunately the hook did not set, but the lure has a nice new scar on it.
We tried anchoring in Haakuti Bay where there was a nice little village, but it must have been a river rock bottom because we couldn't get the anchor to set. So in it came and we headed back to Hakahetau where we anchored outside of the catamarans at about 4PM.
After getting the boat put to bed for the fourth and final time of the day, we dinghied ashore to do some exploring. This is a magical little spot with surreal rock formations in the village and five huge volcano core spires in the mountains behind the village. The boys are ashore this morning making a final attempt to find lettuce before we head off to the Tuamotus.
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