10.45S; 138.56W

Around the world with the Aqualunies
Jonathan & Gabrielle Lyne
Sat 1 May 2010 19:53
Friday 30th  April, 2010
Leaving the Marquesas Islands.
 
After leaving Hiva Oa (Paul Gaugain's island) on Wednesday we had champagne sailing to Fatu Hiva, smooth rolling sea and a reach with 10 knots of wind.  We arrived in Fatu Hiva at about 4pm in the Bay de Vierges, was once known as the Bay de Verges due to its very phallic rock formations in the bay.  It is a very dramatic bay, narrow with high cliffs each side and then mountains rising up beyond those.  It is also a very wet island with rainfall nearly everyday for an hour or so, therefore it is also very green.  When I can get back onto wifii again in about two weeks time I will put some more 'photos on the blog.  We had dinner on board that evening.  Got up early the next morning to do a walk to a waterfall up the valley which was in full flow and beautiful, no swimming in the pool below as it is said to be polluted.   Lots of development going on with a new cement road being built for the numerous 4x4s that seem to exist.  Lots of people employed by the French goverment who keep the running of the islands pristine. Wild chickens and pigs everywhere and as with the other islands lots of horses, which look healthy and well looked after.  On Nuka Hiva they run wild on the upper plains and are related to the horses left by sailors from the past.  The younger Marquesan men still go hunting wild pig on horse back with a pack of dogs and spears, it is almost a rite of passage and a preferred way of hunting.  The tattoos a lot of men are covered in and some of the females have are beautiful and we were very tempted to go and have little ones done by a specialist on the Island of Tahuata but never got to the village in the end. 
This morning we left the Bay of Vierges and motored around to Omoa village, but the sea rolling in was huge, the supply/passanger ship was anchored off, we did go into the tiny sheltered area but very busy with supply boats going backwards and forwards to the ship and a massive swell still so abandoned trying to get some French bread and to look at the tapa cloth being made, now the only place it is done in the Marquesas.  Tapa cloth is made from the bark of trees, dark brown from the Banyan tree, cream from the Bread Fruit tree and white from the Mulberry tree.  The Mulberry tree tapa is the most prized and in the past if a girl was born the more wealthy families planted Mulberry trees so that she could wear white tapa on her wedding day.  Now we are on our way to the Tuamoto Archipelago and our first landing is planned to be on Makemo, it will be great to be able to do some swimming inside the reef, although you still have to get local knowledge as in the past some of the pearl divers have been bitten by sharks.  We are now sailing along with 15 -20 knots of wind and making about 7.5 -8 knots, we hope to be there in two days.