We arrived at Niku Hiva on Thursday 16 June having sailed overnight our position is 08.54.89S 140.05.95W. We are anchored in Taiohae which is the main town on the island. Food, wine, beer and fuel including Propane is expensive. We had a good sail over, a bit lumpy and rocky but we made good time having left at 5.00pm and arrived at 8.00. The distance was about 80 miles. We duly got supplies and checked in with the gendarmerie. We had been invited to join Northern Rose and Laurigra on shore to watch the dancers practice and have a pizza. As it was they didn't watch the dancers and we didn't make it for pizza as a) we needed to eat fish as Jim caught a Mahi Mahi the night before b) we had pizza the night before that I'd made and c) the night sail caught up with us and we were in bed by 6.00pm and slept. Since then the anchorage has got rollier and rollier especially as a weather system has come through and we have had strong winds and rain. Other cruisers have been on an island tour costing around £70 and were taken to a very expensive restaurant for lunch which was not included. We hired a car for £120 from 8.00am - 5.00pm with Northern Rose and had a great time seeing the island and picking fruit for free! On our return we found a large motor Yacht had come in and revved his engine scattering the dinghies on the dock and trapping ours under the metal ladder causing a an 8" tear down one tube. Several yachties came across from their boats to help us as Pat and Glen had been in our dingy and theirs was up on their boat. We got the dingy back to our boat and just got it on the davits when we had a couple of swelly waves that swamped the dingy and sunk it with Jim still stood in it. He's wanting me to let the ropes go as he didn't want to end up in the water as he was scared of the sharks! (yes there are sharks here and yes we've seen them) I could see us loosing the whole thing as the engine was already underwater and could not see what good loosening the ropes would make other than Jim going down with the dingy, the air is blue! Still we did manage to get the thing up and the water out of it and then got the engine off. Time for a drink, lick our wounds and go to bed!
Today we got the dingy onto the bow of the boat, Glen came over with advice, a patch and glue and John off Beyond came over to sort the engine, took our rubbish away and has offered me a lift to shore for shopping. We had made 20 gals of water for John a few days ago as he was saying he didn't know how he was going to manage for drinking water on the 3-4 day passage to Tahiti so it is true to say "what goes around comes around".
Next job is mend the main sail as we have 2 rips in it and we've to try and find a way of attaching our new ladders to the boat as the old ones are now almost dangerous, not to mention the never ending washing. The work never ends, who said this was a clamorous life?
