Quick Update - Tuesday 03 June 2014. Ua Pou Island
Tashi Delek
Mike & Carol Kefford
Wed 4 Jun 2014 06:41
We arrived yesterday after a five hour crossing from Niku Hiva. Absolutely
amazing mountain landscape with steep, high and very pointy rocks. One
looks the same scale and shape of the Gherkin building in London only much,
much bigger. The harbour is small and functional but against a lovely
backdrop of beach and palm trees.
We decided to put a stern anchor out to hold us in position so that the
swell moved us front to back rather than side to side but that proved
problematic when we lost sight of our tripping buoy which had been buried by
the tide and because the float was then tugging hard on the stern anchor the
stern anchor didn't set properly so Mike could just pull it in, so it may as
well have not been there, so we ended up having to reset the whole thing
with the addition of 10 metres of chain, in the dark, only this time the
tripping buoy seems to have got completely fouled up and is down somewhere
underwater near the anchor rather than helpfully on the surface showing us
where the stern anchor actually is. Breathe. Mike rows around a bit in the
dingy hoping to spot it and fails, so because the anchors seem to be holding
very well front and back we call it a day and go to bed only to get up at
6am and expect to see the buoy because it is daylight but we see nothing so
this time Mike snorkels along the stern line and still sees nothing so we
decide we are not a danger to shipping and will probably recover it all when
we lift the anchor when we leave. Breathe.
We had sundowners on the beach last night with Laurie from Moana Roa who was
chatting to the president and Coach of the local outrigger canoe paddling
club. The outrigger canoe is a very serious sport on all these islands and
every day we have watched young men and women practicing and racing
everywhere we have been. The coach told us that he has 500 children in the
club and every Tuesday afternoon they learn about the culture and practice
of paddling. The culture and history is extremely important and taught
before the children actually get anywhere near the water.
Laurie and Sonya's daughter Cara introduced us to the delights of the
wormie ( not sure I have spelt that correctly) a Chinese treat that we
should apparently have known from our Hong Kong days. Salted, dried, sour
plums. Aaaaagh. At first not too bad, perhaps even a bit tasty but
then.... nope, too much sour, too much salt and too much plum all in one
go. That will be our first and last.
We dingied into the village after the morning radio net and found the best
of the supermarkets which was very good indeed for such a little place. It
had white chocolate Magnums and frozen New Zealand Lamb and Pain au Raisin
but NO BAGUETTES. Sold out by 0930. As had the other two shops. So
there's a lesson. Get in early.
Moana Roa left for the Tuomotus this morning and Harry and Lizzie arrived
from Nuku Hiva on Malua with 24 cans of Schweppes Tonic for us. That will
keep us going for a while. We will leave tomorrow morning for the crossing
to the Tuomotus as well. Sud Oest left today from Nuku Hiva and several
other boats are lining up to go, so we will be in good company but, more
importantly, see many of our friends again when we visit the atolls.
We expect the trip to be roughly 4 nights. All well and we are looking
forward to the next adventure.