3 nights of normal bedtime, normal bed and mostly normal sleep.  Having arrived early morning we managed to stay awake all day, tire ourselves out (as if we needed it) by starting the marathon scrub of the hull to remove all the growth and do a bit of gentle socialising.  Carol slept straight through while Mike kept waking up and thinking it was time he went on watch.  Second night we were both getting the hang of our new normality except that Mike got up at 0430 to talk to the boats that are following us!  They are holding their morning net at 0600 for their local time but because they are a couple of time zones behind us still, it is 0430 our time.  He did the same again this morning.

Note the 0430 time.  For some reason the Marquesa Islands are half an hour behind where they should be if they stuck to they normal time zone pattern.

This is not quite as bonkers or over-committed as it seems.  We needed to let them know that we had arrived safely and then we wanted to pass on some of the experience we have now had about making landfall here.  Something that is never clear and rumours therefore abound, is what the checking in process is at any given moment.  Long story short is that nobody has been interested in boats coming straight here without going to one of the official check in places and this is by far the most perfect place to end the long passage because it is completely sheltered and therefore flat – no more rolling!  The scenery is really spectacular, the water is warm, the village is immaculate and everyone is very friendly.

Kerry and Jonathon took us for the classic walk to a spectacular waterfall which was perfect for getting our legs moving again.  Along the way we picked up lemons, chilli’s and a coconut that Jonathon had sensibly brought a machete along to deal with. 

The village is very small and the houses modest but immaculate.  There is no litter whatsoever and even the road looks as though it gets swept.  There is a small church, school and village shop which opens for a few hours and has some surprisingly good things in it so we are pleased to have some meat again.  We have been bombarded with fruit.  Bananas only come in very large bunches of at least 30, huge grapefruit abound plus oranges, lemons, coconuts and papaya.  They grow in peoples gardens and along the paths as do some fabulous tropical plants and flowers which are clearly cultivated and looked after in the lovely gardens. But, interestingly, not a vegetable in sight other than potato and onions that come in by boat once a month and are sold in the village shop.  There are chickens everywhere but no eggs.

The local currency is Francs however there is no official means of changing money.  Interestingly the villagers are not keen to take Euros or US dollars and this is the first place we have come across in all our travels where hard currency is not jumped on in preference to local.  The village shop will take euros so we were able to pay for our purchases.  When we realised that they gave us our change in local currency we asked if they would change a bit more for us which they did quite happily.

We particularly needed some currency because we had had lunch with a local family the day before and they really, really wanted us to pay in local money.  So, the whole money thing is a bit difficult  but what works really well is exchanging goods.  We had come prepared with different coloured biros, fish hooks and some toiletries but equally prized are worn tshirts, sunglasses, mask and snorkel, wine, engine oil and petrol which we have also been happy to hand over in exchange for fruit.  We also negotiated use of a semi-automatic washing machine that turned out to be only partially working in that the spin bit was broken. Semi, semi, automatic then.  No matter, we had a very entertaining hour making a start on our four weeks worth of laundry.  The machine did the washing bit then Mike and I did the rinsing and squeezing out using an assortment of large plastic barrels and a permanently running hosepipe bringing water off the hills.    This was under the watchful eye of the man of the house while his mother and sister were out at work. 

We have made good progress with getting Tashi Delek back into living mode rather than passage mode so we are more comfortable and organised for this next phase.  Tomorrow we will sail 50 miles north to Hanamoenoa on  the island of Tahuata which has been very strongly recommended.  There is a nice beach and the Manta Rays come close enough for you to swim with them if you are lucky.

No sign of wifi or the ability to send the detailed blogs and photographs so it will a while yet.