Baie Haahopu, Nuku Hiva
Lochmarin
Wed 14 May 2014 20:02
We've been waiting for a battery charger, to charge our main "house" batteries, to arrive. The old one failed on route to the Galapagos, it was within the warranty period so the manufacturer shipped one out to us. It arrived in Tahiti some weeks ago but we've been having trouble getting customs to release it - they want an invoice and as it's a warranty replacement we don't have one! But it's been finally sorted and the new one has been swapped in and is working fine. We've been relying on our wind and solar to charge our batteries, with the alternator on the engine as an emergency back up, but there are days that are overcast with no wind so it's good to be able to charge by running the generator now and again.
This means that we're now able to leave for the Tuamotus, however the weather doesn't look good for a few days so we're delayed again. We decided to see more of Nuku Hiva whilst we're waiting so left to go around to the North East corner of the island. When we came out of the bay the swell was high and the wind around 30 knots from the East. We were shipping green water over the bow and the side decks were totally covered, so we turned tail and surfed the waves with the dolphins around the West of the Island instead. On the West coast we found this little bay and stopped for the night.
The first sight that greeted us was a huge manta ray just below the surface, putting both wing tips out like shark fins on each stroke of his flight. Once anchored we were quickly in with our snorkels and, after checking the anchor, swam across to the rocks along the North of the bay. As we approached a reef shark swam across in front of us, not too big, about 5 or 6 feet long, not interested in us, just going about his business as a good shark should. The snorkel was all we'd hoped: hundreds of fish, sometimes so many feeding together that the bottom was carpeted with yellow fish whilst silver schools swam past just under the surface.
This Waiting On Weather isn't so bad after all...
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