Marquesas to Tuomotu Islands
Marita3
Mark & Helen Syrett
Sun 29 Apr 2012 17:26
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After our 26 day Pacific crossing we left our first
landfall (Hiva Oa) and sailed overnight to Nuku Hiva.
 The anchorage was rolly but we did have
some rest and hired a car. The islands are lush and green with sandalwood trees
on vertical slopes so the saying that you can smell land was never truer than on
the approach to Nuku Hiva. We drove inland and up over the top of the
island
  We had lunch in a small village on the south east
side of the island
 and met some of the local transport
 and some of the wild life---tame pigs or
wild(?)
 the island was beautiful with a population of about
4,000
 We then did a 4 hour sail to Ua Po a very small
island with a population about the size of Flushing (1,200). We were the only
boats in our anchorage
 and we had a walk through the village and tried to
converse in our best French but unfortunately the older folk wanted to speak
Marquesan, not a word of which we could understand!
The Marquesas are French dependencies and although
there was no sign of the European flag there were a lot of new roads and
facilities that smelt of Euro money!!
 ....and then the 450 mile sail to the Tuomotu
Islands. We made the grave mistake of anticipating the arrival before departure
and although we had a marvellous first 36 hours of beam wind it then died to
nothing and the engine had to be used. No wind and flat seas do produce good
sunsets!
 We arrived at the island of Manihi and are anchored
off the Manihi Pearl Beach Resort and have been using their pool and restaurant
etc. We are ''at rest'' for several days but Mark did have a trip to the top of
the mast to check the rigging with Helen assisted on the winch by Gunnar
from Camelot, anchored alongside
  We visited the local village the other side of the
lagoon this morning; very small with two shops and three churches with lots of
new meeting halls, school and facilities but provided with probably little
education on how to use them.
 The Tuomotu Islands are coral atolls ie a lagoon
encircled by a coral reef and small areas of land with very few entrances
through the reef into the lagoon. This lagoon is about ten miles long but you
move around at your peril because of the uncharted coral bommies that rise
vertically from the sea bed to just below the surface. We anchored and have not
moved! We are visting a pearl farm (the home of the black pearl (not the ship of
the same name in Pirates of the Caribbean!) on Monday and then on to some other
atolls before the 'civilisation' of Papeete, Tahiti.
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