Ua Pou
Moonshiner
Sat 24 Jun 2023 16:28
9 21.5S 140 2.9W
Two days ago we moved from Tahuata to Ua Pou. We had a great sail with the wind behind us and poled out asymmetric and Yankee. Just over 65NM so a nice day sail.
We saw a few pilot whales on the way but no fish on the line!
The island of Ua Pou is the most populated of the Marquesas and possibly the most dramatic in shape. It’s dominated by 3 huge towers of rocks in the centre. Apparently they’ve been climbed by the Americans.
The anchorage is tucked behind a break water to protect from the easterly swell. If you don’t anchor behind the break water then it’s untenable. To further complicate things, everyone had a stern anchor so we had to scuttle around getting ours out ready to set. This is the first time we’ve used a stern anchor so needless to say there was a lot of head scratching as how best to deploy it. We opted to drop the bow anchor first, then take the stern anchor out in the tender with the reel of rope, and then pull in on the stern. Annoyingly the wind was swirling and moonshiner wanted to be anywhere but in line with the rest of the boats!
We arrived just in time for sundowners and ahead of a few other boats who had to anchor further out. The sun setting on the giant stone pillars was amazing to see.
The next morning the wind was blowing hard on our beam…brilliant for a stern anchor! We heard a loud bang and discovered our snatch line for the bow anchor chain had chafed through because of the angle on the bow roller. We replaced that line and let out on the stern anchor to try and let her sit to wind, but without swinging into the next boat.
We did the coast to coast hike to another anchorage. About 15km and 800m climbing up and across multiple ridges through the jungle. Difficult to find the track at times and didn’t see a single sole.
At the other end we decided to head back on the road and hitch a ride which worked out perfectly.
Next stop Nuku Hiva!