William Yacht Club, Hanaiapa
Moxie - Beck Family Adventure
Mike, Denise, Asia and Aranya Beck
Mon 19 May 2014 18:13
Monday 19 May 2013
After a single night at Atuona we left to head around the corner to the west side of Hiku Niva. The anchorage in Atuona was very swelly, there were a couple of guys surfing on the beach inside the harbour, getting on and off the tender was tricky at the dock and getting fuel by jerry cans pretty much out of the question. We sailed around to Hanamenu, we thought we had arranged to do this in company with Sudoeste but they misunderstood and ditched us very early AM and going directly to UA Huka, the next island north. In Hanamenu we met Moana Roa and Malua, the anchorage was very rolly but we went ashore with Moana Roa to find the Hollywood springs. There were just a few houses ashore and a beautifully clear fresh water stream, very close to the beach we were greeted by a local guy and he took us on a short walk to the pool where we all had a swim.
We decided it was too rolly to stay overnight and so made a beat to windward 8 miles into 25 knots, it was a very, very rough few hours with lots of water over the bow. Actually the most testing sail we have had so far in Moxie 2, thankfully not much broke although we almost lost the kayak. Malua kicked butt on the beat being a monohull, singlehanded Harry does bloody well. Moana Roa gave us a good chase they are a FP Orana cat (44) I think.
We anchored up in they much better protected bay of Hanaiapa just on dark. After school next day we wandered up main street, we didn't have time to walk the other street. Walking up the road an old chap came out and invited us in for coffee, he only spoke French, we told him that we'd syop on the way back. Further up the road we found a sign, Hanaiapa Yacht Club, William the 'Commodore' invited us in to his home, sat us all down and gave us drinks and fresh fruit and coconut to eat. He has taught himself English by talking with cruisers through the years. We filled in his log book and found a 2010 entry from Elena (the previous Dutch owners). William showered us with gifts of fresh fruit, papaya, pamplemouse, an entire stalk of bananas each, limes, sour sop, breadfruit, there was no stopping him. To top it off he came out with frozen pork for each of our families. We left him a few pieces of old rope which he was over the moon with. Rope can only be obtained using money whereas all the fruit and pork was simply stuff that he can collect and hunt. If you go there take him a stapler and a nice hard cover book for his log.
The town was very pretty and lush, fruit trees everywhere laden and dropping. Everything very tidy in keeping with the rest of the places we have visited, these people take pride in their surroundings. Walking home we passed a father and his young son tending a pamplemouse tree, he was wrapping moss around the branches and covering it with plastic. After some time roots will sprout and hey presto he has an equivilent four year old sapling to plant. He gave us yet more fruit, pamplemouse the size of footballs, we were now laden with more fruit than we had ever had.
Carrying on home we stopped in for our coffee, conversing in snippets of French we learnt that his son / daughter was married and lived in France. Along with free coffee we were loaded up with more fruit!
Next day we set sail for Ua Huka leaving with Moana Roa anchor up 5am. We had 25 to 30 knots behind us and arrived at 1pm after 65 miles, of course it was far too rough in the exposed anchorage, even the sheltered one around the corner was very rough so we carried on another 25 miles to Baie D'Anaho (the most sheltered anchorage in the Marqusas), on Niku Hiva arriving in the dark.
Here we found familes galore, all already known to Moana Roa, mostly with girls aboard. So there are 6 families here, bonfire on the beach last night, kids played together all day at the beach. Most of these boats are leaving very soon for the tuamotos, we will stay a bit longer, find Sudoeste and importantly get some fuel before moving on.
Mike, Denise, Asia and Aranya Beck
SV Moxie
http://blog.mailasail.com/moxie