A Marquesan Heaven
Rich's 2025 World ARC PatBon Blog
Richard Hurd
Fri 28 Mar 2025 20:53
We’ve made it…. We’ve crossed the Pacific! 3,160NM in total and we did it in 18 days, 8 hours and 15 minutes, that’s an average speed of 7.18 knots. We arrived in the harbour near the main town/village of Atuona in Hiva Oa and dropped anchor just behind the breakwater. Finally a relatively gentle roll on board Pat Bon rather than the oceans more frantic pitching and rolling we’ve been used to these last 2.5 weeks. We packed things away quickly and headed straight for the nearest hotel where 4 large and very cold Hinano beers were ordered, along with 4 steak and chips! We arrived 2nd in class and 4th yacht overall, without taking into account the handicaps. Fruition took line honours in class, but she is a powerful 80’ yacht, so we’d expect that. Also Misfit, a large catamaran and Entres Nous, which is a motorcat with no mast. Allegedly she has a kite-like arrangement they can fly when running downwind, but nobody has ever seen it being used!
The islands were visible from about 10 miles away, looming out of the tropical haze. Mountainous, steeply sloped volcanic cliffs and as we got closer, we saw them cloaked in lush green foliage. Trees, palms, shrubs, grass covered everything, which left one wondering how on earth they managed hang on to the treacherous slopes. How the ancient mariners must have welcomed such a sight - thinking about the bounty of fresh water and food waiting for them! A bit like Pat Bon’s crew thinking about cold beer and steak!
It’s not as though we did without cold beer during the crossing. We usually has a sundowner cold beer at around 1800 every evening, but there is something great about sitting on a veranda, overlooking the anchorage with a large beer in one’s mitts and not having to balance it to prevent spillage! We also had lovely yellow fin tuna steaks too, so we ticked the steak box too during the crossing!
The Polynesian people are known for their friendliness and this was so evident wherever we went. Greetings and smiles from everyone - even though only a couple of hundred years ago, Hiva Oa was the last island in French Polynesia to stop sacrifices, ritual killings of their enemy and cannibalism! It makes one wonder if they’re smiling at you while thinking about what sauce would go best with you! I jest of course, as they are such a friendly welcoming bunch.
We spent three days in Atuona and found a lovely cafe/bar called Mango - very rustic and shack-like, but a great vibe there and superb local fish dish. The village is pretty small, but it has everything we need to re-provision - just a couple of bars, small supermarkets and a pizza place that wasn’t the best! The Hanekee Lodge Hotel was where we had a couple of good dinners out, including the first night’s steak & beer.
We had to move out of the harbour, due to the large island supply ship coming in and when anchored outside the breakwater, it was pretty uncomfortable. Rich had organised a traditional Marquesan Fire Pit Feast on the neighbouring island of Tahuata in a lovely little village called Hapatoni on Thursday, so a group of us headed off in the morning for the short 12NM crossing. We had 1D, AquaLuna, Amelia, Mageia and also Musketeer join us for a sumptuous lunch of wild boar, goat, octopus, ceviche and an interesting ‘fruits de mer’ dish. Plantain, breadfruit, banana cooked in a variety of ways completed the meal. Having watched the film “My Octopus Teacher”, I swore never to eat octopus again, however cooked for 8 hours in an underground fire pit, along with the goat, boar and breadfruit, it was utterly delicious! However I’m returning to my ‘no octopus’ rule again. Anyway, thanks to Tafeta, his mum Rose and sister, Francelin and the rest of his family for the fabulous welcome and delicious feast - not too sure about the ‘fruit de mer’ dish however!
After a long lunch, where we took our own booze, we had Amelia and Mageia’s crews back to Pat Bon to continue the evening’s festivities. Now heading to the island of Oa Pou about 60NM to the NE of Tahuata and enroute to the main island of Nuku Hiva, where we aim to be on Sunday. A wonderful large pod of Pantropical Spotted Dolphins have just come by for a play on the bows - I will never cease to be amazed by these animals!
…..and to answer the question in my last blog, the collective noun for a group of flying fish is, rather wonderfully, ‘a glide’!
Onwards we go…….
The anchorage near the town/village of Atuona on Hiva Oa
The crews on tour! 1D, Mageia, AquaLuna and Pat Bon. From L to R:
Stu, Chris, Simon, Dave, Malcolm, Claire< Nathan, Val, Peter, Tracey, me & Taylor.
Tafeta and the feast basket just lifted from its fire pit
A pod of Pantropical Spotted Dolphins on Pat Bon’s bow. Awesome.