Hakatea Bay, Nuku Hiva Island, Marquesas
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Tue 15 Apr 2008 01:20
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08:56.666S 140:09.801W
On Saturday (4/12), we sailed the short five miles
west from Taiohae to Hakatea Bay on Nuku Hiva. Hakatea is a small, very
secluded and well protected bay with only room for four or five
boats. We arrived to find Lady Kay, Strega and Ideal tucked in nicely (all
rally boats) with just enough room for us.
Banana update: After two more batches of
banana bread and two dozen more banana muffins, we are down to nine sad looking,
almost completely black bananas. One loaf of the banana bread was given to
Lady Kay. They seemed happy to receive the 'banana cake' as they called
it. We were just happy to get rid of it.
Speaking of Lady Kay, Michael, the captain, was
successful in drafting crew away from Asolare to help
him make the 500ish mile trip from the Marquesas to the Tuamotus, and
then the 150ish mile trip from the Tuamotus to Tahiti. In Tahiti, he will
meet back up with his wife Jackie, who had to make an emergency trip home to
England due to her mother's death. We spoke to Michael, and
agreed it would be a good idea for the two of us to travel together, and meet up
again in the Tuamotus before heading to Tahiti. Plans were finalized
with Michael and his new crew, Steve and Deb, over cocktails and
dinner on Harmonie Saturday night. Lady Kay will get a head
start for the Tuamotus by leaving Nuku Hiva on Monday (4/14). We will
follow on Tuesday, and catch up with Lady Kay somewhere along the 500 mile route
to the Tuamotu island group. Our boat is longer, and therefore sails
faster than Lady Kay, so catching up shouldn't be a problem. We'll use the
extra day on Nuku Hiva to go back to Taiohae Bay to fill up with duty free
fuel (assuming our duty free fuel paperwork is ready and in order...possibly a
big assumption), have one more go on the internet, buy more groceries, and dine
at the pizza place again with our favorite 3rd/4th/8th son as our
waiter/waitress.
Although the passage from the Marquesas to the
Tuamotus is fairly long at 500 miles, it is still considered part of our
'independent cruising time' by the rally, so there is no official start date and
many of the rally boats have already left the Marquesas or have
already arrived in the Tuamotus. We decided soon after we got to the
Marquesas that we would spend the bulk of our independent cruising time in the
Marquesas, and only a week or so in the Tuamotus. The Tuamotus are an
enormous chain of 78 islands spread across 1,000 miles. All the islands
are coral atolls, which means they are completely flat, with many shallow coral
reefs that surround them leaving nice lagoons with plenty of coral
heads between the shore of the island and the reef. The islands won't
be much to look at - no volcanoes, no far reaching mountains, no rugged cliffs -
just palm trees and vast beaches. However, the marine life in the lagoons
is supposed to be quite marvelous and the Tuamotus are known as a superb diving
destination. We will snorkel, but not dive, so we figure a week
of threading our way through coral heads with the boat and staring at
palm trees will be enough.
In the meantime, yesterday (Sunday), we
all decided to hike to the third highest waterfall in the world, which is
located about five or six miles inland from where we were anchored
in Hakatea Bay. As pretty as the hike to the waterfall on Fatu Hiva
was, this was even more spectacular. We left the dinghy high on the
brown sand beach, and followed the grass, flowering shrub and fruit tree lined
road through the valley to the path leading up to the waterfall. The walk
down the road was so beautiful. All the tiny houses - most of which
consisted of only a few timbers with some corrugated metal for a roof - are
completely tidy with raked patches of grass and dirt, flowering trees and shrubs
and drift wood, carvings and animal bones arranged in a haphazard, yet artful,
way.
Picture 1 is one of the many banana trees we
saw along the way. The banana stalk in this picture is much like the one
Cyril chopped down for us.
Picture 2 is a tiny outdoor church that was nestled
in with the few houses we passed.
Picture 3 is one such house. The gentleman on
the front porch greeted us in French as we walked by. When we indicated
that we spoke English, he paused for a minute, thinking hard, then found the
word he was looking for and asked us in English if we were going to the
waterfall. When we said yes, he said 'Many, many people go to the
waterfall today.' We saw what he meant when we got to the base of the
waterfall and there were all of ten people, including the five of
us.
After we passed about ten houses, the road turned
into a path, and we passed through the ruins of what looked like a fairly
substantial village, complete with many stone walls and one tiki that was still
standing. We moved further up the valley, paralleling a line of rugged
mountain peaks on our left. Picture 4 is our view at that
point.
A little later, we saw what could only be the
third tallest waterfall (said to be 2,000 feet) from a
distance. Picture 5 is the only picture we were able to get
that shows a fair bit of the falls. The rest of the pictures only capture
part of it.
Picture 6 was our view as we approached the base of
the falls. That's me in the funny hat in the right-hand corner. The
immense rock walls were so tall we couldn't fit them in the picture. The
walls were situated like a gateway to the falls - you had to wind around them to
reach the base. Also, it doesn't show in the picture, but we were walking
through an entire field of tiny yellow flowers blooming on a delicate green
ground cover.
Picture 7 was our first view of the base of the
falls. Can't see much, can you? The falls have worked their way so
far back into the stone cliff, that the water is almost hidden from
view.
Picture 8 is of Deb and Steve, an English
couple that has crewed on several rally boats. After their sail to Tahiti
with Michael on Lady Kay, they plan to head back home, and later, to their own
boat, which is currently in Turkey.
Picture 9 is Michael, captain of Lady Kay (also, if
you remember, our bow line operator throughout the Panama Canal).
Sunday night Lady Kay made dinner for us (more
tuna.....we think everyone is taking pity on us and trying to feed us fish), and
this morning they left for the Tuamotus.
We are currently back in Taiohae Bay, and after
more preparation work, plan to leave for the Tuamotus tomorrow
(Tuesday).
Anne
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