8:54.98S 140:05.94W

 

Before we left Hiva Oa we took a tour of the island with Frieda, a woman who had a brand new truck and a wealth of knowledge about the island. The new truck is part of the guilt trip of the French, who having ‘conquered’ the locals in 1842, a century and a half later use some of the atolls for nuclear testing. Apparently one can order a new truck every 5 years!

 

The next day we sailed down to Fatu Hiva, made famous by Thor Heyerdahl and his new wife when they spent their honeymoon there. The bliss was slightly spoiled when they both needed rescuing having become ill from insect bites and infection. It has the mozt fabulous anchorage we’ve ever seen. The Bay of Virgins is surrounded by steep cliffs and ravines which continue on shore all the way to a fabulous waterfall. An hours walk through the village and then up through the jungle brings you out into a swimming pool fed by the 30 metre falls. A welcome swim and a cool down after a such a hike.

 

The waters around the Marquesas are not turquoise and clear as you’d expect, in fact they are mostly cloudy with poor visibility. So coming across a crystal clear anchorage with a no-no free white sand beach was a real bonus when we got to Tahuata. The no-no is the infamous sand fly that can make paradise miserable in seconds if you’re unfortunate enough to meet them on the beach.

 

We spent the day swimming  and collecting coconuts for our sundowners. The bay has a resident school of Manta rays and several small black tipped sharks, the rays cruising through the anchorage with their huge mouths open, feeding on the many small shrimp and krill.

 

Oa Pou (Wa Pou) is 60 miles from Tahuata so an early start was made. We got in just in time to make a reservation in the only restaurant, run by a Marquesan woman who cut hair in France for 30 years. Her husband was in the French foreign legion, not an un common match it seems. Being able to speak French has certainly paid off, reservations have to be made before midday but a bit of flattery and smooth talking got us onto the communal table. We ate a simple meal of Wahoo and breadfruit gratin, washed down with a very nice bottle of wine. The view up into the mountains of this particularly spiky island is spectacular from the restaurant, yet another in this amazing place.

 

From there it is a beam reach to Nuku Hiva, the biggest island in the chain, and the most populated. Yesterday we were treated to a demonstration of carving, basket weaving and dancing, followed by a huge feast in the village hall with the most fabulous singing.

 

We are spending the day doing some provisioning for our trip down to the Tuamotus, just over 400 miles to these islands which are just rings of coral in the middle of no where. We plan to visit 2 or 3 of them before Moorea and Tahiti. The diving is supposed to be spectacular, with an amazing array of reef fish, sharks and turtles. We leave tomorrow, hoping to get the tides right as the entrances into the atolls can be very tricky if not taken at slack tide.