We arrived in Hiva Oa in the Marquesas Islands on May 1, 2023. As we mentioned at the end of our last blog entry, Hiva Oa is the entry point to French Polynesia when traveling from East to West. French Polynesia is comprised of 130 islands in five archipelagoes: the Society Islands, the Tuamotu Archipelago, the Gambier Islands, the Marquesas Islands, and the Austral Islands. For the next 6 weeks we will be fortunate to cruise three of these — the Marquesas, Tuamatus and Society Islands.
The Marquesas — a chain of 12 islands of which 6 are inhabited — are very remote. They are about 3,000 nautical miles west of the Galapagos and nearly 1000 miles northeast of Tahiti. This makes them difficult to reach (other than by boat) and means that there is very little tourism or development on the islands — no big resorts or restaurant chains. Just a few locally owned, small footprint, lodges and restaurants, often operated out of a local’s home. Of course, that is their charm.
We stayed anchored off Hiva Oa from May 1 through the morning of May 5. Our first day on Hiva Oa was consumed with entry formalities and finding a place get our laundry washed. Though entry formalities were not complicated, we needed to meet with an agent hired by the rally organizers to go through the paper work and get a “bond.” We were required to post a bond because, as non-EU citizens without a plane ticket out of the country, French Polynesia is concerned that the territory will get saddled with non-residents that might need medical care and will be a “burden” on their country. For the small fee of $137 usd per person 😀, we could post a bond certifying that we have medical insurance that will cover any emergency services we receive while in French Polynesia as well as medical evacuation should that be needed. With the bond in place, and all of our entry paperwork in order, we were able to meet with the gendarmerie — after the customary mid-day 2 hour closure for lunch. Between the two separate meetings — with the gap in between — it became a full day affair. Of course, that gave us time clean the boat which was desperately needed after a 19 day passage and also to figure out the laundry situation. (Jill was a tough task master making sure we put every bit of our downtime to good use.) Though we did laundry in our combined washer/dryer unit while underway, it is difficult to wash sheets. Aside from the challenge of finding a good place to hang them (we don’t use the dryer function on the unit because it is highly inefficient), one king size sheet takes up a full load so washing a bottom and top sheet is two loads which takes about 3 hours and uses precious diesel fuel. (We can’t use our washer/dryer unless we have our generator running.) In the end it was a highly productive first day with successful clearance into French Polynesia and three loads of wash delivered to a lovely woman who was going to take care of that for us! We did treat ourselves to a wonderful dinner at the only small lodge on the island and barely made it to 9:30 PM when we collapsed into bed.
Day 2 (May2) was a little more fun. Three of us (Zack, Jill and Mark) took a private tour with Yoen Froment who owns Kaoha Excursions. Interestingly, Hiva Oa is most well known because Paul Gauguin adopted the island as a place that would allow him to paint in solitude. While he lived in the Marquesas Islands, Gauguin painted some of his most famous artwork taking inspiration from the people and amazing topography. After taking our tour around the island we can understand why. The volcanic island has a shoreline that is largely comprised of dramatic steep cliffs. A single road is carved in to cliffs and ascends and descends as you snake your way around the northeast coast. It is a trip of constant hairpin curves close to the edge of the cliff (not for the faint of heart) giving you amazing views of the sheer rock face that plummets to the blue ocean below as well as closeups of the dense ferns, vines, flowers and moss that covers the rock face in many places. It is truly lush and the entire island smells like flowers. In fact, that is one of the first things you notice as you approach the island by boat!
In addition to simply enjoying the gorgeous scenery, we made many stops along the way to visit tikis and archeological sites. As many of you probably know, tikis are the sculptures that represent ancient gods as well as ancestors. There are several tikis around Hiva Oa that are believed to date back 2000 years as well as other more modern tikis that slightly pre-date the arrival of European settlers. (Interesting fact: tikis generally depict sexual organs to distinguish between male and female representations. Apparently, the early European settlers were appalled by these displays of “private” parts so they chopped them off. Of course, when you look at the tikis it is very evident that something was broken off right where these sexual organs would have been.) It was fascinating to learn about the symbolism and also see the remains of early villages. We marveled at the similarities between the structure of the early Polynesian villages and the ones we visited in Columbia as well as the belief system. Just as we pointed that out to Yoen he commented that it was an interesting observations and showed us a llama that, coincidentally, was carved into the side of the tiki we were standing in front of at that very moment. Though there is not specific record of encounters between these ancient people, there are no llamas in the Marquesas giving rise to the belief that there were early South American influences on the islands.
One of the best part of the private guide is the opportunity to learn about the local people. One thing that really stood out to us as we traveled around the island was the absence of large homes strategically built in prime locations around the coast. The absence of structures of any kind along the coast is one of the things that made the island so beautiful. The coast line was truly pristine. When we commented on that to Yoen he shared that unlike other places in French Polynesia, most notably Tahiti, Marquesans do not sell their land. They realize that the financial gains from the sale are short lived but the lack of land has long lasting impacts. The Marquesans live off their land — it is true subsistence existence. They grow their own vegetables and fruits. The raise pigs and goats and they fish. The land and surrounding sea provides them with everything they need. To supplement their revenue to purchase things they can’t get from land, many Marquesans husk coconuts — which are plentiful on the island — and ship them to Tahiti where they are processed into coconut byproducts such as cooking oil and coconut oil for cosmetics. Between what their land and the sea provides and some outside revenue they are able to live in this remote part of the world and meet their daily needs.
May 3 and 4 on Hiva Oa brought a return to reality as we tended to boat work. We had intended to do boat chores on May 3 and leave for Fatu Hiva on May 4 but, as so often happens, things didn’t quite go as planned. First, we needed to get more diesel to ensure we had enough to cruise the Marquesas islands. As you might imagine, there was no gas dock on Hiva Oa. Getting diesel involved transporting jerrycans back and forth from our boat to the only gas station on the island. Unfortunately, after our first trip to the gas station they ran out of diesel and our only choice was to wait until the next day unless we wanted to risk cutting it close on fuel. Second, we discovered a tear in our genoa sail on the second to last day of the passage to Hiva Oa. We needed to repair it but you can’t apply sail tape if the sail is wet and, just our luck, May 3 was a very soggy day. Finally, our crew member, Mark, decided he wanted to shake things up and join another boat with sail plans more compatible with his interests. That meant another trip to the gendarmerie to get him off our crew manifest and onto someone else’s.
So we did what we could on May 3 and, on May 4, we made our return trip to the gendarmerie, 2 trips with jerrycans to the gas station and we took down and repaired the sail. Unfortunately, our genoa has taken a lot of abuse on this trip so the tear was quite sizable — close to a foot long — requiring the application of a large piece of tape. Then, once sail tape was applied to both sides of the genoa, we (well Jill) needed to stitch around the entire parameter to ensure the tape stayed in place. That’s a lot of stitching! We are keeping our fingers crossed that the repair holds. This repair has to last us until at least Tahiti (1000 nautical miles west) which is the only place in French Polynesia that we may be able to get a more permanent repair. Even that is uncertain. Of course, no bit of boat work would be complete without some excitement. In this case it was when Jill stabbed herself on the top of her left hand with the oversized sewing needle used to stitch the sail. It went in quite deep — about a quarter inch — and was standing straight up without support. She looked at it in disbelief before she was brave enough to pull it out. (Our apologies for the graphic description.) She missed one of the veins in her hand by a fraction of an inch which was very fortunate because that would have likely caused a fairly good bleed and Jill would have undoubtedly had her usual vasovagal reaction. The mother of our newest daughter-in-law sent us a good luck charm that was blessed in a Buddhist temple. After this very near miss, Jill is convinced that it is working!
It was a busy day but we got it all done with one minor exception. During our stay in Hiva Oa we discovered that the line to our stern anchor was severed at some point meaning that we lost the anchor along with 12 feet of stainless steel chain. (We put out the stern anchor to keep from swinging in the crowded anchorage.) The water is murky where we were anchored so we needed to hire a diver to retrieve it. We found a diver but he wasn’t available until May 4 so, with the extra day, we thought we’d retain him. That is until he told us that he would charge us a set $300 usd for what was likely a 30 – 60 minute job. Not bad work if you can get it (and we guess you can get it when you are the only gig in town) but given that his price was just shy of the replacement cost of our tackle we politely declined his gracious, though price gouging, offer.
After our unplanned extended stay, we got up early on May 5 to head to Fatu Hiva. Fatu Hiva is in the southeast of the Marquesas Islands and is supposed to be spectacular. By 7:30 AM we were ready to bring up our anchor and set sail. To our surprise as we brought up our anchor, we found the line from our stern anchor wrapped around it. How does that happen??? At any rate, we were able to easily disentangle the line and, with Zack’s brute strength, pull up the stern anchor and stainless chain. It was truly remarkable and we have decided that our good luck charm is working overtime!
The sail to Fatu Hiva was about 42 nautical miles and, unfortunately, it was a very slow go. Just the wrong wind direction (we were heading straight into it) and big seas. After an hour of making little progress as we pounded into the waves, and recognizing that we would not reach Fatu Hiva until about 6 PM which meant arriving (and anchoring) in a dark dusk, we decided to switch course to a nearby island, Tahuata. Fortuitous as catching our stern anchor was, it did delay our start. But, honestly, you can’t go wrong with any of these islands so subjecting Che Figata (and ourselves) to more abuse and the risks of navigating in an unfamiliar anchorage in the dark simply wasn’t worth it. (On a sailboat, “plans” are just a suggestion.)
So we detoured to Tahuata, just 10 nautical miles East of Hiva Oa. Tahuata is the smallest inhabited island in the Marquesas with a population of about 700. We immediately fell in love. As we sailed along the East side of the island we were struck by the dramatic coastline. Another island with large lush cliffs rising up steeply from the ocean. For our first stop we chose Hanatefau Bay where we were welcomed by a pod of Spinner Dolphins which we viewed as a good omen. These are small dolphins known for their acrobatic displays. They spin their bodies like a rapid fire corkscrew as they leap out of the water vertically and eventually, after at least 3 or 4 twirls, fall back horizontally into the water. They put on quite a remarkable show. We were also delighted to find that there was plenty of room in the anchorage so we were able to “settle in” quickly.
Once securely anchored, we decided that our first activity would be to go to shore to explore the island by foot so we hopped in our dinghy. But before we headed straight to land we took a detour to nearby SV Freya because, as we were anchoring, we noticed they listed their home port as Traverse City, Michigan. Traverse City happens to be the closest “big” town (population just shy of 16,000) to Zack’s hometown of Suttons Bay (population of ~600). Being only about 15 miles south of Suttons Bay, and filled with charming locally owned shops and restaurants, TC is a place we frequent when visiting Zack’s family. So off we went to introduce ourselves to the Freya crew. We met Susan & Todd Vigland, a delightful couple who were just as astounded to meet another couple from Northern Michigan in a sailboat in a remote part of the South Pacific as we were to meet them.
After a brief but lovely chat we headed into shore to explore. We walked along the coastline that took us through a tiny and tidy village. The village was comprised of a small idyllic stone catholic church, a pavilion, a few homes and the remains of an early tribal community similar, but more expansive, than what we saw in the archeological sites on Hiva Oa. There was also a road out of town — concrete at first but quickly transitioning to dirt — that led up the mountains, eventually going over a ridge and connecting with another village. Of course, because it was there, we had to hike up and we were rewarded with a fabulous view of the bay. We returned to Che Figata quite tired. Jill whipped up some Chinese eggplant with garlic sauce and we fell into bed.
Alas, the next day (May 6) was another chore day. During our 3 week passage we accumulated a lot of algae growth on our waterline. It looked like Che Figata grew a green beard. The anchorage in Hiva Oa was too rolly to allow us to clean our hull there (plus the murky water was very uninviting) so Tahuata, with a calm anchorage and beautiful crystal clear turquoise water, was our first opportunity. Zack spent most of the morning and early afternoon scrubbing the waterline and washing our hull while Jill cleaned up after our hardy breakfast, did laundry and baked bread before joining Zack late morning. By 2 PM (thanks mostly to Zack) we had made a big dent in the algae removal and decided we needed a snorkel break. We had a short but delightful time snorkeling around the rocks along the rugged coastline spotting some beautiful fish (most yet to be identified) we hadn’t seen in the Caribbean. After a google search we did identified one — a small yellow and black fish that looked like a cross between an angelfish (body shape) and a tang (snout) but with a long streaming upper fin similar to a drumfish — as a moorish idol fish. (Google it.) It reminded us that we need to get a book on South Pacific reef fish! By the time we got back to the boat and showered off it was time to prepare dinner (Jill prepared a Zack favorite, Mongolian tofu). It would be an early night for the crew of Che Figata because we were getting up early the next morning to attend the 8 AM church service.
Yes, you read that correctly. We planned to attend church on May 7. We heard that it was a wonderful experience with the service entirely in the Marquesan language and lovely local music. It was all true. Much of the service involved melodic voices singing hymns accompanied by string instruments and a bongo drum. The songs were often in harmony with men and women singing different parts. The sounds of music filled this tiny stone church and reverberated off the walls making the room come alive with pulsating energy. There were no acoustics but none were necessary. The sound carried, enveloping the space all around us and penetrating our souls. Definitely worth the early start!
But there was another reason we went to church. We had heard that there was a local woman, Tahina, who invited cruisers to lunch at her nearby home following the service. For a small fee (the equivalent of about $15 USD per person) she served the most wonderful fresh local meal. With the help of Susan and Todd, who also attended the service, we met Tahina (they had met her the day before) and were able to secure seats at her table. What a feast! She served fresh tuna prepared 3 different ways, mussels in a coconut sauce, breadfruit fries, croquettes and bananas stewed in coconut cream. She made a special plate for Jill of assorted sautéed vegetables with loads of fresh garlic and ginger, vegan croquettes and fresh tomatoes with a light vinaigrette and a touch of salt. (Jill was also able to enjoy the breadfruit fries that neither she nor Zack could get enough of).
As always in these situations the food was only second to the company. Also at lunch (in addition to Susan and Todd from Freya) were the crews of Coddiwomple, Cerulean and Monsoon. All lovely people who we hope to meet again as we travel West towards New Zealand and Australia. In fact we made tentative plans to visit the awesome crew from Cerulean, Helen and Steve, while we visit New Zealand. They live there and expect to be back home by the time we take our NZ land tour. (Btw, for those unfamiliar — we certainly were — Coddiwomple means “a journey undertaken without a specific destination in mind, taken simply for the pleasure of the journey itself.” How perfect is that for a sailboat name!!!)
But the real treat was getting to know Tahina’s husband who joined us towards the end of the meal. We learned a lot about his very interesting life, Marquesan culture and, a very divisive topic, his views on independence from France. The short version of the conversation is this: Eric (his anglicized name) went away to college in Hawaii to get his BFA. Unable to get a BFA in French Polynesia he choose Hawaii for two reasons — proximity to his Tahitian home (vs France) and surfing. He supported himself by donning traditional Polynesian make up and garb and allowing tourists to take pictures of him for a fee. (We saw the photo proof!) He returned to Tahiti as an artist but about 23 years ago moved to the Tahuata in the Marquesas Islands with the goal of teaching the locals the dying art of bone and wood carving. His vision was to preserve an important part of the Marquesan culture while also creating an alternative revenue stream for locals to the coconut industry. (As a side note, the information Eric shared in this regard was consistent with what we learned from Yoen. Specifically, that the Marquesans are self sufficient people, relying on the land and sea for their food with revenue from coconut byproducts providing the extra revenue needed to cover things they can’t catch or produce.) This vision, however, as immediate as it was, was also part of a broader plan: true independence from France. He saw a day when the Polynesian people would be free to self rule and a thriving tourist industry (with local art being an important component of the tourist ecosystem) could cover the financial support previously provided by France. An important clarification here is that when Eric talked about the tourist industry he was not envisioning large resorts and high rises. Rather, he was thinking small footprint eco friendly establishments that preserved the untouched feel of the Marquesas (which is what makes them special) while allowing visitors to enjoy all the islands. And this bled into a political discussion of independence. Eric strongly feels that France takes much more from French Polynesia than it gives and has a degree of anger about the nuclear testing France did on the islands through the late 1990s, exposing local workers and residents (as well as their offspring for potentially multiple generations) to the impacts of radiation — all without any commitment to cover the costs of the related health care needs for as long as the necessary. This is one of the many issues Eric feels needs to be addressed as part of the negotiations that would lead to independence. At any rate, Eric is very proud that he is now teaching the arts to the children of his first students. He was such a delightful and thoughtful man (who spoke excellent English) and we could have remained engaged in conversation with him for hours.
On our agenda following lunch was moving to Hanamoenoa Bay. This bay is famous for manta rays and there was a small number of boats from our fleet who planned a beach BBQ there. The beach BBQ was lovely. After being away from our fleet for 3 days it was nice to see the crews from some of our favorite boats. Of course, we did have some excitement in two parts. First, the beach where we needed to land our dinghy was very steep with large waves. This made a beach landing extremely precarious, made even more so by the unexpected inability to lift up our engine. We discovered that malfunction after Jill had already jumped out into the surf. Zack had to return the dinghy to Che Figata and the crew from Escapade of London had to take their dinghy from the beach to the water to retrieve him, timing it just right to avoid being overtaken by a large wave. Martin (the Escapade of London skipper) looked quite daring (Jill referred to it as his James Bond moment) as he leaped into his dinghy just as a monster wave hit spinning him around (and almost knocking his dinghy over) but then quickly gaining control of the dinghy with the force of his engine, allowing him spin back around, get past the waves and then head to Che Figata.
Second, we ran into some trouble with a local. Our beach BBQ extended from the water to protected tree covered area behind the beach where there was what looked like a very simple wooden pavilion on short stilts. While we were chatting near the structure to avoid the sun we heard yelling coming from what looked like a small local fishing boat on the water. There were several men in the boat and one was quite animated, yelling “this is my house.” Just as this was occurring a member of our fleet was paddling to shore on his standup paddle board to join the party. Our fleetmate spoke some French so he decided to go over and make peace. While approaching the group and speaking French did help to de-escalate and defuse the situation slightly, the “homeowner” explained that there had been another group on his property a few months ago and they left lots of debris. “Someone has to pay for their carelessness.” He then showed our fleet member a case that he said contained a 12 gauge shot gun. Needless to say we took this encounter very seriously, moved our festivities to the beach and made sure to collect and remove our trash. (Of course we would never have left trash behind regardless.) Thankfully, the homeowner did not reappear but we trust he found his home in the same (if not better) condition as it was in when he last left it.
The next day (May 8) there were more boat chores: cleaning the interior, continuing our efforts to clean the waterline and working on the dinghy motor to see if we could lift the engine. That said, we found time for some snorkeling. As we mentioned, Hanamoenoa bay is famous for manta ray sightings so we were anxious to see if we would spot one. The punchline is that we did not see any manta rays but we saw lots of fun stuff: an oversized octopus that changed its color before our eyes, a large stingray, a lemon shark, a thick school of bait fish creating an underwater black out, larger pelagic fish who came close to shore for a snack, more of those moorish idol fish and, last but not least, some crazy looking fish with what looked like a long spike protruding for its forehead. We tried to use Google to identify that one and the closest we got was a whitemargin unicornfish though we are certain we didn’t nail it. The fish we saw looked very similar but it didn’t have a scalloped tail and the “horn” was longer and thinner. As we swam back to Che Figata we were both thinking that happiness is a day of great snorkeling! We didn’t want to stop.
We left Hanamoenoa Bay at 8 PM that evening. There was a rendezvous with our fleet planned for May 10 on Nuka Hiva, about 82 nautical miles away. That could take us anywhere between 12 and 14 hours. It looked like the wind would be favorable for a lovely beam or broad reach sail so we thought why not sail at night rather than lose a day when we could be exploring or, ugh, doing more boat chores. (We did have a list of chores to do on arrival including refueling since there is a proper marine fuel dock on Nuka Hiva which meant filling up our tanks at the dock — no jerrycan transport with multiple trips. Of course “proper” is relative — more on that below.)
As usual, the weather gods didn’t read the wind prediction and what we got was nothing like what we expected. We had little to no wind for much of the passage and it often came out of the north (rather than E/SE) which had it right on our nose. To top it off the waves were very confused so we rocked significantly from side to side making sleep very difficult and the trip highly unpleasant. When we took turns in our cabin, we slept in our bed horizontally. Still not very comfortable but at least we weren’t rolling across our king size bed. We finally arrived in Nuka Hiva, tired but anxious to scope out the island, at 10:00 AM on May 9. There was plenty of room in the harbor so we had an easy time finding a great spot to anchor. After putzing around the boat for a few hours, we headed into shore early afternoon to get the lay of the land. We needed to scope out laundry services, learn more about the fuel dock, visit the local chandlery to see if they had any items on our boat needs list, get information on private island tours and check out the various food markets to plan our provisioning. All of that, together with the long walk we took to visit a Relais & Châteaux property on the island — the tourist industry is very limited in the Marquesas and there are few lodges so we had to check this out — took the better part of the day. (For those curious, it was definitely not the usual Relais & Châteaux resort. It was a very small property, up a dirt road, with about 20 rooms and a cozy indoor/outdoor dining room with a small infinity pool.)
All in all, it was a highly successful afternoon. We found a tour guide and arranged a full day tour of the island for May 11, we figured out the laundry and provisioning situation and, most importantly, got the low down on the fuel dock from Kevin at Nuka Hiva Yacht services. Let’s just say it was not what we were expecting. Basically, there was no real fuel dock. To get fuel you need to “med moor” which entailed dropping an anchor off your bow about 3 boat lengths from the dock, backing into to the dock and then tying the stern of our boat to the dock. This is very difficult to do with only two people. And, on top of that, this harbor is known for its big surges which creat the risk of the boat crashing into the dock unless you tie the boat off very well with cleats — but then you risk tearing your cleats off the boat unless you use really good dock lines with some elasticity. After hearing Kevin’s description of the process — and looking at the diagram he drew for us — we decided that we would take a pass on filling up the boat at the gas “dock” and, instead, would rent additional jerrycans from Nuka Hiva Yacht Services and do the three trips necessary (with 8 jerrycans) back and forth to the boat to fill the tanks. It was way too late start the process that day — and, regardless, the island had just received a new gas shipment that was not yet unloaded — so we resigned ourselves that May 10 would be spent making multiple trips to the gas station.
So that’s what we did. We went to shore by 9 AM and didn’t compete the refueling until to close to 5 PM. That probably sounds like a really long time and it was but consider what’s involved in the process. We had to:
1. Get a ride to the gas station and fill up 8 five gallon jerrycans.
2. Get a ride back to the very crowded dinghy dock.
3. Pull our dinghy through a maze of other dinghies close the the dock so we could lower the jerrycans into our dinghy using a line.
4. Motor back out to Che Figata, tie up to the side of our boat and unload the fuel jerrycans (which, we might add, we’re very) by lifting them up to the side of the boat.
5. Empty all 8 jerrycans into our fuel tanks.
6. Load the empty jerrycans back into the dinghy and motor to shore — muscling our way through many rows of dinghies to reach the dock and unload the jerrycans — to get another ride to the gas stations.
7. Rinse and repeat X2!
And, of course, nothing ever goes smoothly. On our last trip out to the boat, we somehow severed the thin hose that leads from the gas tank to the motor (it’s a very bad sign when you see fuel spouting out from the line into the dinghy) and, without fuel, our dinghy would not run. We were dead in the water and still quite a way from Che Figata. The waves and surge were too powerful to make rowing really practical. Fortunately, this occurred right as we were passing by another anchored sailboat and, doubly lucky, the owners of the boat were on board and we were able to ask them for a tow out to our boat. Sailors always help other sailors so they naturally said yes and we were able to complete our third and final run back out to the boat. (And Zack — our Jack of all trades — was able to replace the fuel line so he could get our dinghy motor back in action and return the jerrycans back out to Nuka Hiva Yacht Services.) As a side note, it turned out we made a great decision. We heard numerous stories of mishaps (closer to mayhem) at the fuel dock among members of our fleet including crashes into the dock and severed dock lines. We were very glad to have avoided injury to Che Figata.
By the time we were done refueling we had only about an hour before we had to go back into shore to attend the planned rendezvous with World ARC Pacific participants. That gave us just enough time to wash off the diesel fuel which we had spilled all over our bodies. (Remember we were emptying jerrycans into our tanks in very rocky conditions.) To be honest, neither of us wanted to go to the rendezvous after what was a really exhausting day but we knew we would enjoy seeing the other members of our fleet — we hadn’t seen the whole groups in about a month — and it was a fun evening. It was really nice catching up with people and we were able to leave right after dinner. We were very glad, incidentally, that we left shortly after dinner when we still had a modicum of energy. Getting in the dinghy (which required crawling over 3 other dinghies to reach ours) and motoring to Che Figata was standard fare but getting off our dinghy and onto Che Figata was quite challenging. There was a particularly strong surge that evening making the transfer very precarious. Just imagine sitting on a bucking bronco and trying to move from that horse to another bucking bronco without falling off and you will have a good idea what the experience was like. Just as you think you have the dinghy well positioned the surge comes along and forcefully shoves the dinghy into the stern of the sailboat with a hard slam, causing us to tumble backwards. We had to time the disembarkment just right and it took us a number of tries before we were able to get safely aboard Che Figata.
May 11 was a new day. After 2 days of boat chores, we were ready to have some fun and we’re looking forward to our full day island tour. Not to sound like we are complaining — because we chose this lifestyle and wouldn’t have it any other way — but we hope you are seeing the pattern here. Even aside from the long passages, once we get to our destinations we have one “vacation” day, on average, for every two days of work. The point is that as much as we love the challenge of this lifestyle it is not an easy existence. The payoff is incredible — we get to visit untouched places that most people will never see, view the night sky like our early ancestors experienced it and feel this incredible sense of accomplishment after crossing an ocean — but it is far from a full time vacation. In short, it is hard work! But back to our vacation day . . . .
On May 11 we met our tour guide Aniata at 8:30 AM. Though the tour wasn’t strictly private, she was only taking 2 others so it was a small group. Aniata was awesome! She drove us around the island to one beautiful vista after another, took us to an archeological site where we learned more about ancient Marquesan culture and beliefs, visited a Catholic Church with incredible wood carvings that combined some Marquesan cultural elements (like tikis) into biblical scenes and enjoyed lunch at Yvonne’s, a small open air restaurant by the side of a picturesque river that served authentic Marquesan cuisine. As always, we really enjoyed learning more about the Marquesan culture. Most of what we heard from consistent with what we learned from Yoen and Eric. First, how the Marquesan people support themselves by relying mostly on the sea and land for their food with supplemental revenue coming largely from the coconut industry with other jobs in tourism, retail shops, government or teaching also available. Second, and importantly, the joy that runs deep within the veins of Marquesans. Like others, Aniata stressed that Marquesans are happy because their basic needs are satisfied and they appreciate what they have. There is no culture of consumerism that makes them long for what they don’t have. Plus they live in a beautiful place with a strong sense of community — “everyone knows your business but everyone looks out for you” — that allows them to enjoy their stunning corner of the earth as a part of something bigger. The words “quality of life” come up in these conversations again and again.
That said, we did learn something new. Specifically, that much of the Marquesan culture was lost for many years and it is just experiencing a rebirth that started in the 1970s. Given the cultural pride we have observed among Marquesan people we were very shocked to learn that it has just reemerged over the last 50 years. The back story is, unfortunately, a familiar one. In the 19th century, the Catholic Church, considering many of the Marquesan practices evil, banned native dress, traditional dancing and chanting, tattooing, and other religious and cultural practices. Generations of indoctrination that this former way of life was bad successfully extinguished many of the practices to the point where the Marquesan language and arts were largely lost. Interestingly, however, it was Bishop Le Cléach, leader of the Catholic Church in the Marquesas from 1973 – 1985, who played a significant role in the reemergence. Bishop Le Cléach empathized with the Marquesan people because he believed his own French ancestors experienced similar repression under English rule. He issued a decree allowing church services to be conducted in the Marquesan language and also confounded the Motu Haka association. This association was formed to “to safeguard the Marquesan language and heritage and everything related to it.” What started with an acknowledgement of the great injustice that had been done to the Marquesan people transformed into a movement and, today, most Marquesans are bilingual, speaking both native Marquesan and French (though French is still the official language and most school lessons are conducted in French) and take great delight and draw self-esteem from their traditional art and dance.
It was an incredible day full of gorgeous sights and enriching information and we didn’t return back to town until 5:30 PM. Being so close to dinner we thought why go back to our boat when we could enjoy dinner on shore. While walking around town we ran into the crew from Choucas 3 — another ARC Pacific boat — and joined them at a local boulangerie that also served a limited menu of dinner items. We had a lovely time until we realized on the way back to the dock that not having planned on eating dinner in town we had no lights with us (other than the flashlight on our cell phones) and, worse, we didn’t leave any lights on Che Figata. Ordinarily, as soon as it gets dark we put on our anchor light at the top of our mast. We should have dinghied out to Che Figata to turn on the lights before heading back in to dinner. Ooops! Have you ever tried to find an unlit black boat with a black mast in the pitch black of night? If not, we don’t recommend it. Trust us, it is not easy — for us or anyone else motoring through the anchorage while trying to avoid contact with an anchored vessel. (There is a reason burglars wear dark clothing at night). Fortunately, Zack has a great sense of direction (if we were relying on Jill we would have been motoring our dinghy around the anchorage all night) and we found Che Figata unscathed after just a few wrong turns. Another bad (as in really stupid) situation that was self-inflicted. We should know better by now.
After a day of provisioning and other important tasks — like catching up with each of our children and grandchildren — we left Nuka Hiva for Ua Pou, our last stop in the Marquesas Islands, at 9 AM on May 13. We had an incredible beam reach sail the entire trip, flying between 7.4 and 8.2 knots from start to finish. No sail changes needed. That turned out to be a great thing. Zack came down with a stomach bug the afternoon before with all the usual insidious symptoms (we will leave it to your imagination). We learned that Zack was not alone. About half the fleet was stricken with similar symptoms following our rendezvous on May 10. Given the nature of the symptoms and the range of onset, we highly suspect that out was a norovirus spreader event. At any rate, it was relatively short lived, with the worst of the symptoms the night before, but he was very weak the day we left so the lovely sail gave him an opportunity to sleep. He woke up just in time to bring in the sails and help with the anchoring and was greeted with the proverbial sight for sore eyes. We were entering another magnificent moon shaped bay with a coastline of steep volcanic cliffs and spire shaped rocks on the top, right in the center. Nature’s sculpture! Zack didn’t have the energy to go to shore so we enjoyed a quiet afternoon on Che Figata — we read, we napped and we just stared at the pinnacles as low flying clouds encircled them, changing their shape and configuration and giving them a mystical appearance. We chose a picture of these pinnacles as our feature imagine for this blog post.
Our final day on Ua Pou (May 14) before our passage to the Tuamatus was beyond lovely. We had heard about a local, Pierre, who serves lunch from his house every day but Saturdays. We got his WhatsApp contact info from a member of our fleet who had dined with him while visiting Ua Pou and made reservations for Mother’s Day. For less than $50 for the two of us we had an amazing meal — fish cooked three ways with various side dishes including vegetable lasagna for Zack and the most gorgeous fresh salad with carrots, cabbage and beautiful vine ripened tomatoes for Jill — including drinks and coffee. We lingered over lunch for 2 hours enjoying the company of our host as well as fellow cruisers who were eating there that day. This included a lovely Belgium couple who, like us, plan to join the Sail 2 Indonesia rally in July 2024. Following lunch we took a hike to a small waterfall — getting in our steps and enjoying the splendor of the water splashing down along the rock face to a crystal clear pool below. The day would have been perfect if it ended there but, after we returned to our boat following our hike, we noticed a Hylas 46, SV Beleza, entering the anchorage. We wasted no time inviting the crew of our sister ship over for sundowners and we just hit it off. Chris and Michelle on Beleza were awesome. The evening ended with us gifting them a bottle of the Wild Moon Birch liquor we had stored in our floorboards and them gifting us a bottle of rum from their “on boat” distillery. We didn’t say our goodbyes to close to 9 PM. What a way to end our stay on the Marquesas.
Our plan is to set sail to Fakarava in the Tuamatus on May 15. We are sad to say farewell to the glorious Marquesas islands but excited to explore the atolls of the Tuamatus which are supposed to be spectacular. Quintessential South Pacific we are told. The passage to the Tuamatus will take us a little over three days and we will tell you all about that passage — the first one on this trip with just the 2 of us — as well as our cruise around the Tuamatus when we publish our next blog entry. Until then, au revoir!
