We leave our beautifull anchorage in Puamau just before sunset.
My Irish daughter Holly read an interesting article in Nat Geo about how Ua Huka has more animals than people . With wild horses, pigs, goats and cockerels roaming in lush green (like Ireland) forrest she feels this is her kind of place! She is of course invited.
Actually, sadly, the animals have deforrested the landscape although happily, we read plans are underway to restore the island. There maybe a market garden which makes it very attractive to us. Also we wanted to visit the island on her behalf to give her our perspective but it is a pity that the seas were too rough for a landing. Our first anchorage Baie d’Hane gave us a break from sailing but it was not sheltered enough.
Another great down wind sail with the genoa poled out. About 4 hrs averaging 6.3 knots arriving soon after nightfall. The full moon was hiding behind clouds but we could see enough to anchor safely in a deep set bay. Good holding in 8 metres with only goats and frigates for company.
The dingy needs a puncture repaired, it’s been filling with water for a while! It was hard to get as much as a bucket of water out. Squirting it out through the valve, very tricky. Also it rained a lot in the first 24 hours. But we have 4 g sometimes,a huge bonus.
The puncture repair was quick and easy. A long dinghy ride and a nice walk around Taipivai which is accessable by river from the sea. On our return I decide to ignore the sound advice to wait for slack high tide. So we get wet to the bone trying to exit the river mouth by dinghy.
Then a little west around the corner to the port of entry Taiohae. A spread out town with many cars. Not the quaint well manicured villages we have experienced so far. Yes plenty of magasins, though no eggs due to a salmonella outbreak. Yes a lovely market coop run by women by the dock.
Across the road is the artisanal area rich with hand made artifacts stunning stuff of wood, bone, shell.
And wonderfull, I eventually found the place to swap my English books. Go to yacht services on the dock with the yellow awning. She has lots of books for exchange in English. My birthday present to myself.
She was sculpted in 2017 to commemorate the independence of Marquesas from France . Still part of France yet autonomous. The Marquesian live close to nature may the mother continue to support us.
Leaving Bay Taiohae with the main town and it’s cars, we head anticlockwise round the end of Nuku Hiva for what we hope is a quieter anchorage on the north side. The ride was tough, as tough as we expected. I have become better at these rough passages and this was quite mild really. Stefan I have to say, impresses me with his competence every time. With no wind metre I can t say how much wind it was but with two reefs in the genoa we were close reach more than 6 knots at some stage so that’s not less than 20 for sure. With no main sail we used the engine instead(who knew you could do that!) instead to steady us and help as we went round the corner in 2 metre plus waves close to the wind. It was only (direct)twenty nm a short days sail and we were happy to drop the hook in the well known for its beauty baie d’ Anaho. We are in a bay at the northeastern end. No swell, flat water is very nice for a change but kathabatic wind over the hills.
When things go wrong, the toilet cracked off its foot, the electric furler on the main sail needs a new gear, the anchor chain needs taking out and realigning to name a few, it’s less like a holiday. We do look forward to exploring the north side of the island though. We know the furler to the main sail is dysfunctioning S thinks it’s the gear, but nothing can be fixed with all this wind. So we seek safe haven. Another quiet, beautifull and interesting anchorage.
Passing farmer Roger’s house over the well worn path from Anaho to baie Hatiheu in the west. A pleasant effort up over the ridge and down to the small village of Hatiheu.
In Hatiheu a large man sitting in the shade outside a closed shop tells me the post office is a long way and waves his arm a little. I laugh, because after walking over the hill to get here we are up for anything. We want mobile data, and we find the yellow post office, La Poste, but its closed. No sign. no posters in the glass doors, the lawn is mown and a fence around it half maintained, a huge old tree shades the steps. Peculiar. A smiling girl with her mobile, sitting on the bench under a pine tree on the opposite side of the road in front of the bay knows where the new Post office is! She tells us it is at the new hospital up the hill. A mile up on concrete road past anotherbread fruit tree we find the new yellow post office.
Stella makes good use of the lovely wooden bench in the shade to stretch out while Stefan does the business inside. Only here in the tropics you get such pieces of dark ancient ambient wood to lie on. We are alone on the porch of the post office up a hill.
Later we pass a lady drying out bananas in the fierce sun and talk to her a little. The bananas look and smell great in various stages of dehydration .The fruit is laid on a weave of dried leaf protected in a purpose built box. At the beginning of the process sliced in half lengthways, yellow, three times the size of the dark sticky fingers of lucsiousness that is the end result. Beautiful to see. She will try drying mango next she tells us.
This village boasts one of the best restaurants in the islands. We will try it next week I say to myself.
This time we not walking over the ridge to Hatiheu but drifting around the corner while taking out all the anchor chain to reverse it. The chain is stretched and jumps on the gibsy of the windlass when pulling up the anchor. Hopefully the end that was always stored on the bottom of the anchor locker is less stretched and it will perform better.
We walk up hill from the old La Post in search of the sites. Again mangos dropping making sweet vinegar perfume, coconut clonking to the forrest floor in the forrest on the side of the concrete road.
There are seven archaeological sites roughly in a circle where tribes lived and or held ceremony in the ridges above Hatiheu. Nobody knows the history here before 1600 because the population dropped so low that by 1927 the folk here were near extinction and the word of mouth tradition that keep stories alive faltered badly.
The first area of interest has some arresting statues. The site itself is less impressive than the next one we find another kilometre up the hill. A group of terraced platforms that are bigger and spread over several acres, renovation has been done to re-create buildings as they may have been, and the information boards are helpful but written for French speaking tourists.
Could not reach the bread fruit here, too high to forage. We do love our buttery breadfruit. Should we say the restaurant Yvonne in Hatiheu was only average? For us the pension in Anaho was much better.