Cruising in the Marquesas

 

Taiohae / Nuku Hiva

Having enjoyed the rugged beauty of the Island of Nuku Hiva, with its archaeological sites with numerous tikis and its more pleasant tenable northern anchorages, we were glad to be leaving Taiohae to explore the other Marquesas Islands of Ua Pou, Ua Huku, Hiva Oa, Tahuata and Fatu Hiva. 

While the town and people of Taiohae were much enjoyed, the anchorage was, in our opinion, awful. The Pacific ocean swell that finds its way into the bay which, when combined with the williwaws from the island’s high peaks, causes an unpredictably roly anchorage that spills drinks and makes cooking an unpleasant chore. Furthermore, dinghy transfers and landings become perilous. 

Dinghies, including ours, were damaged in the swell against the concrete wharf. Beach landings were slightly better though one had to brave the threat of capsize in surf with the ever present sharks. I accidentally struck sharks with our oar blades while rowing to the beach. The sharks didn’t seem to be aggressive or enraged by being struck with an oar. Another problem here is that a boat’s constant change of attitude to the swell causing anchor chains to twist up, shortening their scope or fouling their anchors. An long-term unattended boat dragged its anchor, drifted ashore, and was wrecked on the rocks. The council broke up the wreck and took it to the dump.
Here the unfortunate yacht ashore; note the rolling of the yacht in the foreground.

 

Taiko dragged twice with a fouled anchor while we were here. Fortunately each time there was someone on board, otherwise we might have suffered the same fate.

Prior to arrival we were required by authorities to clear in to the Marquesas at Nuku Hiva, the most western Island, which meant that a cruise to the other islands in the group would involve sailing against the SE trade winds. Fortunately the trade winds had more east in them at this time and this allowed us to make most of each passage form island to island on one tack, perhaps with an hour or two of motor-sailing on arrival at the island. We prefer to make windward passages of more than 30nm overnight to ensure that we arrive in a place unknown to us in daylight.

Sailing a little east of south on our first passage we had a pleasant day sail in sunshine from Taiohae to the island of Ua Pou. Anchoring, at Hakahetau for three days, we enjoyed comfort aboard, easy dinghy landings and a community in the throes of festival. Each year whole of Polynesia celebrates the French Bastille day (14.July) for two weeks.

Landscape of Ua Pou

Twenty years ago Renate had made here the acquaintance of an expatriate German man who had married a high ranking Ua Pou woman. She was keen to renew the acquaintance. In the intervening years Manfred had reinvented himself as ‘Manfred Schokomann’ by making excellent chocolate from cocoa that he grows in the fastness of his bush lair. A visit to Manfred’s place was our first activity ashore. It was an enjoyable tramp along a 4WD track, through the bush, to Manfred’s lovely off-grid home. Surrounded by large numbers of cats, dogs, and chickens the afternoon was spent in German conversation while tasting frequent samples of chocolate. Renate was happy to speak uninterrupted German again; though I still find it difficult to contribute much conversationally in German. After making relatively large purchase of chocolate we made the return tramp to the village anchorage via an impressive waterfall. Ua Pou is a beautiful place.

 

With the school holidays and the village being in festival mode the next few days were spent ashore mixing with the locals eating and drinking and listening to music, dance and songs. It was the first time, we had some local contact and we enjoyed being included and part of the activities. It was nice to see the villager coming together, young or old, male of female. The women wear there traditional colourful flower crown, most men played “petanque” and the youth had their fun in the water at the launching ramp.

At night time the pier was lit with a big spot light, which also lit the adjacent sea water as well. The illumination attracted various forms of sea life that created a feeding opportunity for manta rays. It was fascinating for us to watch them as they fed, swimming in slow loops.

We sailed down the West coast of Ua Pou and visited some other anchorages, turning around, we sailed back and further east to the main village of Ua Pou, named Hakahau. We had the luck to anchor close to shore, to gain some swell protection from the main pier. On our first visit to shore we went to the medical centre to ask about the possibility of being vaccinated for covid. ... No problem, welcome, next week, ...

The waiting time was used to do some nice hikes and enjoy the continuing local festivity that included traditional dance performances. Grocery shopping and laundry were over due chores on our to do list. We thought to indulge our selves by using a laundry service, there was quite a load, that included bed sheets. When we picked up the washed, dried and folded laundry, we both winced at the bill of NZ $ 28 / 17 € and resolved to hand wash laundry on board, little and often.

To get a better windward sailing angle for Hiva Oa we decided first to sail to Ua Huka , which is 35nm NE from Ua Po. With a normal SE trade wind we calculated we could do this in daylight in one day, given a very early start. But as so often happens, the wind was not as strong as expected and came more from the E. We failed to consider the west setting current. A daylight arrival began to look less than likely and we began to consider altering course to sail over night directly to Hiva Oa, missing Ua Huka completely. The light was fading just when we arrived the Baie de Vaipaee. The Bay is a very narrow V shape and it had leading lights. We entered in complete darkness with help of the electronic charts and the spot light to check for other boats and our proximity to the shore line rocks which were booming with surf. Needless to say, this situation caused me great angst. Other than some local fishing boats at their moorings the bay was empty and we were able to anchor safely for the night.

The next day’s shore excursion began with a difficult landing, in much surge, at the concrete wharf. We walked and hitch-hiked for a while and ended up at an arboretum, that had Mangoes of many varieties. We were given a tour of the property which included the gift of a large bag of samples for our onward journey. Ua Huka is famous for it’s goat meat due to the large numbers of feral goats on the island. I had a hankering for some free range goat curry so we set about attempting to purchase some. We called at the small store close to our anchorage hoping to make a purchase. Unfortunately there was no goat meat for sale. It seems that serious measures to control the goat population have limited the suplly of meat. I started chatting with the store owner in French, talking about NZ, the All Blacks and of his whakapapa which included pakeha NZ heritage. Suddenly, they gifted us a whole frozen leg of goat out of their family freezer. We where very surprised and presented him an All Black Pin for his hat and a small present of cosmetics for his wife.

We enjoyed this outing very much but where happy to came back to the boat. Looking around the steep hills of this narrow V shape bay all of a sudden I didn’t feel comfortable there any more. Therefore we decided to lift anchor and leave straight away on an overnight trip to Hiva Oa.

 

We sailed tight, sacrificing a little speed for distance to weather. Just after dark the wind had veered southward and we were no longer laying our course. By early morning we had a better angle but were still unable to lay the course. Before dawn there was some reefing necessary to accommodate squalls, after which, the wind dropped to a meagre 5 kn. In the late morning we dropped anchor on the north side of Hiva Oa after sailing 70nm to weather in 17h.

On Hiva Oa’s north side we visited some well protected anchorages and had some good hiking.

A hull clean was on the ‘to do’ list as well. The fouling was not too bad, mostly slime. Taiko’s hull below the waterline is quite easy to clean. We use glaziers’ lever action suction cups which are an enormous help and save us a lot of energy. Placing it about an arm’s length down the waterline, just above the chine, I’m able to reach down to the bottom of the keel. Additionally, I can use my buoyancy to hold me in place by wedging my body in the right angle between the flat bottom of the dory hull and the keel. If Renate is helping me we are done in about an hour.

After the bad anchor experience of swell ridden Taioahe in Nuku Hiva we skipped Atuona, the main village of Hiva Oa, which has a reputation that is just as bad or worse, and sailed straight to Tahuata, the little Island SW of Hiva Oa.

Here we came in contact with some locals that we first met on shore at Baie Hanamoenoa, a calm uninhabited bay with a nice sandy beach. We asked them for permission to walk around. They welcomed us to and invited us to pic Mangoes, Limes and Grapefruit. The locals came from the main village by boat to harvest limes to ship to Papeete. Early that morning we had heard two rifle shots. On our arrival at the beach there were two goat carcases awaiting butchery. The men skilfully butchered the goats and gave us a whole hind quarter. Before leaving, they visited Taiko at anchor, being keen to sample my home brewed beer. I am wary of giving alcohol to islanders. However, after sharing a litre of beer among them and ourselves, they declined more saying there was work to be done. I need not have worried.

After we received an invitation to visit our guests in there main village, we lifted anchor next day and sailed the 3 nm with top speed of 6.9 kt in no time. There where some swell breaking at the shoreline and the quay was occupied by the supply boat. We postponed our visit to the next day.

As rowed towards the quay it was obvious that a very strong surge was going to make this a difficult landing. It was recommended to us that we use the ladder at the inshore end of the quay, which seemed to be sage advice. Manoeuvring under oars in the swell and surge at the foot of the ladder went well to begin with and we managed to hand up our back pack and dinghy painter to helping hands on the quay. As we continued to struggle to gain the ladder it occurred to me that this might not end well. Suddenly, as though the very thought had summoned it, a larger wave rebounded from the adjacent rocks forcing us to trim the dinghy so that we were not inundated. This put us out of phase, with gunnel down, to the incoming swell. The next wave broke over the starboard side of the dinghy, inundating and capsizing us. It was one of those comedy of errors that seem to happen in slow motion yet cannot be prevented. Renate roar with laughter while swimming around rescuing sundry items that had spilled out of the dinghy. Meanwhile I climbed out of the water and lifted the dinghy as far as I could on its painter. While still in the water Renate spun the dinghy’s stern so that it was right side up with very little water remaining in it. I think we where lucky that we were neither hurt nor lost a single item.

In the end we needed to lift the dinghy out of the water to keep it from harm. Luckily there were plenty of strong Polynesians at the pier to give us a hand. At the house of our new friends we recovered from our adventure with an out door shower to flush the salt off our body and clothes, a warm meal and as well some fruit to take home. We had a short look around the village, drank a beer at the only bar in town in order to use their internet.

I wasn’t looking forward to the return trip back to boat. In fact, the swell was now so bad that it didn’t look as though we would be able to even launch the dinghy, let alone board it and row away. The same stalwart Polynesian men were on hand to help launch the dinghy. While the dinghy was bucking like a rodeo horse after launching Renate nimbly climbed aboard to sit in the stern. Her weight in the stern amplified the movement of the bow section where I sit to row. It was proving difficult for me to board the dinghy. Suddenly I found myself in the arms of a Polynesian man to be deposited in the dinghy. I weigh 82 kg fully clothed! As I rowed away I contemplated that these are the people one would want about one in a tight spot.

A day later we met a Dutch couple on a catamaran who informed us, that there had been a very nasty low pressure system further south which brought huge swells to French Polynesia. Some atolls in the Tuamotus reported 8m waves washing over a few motus completely.

The next anchorage Baie Hapatoni was still effected by this weather condition and we stayed on board for a day. We got to know the crew of the Dutch Boat “ZwerfCat” Ilona, Frans, and Ank (Frans’ Mum) to enjoy eating together, tasting each boat’s home brewed beer and playing music. On Sunday Renate joined ZwerfCat crew for church service. Having worked in Catholic schools I have had enough church to last me two lifetimes and so remained on board. After Church they were invited for a meal at the house of the local carver and came back with a nice bunch of bananas. When the weather situation settled we rowed into the little, but very protected, harbour of this village to visit the carver once more. His work was excellent. We purchased some of his art.

The next step in our journey was again an overnight sail, this time to Fatu Hiva, the southern Island of the Marquesas Group. When we left the Island of Tahuata in the late afternoon the wind was from the ESE, coming over the Island’s high peaks to give us ‘dirty air’ that made hand steering necessary. A sudden tropical downpour, typical of the Marquesas saw Renate disappear below deck. Renate prefers ‘blue’ jobs to ‘pink’ jobs. Therefore, I must conclude that keeping watch in the pouring rain must be a ‘pink’ job because she is always happy to go below in unpleasant weather. Two hours later Moni, the wind vane, was set and we happily sailed along with one reef in each sail. The night was uneventful apart from our water cooled fridge and freezer developing some kind of air lock or blockage that rendered the compressor inoperable. This is a ‘blue’ job about which I am happy to say that Renate has developed a set routine with which to overcome the problem. I hate the damned thing and much prefer ‘pink’ duty in the galley! At dawn the anchorage at Fatu Hiva was in sight. What a nice surprise, the landscape looked very promising. Another heavy downpour welcomed us as we anchored. After a hearty breakfast the sun came out to reveal a beautiful view of Hanavave Bay.

The anchorage at Hanavave is said to be the most photographed anchorage in the yachting press and anyone who has been there will tell you it is for good reason. We rowed towards the shore into a nicely protected small boat harbour that gave us a comfortable dinghy landing. Renate mentioned all this nice landings haven’t been there 20 years ago. 

On walking around the village we liked what we saw and resolved to see more of the island than just its settlements. That being the case, we negotiated with one of the locals to take us by ‘tinnie,’ the 3.5nm, to Omoa the southern and only other village of the island. This was so that we could walk back along the island’s mountain spine. It was an excellent day out. We walked for four hours over the steep hills, had excellent views and an enjoyable workout. Our anchorage looked so pretty from above and our boat so tiny.

Knowing this would be the last Island at which a lengthy tramp could be had we took every opportunity we could to explore more of the island. The lush green vegetation fascinated us. Renate particularly liked the large umbrella like leaves. We tramped to the waterfall through some steep country, where, some parts where steep enough to require NZ style stainless steel cables to assist trampers.

With August drawing to a close it was time to leave the Marquesas and head westwards to the Tuamotus. We knew, that the Tuamotus, being atolls, have poor soil and little rainfall and therefore no fruit trees. We stocked up with as many grapefruit and limes as we could get by trading with fishing gear and old rope. Happy with our trade, we went back to the boat to enjoy our last sun downer in this special anchorage.