Nuku Hiva – Marquesas 14th to 18th of June

After a good long sleep in we stepped outside the boat to have a look at our surroundings. Beautiful rugged mountains with lush green vegetation. Wonderful! We got in contact with Kevin via radio from Yacht Services to see about checking in. But as it was weekend, nothing happened there, check in at the local police station only happens during their opening times, Monday to Friday from 07:30 to 12:30! That’s it. So instead we had a look around the friendly little town, got some local currency at the ATM of the bank and ended up having a drink at the snack place where you can get some internet. They were great there, I wish I took some photo of it! A big tin shed where food was cooked (delicious hot banana pockets, yumm!) and a tin roof out front of it with lots of long tables, benches and chairs. And all the yachties sitting there with their computers, talking on skype, getting in contact with home! And they didn’t mind if you sat there all day without buying much. They even had extension leads with power points to recharge your computers. One afternoon we sat there for 4 hours to do school work, Pay bills, send emails etc... People were so friendly and welcoming there.

On our arrival day was a special day for the village in Nuku Hiva. They had local canoe races with the big celebration at night time. And everyone was welcome. So at 19:00 we got ready to hop into the dinghy to get on land, but just as we left it started raining a bit. But we thought, fine, it will be ok. By the time we were halfway across the bay it was bucketing down! We were completely drenched by the time we reached land and looked like drowned rats arriving at the celebrations. The celebrations were in a big hall, everybody paid for the food. They made a table ready for us and set it up with lots of delicious food dishes and drinks! Yumm! Then we had entertainment from the local girls with their dancing, as well as some of the mums in lovely costumes. I do wish I could wobble my hips like they can! Great show. And the best was, it wasn’t a tourist thing, it was their local celebrations and only a few visitors were there. Then a few of the men got called out of the crowd and had to show what they can do. Very funny! After a great night, we went home with our leftover food, which lasted us for another tow meals!

The local beer, nice!

The next morning we sailed over to Danial Bay to go for a hike to a waterfall (about 4 hour hike all up). It is 350m high and apparently the third tallest in the world?! After a very rough motor to the bay we found this amazingly beautiful sheltered bay!

Lovely lunch and we put the dinghy in to get on land and find the way to the waterfall. After pulling the dinghy up at the beach we got talking to Gary and his son, an American yachty who told us which way to go, but also mentioned, that they tried to get to the waterfall the day before, but because of all the rain, the river was to deep and raging to be able to cross it... But as the rain had eased, we thought we give it a try and set on our way. We were accompanied by a local dog, which ran around at the beach. Short into our trip we were joined by a very nice American couple also on the hike to the waterfall.

First river crossing: No problem, only up to our knees and soft flow. We still had the ambition then not to get wet, so Ben took his shoes off before he stepped into the river. But we were still close to the ocean and Ben stepped straight away into a sea urgin! So, shoes back on and just walk through the water with shoes on. Made it easier anyway, had a better grip this way. Then we walked through the little village with beautiful flowering hibiscus and bougainvillea and fruit gardens, with bananas, limes, grapefruit, mangoes and lots more. All gardens were lined with beautiful bushes and therealso was a French telephone booth in the middle of nowhere! So funny and random! Also they had about three cars there, even though there is no road which leads to other parts of the island and they can only drive about 500m! So funny.

Once we were through the gardens, we arrived at another river crossing. This time the water went almost up to our hips and we had to get through very slowly hanging on to rocks to not be swept away by the currents! But we made it! On we went through the bush coming up to a very spectacular canyon, from where we could already see the waterfall from far.

To be continued... We have to leave now for another island, will write soon again and try to keep putting more photos on.

Hi Everybody. I’m back, finally trying to finish writing about our adventure. Actually, can’t finish as our adventure just keeps on going. We are currently sailing up at the Bay of Islands in New Zealand, an absolute dream of a day. I’m sitting in the cockpit looking back out to beautiful scenery. When we came back to the boat after Christmas it was just like coming home. I have missed being on Havachat a lot. But before I keep on going with New Zealand I finish of where I left of in Nuku Hiva.

At the third river crossing the water would reach up to our hips and the current was very strong. We lost the dog being swept a bit back down the river, so we had to help him across at his second try, with me pushing from behind and Pete pulling him from the front... As Lisa was more worried about the dog crossing safely than us! As it turned out it was the wrong crossing and we had to get back!

After a few detours, the dog got us back on the right path and we were rewarded with a beautiful waterfall and swimming pool underneath it. 

We all had a little break and a bicci (even the doggy, as he looked at us with these big brown eyes, saying, I really deserve something for leading you here!) After a quick swim we had to head back, as we left our trip a bit late and it was getting on in the afternoon and we were worried, that we had to head back in the dark, which would have been not so great, considering the raging river crossings and the narrow little walking paths at the side of the mountains... But we made it, arriving at the beach with the dinghy waiting just has it got dark.

Well, the French are funny! They put phone boxes in the oddest places. And of course it didn't work anyway!

The next day we sailed back to Tailohae and booked a horse ride with Sabine as our leader. She picked us up from the village, drove us to her farm and we went all for a lovely horse ride through beautiful Nuku Hiva.

 View over Tailohae on the way to Sabine's farm

After the ride Sabine took us on a car tour around the north of the island and showed us around. 

It was time to leave for the Tuomotus, as Ben couldn’t wait to get down with all the fish!

Pacific Puddle Jump, 3100 nautical miles – 28th of May to 14th of June (16 days and 12 hours)

After stocking up on some more food for the big crossing (food is expensive in Galapagos, I refused to get more Nutella at $16.00 per little glass!! But we got lots of nice bananas in all ripeness stages, the bananas are just delicious here and other nice fruit and veggies). Then we set sail and were on our way. As we had been at anchor for a while again, we had to get our sea legs again, so Jack, Lisa and I laid flat for a few days to wait for the sea sickness to go. But then it went better and we even got some school work done. Finally the wind turned from the east (we had to sail a fair bit south first to be able to catch the trade winds) and we could put the parasailor up. Then we got the speed! The parasailor is just great! With an average speed between 9 and 11 knots the boat just glides along beautiful!

But of course the wind did not stay all the time as we wanted it, so it became often a daily routine of Parasailor up, Gennaker down, Gennaker up, Parasailor down, Head sail up, Main sail up, Main sail down! I mean, you know, we can’t get bored!!! Kept us fit! Sometimes when we had to get especially the parasailor down because of the wind getting too strong, it was really hard work to get the sock over the sail with the wind blowing into it.

 Another beautiful sunset

But all in all it was a very good crossing, we cooked beautiful meals, had many movie nights and the time went quick. Besides overtaking one sail boat on the second day, we did not see one boat on the whole crossing and also the wildlife was reduced to some dolphins, flying fish and squid. One night Lisa slept in Jacks back cabin as it was too bumpy in the front cabins to sleep a lot of the time. Anyway, in the morning Lisa opens her eyes and looks at something next to her on her pillow, which she reckons looked like a big blob of snott!  But the snott had big googely eyes and Jack touched it and it was a little squid! Disgusted he went into his bathroom to wash his hands just to find 3 more in the sink! We had lot of the squid on the boat. Don’t know, if they just got washed with the waves on the boat? And then of course flying fish all the time! We put our flyscreens on the hatches to not end up having them lying in bed, like Ben had one morning! 

It was great to eventually see land again! And we did the whole journey very fast, 3100 nmiles in 16.5 days, which means we had an average speed of 8 knots! Pretty good! 

We lived like kings: cakes...

home made pizzas

Schoolwork

Breakfast

We arrived at Nuku Hiva short after midnight, found an anchor place in the bay and fell exhausted into bed, to wait and see what this new island will bring....