Shiplogs: Marquesas Islands magyarul

     11/07/2007 - 29/07/2007                                   ««   page 1/3   »»

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1. day - 11/07/2007 -

Wakeing up was a bit difficult in the morning. When we realized that the boat does not move and we can see something green through the windows it helped us to look out. We climbed into the cockpit and all we could see was beautiful. We were anchoring at Hanavave of Fatu Hiva Island, which is one of the most beautiful anchoring places of Marquesas, French Polynesia. This view was a real reward after 26 and half days of ocean crossing. We try to write about this view in words but it is not easy.
The bay where we anchor has a V shape. Both sides are surrounded by 500-600 meters high steep rocks. These rocks are covered by green plants and coconut trees. We can see 1-2 houses before us on shore with some thin and high rocks around them pointing to the sky above. We also see the greenish chain of mountains (around 1000 meters high) covered by clouds in the background.
In the morning the captain of Dingo SV came to say hello with his son, Boaz. Boaz mounts the outboard although he is only 14 months old. Then a local motorboat arrived and they wanted to get some whisky for their fruits. We had only wine on board so we exchanged one liter of wine for some pomplemousses and lemons. The pomplemousses is a fruit like the graipfruit, but bigger and we could taste the graipfruit, the lime and the grape in it.
Then we started to work on our engine. When we arrived in the night the engine stopped during dropping the anchor. We looked at the engine today and we thought we should change the gasoline filter. It was successful then the engine started well again. We hope that was the only problem with it. We packed the sails, put together the dinghy and cleaned the algae and shells from the sides of the boat and from the windvane. The shells had funny spoon shapes. We heard that the fish are very keen here to
clean the bottom of the boat therefore we did not do with it anything. So the time has gone and we did not get today on shore. At least we could wonder the view during the busy day.
No French officials are present on this island, so it is not possible to check in here. The local police allowes to stay around one week on the island for sailors before checking in on the main land Hiva Oa.

Now we have a word in our calendar: party. So we organized a welcome party. We invited Hafskip SV, Yagoona SV and Dingo SV on board in the evening and we shared the ocean crossing experiences with each other. We had a really nice evening with them.

All the pictures (previous and current) will be presented later on. There is not any Internet Cafeteria here :-). There might be some delay with ship bogs too due to the fact that the radio stations are far away therefore. Now sending and receiving e-mails are a bit difficult to us.

Daily positions:
02:00 10-27.89S 138-40.09W log= 21721.5
02:00 10-27.89S 138-40.09W log= 21721.5


2. day - 12/07/2007 -

Today we got on shore finally.
Fatu Hiva is the southernmost island of Marquesas. It is a mystic island with its interesting shaped rocks around. Goats are grazed on the mountains sometimes we hear their noise also from the boat. When we were taking a walk we had the feeling that a stone could fall on our head from the top of the rocks. The island is a volcanic formation. It is the youngest from the islands of Marquesas. The village is in a canon. Every morning the clouds rise slowly up from the canon and let the sun to shine
on the rocks. The wind arrives from the mountains, gets some strength in the canon and blows everything out from the bay to the open ocean. The island is reach in creeks and very green due to the rainfalls, which arrive from the ocean. In the evening we could here drumbeats from the village I will write about it in details later on.
We met here with a girl from Canada who made some studies around here as she was an anthropologist and she was living with one of the families.
I write a bit about the life here. The island is subsidised (some foods, fests etc.) by France still today. The locals live in smart wooden houses and use modern machines and trucks for farming however this village has only a few houses. They have their own generator to run the electricity and some high power engines on their small motorboats, which they can use to get to the next village. They have a church and a school in the village where the children learn French language. The locals have their
own Marquesas language (a bit different then Tahitian) but the children can learn it only from home. The locals cultivate fruits and copras. They are subsidized on copra too (such as if the copra costs only 25 bucks in international trading they can get 100 bucks for it). Their main fruits are pomplemousses, lemon and orange. Our favorite became the pomplemousses. They have also a fruit we have never seen before that are used for medications and they make also for exports. We like their lemons too,
which are very juicy indeed so I started to make some limonade from it on board. Everything is own property on the island, however the fruits fall on the public streets. The locals are very keen to share their fruits with visitors if they have enough and the fruits have season. If one askes the farmers they allow to pick up some fruits. The locals appreciate better if we exchange with them than we buy something from them. They are mainly interested in the goods, which are really difficult to get
on the island such as alcohol, cigarettes or cosmetic goods. They are happy to offer for it some fruits.
We found also a local small shop here where we could find many things like meet, bacon, eggs, refreshing drinks, biscuits. We could not find bread or cheese. Most of the things are very expensive (a small tinned cola is around USD 6). The subsidised foods are less expensive e.g. meet or pastas.
The local children ask for sweets but it is not suggested to give them a lot. Most of the people suffer in diabetes on the island. The women make tapas in Fatu Hiva. They use the bark of the trees then they beat it with a stone until it would be thin and soft. The finished cloths are decorated.


3. day - 13/07/2007 -

We usually arrive everywhere at a good time. Geza arrived 1 day before the festival at Martinique and also we arrived at Panama City 3 days before the festival. Now we had luck again. On the 14th July the locals celebrate the Bastille Day with their homeland France. This is celebrated with pomp and humour too based on traditional Marquesan songs, music and dances. There is not a big population in Hanavave but still couple of dance groups presented their songs and dances and they were competing with
each other. Before the celebration days 14-15 we could here the drums and drill from the boat every evening. We heard that they have been preparing themselves for this celebration for around 3 months. On the event days the village arrived at the local soccer field with the judges at the middle and celebration started. We arrived with the other boats also from the anchoring place.
We were impressed by the colourful dresses, the local hairstyles full with flowers and the Polinesean hip swing and hand moves of the ladies. It was also interesting to see the dances of the men warriors, which is called the Haka, and has the same name as in New Zealand but not the same dance indeed. The koreographies were going on in the nights too. The local families offered some money for the head of the dance groups and that meant they had to repeat again the whole dances. We could laugh with
the locals but we European girls confess that we should try these movements for some years to dance on the same way as the locals do it. The French government also subdies these celebrations and the dancers get some money for it.
On the second night of the celebration a frighter came in to the anchoring place. It brought some general supplies and building materials. The dancers and the judges went to pack and the celebration stopped for a few hours. Then they continued everything.

When we arrived back to the port we could not find our dinghy, Rotorka. Somehow the line was released of it and the dinghy has gone. We popped to the dinghy of Haskip with them and tried to search for it in the bay. But it was nowhere. Then we headed towards the big carrier in the bay and they said they had seen it around 10 minutes ago drifting towards the open ocean. But they did not do with anything. At least they could have done a general announcement on VHF. But it does not matter anyway. As
the dinghies are not safe enough to go with them to the open ocean we pulled the anchor of Rotor and with the captain of Hafskip on board we strated to search the dinghy in the night. It was increadibly dark without moon on. And we could not see anything. We estimate that we could see a few meters only with our large reflector too. It was not possible to find it. We had only one chance and it was to stay in the ocean and drift with Rotor with the wind and swells and we could see what would happen
in the morning.


4. day - 14/07/2007 -

See day 150707..


5. day - 15/07/2007 -

We usually arrive everywhere at a good time. Geza arrived 1 day before the festival at Martinique and also we arrived at Panama City 3 days before the festival. Now we had luck again. On the 14th July the locals celebrate the Bastille Day with their homeland France. This is celebrated with pomp and humour too based on traditional Marquesan songs, music and dances. There is not a big population in Hanavave but still couple of dance groups presented their songs and dances and they were competing with
each other. Before the celebration days 14-15 we could here the drums and drill from the boat every evening. We heard that they have been preparing themselves for this celebration for around 3 months. On the event days the village arrived at the local soccer field with the judges at the middle and celebration started. We arrived with the other boats also from the anchoring place.
We were impressed by the colourful dresses, the local hairstyles full with flowers and the Polinesean hip swing and hand moves of the ladies. It was also interesting to see the dances of the men warriors, which is called the Haka, and has the same name as in New Zealand but not the same dance indeed. The koreographies were going on in the nights too. The local families offered some money for the head of the dance groups and that meant they had to repeat again the whole dances. We could laugh with
the locals but we European girls confess that we should try these movements for some years to dance on the same way as the locals do it. The French government also subdies these celebrations and the dancers get some money for it.
On the second night of the celebration a frighter came in to the anchoring place. It brought some general supplies and building materials. The dancers and the judges went to pack and the celebration stopped for a few hours. Then they continued everything.

When we arrived back to the port we could not find our dinghy, Rotorka. Somehow the line was released of it and the dinghy has gone. We popped to the dinghy of Haskip with them and tried to search for it in the bay. But it was nowhere. Then we headed towards the big carrier in the bay and they said they had seen it around 10 minutes ago drifting towards the open ocean. But they did not do with anything. At least they could have done a general announcement on VHF. But it does not matter anyway. As
the dinghies are not safe enough to go with them to the open ocean we pulled the anchor of Rotor and with the captain of Hafskip on board we strated to search the dinghy in the night. It was increadibly dark without moon on. And we could not see anything. We estimate that we could see a few meters only with our large reflector too. It was not possible to find it. We had only one chance and it was to stay in the ocean and drift with Rotor with the wind and swells and we could see what would happen
in the morning.


6. day - 16/07/2007 -

In the morning we were a bit disappointed and could not find the dinghy finally. The swells became bigger and even from the ratline we did not see it. We were searching it for a couple of hours more, but ending up with it we went back to Fatu Hiva and reanchored. Rotorka has gone. And from now on it might do the Around Alone (sailing competition). Now we have some new lessons: we have to tie our dinghy below others lines and also to make some cateyes on the dinghy to see it in the nights too.
And now we are presenting our new-old dinghy, Rotorka Junior. It was the rubber dinghy of the boat from the previous owner.

We had a really nice trip on the island. There is a 16 meters high waterfall, which can be visited in the forest. It is possible to swim in its water but we found many mosquitoes around. When we first tried to find the waterfall we lost but we found it for the second time. We saw an eel in the water too. Then we climbed up on the hill to a cross where we found very nice view to the bay, the waterfall and also to the ocean. The sky was a bit cloudy but there was not rain so we had a pleasant day for
the trip.
In the afternoon we went for a tea to Yagoona SV. with Hafskip SV and Dingo SV..


7. day - 17/07/2007 -

One day we heard that there was a hammerhead shark in the bay. We went for snorkeling though. We believe that these creatures do not attack humans where there are plenty of fish in the water. We could not see the hammerhead although it costs a lot to see them in the Galapagos, but we saw many colourful fish around the rocks.
In the afternoon we visited Dingo sailing vessel..


8. day - 18/07/2007 -

During the ocean crossing the solar panels were working efficiently, however our batteries are down now. We started to fill them with a generator, but for our suprise the loading system switched off. So we started to mount the system and we found what caused the problem finally.
In the rest of the day we loaded the batteries and cooled the generator with some air and water until it ran out of fuel.
We checked the pilot bookes. They say there is not a place at Marquesas where we could buy fuels. If buying is not possible we might change something for some fuel with the fishermen..


9. day - 19/07/2007 -

This is the island where we stepped on shore and people were really friendly and they seemed to share everything with the visitors. A local man introduced himself for us and showed where we could get some water to refill the boat. After we had refilled the water we went to the village to have some fresh fruits. One of the farmer allowed us to pick some lemon from his tree. The children were laughing around us and we were a bit curious why. They said that the lemons were not very good to eat, they
were very sour. Then we were laughing with them because they did not know that we knew the lemon. It is good for us against the scorbute. We make some limonade from it, put it in tea or on fish meal or sometimes we cook with it. There was another family we could buy some bananas from them. They shared with us their domestic banana so we just picked some and payed some money for it.
We had some rest in the afternoon and we enjoyed the place before leaving.
In the evening the couple from Hafskip SV invited us for a pleasant dinner.

 
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