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10. day - 20/07/2007 - We woke up at 2 am. We were prepared for leaving. We reanchored the previous day not to disturb the boats around us. We raised the anchor and we were heading towards Hiva Oa, which is the main island of Marquesas. We started the journey very early due to the fact the island was around 45 miles from the current anchoring place and in a weak wind we could not get there on time, before sunset. The squally start was soon repleaced with a good and stable wind so with a very good 4-5 knots of speed we
arrived at around lunchtime at Hiva Oa. The beautiful mountains of Hiva Oa were delightful. We met with Dingo again here and Hafskip was around 3 hours behind us too. We dropped the anchors. This time we put out our stern anchor too as the anchoring place is very small and swells come into it. We heard that it had been really bad and rolling couple of days ago. But we had luck with the direction of the wind so the boat was not rolling at all. The bay is smaller than it was at Fatu Hiva and there
are some yellow flagged signs which show the places not for anchor. The muddy ground does not make a clean impact of the water and there are some sharks around too. We did not plan to swam here.
We came to Hiva Oa to do the clearance, but the offices were closed until Monday morning. As it was Friday we had to wait a few days here. In the evening Dingo organised a nice dinner party with also Hafskip on board. It is a real fun to travel with other boats.
Daily positions:
02:00 10-27.89S 138-40.09W log= 21721.5
12:00 9-48.19S 139-01.80W log= 21766.5
12:00 9-48.19S 139-01.80W log= 21766.5
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11. day - 21/07/2007 - We climbed to the main town Atenau of Hiva Oa with Hafskip in the morning. The town is around 40 minutes walk up on the hill from the harbour. The view is nice from the hill but returning back to the harbour we rather chose the hitchiking on the platform of a pickup car. This island is more infrastructured than Fatu Hiva and also not so remote. The living standard also looks much better than on the Caribean islands. People use their Toyota or Nissan cars and live in modern houses. We found 3 supermarkets
in the town next to each other and a bankomat and a post office too. If you wish you can buy anything here although most of the things are very expensive.
Such as:
- 1 hour Internet USD 10 at the post office or USD 20 at a hotel not far from the harbour
- Bread is cheap for 25 cents each
- Sour cream USD 8
- 12 Eggs USD 5
- 1 cabbage head USD 5.
There is a filling station next to the harbour where it is possible to buy petrol or diesel (our pilot book could be old as it said it was not possible) and frozen chicken and vegetables are sold in its shop. We still have everything on board but we have to buy sometimes some fresh food before we leave. The water to fill the boat is free here too as well as at Fatu Hiva.
It was interesting that everybody could speak a bit of English here. We were very glad as we do not speak French at all.
About the weather: it was very pleasant at Fatu Hiva 27-29 degree celsius at daylight and 22-25 degree celsius in the evening, but it was a bit rainy and windy. We have a well protected anchoring place at Hiva Oa by the mountains. It is around 35 degree celsius and there is not any rain or wind here. |
12. day - 22/07/2007 - It could be very interesting the ancient story of Marquesas, however we do not have many litterature about it. We read that Eastern Island (in A.D. 500) and Hawaii (in A.D. 700) was occupied from here. The Island of Hiva Oa conceal the predecessors of the famous stones at Eastern Island. More tikis (forms in stones) can be found on the island. The most famous from these is the tiki of Puamau which never became as famous as the stones at the Eastern Island. We started with the stern anchor searching
of the neighbouring boat Hafskip. In the night somehow a stone cut it and the anchor was gone. We found it with our paddling-anchor pulling technic.
After it we went to do some hiking. The tiki in Puamau was a bit far (around 30 km from the anchoring place), but there is another historic place in Atuona to see. At the end of the tour we found some petroglyphes in a huge stone. This could be so monumental here like the ancient cave drawings. The tour lead us along on a nice area, although there were more route and with one we lost among the razor leaves of a forest. It cut our legs badly.
In the night we invited Hafskip and Dingo on board and we baked some pizzas for the event. We got some nice bananas from Hafskip because in the morning we found their anchor. So we have bananas again on board! |
13. day - 23/07/2007 - In the morning we were to check in. The office was not open though. The officers did not appear until 11 am. When we found them they asked us very politely to come back tomorrow. Checking in was over for the day. The usual opening time is: 9-11 am and 14-17 pm.
Instead of checking in we visited the Museum of Gauguin (there is not any original painting here but the exhibition is really interesting with biography and historical descriptions). In the afternoon we walked up on a hill to the cemetery where Paul Gauguin the painter and Jacques Brel Belgien componist lie.
Gauguin went to Tahiti in 1891 after Panama and Martinique and 10 years after all these travellings in September 1901 he arrived at Hiva Oa (Atuona). He bought a land here and built the House of Pleasures (Maison Du Jouir), which was infamous about its scandals. The paintings of Gauguin were not recognised very well in his life due to the fact that Avante Garde style spread over France this time, which was far away from the art of Gauguin. On 8th May 1903 he died on the island.
After the visiting the museum we also visited the reconstructed House of Pleasures, which gives place to the painitings of other artists today and the exhibition of Jacques Brel with his airplane.
Another interesting thing at the anchoring place is that the beach is dark black here due to the volcanic stones around. |
14. day - 24/07/2007 - We managed the clearance today. It is so easy to do with the french officials. The paperwork is really simply we had to do only a custom declaration and they asked for the passports and boat registration. It took all together 15 minutes or even less and that was all. They did not check the boat and they did not ask for any sailing permission (zarpe) that we had from Galapagos. The clearance had been sent to Tahiti too we organised at the local post office that was only 65 Polynesian Francs (less
than 1 dollar). And that was our only cost. From now on we do not have to do any paperwork until at least Bora Bora.
It was funny that we could see the previously clearance of the boats from the registration of the officials. We know some of them and now we know that they are sailing around. |
15. day - 25/07/2007 - We bought meat, bread and pomplemousses (the last is from a garden near the anchoring place) then we sailed to the Island of Tahuata. It was only 9 miles sailing in some squalls from Hiva Oa. Our decision to leave was in a good time, because the anchoring place was deepened by the locals (after an earlier hurrican demage) and they asked us to anchor to another place. So we reanchored at a different island 9 miles away. We arrived at a bay, which had golden beach with coconut trees and turquoise water
around. It was unexpected after the volcanic formations and rocks. We could perfectly see the anchor chain in the clear water. There were more sailing boats around and we can say there were more than at Hiva Oa. Thanks for sure to the clean water here. We paddled close to shore with the dinghy where we dropped the small anchor from it and we swam to shore from here, as there were braking waves that the dinghy could not manage without rolling upsite down. We found many mosquitos on shore, but they
did not come close to the water, so we could swim around. The mosquitoes can spread the virus of dengue fever that causes high fever and muscle pains so we try to avoide them.. |
16. day - 26/07/2007 - In the morning the boats left and we stayed in a familiar mood with Hafskip and Dingo and another sailing boat. It was more pleasant. We spent the day on the boat to fix the loosen V-belt and with recalibrating the radar. We saw many truphet fish and huge rays around the boat some of them around 1.5-2 meters long. Recalibrating the radar was important as we plan to go soon to another part of French Polynesia where it could be very useful.. |
17. day - 27/07/2007 - This morning there was a dinghy meeting on shore. We arrived nearly at the same time with Dingo and Hafskip. Entering the shore was again difficult but we managed it against the breaking waves. The beach is good for swimming and also to collect some fruits. We believe that it used to be a fruit garden here but now it looks unweeded. The coconut trees still offer their beautiful fruits but the bananas look very tiny and the season of mango is over. The lemon trees look reach too. Everyone get his
own tool (axe, machette, knife) and it was time to collect some fruits. The stars were the coconuts with their good liquid in it and it was also challenging how to open up them. It was funny to see the different opening styles on shore. At the end we collected enough fruits also to have some reserves on board. |
18. day - 28/07/2007 - Early morning Martin (skipper of Dingo SV) came and asked us whether we wanted to go to the biggest village of Tahuata. As it was also possible to buy some food there, of course we wanted to go. We started to run out of bred and we were also interested in the village itself. So we as well as Hafskip joined Dingo SV for a morning excursion to Vaitahu. We motored all the way to the village on the board of Dingo where we dropped the anchor. There were big waves on shore without any breakwater so we
completely pulled the dinghy out from the water. The settlement looked very organised with small gardens, flowers, creek and a church. We found the shop quickly with its Coca-Cola sign on its side. We could buy the last breds from the shop. There were many things such as frozen meat, bred, ice cream, vegetables etc. Hafskip bought some beef and we decided we would organize a BBQ party in the afternoon on shore at the anchoring bay. There was a pomplemousses tree next the shop. When we wanted to buy
some of them the seller was very kind and gave us them for free. That was a good business. We bought meat and bred and got free fruits to it. At another house we were interested how the local make the bred-fruit. They explained it gladly and they gave us two to try and taste it. We found really friendly people here.
Arriving back from the excursion we prepared for the BBQ. We prepared the chicken wings, Hafskip the beef and Dingo the bred. Then we met on the golden beach just before the garden. Geza collected some coconuts to open it and drink it as a juice for the dinner. We collected some dry wood to the fire. And the party was on with really good foods. There were some mosquitos at the sunset but it was still a beauty. In the dark it was challanging to return back to the boat again in the breaking waves with
the dinghies. |
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