Author: dommyp

Hi again. Last time we left you we had just arrived at the Island of Nuku Hiva. Well what a place! We loved it so much it is worth a post all of its own. The Marquesas Islands really are a stunning place to visit.

Our first stop was the anchorage at Anaho where we spent a few days. This anchorage is one of the most spectacular I have ever visited and a real joy to wake up to everyday. We were sharing it with only a handful of other boats too.

Here’s some pictures we took of the anchorage from the boat.

We took the canoe to shore and had a wander around the little settlement. Then the next day, I left Ailsa on the boat for the morning and set off for a walk over to the next bay.

It was about an 8 mile round trip in the tropical heat, but most of the walk was in the shade of coconut palms and other fruit trees and there was a strong breeze blowing to cool me down a bit. As I got to the top of the ridge I looked down on the beach in the next bay, the view took my breath away.

It was quite a hike to get to the beach and I had to cut through an impromptu fruit farm, the owner of which I met on the footpath. I got totally lost and ended up climbing a couple of fences and getting covered in little spiky plant seeds until I reached the beach. It was a wide open vista and I had the whole place to myself. So I took a swim to cool off in the surf and then strolled along the beach to try and reach that amazing rock buttress I could see at the end.

It was quite a climb up a steep bank, and the rock was super crumbly. It was all volcanic lava that was so eroded by the sun and wind that it just crumbled in your hands. I spotted a mountain goat with huge horns who stood watching me me for a bit and then turned and ran. I fought my way up the steep slope and eventually came to the foot of the buttress but it got too steep to go any further

I made my way back to the beach again along the route I had come which I soon lost and so wound down any old way I could, stopping to roll huge boulders of crumbly basalt down the steep slope just for the fun of it! Eventually I reached the beach again

This time I managed to find the proper path from the beach over some grassland that then cut through the jungle and the fruitfarm and I found myself back on the path to Anaho bay and the anchorage. A really spectacular walk!

After a few days chilling in Anaho, we pulled up the anchor and motored round to the next bay called Hatiheu Bay where Coral Moon was anchored.

It was another very pretty bay, and this one also had a road that connected it to the main town on the island. So it was more developed that Anaho boasting a couple of shops and a restaurant.

After wandering around the bay, we walked up the road which wound up a steep valley and we stopped at a couple of historical sites where the polynesians had lived hundreds of years ago. Some interesting stone structures and recreated buildings as well as tiki statues

On the way back to the village we stopped at the restaurant for a delicious lunch of fish and shrimp and watched the locals feeding food scraps to the enormous river eels in the stream right next door.

That night on the boat , Ailsa got a scare when she came across this little fella on the galley floor! We managed to catch him after about 30 minutes of chasing and get him in a Tupperware box so we could release him back on shore the next day. We think he must have stowed aboard our canoe?! We freed “Eddy Lizard” the next day.

A couple of days later we tagged along with Donna and Mark from Coral Moon for a drive round the island in their hire car after they very kindly offered to take us out for the day. It was an awesome day! First stop was a hike to try and reach this waterfall

We were hoping to take a swim in the plunge pool. It was a tough hike through the jungle up a steep track that was overgrown with plants and fallen logs with lots of spiders webs. We found a hydro station and could see the river and hear the waterfall but we could not manage to cut a way through the crazy undergrowth to reach the falls. Eventually we had to give up defeated. So we returned to the car muddy and sweaty!

Next stop was in to the main town of Taiohae with a short view stop on the way and then we stopped for lunch and some refreshments

After lunch we headed to a shop to buy some more fishing tackle and then took a drive up over the top of the island with regular stops to take in the amazing views. We saw the caldera in the middle of the island which was a green and fertile basin and then the road cut up the cliffs on a tortuous route and we stopped at the top to admire the views of an area called the grand canyon.

Nuku Hiva really is a place of many contrasts and microclimates and micro ecologies. At sea level it was hot and tropical with beaches and coconut palms whilst higher up the mountains were lush with pine trees and the temperature lovely and cool. Taking the road back to Hatiheu Bay and the boats we stopped again at many amazing viewpoints and took in this amazing place.

After a few more days in Hatiheu we decided that it was time to start making tracks for the next leg of our journey to get to the Tuomotos Archipelago. We had been in the Marquesas for about 5 weeks already, so we set sail for Taiohae to reprovision with an overnight stop at Kahoe Bay on the way.

After a rolly night in Kahoe Bay, we motored just round the corner to Taihae and headed to the dinghy dock and in to town. We stayed for two nights. We went out for lunch a couple of times and lugged as much food as we could carry from the various supermarkets back to the boat using the canoe. Our dinghy is currently out of action with a huge puncture! We also visited the tiki site in town as well.

I hope you have enjoyed the pictures and got a sense of what an amazing place Nuku Hiva is ? Join us again soon as we set sail for the 430 mile passage from Nuku Hiva to Raroia in the Tuomotos.

last time we left you we had just arrived and checked in to the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia after an epic sail half way across the Pacific from Panama. This time we will show you a little bit of the Marquesas that we have seen so far.

First impressions …. amazing! This really is a wild, beautiful and unspoilt place. They are some of the remotest islands in the world and the wildlife and sea life has been wonderful to behold. This is the stuff we dreamed about doing for all those years and both of us wake up in the morning and have to pinch ourselves when we remember where we are!

Truth be told though, we haven’t done a lot since we got here! having checked in at Atuona, the next day we tracked down the one sailmaker in these islands at the local boat yard and delivered our Genoa to be repaired. It would take a couple of weeks for this to happen, he seemed to have a lot of work piled up form all the other boats arriving also with ripped sails!

The anchorage in Atuona is not the best from a comfort point of view as a large swell comes in to the bay almost continuously and all the boats spin around in the light fickle winds. What feels like a large percentage of the time then, you find the boat side on to the swell and Azimuth starts what we like to call her “death rolls” where she wobbles violently from side to side with things on counters going everywhere. Not a lot of fun.

So whilst we waited for the sail to be repaired, we decided to go 10 miles round the corner to the island of Tahuata ana a wonderful anchorage in Hanamoenoa Bay. Many other boats had the same idea as us, so it was busy, but that didn’t really retract from the ambiance of the place.

And so that has been our home for the last three weeks apart from a couple of small side trips.

For one of those side trips we thought we would head down to another island called Fatu Hiva where there is another spectacular anchorage. To get there is a 48 mile upwind sail. All we had was our hank on jib because the Genoa was in for repair. We tried and failed to get upwind at the required angle that day, so instead we sailed around Tahuata. We were glad we did, it was spectacular!

We dropped the anchor about 2 miles from where we started in a a place called Vaitahu. This had the promise of a shop and a little restaurant too. When we entered the bay the winds were wild! 25 knots were blowing off the huge ridge at the back of the bay. The next day we looked at taking the dinghy in to see the town but we were defeated by the swell and the strong winds. The landing dock was rough concrete and we didn’t want to damage the dinghy anymore than it already was!

So we headed back to Hanamoenoa Bay instead!

After another side trip to Atuona to go and collect our sail, we rendezvoused back at Hanamoenoa to finally meet up with our friends on Coral Moon and catch up again after being apart for a month and a half. Their trip across the Pacific had been very eventful. One of the rigging wires broke on the mast about 1000 miles from the Marquesas which meant they had to drastically reduce sail and slow right down. It was horrendous for them. The sea state and slow speed meant the boat was rolling all over the place. This started to have a bad affect on the rest of the rig and Mark noticed that the wire opposite the one that had already broken was starting to fray too, meaning more anguish for them. Whilst they didn’t doubt that Coral Moon would eventually make it, they didn’t want the nightmare of losing the mast.

At some point late one night, they noticed that a large superyacht pop up on AIS about 16 miles behind them, almost on the same course. Mark radioed them, explained his situation and asked if they could spare some fuel so that Coral Moon could motor the last 200 hundred miles or so to the Marquesas.

They agreed and they recorded this amazing video of doing a fuel transfer at sea in jerry cans on a raft. Mark is on the raft, handing the cans up to Donna on deck. The conditions were horrendous. Middle of the night, squally, and Coral Moon is experiencing death rolls side on to the swell. What an amazing effort from all involved!

They transferred 150 litres of diesel in total and that meant Coral Moon could motor all the way and drop anchor in the North of Hiva Oa.

In the two weeks it took us to get our sail repaired, whilst we sat in Hanamoenoa relaxing, Donna and Mark organised for two new rigging wires to be made in Tahiti. Donna got on a plane from Hiva Oa and collected the wires returning back again a few days later and then they fitted the new wires at anchor.

An amazing effort!

So when we met up, it was great to catch up and relax for a few days together and swap stories about are trips across the pacific. We went to the beach and chilled and they managed to capture my epic canoe fail when trying to launch from the beach! Well it was quite wavy ok?

We also got to swim with Manta Rays again. This time there were 6 of them in the water. Mark took this video

Finally we got itchy feet and decided to head North to the island of Nuku Hiva. It was an overnight sail from Tahuata, about 90 miles. The wind was fickle for the first few hours but then it settled down for a lovely sail. Here’s some shots of our approach to Nuku Hiva, Anaho Bay. Its another amazing anchorage, but that will have to wait for the next post!

Catch you next time as we explore more of the Marquesas

Hi all. I had to post this video!

We have been in this anchorage in the Marquesas called Hanamoenoa Bay for some time. There is a note on the website we use called No Foreign Land that says that Manta Rays visit the bay to feed. The best time to see them is apparently early morning between 0600 and 0700. So I have been getting in the water and so far I have had no success. However, I was on deck today and I overheard some people next to us in the water say they had seen some mantas in the bay.

I grabbed my snorkelling stuff and GoPro and this is the video I captured! Talk about exhilarating. Initially I couldn’t see anything, I was snorkelling looking down at the seabed, then I looked up and these guys were right in front of me! I nearly jumped out of skin!

I have never been so close to something in the water so big, graceful and beautiful as these two in my life. I was pretty scared, especially when they appeared to swim right at me with their mouths wide open. At one point, I could almost reach out and touch one of them. They were much bigger than me, I would say about 3m wingspan? The water here is about 10m deep, and at one point in the video you can see the bottom of another boat behind the rays. That boat is about 12m long. That gives you a sense of scale hopefully.

Hope you enjoy!

Panama to Marquesas, French Polynesia, Day 30

Hi to everyone! We made it!

We feel very happy with ourselves today. A big pat on the back. We have never achieved anything quite like this in our sailing lives, or even everyday lives. 4036 miles of sailing in 30 days half way across the blue Pacific Ocean. An average speed of just less than 6 knots. At least 24 hours of that was just drifting. Every kind of sailing that you can do, upwind, downwind, dead run, no wind through to 40 knot squalls. Dealing with broken stuff on the boat, and the relentlessness of rolling seas, lack of sleep, cabin fever, as well as the joy of some of the best sailing days of our lives. This trip had it all!

Its hard to describe the feeling though as you see land again after so long at just seeing a blue horizon as far as the eye can see. So we were both elated as Hiva Oa came in to view, its majestic peaks soaring above the horizon with waves crashing on to towering cliffs and birds soaring overhead. The sunrise behind us slowly illuminated the island and bought everything into focus.

By the time we were 5 miles from Atuona, the wind died, so on came the engine for the last little bit. The sea state calmed down and we had a lovely hour of motoring in the sun accompanied by a pod of dolphins in to the small bay. We dropped the anchor at 9am local time.

Even though you have arrived, the work is not done! We still had sails to put away, dinghy to inflate and launch, dinghy engine to install. Oh and the heavens opened and the rain poured down too! By 1300, we were ready to go to shore, both feeling pretty tired, but up for finding the local town and getting checked in. It was quite a walk! 2.5 miles up a steep road around the bay and headland and then down again in to Atuona.

We found the “Gendarmerie”, it was shut! We found the ATM and got some local money, and then after a walk around the town, found the one supermarket that was open. Everywhere else was shut! Well it is French we thought and it is Saturday afternoon, of course everything is shut?!

We made it back to Azimuth just as it got dark and pretty much collapsed in to bed for the sleep of all sleeps.

There you guys are up to date. Thanks for all your comments and messages throughout the trip. It kept us entertained and it was great to have contact in the remoteness of the Pacific Ocean! We will report back again soon when we have been out and explored some more of the Marquesas Islands.