We had already planned to set sail on Friday and meet Josh, from Fatu Hiva, in Nuku Hiva but Arii did not finish carving our beautiful wooden bowl until late on Friday. As we made our Saturday morning coffee we spotted a catamaran coming into the Vaipaee Bay anchorage and […]
French Polynesia In Reverse
108 posts
Sadly we did not go pig hunting because unlike what was described to us they go pig hunting in the morning not the evening and as we only relaxed on the boat the evening we arrived we were unable to make arrangements in the morning. Ozanne and Mary Jo’s son […]
Yesterday we took a break from provisioning and trying to find an internet connection to enjoy our first tour. We were so happy that we did because we found out later that a car rental cost the same as the tour for the two of us. We were accompanied by […]
We met Kalino, the wood carver, around 9 AM only to be heart broken that his engraving machine had shorted because all of the rain. We were so excited about the work we had commissioned because he is so talented. Kalino was very kind to fix the strings of the […]
When first arriving in Hapatoni Bay we saw a man beating something with all of his might against the reef, as it turned out he had found an octopus and chose to tenderize it by beating it vigorously against the reef. Josh, a cruising friend we met in Fatu Hiva, […]
We woke early to pick up our neighbor, Josh, for a fishing trip around the point of southern Tahuata. As we headed to the point a squall with 35 knot winds forced us to stay on the lee of the island. We trolled around seeing an amazing amount of birds […]
Hapatoni Bay is one of the best anchorages because the gust of squalls do not funnel as strongly through the mountains and we are anchored directly in front of a small waterfall. The locals have been friendly and we found it interesting there are only 100 people living in the […]
We had a wonderful time anchored in Fatu Hiva. We enjoyed our evenings with our first group of sailing cruisers swapping sea stories. Chris, the woodcarver, came out to our boat with his friend and brother to teach us Marquesas Ukulele. They brought us goat coconut and papaya, Marquesas possion […]
As we raced the sun to get our anchor down we kept a steady pass of seven knots. We were surprised the wind did not disappear as we pulled in the lee of the island. We were attempting the south Fatu Hiva anchorage in front of the village Omoa. In […]
Yesterday we poured in the fuel tank our last 12 gallons of diesel that we allowed ourselves for the passage, keeping 2 jerry jugs of reserve fuel for maneuvering around anchorages and the leeward side of Tahuata. The forecast predicted the tapering of wind down to six knots yesterday and […]
We’ve had our share of squalls while sailing the South Pacific probably because we are sailing off season and this is the rainy season. Our trip from Makemo to Fatu Hiva the squalls have been helpful because the lack of wind. We’re almost excited to see a squall pop on […]
For our non-sailing friends a starboard tack is when the wind contacts first (also referred to as windward) the starboard (right) side of the boat and a port tack, the port side is to windward. We’ve all seen beautiful sailing boats that are not level but look like they are […]