Tahuata, Marquesas French Polynesia
Friday May 20 - Friday May 27 2016
Friday we are underway by 10:30 sailing out of the
bay in Hiva Oa with main & genoa sails.
When we clear the point and turn west we have the wind directly behind
us again, so we roll up the main and continue with just the genoa. At least this time we have 15 knots of wind
so the sail stays full and our speed is 6 – 6.5 knots, making for a lovely 2
hour sail to the neighboring island of Tahuata.
We are anchored in the BEAUTIFUL Hanamoenoa Bay on Tahuata by 12:30 and
in the water a few minutes later. After
lunch more cleaning off the bottom of the boat, Steve using a weight belt to
get down to the keel. The fish were
loving this and waiting for the scrapings.
Saturday's boat project was to fix the knot
meter. It failed to work on our passage
over so Steve wanted to have that resolved.
First testing and trying a few easy fixes, but no such luck, as it was
determined a new wire would have to be run.
As with most boat projects / repairs getting access to the problem is ¾
the battle. This one meant taking down
half the headliner / ceiling in the main salon. NOT an easy task as it involves a lot of
hidden screws, tight spacing, light fixtures and hatch moldings.
Also had to empty and move a cabinet. This turned out to be a two day project and
the boat was finally put back together late Sunday afternoon with the knot
meter working, just doing our part of living up to the saying of cruising is
doing boat maintenance in exotic places.
Monday was a full day of just swimming, snorkeling
and beach walking. We still had not put
the motor on the dinghy and it was not needed as we could just swim to the side
of the bay and to the beach. The
Marquesas do not have a lot of coral reefs, the water around the islands is
very steep up to the shore. A lot of
rocks for the fish to hang out in and we saw a good selection. This bay is also known for having manta rays
but none were there during our visit.
Tuesday morning Steve changed the oil in the
generator and noticed the belt was loose.
It must have just happened as the generator has been working fine (knock
wood). The project we had done back in
Guatemala several years ago has been working great, the piece put on to bypass
the alternator and hold the belt had a bolt sheared off. All the constant rocking motion of the boat
wears things down. Steve was able to
replace it with just a small amount of difficulty. Finished by 12:30 and pulled up anchor to
check out another bay down the coast.
The main village on Tahuata is Vaitahu in Baie
Vaitahu but it is not the best bay to anchor in so we went a little further to
Baie Hanatefau. Anchored in sand but
close to the rocky shore at the base of the mountain. This bay actually has some coral and the
snorkeling was pretty good. On the way
down Steve noticed the wind meter not working so that afternoon he fixed that
connection that probably broke while the knot meter was being fixed.
Wednesday we put the motor on the dinghy and first
went to visit the little village of Hapatoni located at the far end of the bay
from where we were anchored. Another
friendly and beautiful Marquesan village with a very nice calm dock to tie the
dinghy off at. We then took the dinghy
down to Baie Vaitahu to see the main town.
This dock was NOT easy to get out and tie the dinghy off at. They have a lot of cement blocks near the
dock, so maybe they will be rebuilding the dock. Sure hope so as we witnessed the following
day the supply ship can’t even get to the dock.
The ship lowers small barges to ferry all the goods in which could get
troublesome in bad conditions. A nice
walk around the town, stopping at the store just as she is closing up. Will take us a little while to get use to
stores closing from noon until 2 or 2:30.
Back to the boat for lunch and a cool off swim and snorkel.
Thursday we went back to the beautiful Baie
Hanamoenoa. The supply ship Aranui was
in port at Vaitahu so we drove by to see how they unloaded. This is a freighter ship as well as a
passenger ship that comes to the Marguesas every 3 weeks from Tahiti. Later we watched it go by on its way to
Atuona in Hiva Oa glad we were not there for the boat re-anchoring as all the
boats had to move for the Aranui to be able to get to the dock. Steve's boat project for this day was to run
an unused cable to our bigger set of 4 batteries. Thinking that the smaller bank was getting
charged too quickly and then the bigger bank not getting a full charge when we
run the generator. This cable will
direct more of the charge to the bigger bank of batteries resulting in a better
/ longer charge overall.
Friday we were underway by 6:15, to head back over
to Hiva Oa, hoping to get a good spot in the inner harbor before too many boats
moved back in. We motored the whole way
since the wind was on our nose, and got a good spot inside the breakwater. We were surprised at how many boats were
still outside the breakwater, but there had been big south swells over the last
few days which can make the inner harbor even worse than outside as the waves
break on the shore and the sides bouncing back rocking & rolling the
boats. Spent the rest of the morning
trying to get internet. We could connect
one at a time via manaspot but we were now having trouble with our router and
bullet antenna. Working on getting that
fixed. Friday afternoon we went into
town and got to the store just before 2 to learn this one re-opened at
2:30. Instead of just sitting there
waiting for 30 minutes we took a walk towards the old cemetery, not knowing
exactly where or how far it was. We had
2 signs at first to have us go in the right direction, then at the 1st
fork with no sign we started to go the wrong way but a local drove by and
figured where we were heading and directed us up the other road. The next intersection had 3 choices and no
sign and no one to ask so we walked back to the store after a nice hour walk. Got a few supplies and a few veggies but we had
missed the veggie truck, catching a ride back to the harbor and back to the
boat.
Link to pictures;
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