Position: Still anchored in Vaitahu

It rained all day today and gusted into the 30’s. I dropped Ann at the dock at 0730 and she went to Mass while I stayed on Charisma. There was a 15 minute lull in the rain and wind while I took her ashore and then torrential rains again. Hmmm. Connections?

It was just as well we didn’t go anywhere. The tattoos need some rest. We’ve been keeping them well lubed with Neosporin and Vaseline. They should be good to go tomorrow so if the weather lifts, we’re going to head North a bit.

Speaking of the tattoos, I forgot to mention something from yesterday. There’s a single store here operated by an ex-pat Frenchman. He was very French in that he was rather unfriendly the first time we went to his store two days ago. Then we went into his little store after getting the tattoos. He saw them and said; “Oh, tattoos! Fati?” We replied yes and all of a sudden we were best friends. Seems Fati has a lot of pull around here. The storekeeper could see Ann’s on her ankle but asked me where mine was. I showed him the armband part under my sleeve and pointed to my shoulder as well as I had put on my shirt and did not want to remove it show him. He rightfully grimaced and made signs about such a tattoo hurting. I nodded in complete agreement. He then went back to Ann’s and commented on the beautiful Marquesan cross at the front and then had Ann spin and show him the others. He immediately understood the triple heart that Ann explained represented her “enfants” and was impressed with the manta and the beautiful star. Then the most amazing thing. He pointed at me and signed to come into the store. I followed him back beyond the goods and into his house which was attached in the back. There he went into a curio case and pulled out a volcanic stone about 8 inches long and maybe and inch and a half thick. He handed it to me and said it was an ancient axe head that he found in the river which runs by his shop. It seemingly washed down from on high. He wanted me to have it to put on the tattoo to sooth it, but said I couldn’t bonk “my wife” with it (a little French humor no doubt). But seriously, I looked at it and darned if it isn’t exactly that. The front has two burnished edges that form a 60 degree angle. They have been polished to create a chopping blade. The rest of the piece shows chipping marks and the back has an indentation where it would be joined to a wooden handle. It looks extremely authentic and I don’t think it’s a fake. It’s made from volcanic rock. Very heavy, almost like obsidian only denser. Every time I look at it I’m amazed that he just gave it to me. Must be the power of my new tattoo. It does after all have a Marquesan cross and two Tikis along with a number of other powerful symbols. It’s said that Fati has a lot of Mana (which I haven’t found a translation for yet since we’re not online but I think it means spiritual power) so maybe our tattoos carry some of that power. Today being Mother’s Day we want to wish our favorite mother’s (especially mine and both my sister and all of Ann’s sisters) a wonderful Mother’s Day. Ann’s special day was made complete when her daughter, Stephanie sent her a delightful poem (via email) about our travels. The thoughtfulness of the poem cannot be measured. Thanks, Stephanie, for making Ann’s day!

So, that’s our story for today.

Position: Same as yesterday. Still anchored in Baie Vaitahu

Marquesan tattoo

Ann's ankle band

We got tattoos! Yup, we’ve actually been planning to get tattoos to commemorate our voyage, but haven’t wanted to say anything until we did it. We’ll today we did.

We had heard there was one artist in the Marquesas who was famous for having reinvigorated the ancient art of tattooing here on the islands. We were told his name was Fati (pronounced Fahtea). Where ever we asked, all the local people said; “Oh, you want to see Fati. He’s in Vaitahu on Tahuata”. So when we had to bypass this bay a few days ago due to squally weather, we were disappointed. However, it all ultimately worked out. We initially missed here, but our detour allowed us to swim with the Manta Rays in the other bay. Also, it turned out that yesterday when we came here was actually not just a local disturbance, but a regional storm. We heard on the radio net last night that folks on all the islands were experiencing bad weather with winds gusting into the 40 knot range, heavy rain and lightning and thunder. We were very lucky to have made it in here and anchored before the storm hit. What we didn’t say in yesterday’s post was that just as we went ashore, and the storm broke with the torrential rains, we ducked under a tin roofed shack with a couple of locals. One had tattoos and I complimented them and asked if Fati did them. He beamed; “Yes!” I said we wanted to get tattoos from Fati and he said he’d call him. Out came his cell phone and the next thing we knew, Fati showed up in his pickup truck. We stood under the roof in the rain a while and talked a bit. He didn’t speak much English and our French is pathetic, but we did gather that he had to assess our “Mana” before he would do the tattoos. He doesn’t do them for just anyone. He said to meet him under the same roof at 0700 the next day and we would go up to his studio and see what we would see. So, it turned out we made our “connection” in literally ten minutes by chance. But there was still this huge storm. What if it continued? Would we be driven out of this somewhat flakey anchorage? Well, it turned out the storm moderated on toward evening and today was a lovely day. Perfect for getting tattooed.

We got up early, had our coffee and dinghied in to meet Fati. He was waiting at 0700 as agreed so we jumped in his truck and headed to his studio. As an aside, I’m not sure why people bother driving cars here because the entire town in no more than 1/2mile from one end to the other. Anyway, we drove the ¼ mile to his house and walked around back to his studio. There he asked us to look at some of his books on tattoos and he would study our Mana. It’s a long story that had me walking down to the only store in town to exchange some American dollars for Polynesian Francs since we had spent most of our Francs on carvings and there’s no bank or ATM here. Ann said that while I was gone, Fati pronounced that at least her Mana was very good. Me, I had the money, so Mana or not, I guess it all worked out.

I was first. I decided that since Fati was an artist, not just a tattoo jockey, I would go with his inspiration of what would look good for me. He liked that. I had asked for a shoulder and arm-band. He took about an hour to draw a design and both Ann and I loved it. So, time for the tattoo. I can now say from experience; tattooing is painful. He uses two different tips and depending on which tip and what part of the shoulder/arm he was working the feeling varied from the expected hundreds of pin pricks per second to the less expected feeling that I was being filleted alive with a knife to the equally unexpected feeling that he was just peeling back my skin. This went on for four and a half hours. Needless to say I’m not doing the other shoulder any time soon. However, the tattoo is exceptional. The pattern is uniquely his, but includes traditional Marquesan themes including a tiki (which means protector), fish, the ubiquitous Marquesan Cross, geckos and a tropical flower. I’m very pleased. Having dreamed about doing this trip for decades, it’s fitting that I now have something that links me permanently to the culture of these islands.

And Ann? She drew up some designs based on traditional Marquesan tattoos, showed them to Fati and asked him to do what he felt would work. He loved her ideas (you could see his face light up when she showed him) and went to work drawing a leg band just above her ankle that includes: the Marquesan Cross, a stylized star representing the Big Dipper and the Southern Cross, a stylized Manta Ray (for our swim with them) and a special section of three hearts in one that represent her three children. The drawing looked great, so Ann approved and he went to work. Her tattoo took three hours and was painful as it went across her shinbone and back around the Achilles tendon. But, the result is fantastic. It is a really beautiful piece of art that will always remind her of this great adventure.

We know we have to keep the tattoos out of the sun and water for a few days and we’re putting neosporim on them 2x per day, but any other ideas on how to care the them in the coming days would be appreciated. Everything here is in French, so we’re a little clueless!

Position: 09 degrees, 56 minutes South; 139 degrees, 06 minutes West

Stormy days make pretty sunsets. Big thunderboomers that had gone overhead an hour or so earlier.

After a delightful couple of days at Hananoemoa, we decided we needed to backtrack a bit to stop at Baie Vaitahu. Just a mile or two South, it is night and day different. Where Hananoemoa has low hills, white sand and generally sunshine (between the squalls that run overhead in the mornings), Vaitahu is in a valley at the bottom of a tall mountain (2000′). Most of the time, the top of the mountain is in the clouds so we can’t see it. The rain squalls have come blasting down all day bringing torrents like we haven’t seen since crossing the ITCZ. After a couple hours here, I had to use a hand pump on the dinghy as it had filled at least 1/3rd full of water. It was filled somewhere in the 4 inch range. Combine that with 25+ knot winds blasting down the valley and fanning out into the anchorage and you get the idea. I almost turned around and headed back to the other anchorage, but we wanted to see this place, so anchor it was. Then we rigged the dinghy to go ashore (i.e. put the engine on for the first time since leaving Mexico). I wanted the engine just in case the weather got even worse. I didn’t want to be caught out trying to row an inflatable if the winds picked up even more.

Ashore we went. The actual shore had large breaking waves and rocks, so we opted for the concrete dock. It’s built right over some rocks, so only the top is actually concrete, the sides still being rock, albeit smoothed down from use. It’s also just inside a little point, so doesn’t take the brunt of the waves. However, the swell at the dock was a solid three feet! Basically you maneuver the dinghy up to the rocks/dock where there’s a stair cut into the solid wall. You then have to time it so you get off-one at a time-with the peak of the swell. Initially you’re looking up three feet or so at the bottom of the steps, then for a moment of maybe two seconds as the swell passes through, you are even with one of the steps and you leap off and scramble up while the dinghy drops out below your feet. Time it wrong and, well…that would be a problem. Then the next person does the same thing and it you do it right you’re both standing on the dock holding the dinghy and trying to figure out how to secure it where it won’t smash against the rocks while you’re gone. Usually you would drop a stern anchor to hold it off, but I forgot to rig that, so we just let a bunch of line out and let it fend for itself. It actually worked pretty well, but we decided that today’s stay would be necessarily short. We would just do a “once through” and spend more time in town tomorrow. As with the other places we’ve visited, “town” is a misnomer. While there is a small store, a post-office and a church, there can’t be more than 50 or so people who live here.

Into town we went. It’s a short walk from the dock and while walking we ran right into a torrential downpour that soaked us through and through. The rain running off of the hills turned the bay brown from the silt pouring in. But what the heck, we’re in the tropics, so we just kept going, did our once through and stopped in the store where other than dripping on the floor, we were fine.

Looks like the rain is going to continue all night. Here’s hoping for a nice day tomorrow so we can explore a bit. Depending on weather, from here in the next day or so we’ll have a 40-60 mile leg up to Ua Pou (pronounced; “wa-poe”). We want nice weather for that, so we’ll just hunker down here or if it looks like the weather is lasting more than another day, we’ll go back over to Hananoemoa where the sandy bottom and more gentle hills make for an easier ride at anchor.

Responses: To Jerry; What’s considered hot? It’s 80 degrees F in the cabin right now and it almost seems cool, so I guess we’re getting used to the warmer weather. Cliff; I haven’t used my spear. Ciguaterra is so pervasive in the tropics, we have decided to only eat pelagic fish caught offshore such as tuna, dorado and wahoo. Angela; we actually are seeing your posts. The blog says they have to be moderated, but after a day or so they automatically post. Just remember what you commented on and look back after about 24 hours and you should see the post. We are. By the way – it is very hard to remember that we are in the Polynesian winter season. It is typically 95-100 every day. You take a shower and five minutes later you are sweating. It cools off to about 75 at night but we need to keep hatches closed due to squalls. And we keep the bug screens in so that limits air flow. My point being that we are usually warm to sweating yet at 5:30 the sun is setting. So weird.

Position: 09 degrees, 54 minutes South; 139 degrees, 06 minutes West in Hanamoenoa Bay

The Mantas came to play. We both jumped in and swam with them. I put together an underwater movie. They are so graceful.

…is Folgers in your cup? (Downside of advertising careers is that you think in jingles.) Well, not when you are in the South Pacific. While Bob and I both love a good cup of coffee to be enjoyed in the cockpit in the cool morning air, we have found new reasons to enjoy the morning.

I used to think it was going to 5 am spin class, sorry Irma, you have been surpassed. Yesterday morning I thought it was a good dolphin show. I watched as a pod of dolphins (my first full pod on this trip) trolled back and forth across the top of the bay feeding. But the best part was watching the baby dolphin learning to do spins. These were spinner dolphins. The first tries were hysterical but good-hearted adult dolphins must have been coaching him because by the time we pulled up anchor the baby was doing full 720s!

But today’s morning topped even that! We are sitting in the cockpit, as I said, enjoying yogurt, pamplemoose and fresh coffee when Bob spots a manta ray about 50 yards off of the stern. “You should get in your swimsuit and go play”, he tells me. Although I love the snorkeling experience (I was a rookie as we left the Bay Area) I was not sure I was up to chasing down manta rays. While I was busy talking myself out of it Bob realized, “where else will I ever get to experience this!” And over he went. I stopped him just long enough to hand him the underwater video camera (thanks again, Sue!). The manta had come very close to our stern and I was able to get two really close pictures of him following a school of fish. They don’t eat fish, just the plankton the school was feasting on so he was playing clean-up man.

Unfortunately I then lost track of him and could not help Bob find him. No worries, Bob has a sense for them and while I was thinking he was still looking (back where he first had seen them) he had found it and was having an amazing encounter. And not to be out done, suddenly a booby swooped down from above (I think he thought Bob was a big tuna) and dove on the same school of fish. The video tells it all! Bob and the manta are swimming gracefully along through the large school (300 fish) of fish and suddenly this bullet from above scoops down, gets his fish and scares the manta away.

No matter. Bob came back to Charisma just in time for a large squall that could not pretend to wash the smile off of his face! Yes, I was jealous. Next time I am going in.

And not ten minutes later Bob bubbles through his mouth full of coffee, “He’s back. Twenty feet off the stern!” You don’t need to tell me twice! I ran downstairs and got into a version of a swimsuit, found my fins, snorkel and mask. As I went off the port side Bob said he would direct me once I rounded the stern. Away I paddled. Just as I slowed down to turn around and get direction I turn and am 3 feet from him looking right at me! Whoa! I’m swimming with a manta ray! These rays were about five feet across and a graceful as a ballerina!

It startled me at first and I still was not bold enough to get much closer but I had a captivating game of “follow-me” with my new friend. I would twirl around, he would twirl. I would do the back stroke, he would flip over. I would spread my arms and pretend I was a manta ray and…well you get the picture. He was imitating my every move.

As he got friendlier I got a little closer, head on, and realized that what I thought was an unusual lip formation was really a fishing lure caught in his lip with five feet of fishing line trailing off his back. I called to Bob to see if we could try to help. I felt like he was seeking help. Bob hollered over to Mark and Anne on Blue Rodeo (avid divers) to get their assistance too. When the posse arrived to help I continued to try to distract him by playing follow-me while Bob, Mark and Anne took turns diving down and trying to cut off the line. Anne made two successful passes and not only petted him, but managed to cut all but about 5 inches of the line away. We were hesitant to attempt to remove the hook and he pretty much decided he was done playing and had taken off anyway.

Wow! There has got to be a better word than that but even my Thesaurus wasn’t much help. In the video I squeal a lot. Just incredible…the best part of waking up …mantas in the bay! Stay tuned – our friends on Gato Go arrived today and since Blue Rodeo, Gato Go and Charisma (all participants in the Equator Costume Contest) are all in the same bay, along with Island Bound, an independent judge (who according to Bill can be bought) we are having a potluck dinner to enjoy each other’s pictures as well as to determine the winner. Bob has put our pictures to a slide show with the background music of “Monkey Business” by Bonnie Rait. Seems appropriate. I am going to go dress up a banana as the prize. More later….

Well the votes have been cast and counted and we are thrilled to say that we won the Equator Costume Contest but not by much. Blue Rodeo also invoked King Neptune and a mermaid in their costumes and by all accounts (other than Anne-his wife) Mark made a very fetching mermaid. Mark’s comment was that the mermaid in the pictures reminded him of someone he loved! Kind of like looking in a warped mirror I guess.

Gato Go also invoked the grandeur of King Neptune but he played opposite a true shellback. Bruce’s cape was constructed of sand dollars that they tied together. Only people on a catamaran could possibly have unbroken sand dollars on their boat after sailing for so long on the confused seas getting to the equator. It was obvious from the pictures that a lot of love went into their costumes!

Because we created the prize – a fetching banana mermaid (there are a lot of things you can make with bananas) wrapped lovingly in a Survivor buff- we gifted our prize to second place – the Gato Go boys.

Blue Rodeo and Island Bound are heading to the Northern islands early in the morning. We’re staying put for another day or two, so we’ll miss them but look forward to catching up in the next month as we all find ourselves in the Tuamotus. Tomorrow we plan to go back to Vaihatu about a mile South of here (weather permitting) with Gato Go and spend the day exploring that town. We’ll see…

Position: 09 degrees, 54 minutes South; 139 degrees, 06 minutes West in Hapatoni Bay

Charisma and Blue Rodeo anchored in Hapatoni Bay.

Wild growing bananas for the picking.

And of course, we need wild papaya

Not just fruit, but beautiful flowers for the picking

It’s morning and I’m sitting here in Hapatoni Bay, thinking this place is almost impossibly beautiful. We’re anchored in 30 feet of water so clear you can see the bottom. We’re about 40 yards from shore (a gentle sand wedge, choked down, chip to the green). It’s a little cloudy from the evening squalls, so the colors are subdued and the sun is not yet blazing down. The water in this delicate light is an emerald green right now. Closer into shore, it turns almost aquamarine as it gets shallower and you can see sand. Small waves are breaking on the volcanic rock boulders. At the surf line, the boulders are dark grey, almost black turning almost silver, the eye moves up onto the dry zone. Then the coconut palms line the beach and continue on up the steeply rising hill as the sea gives way to the mountain that is this side of the island. The slope is almost 50 degrees and the palms cover the first 100 -200 feet, so close together they overlap and you can’t see the jungle beneath or behind them. In this light the palms are shades of green, but around sunset and maybe 10 minutes before they turn many soft shades of burnt umber, sienna and many shades of light and dark green along with some yellows. Moving up the hill the palm trees give way to the forest canopy that soars 50-60 above the floor. “Floor” is relative as the slope at this point is rising almost to 70 degrees. We know from hiking a path cut along the side of the mountain that there are many banana, papaya and other fruit trees tucked in under the canopy along with a dense thicket of other jungle. (As I’m writing this, Ann is on the bowsprit almost shrieking because dolphins have entered the bay and a dozen or so are swimming about 50 yards upwind). This cover thins out about half way up the mountain as it turns vertical, grey to black volcanic rock towering above us rising to a knife edge ridge at about 700 feet. Vines and other hardy vegetation cling tenaciously to the crevices in the rock. Small white birds (parrots?) provide a sense of depth to the heights as they practice incredible aerobatics against the mountainside, doing loops, rolls and turns that would challenge the best stunt pilots. Above all this, the ridge connects for the last couple hundred feet to an almost pyramidal peak that completes the picture, jutting up about 1000 feet above us, the top scraping wisps of cloud as the squalls pass overhead. The mountain is sharply contrasted by the grey-white clouds with patches of intense blue as they rush overhead. Why they are in such a hurry I don’t know since beyond us lies thousands of miles of nothing but ocean.

So why are we leaving here? Because all of the anchorages are this beautiful and it’s time for the adventure to continue to the next village.

It’s evening now. Our friends from Blue Rodeo and Island Bound came over for cocktails and dinner of arachera beef that we bought in Mexico that’s been sealed and in the fridge, and fresh Wahoo that Island Bound caught a while back and froze. They have rowed back to their boats for the night and we now have time to reflect on a great day. Above is the morning’s description. We then left for our current location. Had some pretty windy squalls on the way here, but once here, we dropped anchor in good holding sand and immediately jumped in the water for a swim and some snorkeling. Then lunch and a nap. It’s a good day when there’re no boat projects (i.e. nothing broken to have to fix). Ann had a somewhat less relaxing day. She did laundry including the sheets. Not fun. But I cooked dinner for six, so on and on we trade chores.

We’re probably going to stay here and relax a bit for a couple days. The swimming/snorkeling is great, and it’s white sand, meaning better visibility. If the squalls quiet down a bit, we’ll go back South a mile and see the small town of Vaitahu. We meant to stop there today, but as we went by, we looked in and it was full of white water (meaning very windy, blowing the tops of waves off). It’s at the bottom of a long valley that comes down almost 1000 feet and the winds just scream down. It is also known as a difficult place to safely anchor in those conditions as the bottom is very steep, so hard to get an anchor to stay in place. If conditions calm, we may go. If not, in a day or two we’ll move on.

On the shortwave this evening we talked to our friends on Gato Go and they are in Hapatoni. They are planning to get in here tomorrow so we’re sure to wait. After all, it’s their turn to make dinner!

That’s the cruising life. Snorkle, sail, anchor, fix stuff, cocktails and dinners. Very social. 😉

P.S. Regular readers will recall that our radar went out in crossing the ITCZ. It has miraculously self-healed itself. I have no idea how, but over the last week, it started coming back online. Initially it showed weak images and the settings had to be set all out of normal. Then it got better and as of today all the settings are back to normal and it’s reading other boats, shorelines and even squalls. One theory was water incursion. However, I have not been able to find a junction that was wet. All connections are dry. I cleaned them with electronics cleaner just in case there was some hidden corrosion. The other theory was that the terrific storms we were in put out so much static electricity they overcame the magnetron or reset some of the software settings. If this theory were correct, then possibly turning the unit on and off multiple times of the last couple weeks has allowed it to “reboot” to the correct settings. In any case, we’re really glad to have it back, as radar is really useful in the Tuamotus, which is our next island chain in a couple weeks. They are mostly very low profile, hard to see atolls and radar can be a very valuable tool in navigation. I just wish I knew exactly what the problem was so I could feel we could rely on it down the road in the next storm. Oh well, time will tell.

Position: Same as yesterday

It’s always pretty hot and humid here, so yes, we’re both sitting at the dinner table eating my just made fish chowder without shirts on. I’m the fortunate one in this situation. Actually we both have gone native. All pretense toward modesty has vanished. We take our showers in the buff in the cockpit by dumping the tea kettle of water over our heads, soaping up and then rinsing with said kettle. If there’s a boat really nearby, we’ll rig a towel on the lifelines with a couple clothespins, but otherwise, it’s just a joy to shower under the clear blue sky and warm air.

But, enough of that. Today we went for a walk into the village after sitting out part of the morning waiting for a huge squall to work its way through. You could hardly see 100 feet for the rain, but it really gave Charisma a good washdown with fresh water. Village is sort of loosely applied here since there might be a dozen houses. There are probably others not too far away since there’s a small church and school as well, but in several hours of hiking I think we saw half a dozen people in total. The only store was closed.

It was fun though. We went in with Blue Rodeo on their dinghy to a small concrete wharf. Most of the villages have one to allow the supply boat a place to tie up and off load supplies. Otherwise, there’s no way for these folks to get basic stores short of taking their outrigger a dozen miles across the ocean to Atuona, which itself is pretty small. As we came into the wharf six or seven kids were playing in the water at one end with two mothers who were sitting in the water cooling off. We said our; “bon jours” and moved inland and very shortly met with a man who asked if we wanted to see something. We’re not sure what he said, but we followed. Turns out he is a really good woodworker. He showed us some jewelry he made out of boars tusks, some carvings he had done and then he showed us a long (about two feet) tiki like thing. Looked kind of like an oversize letter opener, but with beautifully carved tikis, totem pole like, carved and a long sword at the end. Fascinated, I picked it up to admire it and asked what it was. He said (more like signed due to our language barrier) that it was just decorative, but that the top was made our of cow bone and the long sword-like part was made from Marlin. There was some decorative string that wrapped the two parts seamlessly together made from coconut husks that his wife braided. OK, I had to have this. “How much” I signed. He wrote down; “12,000” which in Marquesan money is $120. I said I’d think about it and maybe we’d come back. He was OK with that, so we walked away. I’ve found that it’s easy to bargain when you are by yourself instead of with other people, so I slipped back to his house and asked: “How about Sept” (pronounced “Seht”) This was about $70 dollars and probably still too much except you could never find anything this beautiful or unique anywhere else, so how do you value it? Anyway, he thought a moment and said; “OK”. We’re now the proud owners of a marlin/cowbone/tiki thing. It’s really quite beautiful. Wish I could post a picture.

After spending some time with our new friend, we took off on the main road through town. It started out as a nice stone wall-lined road with coral and rock base and trees that covered it such that it felt a bit like walking into a cave, but once we went through the main village (about ¼ mile) it devolved into more of a mud puddle than road and it soon turned into a trail. The good part about that was that we were able to pick a bunch (about three dozen) of bananas, three papaya a huge coconut and some peppers that grew wild by the side of the road. We also walked up high enough over the bay to get some spectacular views of this side of the island and our anchorage. Blue Rodeo and Charisma are the only two boats here.

After a nice walk back and dinghy ride to the boat, we put the fruit in a mesh bag and hung it over the side to drown any bugs that might hope to get into the boat. Then we put on our snorkel gear and jumped in. We’re only about 50 yards from shore in 30 feet of water. It’s so clear we could see the bottom standing on the boat. I jumped in, dove down and immediately came face to face with a barracuda. Nice! They’re not dangerous as some think. I pointed it to Ann who just smiled and we swam toward more shallow water to see the reef fish. We saw some magnificent fish in brilliant blues, golds, aquamarine, vivid reds and more than you can imagine. After 45 minutes we swam back to do some chores and cook dinner. Later in the evening Ann called Blue Rodeo on the VHF to talk about something. They also went swimming just a little ways from us and reported that they saw a “small” black tip reef shark. Hmmm, we were thinking of going swimming again tomorrow morning. We’ll see.no-footer

Position: Same as yesterday

It’s always pretty hot and humid here, so yes, we’re both sitting at the dinner table eating my just made fish chowder without shirts on. I’m the fortunate one in this situation. Actually we both have gone native. All pretense toward modesty has vanished. We take our showers in the buff in the cockpit by dumping the tea kettle of water over our heads, soaping up and then rinsing with said kettle. If there’s a boat really nearby, we’ll rig a towel on the lifelines with a couple clothespins, but otherwise, it’s just a joy to shower under the clear blue sky and warm air.

But, enough of that. Today we went for a walk into the village after sitting out part of the morning waiting for a huge squall to work its way through. You could hardly see 100 feet for the rain, but it really gave Charisma a good washdown with fresh water. Village is sort of loosely applied here since there might be a dozen houses. There are probably others not too far away since there’s a small church and school as well, but in several hours of hiking I think we saw half a dozen people in total. The only store was closed.

It was fun though. We went in with Blue Rodeo on their dinghy to a small concrete wharf. Most of the villages have one to allow the supply boat a place to tie up and off load supplies. Otherwise, there’s no way for these folks to get basic stores short of taking their outrigger a dozen miles across the ocean to Atuona, which itself is pretty small. As we came into the wharf six or seven kids were playing in the water at one end with two mothers who were sitting in the water cooling off. We said our; “bon jours” and moved inland and very shortly met with a man who asked if we wanted to see something. We’re not sure what he said, but we followed. Turns out he is a really good woodworker. He showed us some jewelry he made out of boars tusks, some carvings he had done and then he showed us a long (about two feet) tiki like thing. Looked kind of like an oversize letter opener, but with beautifully carved tikis, totem pole like, carved and a long sword at the end. Fascinated, I picked it up to admire it and asked what it was. He said (more like signed due to our language barrier) that it was just decorative, but that the top was made our of cow bone and the long sword-like part was made from Marlin. There was some decorative string that wrapped the two parts seamlessly together made from coconut husks that his wife braided. OK, I had to have this. “How much” I signed. He wrote down; “12,000” which in Marquesan money is $120. I said I’d think about it and maybe we’d come back. He was OK with that, so we walked away. I’ve found that it’s easy to bargain when you are by yourself instead of with other people, so I slipped back to his house and asked: “How about Sept” (pronounced “Seht”) This was about $70 dollars and probably still too much except you could never find anything this beautiful or unique anywhere else, so how do you value it? Anyway, he thought a moment and said; “OK”. We’re now the proud owners of a marlin/cowbone/tiki thing. It’s really quite beautiful. Wish I could post a picture.

After spending some time with our new friend, we took off on the main road through town. It started out as a nice stone wall-lined road with coral and rock base and trees that covered it such that it felt a bit like walking into a cave, but once we went through the main village (about ¼ mile) it devolved into more of a mud puddle than road and it soon turned into a trail. The good part about that was that we were able to pick a bunch (about three dozen) of bananas, three papaya a huge coconut and some peppers that grew wild by the side of the road. We also walked up high enough over the bay to get some spectacular views of this side of the island and our anchorage. Blue Rodeo and Charisma are the only two boats here.

After a nice walk back and dinghy ride to the boat, we put the fruit in a mesh bag and hung it over the side to drown any bugs that might hope to get into the boat. Then we put on our snorkel gear and jumped in. We’re only about 50 yards from shore in 30 feet of water. It’s so clear we could see the bottom standing on the boat. I jumped in, dove down and immediately came face to face with a barracuda. Nice! They’re not dangerous as some think. I pointed it to Ann who just smiled and we swam toward more shallow water to see the reef fish. We saw some magnificent fish in brilliant blues, golds, aquamarine, vivid reds and more than you can imagine. After 45 minutes we swam back to do some chores and cook dinner. Later in the evening Ann called Blue Rodeo on the VHF to talk about something. They also went swimming just a little ways from us and reported that they saw a “small” black tip reef shark. Hmmm, we were thinking of going swimming again tomorrow morning. We’ll see.

Position: 09 degrees, 57 minutes South; 139 degrees, 07 minutes West

Today we got up early and sailed to the next island on our trip- Tahuata. Right now we’re anchored in a lovely little bay about 30 yards from a steep hill covered with coconut palms. Hapatoni Bay. We tried anchoring a little further South of here right in front of the village, but there was too much coral. We don’t anchor in coral for two reasons: the anchor chain breaks the coral off which is bad for the ecology and anchor chains will wrap around coral heads and become impossible to pull up. So, we moved from our intended anchorage to this nice spot about ¼ mile away. Tomorrow we will take the dinghy into town and explore. There’s supposed to be more archeological ruins here as well as local crafts (mostly wood-carving) to see. It would also be nice to get some fresh fruit as we’re getting low. Ann is making banana bread from the last of our huge stalk of bananas. A nice surprise, our friends from Blue Rodeo sailed past and we called them on the VHF. They didn’t recognize our boat visually as they sailed by since Ann finished the new bimini, but once they knew we were here, they decided to stop in, anchored next to us and we got invited to their boat for dinner. Yay! So, catching up on yesterday (Sunday). We and several of the other boats thought it would be interesting to attend Polynesian Sunday worship. It starts fairly early before the heat of the day (there’s no air conditioning around here to keep things cool) so we were up at dawn for our coffee and went ashore at 0730 to make sure we got a seat. It was a Catholic service spoken in Polynesian but Ann and several others reported that the flow and cadence was exactly the same as they are used to and was therefore easy for them to follow along. There were some striking differences though. Instead of organ music, they had guitars and ukuleles to accompany the singing-and to my ear the singing was so joyous and heartfelt, it was very moving. Also, instead of the depiction of Christ crucified on a cross, this Christ was a beautiful carving above the altar where Christ was walking with arms outstretched with rays of sunlight carved into the statue and a very large, freshly made lei hanging around His neck. At the same time as the Mass, the children of the village were in Sunday school next door and we could hear them singing. After the Mass, the children come into the church and everyone sings as few songs together before it’s done and time to go. One other fun thing about this morning at church was that since we had enjoyed dinner the night before at the Matriarchal Chief of the village and it was her granddaughter’s birthday as well (which we were part of), we had met a LOT of the children and other people in the village. Thus on Sunday morning we were welcomed very warmly not just by villagers, but by people who we had befriended at the dinner the night before. The sermon was given by our favorite ukulele player who we have since learned is the husband of our hostess After church, we went back to Charisma for some boat projects to fill up the rest of the day. Ann sewed the new bimini out of our sunshade fabric. It’s working great! Really helps cut the direct sun. I jumped in the warm water and scrubbed the marine growth off the side of the boat. The day’s activities were followed by “Charismas” at sunset where we were thrilled to see the GREEN FLASH as the sun set below the horizon. I’ve seen it a couple of other times in the tropics, but this one was the longest I’ve ever seen lasting for five or more seconds. A very cool way to end a wonderful day. After dinner, we were invited to “Gato Go” for a game of dominos which was a nice way to end the day. The only downside to the day was the very squally wind. We didn’t sleep really well because there were gusts in the mid-thirties. You always worry about the anchor dragging in that kind of wind and even though our anchor was very secure, having been set for three days, the wind gusts as they moan and howl through the rigging rattling anything not securely tied down just won’t quite allow a peaceful sleep. Oh well, small price to pay for the incredible experiences we are having the privilege to see and do. A few answers from some of the recent posts: Jerry (jham) asked a few days ago; did Ann have her glasses tied on. Yes. She had some straps and they were tied tightly but the surf grabbed them right off. Jerry also asked about the “cute native girls in their grass skirts”. The little girls are darling. By the time most of them are past their teens they could only be described as “very large island girls”. They do have a “large” elegance and beauty and nothing beats a Marquesan hulu which we have been privileged to watch several performances so far. Lastly, on nasty bugs: Yes, there are a few. The two that bother us are the giant wasps and the nonos. The wasps are huge, but fortunately just curious and not aggressive. Just scary looking. And enough good ol’ Deet seems to keep the nonos at bay when other friends of ours are covered in itchy bug bites. It seems they like the women more than the men. Lucky guys! Christine (CJ), there is no good internet here. Only the shortwave that allows us to upload these text posts. I spent 2 hours on wi-fi at the post office in Atuona/Hiva Oa as I thought we might get pictures loaded from there, but only text went through. Pics clogged the system. Might be a while before we get near enough bandwidth. Sorry, because some of the places are amazing to see. Cliff, (camcauliffe) thanks for all your posts. We enjoy reading them (and all the others), every night. New Zealand sounds good, but we’ll have to figure out timing and such over the holidays as we don’t know where we’ll end up yet. Joan and Paul, thanks for the notes. Ann loves to hear from you guys. Several of the islanders have been really surprised when Ann has told them that she has six siblings. Lisa (llmiller), If we do a book, you’ll have to be the copy editor and proof-reader!

Again, thanks to everyone who posts a reply. It’s so entertaining for us to read them every night and keeps us in touch with our friends and family.

Local kids doing "high fives" after church.

We haven’t had enough time today to put together an entry, so will leave you with a short message until tomorrow.

Got up at 0600 for breakfast because we went into the Church here in Bay of Virgins for Catholic Mass. It was all in Marquesan and it was beautiful. More tomorrow, but I’ll say that they had a guitar and ukelele to accompany the singers.

Then back to Charisma for boat projects. Ann made a bimini out of sun-shade fabric. A bimini is basically a tent that goes over the cockpit to provide some relief from the sun. It works!

I jumped in the incredibly warm water and went around the waterline scrubbing the marine life that grows on cruising boats. The bottom paint is working great, but Charisma’s hull was brown with marine growth where the bow wave comes up. 45 minutes of scrubbing with snorkel, mask and fins wiped me out and I took a nap while Ann finished putting grommets in the bimini and went for a swim herself.

After dinner, we were invited to our friends boat; “Gato Go” for a game of Mexican Train (dominos). Craig and Bruce are so nice and fun to talk to. Had a great night and were sorry to leave a little earlier than usual since a) it was verrrry windy/gusty and I was worried about being able to row back to Charisma in the dark and b) we’re leaving this spot in paradise tomorrow for a new island called Tahuata and have to get up and out by 0600 if we’re going to be sure to make it before dark (in case of light winds). More about it later, but it’s about a 30 mile sail, so we want to get an early start.

Why am I so tired all the time? This cruising’s hard work, that’s why. 😉

David the carver. Beautiful work. I bought two of his rosewood designs (not these two)

Breadfruit for the feast

Cooking Breadfruit on the coals

Husking the breadfruit

Entertainment while we were cooking

Some of the kids (the one with the Mandolin was the birthday girl)

Making Tapa (paper made from tree bark)

Some of the tapa art.

We are still in Fatu Hiva at the Bay of Virgins. So what did I win you ask? A day at play! But first let me tell you what Bob accomplished because he was a very busy man. First he identified the leak in our dinghy. Unfortunately it is actually a split seam and the special glue made for the dinghy did not repair the problem. Tomorrow he will try a different type of glue. Most exciting is that Bob installed a fan in the quarter berth – where we sleep. Woo hoo! The islands are warm even at night so this is a welcome upgrade. Not quite air conditioning but we can pretend. Bob also took apart the binnacle to investigate a squeak and a groan in the helm. Fortunately it was a chain and sprocket (which he greased) and teflon bearings and he feels good about the “fix”. Having never pulled the helm apart before he was a little apprehensive but all went well. And what did the winner (of no contest at all, just got lucky with a nice guy who let me go play -all day!) do? I joined the women (from Island Bound, The Rose, Blue Rodeo and Orcinius) and Mark (from Blue Rodeo) on the hike to the waterfall. What a hike! We all had heard part of the directions from different sources (kind of like this: go up the road that goes over the pass, after the second dirt road, turn onto the ranger road, pass the house with the barking dogs… obviously we were glad to see cairns when we hit the steep area because it meant we probably were on the right path) and by combining all our directions, the seven of us found the 200 foot waterfall. It was a strenuous hike, especially the last portion, but Lisa from Orcinius, an avid mountain climber in her pre-cruising life, led the way and we all made it. Mark did not succumb to the excess of estrogen and also enjoyed the hike. The waterfall fell down a granite face out of the lush green spires into a deep cool pool. Rebecca and Pat from The Rose and Mark and I could not resist the cool water and enjoyed a lovely swim before we all packed it up and returned down into the valley. We had to make a quick return to our boats and clean up in time for our 2 pm cooking lesson with the chief of the island – actually the matriarchal chief. She had offered to cook dinner for us for a set fee yesterday when we were at her house looking at carvings but as we said in yesterday’s blog we talked her into including a cooking lesson. Well Chief Kati had pre-prepared most of the meal by the time we got there. Coconut had been shredded, tuna and chicken cut up, bananas peeled and steamed. Our lesson consisted of putting all of the final parts together with explanations as to how she got to that stage. Works for me! The menu included papaya salad, steamed bananas, breadfruit (not my favorite but fun to watch the preparation), chicken in coconut milk, poisson cru, fried fish and baked chicken. Today also happened to be her granddaughter’s 9th birthday so we celebrated her birthday too. What we bargained for was a cooking lesson. What we got was an afternoon and evening of true Polynesian spirit. The two hours of “cooking lessons” also included playing with her granddaughter and 3 other 4-6 year old girls that Kati was taking care of. Two of guys that do carvings for her also came to help and were delightful. It felt like we had stepped into their lives and were at a family reunion. The little girls played with everyone’s camera taking lots of fun pictures. Kati did a fantastic job of communicating with all of us. The guys who set up tables and barbecues loved having us help and enjoyed teasing us about eating manta rays. Apparently they really do eat them but due to conservation the entire village (42 houses per Katie) split one every few years. As the meal came together our guys from the boats came and joined us for dinner. It was delicious and way too much food. We all sang Happy Birthday to her granddaughter, Caroline. And then the music really kicked in. Kati’s guys brought out a guitar and ukulele. Man can they play and sing! And the little girls got in on the act too singing and dancing. Caroline was as good a Polynesian dancer as any of us had ever seen. John, from Orcinius, was invited to dance by Caroline (yes, his wife Lisa and I encouraged it) and really played along. The little girls were hysterical laughing at him. What a sport! This musical entertainment lasted for several hours with all of us spellbound. It was so great to really be a part of this special family. We came as customers, we left as special friends. So much more than we expected. We saw the joyous side of Polynesia tonight! And to top it all off, a moonlit walk back to the water and a lovely moonlit shower on the boat, started with a quick jump into the bay to cool off! Winner, winner… and so very lucky!

Position: Same as yesterday

Woke up to a grey, squally day, but we’re safely tucked into this incredible bay so who cares? We were going to go for a hike up to the waterfall, but as we got ashore it started raining like a monsoon with thunder and lightning. The locals said; “Not a good day. Trees come down the river”. The meaning of course – flash floods. So…we spent the day walking around the village going from house to house viewing the local crafts. This village (we’d be surprised if there were 100 people here) is known for its wood carvings and it’s the only place in the Marquesas where they still make the Tapa or tree bark paper by hand. We weren’t disappointed either. The work was very impressive and we bought a two foot tall Tiki and a ceremonial sword, both made from locally grown rosewood. We also bought a serving plate made from ebony. All three are beautiful and the most I paid for any one was $40 (which is still extravagant, but the work really is exquisite). I also bought Ann a black pearl necklace with a silver string and leather necklace. Very pretty. Anyway, the tour of town was a kick. We would basically just walk through the small village-it’s just one road that you follow up the valley from the bay-and people would gesture from their yard; “come here, come here” and we’d walk around back and see their workshop. Then they would bring out piece after piece of their work for you to look at. Lots of fun! There are no shops here, just homes carved into the jungle. (Usually with some puppies and at least one pig rooting nearby. We were told that the dogs are kept to help hunt the pigs.) The last place we stopped at also offered that they would cook dinner for us tomorrow night. Since we just did that last night, we weren’t that interested but someone in our group negotiated (one of our group commented that this must be how the United Nations works – each of us trying our best to communicate yet no one being totally conversant in each other’s language) it into a Polynesian cooking lesson after which we would eat the dinner. So…tomorrow, we’re going to try and do the waterfall again, then Polynesian cooking class followed by dinner. And we wonder where all the time goes. We’ll probably stay here through Sunday as we have heard there is a delightful church service with lots of singing-all of which Ann is very interested in seeing. It’s also fun trading for stuff. Since this place is so remote, many of the people here don’t have much use for money. Trade is more valuable. They are tough traders, but I managed to get four papplemoose for four fish hooks. The women want perfume and cosmetics and Ann has some perfume samples so we hope to trade for papayas tomorrow. I wish I could add pictures to this because I just can’t do justice to this place with words (but I’ll try). The bay is ½ mile wide on the ocean side and narrows to just 50 yards at the head where there’s a small wharf and pebble beach (where the children were playing in the surf today). Literally from the water, the volcanic mountains jut straight up for at least 1000 feet. Very jagged and covered with coconut palms and jungle and interspersed with black volcanic spires (somewhat phallic looking – the rumor is that the bay was originally named the bay of penises but the missionaries added an “e” that changed the French name to virgins), each of which are several hundred feet tall. At times, the clouds shroud the hills and at other times it all opens up to blue sky. Each version of sky has a different mood. The blue sky brings a feeling of amazing tropical splendor. The cloudy look with wisps of grey swirling amongst the peaks takes us back thousands of years to prehistoric times. You are expecting pterodactyls to come swooping down out of the mountains. As I’m finishing this, I’m looking up at a clearing sky with the full moon directly above and the Southern Cross shinning just above the jagged ridgeline to the South. But wait, just as I thought the day was clearing, another squall with its rolling clouds and dark streaks of rain blotting out the sky just rolled over the mountain peak above the village. Oh well. We’ll be “up and down” tonight doing the squall dance. What’s that you ask? Closing the hatches and portholes when it rains hard. You have to keep them open from the heat in order to sleep, but when the rain starts, you have to jump up and close all the hatches or the inside of the boat gets soaked. And so it goes in the tropics. We’re having fun.