Passage to the Promised Land of Nuku Hiva

On January 9th we departed Atuona on Hiva Oa for the 90-mile overnight passage to Nuku Hiva. We had hoped for strong easterly winds so we could sail downwind, but ended up with very light and fluky winds that forced us to motor sail the entire way.  You always want to sail but sometimes the winds just aren’t there as predicted, forcing you to either wait for favorable winds or to just suck it up and motor. So be it.

Waking up in the morning to see the towering green mountains of your next port of call is one of my favorites.

Taiohae Bay in Nuku Hiva is one of the cruiser's favorite "hurricane holes" for the Pacific hurricane (cyclone) season.

Every week or so a huge cruise ship anchors off Taiohae Bay and disgorges its 1000 to 2000 passengers onto the tiny community. 

In the early morning we could see the lush green peaks of Nuku Hiva peaking out from the ever present cumulus clouds. The entrance into Taiohae Bay is very straight forward and we slowly motored through about 70 anchored boats in the huge bay to a spot about 400 yards from the dock (and the Internet access point). It took us a few tries to get the anchoring spot just right after the wind piped up and pushed us a little too close to a French boat. 

Henri's Snack Vaevaki is were everyone hangs out for free WiFi. Henri always has huge stalks of free bananas available for his customers. A stalk like this would cost around $3.00.

Early in the morning local fisherman sell wahoo, yellow fin tuna, red snapper, and an occasional marlin for around $2.50/lb.

Volleyball and soccer are the two most popular sports here in the Marquesas. This waterfront volleyball court seems to always have a game going on.

Wild horses are fairly ubiquitous in the Marquesas. Once you catch them you get to keep them.

Once situated, we took the dingy into the large concrete dock where the fishermen bring their catches early in the morning. Located just across from the dock are Snack Vaevaki, also know as Henri’s, a small open air restaurant that is a cruiser’s hangout since he offers free WiFi. Next door is Nuku Hiva Yacht Services, run by an ex-pat American named Kevin who provides a variety of services to local yachties. He had a number of FedEx packages for us, including parts for my broken glasses and four credit cards with current expiration dates.

The waterfront of Taiohae Bay is a grassy parkland with beautiful views of the anchored sailboats.

The Marquesans are superb horseman and ride these sturdy, but high-spirited Marquesan horses in the steep sided mountains during hunting trips for wild pig and goat.

Magasin Larson is one of our favorite grocery stores since it has air conditioning and a great selection of French foods.

Nuku Hiva, with it’s huge protected harbor and available services, is the “go to” place for cruisers waiting out the cyclone season in the Marquesas. Surrounded by high mountain peaks, the scenery is breathtaking. The first mile or so of shorefront is an open park and it’s a scenic short walk along the park to the three grocery stores (compared to the three-mile walk into town in Atuona). And fresh baguettes (price controlled at $.59) every morning makes it a carbo paradise. 

Since we were tired from the long overnight passage we decided to have dinner at Henri’s, which was full of French cruisers sitting working on their computers, and call it a day with an early bed time for the old folks.

The next day began a routine repeated most days. We tidied up the boat a bit, did some email (now that we had Internet at the boat thanks to our high powered antenna and the password for Henri’s WiFi), and broke out the stand-up paddle board and took a tour of the bay saying hi to various cruising boats we knew. We ended up the day with a nice visit and dinner with Roger and Sasha on Ednbal.

I can't say that either of us enjoys repairing the sails, but having your own commercial sewing machine on board can save you thousands of dollars in sail repair fees.

Over the next several weeks we worked on boat projects, with Meryl sewing a new Polynesian print throw cover for the bed, repairing the batten pockets and a tear in the leach of the main sail, and various other canvas projects. I fixed a leak in the bathroom hatch, a ding in the fiberglass from the bow anchor, installed a new 12-volt outlet for a portable fan, and changed the oil/fuel filters on the engine.

The Marquesans are typically very helpful, although language is a problem if you don't speak French. This lady escorted us by some snarling dogs to this beautiful viewpoint overlooking Taiohae Bay.

With over 70 sailboats in the bay, Taiohae Bay is one of the safest hurricane holes in the South Pacific. The Marquesas are far north and east of the typical hurricane tracks.

Fruit of the Gods:  Barbadine. The bowling ball sized fruits are cut open and the fleshy seeds are squeezed to extract a juice tasting similar to apricot.

As things calmed down a little we began to take long walks around town and up into the surrounding foothills. One day we hiked up to a large white cross on the hill over looking the bay (90% of Marquesans are Catholic). It was a long hike populated by small houses with large gardens full of every imaginable fruit tree. You could never get hungry hiking on this island. As we approached the final dirt road up to the top we started running into some aggressive dogs (about 99% of tropical dogs are totally laid back). A Marquesas woman came out and, in very broken English, said she’d walk with us the rest of the way to the cross. Her dog, Vaca, went ahead. It was amazing as the other dogs heard us and came running out barking and then immediately backed away when they saw Vaca. He was definitely the Alpha male in this neighborhood.

The view from the top was amazing and the lady pointed out various landmarks around the bay. On the way down she went around the back of the house and got three huge, bowling-ball sized fruits we’d never seen before. They are called baradine and supposedly make a great fruit drink. Carrying those back to the boat wasn’t easy but we made it.

When the new Catholic church, The Cathedral of Taiohae (Notre Dame) was constructed in 1973, the two bell towers from the original church in 1848 were used as the entrance to the modern church

The interior of the church features numerous carvings from whole tamanu trees carved by Damien Haturau, a well known Marquesan artist.

One thing we need to better understand here in French Polynesia is the, how should I say this, “flexible working hours” of various businesses. There seems to be no standard business hours, with some opening around 7:00 am and then closing for a two-hour lunch break around 11:00 am to 12:00, then reopening around 2:00 pm and maybe closing at 4:00 or 5:00 pm. The Marquesans seem to get up around 4:00 am (that’s when the Saturday fruit/vegetable market opens) and then retire early in the evening. It certainly makes more sense in this heat to get most of your outside work done in the cool morning hours and rest during the afternoon heat. That said, you can never accuse the French/Marquesans of being workaholics, and if it works for them, why not?  I think Americans are overworking themselves with obsessively long workdays, working on weekends, and no vacations. The French have gotten the work/life balance down to a fine art and seem to be more laid back and enjoy themselves much more than other nationalities. What good is retirement if you die of a heart attack at 65?

Another issue is the climate. Having lived in the “rain capital of the world” (Pacific Northwest) for most of our lives, getting used to a tropical climate has taken time. The first issue is heat. It’s usually around 90 degrees inside the boat. We have teak decks and they tend to magnify the heat and keep it inside the boat. We have 10 fans on the boat, and most are going 24x7 when we are onboard. We’ve already worn out four fans from the constant use. Most cruisers wear abbreviated clothing, shorts and no shirt for the guys and bikini (or less) for the women. When the water is clear we can just jump in for a refreshing dip, but when it’s cloudy we are a little more cautious, given that these water are home to the top 10 man eating sharks in the world. Sometimes just a quick shower on the transom steps is the right thing for cooling down.

The normally bucolic harbor can instantly turn to the scene below when intense thunderstorms hit the island.

Heavy rains turn the local rivers into torrents of water that bring down whole trees, coconuts, and a thick brown mud into the water. We need to wait several days for the bay to clear out before using our on-board water maker.

The second issue in the tropics is rain. It can, and will rain at any given moment. Since many of the islands have high mountains, rain clouds are omnipresent so you can’t second guess when it might rain. The good news here is the rain is warm (Seattle joke: How can you tell when it’s summer, the rain is warmer.) Even if you are out hiking and get soaked, you usually dry off in 30 minutes. For cruisers with hot boats the key is to keep all the hatches open, but this leads to what’s commonly called “the hatch dance” where it goes from sprinkle to tropical downpour in 1.3 seconds. We have a routine where I go aft and Meryl goes forward to try and get all the hatches closed before everything is soaked. And when you leave the boat we usually close all the hatches, meaning when you come back the interior resembles a Swedish sauna. For all those sitting out a winter in 20 degree temperatures and know I won’t get any sympathy, and rightly so.

Such is the cruising life.