We arrived last Monday in Fatu Hiva after a 21-day passage (less than the 30 days we had planned for which was nice). We had great winds of 12-20 knots the entire way and only had to motor to get out of and into the anchorages. The seas were a bit confused so it made doing projects challenging but we willingly traded project time for the good winds and got lots of reading done during the passage. Cooking and eating were a bit of a trick at times as the boat rolled from side to side and we decided what we needed was non-skid food in addition to the non-skid dishes. We used our Mointor windvane to steer the entire way and hardly had to help him at all. We have decided to knight him for his heroic efforts on the crossing, can not imagine having done it without him, so from here on he will be Sir Monte.
When we arrived in Baie Hanavave at first light we had a wonderful surprise in that our friends Wendy and Garth were there, we had not seen them since the beginning of January in Mexico and it was fun to catch up. Fatu Hiva is everything you imagine a South Pacific island to be tall volcanic spires that drop down to meet the water, slopes covered with coconut trees, all very dramatic landscape (except no white sand beaches). The volcanic spires inspired the original name of the bay, Baie de Verge (Penis Bay), but it didn’t take the Catholic priests long to change the name to Baie des Vierge (Virgin’s Bay), it’s second name as Hanavave is the name of the town here. We are adjusting to rain at least once or twice a day (we generally have to wake up at night to close all the hatches when it starts to rain) but it is giving the boat a nice cleaning and getting all of the salt water off. The other treat here was fresh baked bread and it has become a staple of our daily diet included in all meals. It’s like a como loaf but the crust is not quite as crunchy.
Yesterday we sailed up to Atuona on Hiva Oa and today will get checked in with the gendarmerie and pay our bond to the government. We will probably be here through Thursday (if you want to reach us) and then will move on to Tahuata, Ua Pou, and Nuka Hiva (email and pick up our regular mail). Then it will be on to the Tuamotus (coral atolls) which will be our first experience anchoring inside reefs. We are working on our French and trying not to use too many Spanish words. We also have a small Marquesasan dictionary and are trying to use a few.
Apa’e for tenei (good bye for now) – Suzette and Paul
P.S. We did not write earlier as there was no email in Fatu Hiva. The keyboards are really different here so we have to be really careful when we type.