Velella Cruising Log

The Marquesas, called Iles Marquises, are one of 3 island groups that make up French Polynesia in the eastern part of the south Pacific. These high, volcanically formed islands have a total population of about 6,000 people spread out across 6 of the islands. Most of the population speaks some French, which the children are taught in school, in addition to Marquesan (which is a Polynesian based language). Many also speak some English and Spanish as well, also taught in school. Although when Captain Cook visited the islands in the 18th century there was a population of 100,000 people, most of the people died from western contact and diseases. With such a dramatic loss of population, much of the cultural traditions were lost, but some have been proudly resurrected from the descriptions and drawings recorded by western visitors. The Marquesans use both French names and Marquesan names, although the Marquesans are not terribly fond of the French.

We made landfall in Atuona on the island of Hiva Oa, which lies in the middle of the Marquesan island group. This port of entry lies in a tiny bay that barely held all the newly arriving boats starting the south pacific cruising season. We caught up on sleep, met some of our fellow cruisers that we had gotten to know via SSB radio during our passage as well as friends from Mexico cruising, and whittled away at the laundry that had piled up during our passage (even though we tried our best to minimize what we wore). We were excited to eat our first pomplemousse (a sweeter large green version of our grapefruit) and fresh baked baguettes, for which French Polynesia is famous.

It is so lush and green in the Marquesas. The high mountains are often shrouded in clouds and we often get a little rain shower every few hours or so, but some days we see no rain. We often awake in the night to close the hatches during a short shower. Sometimes, I just wait until the rain shower is over if I see few clouds then reopen all the hatches before returning to bed. I have been just propping open the hatches with a stick so I can quickly drop them closed during a shower. The days are hot (about 86 degrees) and humid but the nights are getting cooler and are usually comfortable enough for sleeping.

We were anxious to move on from this crowded anchorage as soon as possible and within a few days moved to a beautiful bay on the next island south, Tahuata. Tahuata is smaller than Hiva Oa, with a population of only 600 spread between 2 tiny villages. When we arrived we and all the other cruisers in the bay (consisting of about 10 boats) were invited to a goat roast by one of the island leaders who owns the entire stretch of beach off of which we were anchored. We cruisers brought salads and deserts and something to drink, and a group of about 8 Marquesan men provided barbequed goat and chicken, as well as rice and steamed breadfruit. The goat was quite tasty although a bit tough. We feasted around a bonfire and did our best to communicate in our halting French and their halting English. Later in the evening, we transcended the language barrier with music, when the Marquesans played traditional Marquesan songs and we all danced in the firelight.

We enjoyed the clear turquoise water in the bay, the white sandy beach and the snorkeling. Late each afternoon we took a swim off the sandy beach with friends and watched for the green flash at sunset. We've been lucky enough to see several green flashes so far and have celebrated with a bottle of Tangueray dedicated to such a special occasion. (Thanks Mary and Joel!) We've had numerous evenings of potlucks, movies and games with other cruisers that have become close friends. One day a group of us took a fast day sail on a cool double masted trimaran (Mischak) to the next village south, Vaitahu. We stopped to listen to the church choir practicing and then visited the local store, owned by the host of the goat roast, for provisions. It is always interesting to see what items are available in the local stores (called "Magasin" here). Sometimes you find the oddest assortment. Our friends on Mischak, Tanya and Thor, speak many Polynesian words, since they are from Nawiliwili, Kauai and many of the Hawaiian words are the same. This language ability plus a friendly open attitude won them many friends and opened many doors for us.

We visited another pretty bay south on the same island before making our way to Fatu Hiva, the isolated southernmost of the Marquesan islands. As we departed the southern tip of Tahuata for Fatu Hiva, we were surprised by huge gusts of wind up to 50 knots. After dropping the main sail completely, we were screaming along against the wind healed way over at 6.5 knots with only a small (# 3) jib. As we got further south and the wind gradually diminished, we raised the main, first with 2 reefs, then a single reef, then completely. Within 7 miles, the wind died completely. Since it was late in the day, we tried to turn on the engine so we could arrive before nightfall, but we couldn't get the engine to stay running. We suspected that there was a fuel problem, but we had plenty of fuel. We gradually realized that we had been jostled around so much on our way, that there might be bubbles in the fuel. Sure enough, after we ran the fuel pump for a brief period to bleed the air out of the fuel, we were able to keep the engine running without any further incident.

Fatu Hiva is upwind of all the islands and many cruisers forego a visit since they would need to beat against the wind to get there. While many boats that arrive from the Galapagos sail to Fatu Hiva first, it is not an official port of entry and there may be a penalty for stopping there prior to officially clearing into the country. Fatu Hiva is an incredibly beautiful island, with high spires reaching up into the atmosphere from the lush green valley below.

The island is quite isolated except for the people who visit by yacht, since there is no airstrip and a supply vessel only visits once a month. As a result, the people in the most visited village (Hanavave) look to cruisers as a source of supplies and solicited us to trade for fruit. The items they wanted to trade for in order of preference were: perfume, 22 shells, lipstick, nail polish, jewelry, fishhooks, rum, t-shirts, hats, drill bits, sandpaper, and electrical wire. Sometimes it was a little unnerving to be solicited so continually whenever we went to shore and sometimes on the boat by outrigger canoe. One can only eat so many bananas and papayas! Apparently those of us who have visited before have raised the expectations of the local people of getting all kinds of things from the cruisers. It was easy to overtrade since they kept asking for more things once they had your attention. The children in particular were quite aggressive. We kidded that the Fatu Hivan greeting was "bon bon?" by the kids (asking for candy) and "Echangez?" by the adults wanting to trade. We traded for papayas, some cucumbers and lettuce (tough to find), and several large stalks of bananas, which were great to hang from the stern rail and grab for a quick snack or breakfast. Before we left, we stocked up for another boat on another island where fruit wasn't as easy to come by. (Fruit is not often sold in the stores since everyone has fruit trees growing in their yard.) In contrast, the village to the south, Omoa was much more friendly and welcoming.

We motored over on the trimaran again (Mischak). Half of our group spent the day in the village, returning by boat and the other half hiked the 10 miles back to Hanavave. Louis, Vice Mayor of Omoa and owner of the ice cream store we visited first, escorted us through the village. He arranged to open the museum, the bakery and the store which were closed for the mid day rest (11:30-1:30), as well as show us where we could find the tapas, wood carvers and pareos. (Louis and another guy from town have offered to help sail Mischak north back to Hawaii at the end of the season.) The people in this town just waved and said hello. What a pleasant contrast to the continual soliciting of Hanavave. We did have some pleasant interactions with locals in Hanavave, though. We were able to arrange a dinner for the cruisers in the home of a lady named Angela and she made us quite a Marquesan feast of Poisson Cru, chicken in a coconut cream sauce, BBQ chicken, rice, green papaya salad, baked red bananas, bananas in a tapioca sauce, fried doughnuts, and a refreshing pomplemousse drink much like lemonade. We enjoyed Angela's company during and following the dinner. The Marquesan homes, small (2-3 room) prefabricated housing typical in many U.S. cities, are subsidized by the French government but are sparsely furnished.

In both villages, Hanavave and Omoa, there were impressive woodcarvings and tapa cloth (artwork produced from the inner bark of trees), but they were very pricey (an some outrageously expensive) and many items were not for sale at all, since most were reserved for an upcoming art exposition in Papeete, Tahiti. Apparently Fatu Hiva is a frequent winner at the exposition, which is held twice a year. While Tapa is only made on this island, there are wood carvers and wood carving schools on several other islands. While we wanted to purchase a souvenir wood carving, we didn't feel as though we could afford $130 for a medium sized wooden turtle box and hoped we could find something at one of the other islands.

We had little to no wind (surprising!) on our way north to Nuka Hiva, the largest and northernmost of the main Marquesan islands. It took us 3 and a half days to sail only 140 miles! We were hesitant to motor for several reasons. While we were in Fatu Hiva we had a voltage spike while charging our batteries with the engine and blew up our battery monitor, regulator, and LED anchor light. This meant that we had no idea how topped off our batteries were and charging our batteries using the engine was no longer possible. This meant that we had to turn off our refrigerator (a power hog), minimize our other power usage until we could reconstruct our charging capabilities and jerry rig a new anchor light. Fortunately, with the generous help of other cruisers, we were able to find a home for our cold food, borrow an alternator temporarily and locate a spare regulator (since our spare apparently was no longer working.)

At any rate, we finally arrived in Nuka Hiva, in Taiohae, (Garth's first international landfall 25 years ago) the biggest town in the Marquesas. Even though this is a much bigger town than we've seen since Mexico, this is a tiny village by anyone's standards. But we have enjoyed more modern conveniences, like touring the multiple food stores, a hardware store, artisan stores and catching up with email for the first time in a long time. We got out of bed at 4:30am to visit the vegetable and fish market (everything was gone by 6:30am) - since we knew we needed to stock up on vegetables while we could, and attended a Catholic mass and enjoyed the singing, the flowers and the brightly colored floral shirts and dresses.

At the moment we have a visa for 3 months, have already used over a month of our time, and do not yet know whether we will be able to extend it so we can stay to enjoy the charms of French Polynesia a little longer. We will stop on one more island in the Marquesas, Oa Pou (pronounced wahpo), a cruiser favorite, before we leave the Marquesas. In about a week, we'll head on to the isolated Tuamotus for several weeks and then visit the Society Islands, which include the more famous islands of Tahiti, Bora Bora, and Moorea. We plan to be in Tahiti by July 1 and stay for Fete, which is a month long celebration of French Polynesian Culture that encompasses French Bastille day (July 14th), featuring canoe races, singing and dancing competitions and more. Most cruisers plan to be there then; Papeete will be a zoo at that time, but is not to be missed.

Our rough plans are to continue on to the Southern Cook Islands, Niue and Tonga, before ending the season in New Zealand in October. Our plans, of course, are subject to change.

Cheers,
Wendy Hinman and Garth Wilcox
S/V Velella (Wylie 31)