Tahiti

We settled in to a comfortable berth in the centre of Papeetes waterfront.
Papeete is the French Administrative capital for the whole of French Polynesia. In the park there's a statue to Loius de Bougainville the 'discoverer ' of Tahiti despite the fact that Captains Wallis and Cook arrived here some time before. In the 1840s the French did a deal with Queen Pomaire and made the place a French protectorate. The Pomaire dynasty only got going 50 years earlier using stolen guns from the Bounty to subdue their local opposition. King Pomaire11 succumbed to the missionaries adopting Christianity and abolishing traditional beliefs, and his daughter Queen Aimata Pomaire's agreement in 1842 turned them into puppet rulers, in exchange for a lifetime annuity and a symbolic role.

De Bougainville went back to France via Brazil and picked up a few plants including the subtly named Bougainvillia. His statue is surrounded by cannon from the French battleship Zellee, which got sunk in the First World War by two German Cruisers that wanted to recoal. They also blew up half of Papeete.
Another German Count Felix von Lucknow ran a notorious 3 masted privateer the 'Seeadler' in these waters at the turn of the century sinking 19 ships. He was eventually wrecked off Maupihaa reef in 1917 but returned some 20 years later in 1937 , some say to recover his horde of loot.

Bougainville Park

Today the French are reasonably well tolerated and provide excellent healthcare and education for the islanders, although there is an independence movement, and the locals are still seriously exercised about French nuclear testing. During our stay a Japanese peace ship arrived from Nagasaki. In a ceremony at a memorial to Nuclear victims which we witnessed; the Japanese were told of the 196 nuclear devices exploded on Mauroora Atoll, the last one in 1996. The Tahitians are worried about radioactivity affecting their fishing,  the possibility of underground collapse causing a Tsunami, and compensation for the workers and their families who either died or still suffer from radiation sickness. They described themselves as fighting the legal system of a great colonial power that was not on their side.

We went on a bit of a spending spree on Friday. Off came the foresail and off to the sailmakers for a new UV strip. We  bought a few other goodies for the boat as we had not seen the inside of a chandlers since Panama. John who is a very handy engineer managed to get a more permanent repair of the mast head light than I had and also at Colin's suggestion ingeniously drilled out the core of our broken  Spanish Gas bottle switch for which there were no parts, so we can use the Spanish bottles as spares.

Walking around town is interesting. Most shops and businesses are owned by the Chinese as Tahitians do not really have a business culture. They love singing and dancing to the accopaiment of ukeleles and drums, and they are frequently moving fast in their out rigger canoes around the harbour which they race at the Heiva festival in July. They are great fishermen, farm generally at a subsistence level and just dont see the point of beavering away and amassing vast quantities of wealth. Elderly Tahitians often complain about the youngsters not wanting to get involved in farming , but it might just be a generation thing. There do seem to be a lot of young people hanging about in the villages with no obvious form of employment, quite a few of whom are markedly obese.There is also a large transvestite community in the islands. Its quite common for a family with a lot of boys to dress one of them up as a girl on a permanent basis.

The Market is a vibrant place. Fresh fish, vegetables and other produce are sold along with beautiful necklaces and ornaments made from sea shells and Black pearls. We eat out at a large open air square where vans of every description arrive and are transformed into individual restaurants with surrounding tables with music and singing from a band with multiple ukeleles and a drummer. All this and half the price of a regular restaurant. On other evenings Susanne has revved  up the cooking to Cordon Blue standards with fresh produce from the market.

The indoor market

This stay has been complicated by another shoulder dislocation which I managed climbing the marina railings when we were locked out. This time Colin's and Johns best efforts failed to get a result and I went down to the local hospital , where Ketamine and a boot in the axilla courtesy of Dr Gerome Lecroix got it back in. The A&E department was most impressive with a nurse initially attempting an expert manipulation and placing  an intravenous line. In view of all the bother I have booked in with the local orthopaedic surgeon Dr Muller ( ex chef de clinic ) in Paris for a proper repair.

We said sad goodbyes to Susanne super chef and John ace engineer who seem to have to return to a mysterious world called work. My old school pal Hugh Clifford and sailing and skiing mate Tony Power have arrived on the big bird and are already cracking jokes , re introducing Colin and I to a dissolute shore life . I don't know how we will survive a month.

Show me the way to go home!

On Wednesday 4. June we left Papeete on a short passage to Cooks Bay , Moorea. The island was previously used by Tahitian Royalty to fatten their princesses up prior to marriage. The bay is approached by a well marked pass through the reef, and surrounded by mountains. We sailed up to a tranquil anchorage at the head of the bay, and went ashore to enjoy the Bali Hai club ashore , an establishment friendly to cruising boats that provides internet, showers, a book exchange and cold beers. I have been commuting by taxi and ferry to Papeete for out patient appointments and CT scans while the lads have been chilling . After a couple of days we sailed round the corner to Oponuhu Bay. James Cook actually landed here and in a move unusual for him set fire to a number of huts because the locals had stolen a goat. Robinson's cove a picturesque spot in the heart of the bay was used to film Mutiny on the Bounty.

Let me out of here!

Kika at anchor within the reef

We Anchored in three different places, eventually ending up in an anchorage pool just off the large intercontinental hotel where you pay £350 a night for a room. We sneaked in using the dinghy , posing as hotel guests and enjoyed a swim in the eternity swimming  pool and their internet and paid for it with a rather expensive beer. The boys went snorkelling at feeding time organised by the hotel and were surrounded by stingrays and black tipped reef sharks which don't attack people.

Part of the hotel complex

We met two lovely New Zealanders Margaret and Bill Thorpe from Gisbourne on the North Island. They paddled out in a canoe to the anchorage. Bill seemed to grow and distribute an awful lot of Kiwi fruit, but like many entrepreneurs he seemed to create opportunities for others with numerous projects that he had started and handed over. They were both big hearted people.
On the following morning the wind got up making the anchorage uncomfortable. We had a bit of trouble getting the anchor up, it had caught on some coral but finally freed after we had driven over it a few times. Repairing to beautiful calm Cooks bay , we sampled the delights of local Tahitian dancers at the Bali Hai Club. Hugh got into the swing of it when he was invited up and swung his knees like a local with a bit of encouragement from a beautiful grass skirted lady. Tony has the video.

Hugh shows the locals how to really move!

Tony who is a top class jeweller, bought some indidual black pearls that he could mount back home . Pearl farming is complex, young oysters are harvested and then a small part of another oyster is injected into their reproductive organ. The shell then secretes regular layers of nacre around this foreign body forming the pearl and the shells are harvested some 4 years later. The valuable pearls are those with no marks or imperfections. However it takes a magnifying loop to tell the difference.

Food was easy with freshly caught slices of local Tuna from the fishermen at the roadside making a delicious Sashimi with Wasabi paste stirred up in Soy sauce as a dip, courtesy of Hugh and Tony .Colin and I are putting on weight! Fishing inside the reef is not a good idea because of the danger of Ciguatera poisoning(a nasty neurotoxin that has a cumulative effect).

Sunday 15 June saw us beating back to windward to Papeete and Tahiti. Going just 20 miles backwards against the wind was surpringly hard going. We sailed past the town of Papeete to a different pass that took us in to the Lee of Point Venus and a very welcoming manager at the Tahiti Yacht Club who came out in his boat to help us moor up. At the club  bar, Lena the proprietress invited us over to eat our take away pizzas and introduced us to a modest middle aged lady called Dominique who lived on a boat and taught IT. She happened to mention that in the 70s she was a singlehander racing across the Atlantic from Plymouth. 500 miles out from Lands End she was hit by a freighter that didn't stop. The boat was seriously damaged so she controlled the leaks and headed back to Cornwall. Two days later the boat sank and she took to her dinghy. In those days many boats including hers did not have a radio. Fortunately she was seen by a fishing boat and picked up. What a lady!

just another day on the beach!

Hugh and Tony prepare for battle

Triumphant Tony after Hugh goes under

Hugh prepares revenge

We've been in Touch with our Dutch friends Maarten and Bea. Maarten had a small clot in his Carotid artery break off and cause transient neurological damage. He was seen by a visiting opthalmologist in Makemo Atoll in the Tuamotous islands who diagnosed the problem and flew him back to Tahiti taking him to the hospital in his own car. He's now doing well on anticoagulants, and the public hospital he is staying in is first class with a beautiful modern building,  staffed largely by French doctors and nurses . However Bea is stranded in Makemo some two days sail away with no crew. Tony and Hugh have kindly agreed to fly out while I'm recovering from shoulder surgery and they will sail back with Bea. It will be good for them to see a proper pacific atoll and sail a lovely old Dutch Gaff Rigger.
While I've been in Hospital the lads went on a day trip by Catamaran to the nearby uninhabited Atoll of Teratoia where there is no pass and you have to surf over the reef in a dinghy. They had a splendid day snorkeling and wandering around the atoll to see the bird life with a barbecue lunch on the beach. My operation went smoothly , the only problem is that I've got to keep my arm in a sling for 2-3weeks.

And finally ...some birds.....

Polynesian Booby bird, striking blue eyes and beak, feet a bit drab!

..in contrast to the blue footed Booby found in the Galapagos

Hugh and Tony are fascinated by boobies

but off she flies...

Nuku Hiva to Tahiti

Nuku Hiva and it's port Tahoie in which we anchored is the main administrative centre for the Marquesas. We dinghied ashore to find Kevin an American who runs a yacht services company with a can do attitude. If he couldn't do something he would get in touch with someone who did. He's managed to repair our spinnaker at very reasonable rates, hopefully solve our SSB software issues, and refill all our gas bottles. The internet works well in the dockside cafe which is full of cruising sailors swapping stories over a glass of Pamplamouse and Guava juice which is delicious.

Twice a week at 6 am its possible to buy fresh veg including lettuce and tomatoes on the dockside where large quantities of freshly caught tuna are also cut up and sold. The remnants are fed to the sharks which go into a feeding frenzy just off the dinghy dock. Musicians often come down to the waterfront, and one night Colin and I joined them with the fiddle when they were playing at the birthday party of a young gendarme in the gendarmerie. It was good fun, we were courteously looked after and it was interesting to talk to the birthday boy who was 25 , spoke excellent English and was on 3 month rotations between Martinique, Guadelope, the Marquesas and Iraq of all places. The French seem to have a fast track system for their bright boys. When we announced Peters departure at the cop shop the next day, we were treated like old friends. The paperwork could not have been easier! 

Peter had a great day quad biking over the mountains , some of the tracks he described as like driving over the Crib Goch ridge on  Mount Snowdon , while Colin and I went up into the mountains with a lady called Sabine to go horse riding for the afternoon.  Her farm was about 6,000 feet above sea level and it was interesting to see the lush vegetation change to lichen clad conifers in the hills. Sabines family rent their land from the government. There were plenty of good looking beef cattle and horses on the top. Sabine explained that a few years ago the island had brought in large numbers of New Zealand cattle to improve their breeding, and you could see healthy looking Hereford/ Limousin crosses . With no real winter the cattle stay out all year and some in the interior are wild. They hunt pigs and cattle with dogs and sometimes automatic weapons ! Things in the hills are pretty lawless. 

Peter standing above Tahoie Bay, Kika is down there!

Sabine prepares the ride

They had also tried reseeding the grassland with New Zealand grass but this had been less successful. They don't seem to take off a forage crop largely because the grass grows all year round although Sabine said it was because they couldn't afford the machinery. Most of the Islands food seems to be imported from elsewhere at subsidised prices, despite the volcanic soil being quite rich and able to support market gardening. Despite numerous hens scuttling about the island ran out of eggs when a supply boat came in late. The French support the Polynesian Islands to the tune of a billion francs a month and most of the islanders don't seem to feel any need to have a business culture.

Col and I got settled on a couple of steady horses and Sabine took us on a trail through the forest and hills. Col got thrown by a horse the last time he went riding and was most reassured by his well behaved Marquesan mare. The horses are all very slender but quite strong and hardy and are classically ridden bare back by the locals at quite a young age. The horses in the interior are wild and you got a feel for the vast areas of the island that are far from any road and totally untamed.

Sussanne Liese our friend from Las Palmas has joined us for a month. As a result things  are improving markedly in the catering, provisioning and organisation department. We said goodbye to Peter who has been a star and was planning a few days in Tahiti before heading home.

Susanne works wonders in Kika's oven 

As we had a bit of time on our hands before John Oates our next new crew member arrived, we took Kika on a circumnavigation of the island. We called into Daniels Bay a spectacular anchorage surrounded by mountains and went ashore to hike to a waterfall the next morning. We passed through a small village and arranged lunch with a gentleman called Tahitai for our return . The path wound through the forest along the course of the river , through the remains of large abandoned settlements with alters and carved Tikis. Apparently there were originally 3,000 Polynesians living in the valley. Tahitai's great great grandfather had paid them to sign some piece of paper he had cooked up with the French giving him land rights and then driven them off. As a result there's one extended family living there now.

Daniels Bay

The backdrop at Daniels Bay

Reaching the waterfall at last!

 We got lost in a mangrove plantation but eventually found our way back onto the path marked with small stone cairns to walk into a steep sided ravine at the bottom of which was a small lake which you swam through to get to a very high waterfall. You were sprayed by the waterfall totally surrounded by huge canyons of rock reaching up to the distant sky. An unforgettable experience. Somewhat the worse for wear with insect bites and blisters we had a welcome late lunch back at the village and got back on Kika by nightfall. 

The following day we beat hard against the wind all day to arrive in the lovely anchorage of Anaho bay. Colin and I walked over the mountain to the next bay where there was a road! and a place where you could buy cold drinks even on a Sunday. There were hundreds of Mango trees on the way up. Colin made a few squirrel like stores of Mangos for the return journey and determinedly bashed away at a fallen coconut that eventually produced some juice. More people are killed standing under coconut trees in the tropics than anything else! The view of the bay from the top with Kika lying in the anchorage was a true picture postcard. That evening we had three boat crews over for drinks and a good jamming session with two guitars and the fiddle.

Susanne at Anaho Bay

Colin's mango stash

Its tough out here!

Entertaining fellow yachts aboard Kika

at the top of the pass above Anaho

The next day we lounged around and then went snorkelling off the dinghy looking at Manta rays on the reef. Unfortunately in trying to haul myself back up into the dinghy I re dislocated my shoulder. I swam to the rocks and sat there. Colin went back to Kika and got help from our Austrian  friends David and Bella Sturm who recovered me in their rib. We got back on board and it was the same routine Iv Morphine self administered and Colin did a very slick job getting the joint back in with very little pain compared to last time. I think the capsule definitely needs tightening up when we get home. We went over and had a lovely dinner with David and Bella our on their beautifully maintained Sadler 29, called Admetus.  David likes British boats and expressed an interest in upgrading to a Rival 38 like Kika when we get to Australia. We knew he was interested when he snorkelled underneath to look at the keel, so you never know it may work out.

David and Bella on their Sadler 29

We had a tough day beating around the headland at the North Eastern end of the island to get back  to Taihoie Bay. There was a foul tide, considerable swell and it was hard to lay a course without motor sailing even after rounding the headland.
We returned to diesel , water and provision the boat. John Oates my old ENT buddy from Burton on Trent  showed up at midday on 15 May in a paramo suit ( colloquially called the Ryan Air kangaroo coat for taking extra weight). Despite it's high tech qualities even John had to admit to our friendly Gendarme that he was a bit hot.

On the evening of 15 May we went 3 miles to anchor in Daniels bay and escape the swell in Taihoie bay apparently caused by weather over 1,000 miles South of us. After settling John and Susanne into the boat we set off on the 540 mile trip to Apataki atoll in the Tuamotous atolls at 10 the next morning on the 16 May.

Once we had cleared the Islands a 20 knot SE wind kicked in. We were on a beam reach and cracking along at 7 knots. There was a bit of a sea which affected our new crew members, who coped with seasickness very well. We moved Susanne back amidships from the fore cabin where the motion was more comfortable. On the first night we put in a reef in the main and reduced the genoa . Kika steered well on the windvane and at 6.5 knots the Duogen propellor charges the batteries well.

Over the first 48 hours we covered 300 miles, a record for Kika.  We eat very well courtesy of Susanne who makes remarkable dishes out of leftovers. The SSB radio is now working very well and were getting a good signal to Manihi for E mails and downloading GRIB files which show the wind easing as we near the Tuamotus atolls.

Our plan is to go to Apatiki where there is a boatyard that can haul out Kika at cheap rates. We're not sure if they will be able to sell us the right anti fouling so if they can't we won't haul out and will just snorkel clean with scrapers under the boat 

Approaching an atoll is a hazardous business. Because they lie only 6-8 feet above sea level, you don't see the reefs till the last minute. You get into the atoll by going through gaps in the reef called passes. The tide can rip in and out of these passes so it is important to time entry at relatively slack water and in the morning when the sun is overhead and you can see unmarked areas of coral . We will probably haul someone up onto the spreaders with Polaroid sun specs to act as a spotter. It's no wonder these atolls are referred to by mariners as the dangerous Islands. Our plan is to get near to Apataki and then heave to so as to approach the atoll early in the morning. 

We hove to during the night and reached the North western pass to Apatiki atoll at 8am in time for slack water. The pass itself was fine ,but there was some choppy water just inside where the end of the flood tide met the ebb . It was 17 miles across the atoll against the wind to the Carenage , so we beat across the atoll narrowly missing an unmarked reef on one occasion. John was very handy as a spotter on the bows. The other hazard was buoys from the pearl farmers. 
We arrived in the afternoon, surveyed the island with its blanched white coral beach, coconut trees and clear water . We picked up a mooring and dinghied ashore to meet Alfred and Tony Lau who live on this tropical paradise.

Apatiki

John revs it up!

The family own the island and five years ago switched from pearl farming to running a Carenage for cruisers. You can store your boat ashore and have it tied down with straps attached to enormous concrete blocks to withstand a cyclone or they can arrange a haul out and pressure washing service where you do your own anti fouling at very reasonable prices. We rumaged around in Toni's store and found an old tin of black Joton anti fouling - perfect!

We strolled round the island, stepping over numerous hermit crabs which scuttled across the path. The island has its fair share of rats imported off visiting ships centuries ago and in the reef sharks get active at night so it's best to go snorkelling in the middle of the day.

We arranged a haul out and had coffee with Alfred. He is a shrewd man . He used to grow peals for the Japanese and even sent his son Tony to Paris to learn about being a jeweller . However when the Chinese got involved the price dropped and he started the Carenage. He wanted to have a cafe and bar for the yachties, but was told that European regulations would have to apply regarding seating, disabled access ,toilets etc. Completely bonkers for a Pacific Atoll in the middle of nowhere and surprising that the French (who like rules only because they can break them) applied these ones.

On Wednesdaday Toni was a bit late getting the lift out organised so we arranged it for the next day and did some Jobs on Kika instead. John took another look at the shower pump which had baffled Colin and I.  He gave the inlet pipe one big blow and triumphantly dislodged a wad of pubic hair( exhibit A - wrong colour for any current members of crew). We really need to glass in a pre filter on the bottom of the shower tray. When I  had previously blown down the pipe air had bubbled out but obviously not well enough. We also changed the engine raw water impeller and after fiddling around with a few other things we seem to have got to the bottom of the snag list- hurray!

We eventually hauled out on Thursday 23 May. Tony led us in with his dinghy past the reefs and then snorkelled under the boat to position the pads on the trailer. He used a JCB to pull us up the slipway and then took the trailer away applying poles tapping the hull to check for the strong points. The pressure wash was not particularly powerful leaving quite a lot of flaking paint on the hull. It was a good job we came out . The Prop anode was very worn despite having been replaced in Panama and the prop cutter bearings and anode required replacing. Colin also banged out a seized seacock on the toilet outflow which we regreased. The bottom of the Joton tin had rusted causing a leak , so we lost a bit of anti fouling and just managed to get the tin to do the whole hull with judicious use of thinners. We finished the job in the heat of the day , got all the protective clothing off and jumped in the water to cool off before Toni put us expertly back in the water. The bill was probably half of what we would have been charged in Tahiti. 

The last lift out was in Ireland, 11,000 sea miles away.

applying the finishing touch to the anti foul

That evening we were invited by Toni and Alfred to a family barbecue. We had a wonderful evening. The barbecue was cooked on coconut husks and the chicken and pork were absolutely delicious. We met a Turkish cruising couple, Salem and Nadine originally from Istanbul. Salem was an orthopaedic surgeon and chairman of his department. However he had left Turkey because of the political situation . The religious parties have taken over turning Turkey from a secular state into a theocracy and interfere with every aspect of life . He told us that 2 million people demonstrated against the government but we're bombed by their own troops. These events go largely unreported because the government owns the media. 

The following day John ,Colin and Susanne went snorkelling in beautifully clear water while I joined Alfred who went to the village to pick up his wife and first grand daughter from the plane arriving from Tahiti. While the girls were getting organised we banged about for 3 hours on the reef outside the atoll and eventually landed a large dorado. It reassured me that we were fishing the lures correctly, but we need to improve our tackle with heavier line , a steel trace and a bungee cord to absorb the shock of the first take. We returned to the Carenage with two grandmothers and a great grandmother . Little Colli who was just two months old sheltered under an oily and bounced about, laughing and smiling all the way . Obviously born to Life on a tropical atoll.

Crystal clear waters in Apataki

We left the Carenage on Saturday 25 May and had a lovely gentle sail downwind for 2 hours under genoa to enter the Southern pass and turn off into a lagoon near the village where we picked up a mooring. We had a stroll round the village and watched a spear throwing competition where the lads were throwing light spears underarm to hit a coconut on a very high pole. They were amazingly accurate .
We strolled past the airport where Colin stood on the runway waiting for a non existent plane to take him away and looked over the dock into amazingly clear water where we watched an octopus change colour as it reached a rock becoming indistinguishable from it's surroundings, with just a long tentacle emerging every so often to catch an unsuspecting fish . The village shop opened for an hour in the evening, so we turned up there to watch a middle aged lady dropping off from the back of her land rover a superb catch of dorado(mahi mahi in Polynesian ), bonito and a huge Tazar with evil looking jaws. She had caught them herself!
Supplies were limited. No eggs or milk until the next boat but such is Island life and we were able to pick up some cold beers.

Sunday 26 May was a hard day. We were headed for Anse Mayo a little inlet on the North West coast of Taou a neighbouring atoll, lured by the prospect of a lobster restaurant ashore. It was only 23 miles but tacking into the wind with an adverse current in the afternoon was hard work. Susanne has a good feel for the wind and will make a good helms woman . As we approached Taou we ceased to make progress and ended up using the iron donkey (engine), lined up the leading marks and eventually picked up a buoy belonging to a restaurant owned by Gaston and Valentine that was unfortunately closed because it was Sunday and again on Monday because Valentine was recovering from an all night party on Sunday night. Goodbye lobster - but that's the way it is on an atoll! They open when they feel like it! No wonder they're worried about the Chinese. We met their pet booby bird instead who got very friendly while Valentine was stroking him , but pecked at the rest of us.

Valentine and the bird!

In the day we went snorkelling with the reef sharks ,Colin to his great joy found a rusty old Columbian machete ashore which he has bought on board together with a variety of coconuts that need splitting. We had the crew of our German neighbours over for dinner although Werner the skipper had moved from Germany to Vancouver 15 years ago.

We left Toau on Tuesday 28 May in the afternoon setting off on a comfortable broad reach for Papeete , Tahiti, 230 miles away. The wind increased to 25 knots overnight so we took in a second reef, goose winged the Genoa and plan to arrive early on Thursday morning after a few hours of heaving to as we were whizzing along at 7 knots for a while. At first light on Thursday we picked up the bearing line through the reef for Papeete harbour , got called up by harbour control telling us we should have called 5 minutes earlier but finally giving us entry permission. We turned to port onto another set of leading marks just inside the entrance , found the yacht pontoon where we stern moored to the quay which was a bit of a performance as we had to change position and fouled our anchor on one of the lazy lines  from our neighbours boat. The tripping hook my mother had bought me  worked well and got us off .We're right in the centre of town which will be good for sorting everything out but today is a public holiday so plenty of time to chill. The pontoon even has fresh water - brilliant!

The Marquesas

We had arrived at Hiva Oa on Easter Monday. 

Easter Monday dawns. Landfall.

After twenty five days at sea we can smell the land.

Our anchorage, Hiva Oa

Our friends Martin and Bea from Heera came aboard and we surveyed the damage following our long passage of over 3000miles.. Two ripped sails, a jammed Duogen water impeller , a dodgy masthead light, a loose rudder casing, a blown inverter,a failed shower pump and a hull that looked like a trawler as it was covered in barnacles, especially Toledo worms towards the stern. It could have been a lot worse after over 3,000 miles of downwind pounding. But Rivals are tough boats and stand up to punishment .

Kika, a little worse for wear.

We went ashore to a little hut where there was an outside freshwater shower  - marvellous ! There was also internet access which you paid for both at the hut and in town at the post office. Both these facilities involved money up front and rubbish access. Very frustrating for all cruising folk unable to communicate with home.

The internet hut plus locals out for a paddle

Removing barnacles after weeks at sea

The road to town is about a mile. The island and all the marquesas are like a big garden. Beautiful Hibiscus plants with different colours, bougainvillea flowers and many others grow everywhere.  They have no scent and rely totally on outrageous colouring to attract insects.The trees grow Pamplamouse a sweet sort of grapefruit, bananas, coconuts, breadfruit, mangoes, limes, oranges and other fruits. There were surprisingly few flies but very large wasps that didn't seem too troublesome and many bees feeding on the flowers . The Islands are a bee keepers paradise with sunshine,warm temperatures , light winds and flowers all the year round.

In town we found the main bar (Maki Makis )run by an amiable Frenchman) and settled down to coconut water from a straw into the top of a green coconut that had been kept in the fridge - delicious! Combined with a couple of very cold beers. We had arrived! We followed it up with an excellent steak in the other restaurant which boasted internet access but only for its overnight guests ,not for people having a meal -  grrrrr! 

On  Tuesday 22 April we walked towards town early in the morning to stretch our legs in the cool of the day. The main road is concreted , the electricity supply is up to European standards and all public buildings are of good quality. The French are very much in charge, and seem to have had a bad conscience following the international outcry created by their nuclear testing at Mururoa atoll . The last test was in 1996 and you can still see ban the bomb signs painted on lamposts which encompass the views of the locals. There is a small naval base and gendarmerie on the island with French officers with the other ranks provided by the islanders. 
One of the few benefits of being in the EEC was that as British citizens we did not require a visa and did not have to leave a deposit in the way of a bond , like our American and Australian friends. We just filled in a form, handed over our documents to a smiling gendarme and that was that - amazing after the Panamanian and Ecuadorian pantomime.
The town of Atuona has some 600 souls who are universally friendly. Last year there was an incident of cannibalism where a sailor got eaten, but as our Dutch friends explained he was German and well padded and therefore a very tempting target. Paul Gauguin the famous French painter spent the autumn days of his life here after leaving his wife and numerous children stranded in France without support. He had further Polynesian children and his pictures of both Brittany and Polynesia adorn his centre. The colours are very vivid. Sadly for Gauguin the pictures only accumulated in value after his death , so he died an impecunious wastrel. His grave is in the local cemetery.
We got on top of most of our snags, with good advice from Martin on sail repair . The Duogen impeller did not need new bearings, just freeing up with that magic stuff WD40. There was a poor connection on the masthead light that needed cleaning and stabilizing the bulb with a short length of water pipe. We postponed the rudder and cleaning the bottom until we were in a less rolly anchorage.

We went off by taxi to see the island . Marie Jo the taxi lady took us along with the crews of Alba and Baraka to some of the archaeological sites and beautiful bays at the North end of the island. The only real cash crop from the island is copra . Coconut shells are left to dry out in the sun and then bagged and sent off to make coconut oil which fetches a good price. Fruit trees especially bananas grow everywhere but are mainly for local consumption. The local horses are quite slender but strong and the Marquesans are splendid bare back horsemen , good at controlling very jittery young horses. Goats graze most places and there are one or two cattle, but it is too hot for sheep. 

Our friends from yachts Alba and Baraka

The taxi took us through the mountains and rain forest area and down precarious single track dirt roads which wound down cliff faces to the beautiful bay of of Tau Mau. . There we visited the ancient religious site containing many statues with "tikis" (heads) and a large stone carved fish. 1500 years ago if you were a big cheese and had a lot of "mana" ( big in everything) you would be likely to get a tiki made. However if you were at the other end of the social scale the only time you would get into this religious site would be to end up on the slab as a human sacrifice. Colin climbed a pamplmouse tree at this sacred site and we took a load back to the boat with us. He will need to go to confession as soon as possible. 

With pamplamouse

Down in the bay there were then stone remains of an old plantation house. In the 18th century the French bought large numbers of black people from Martinique and Chinese as indentured labour to work the land. However erratic rainfall and droughts made the plantations fail and the population of the Islands went from 18,000 to around 6,000 native Polynesians who stayed on. 

The religious site, Me'ae Lipona

Three men with big Tikis

Is it a fish?

Mary Jo is our tour guide

and this is the area for human sacrifice 

We had a splendid lunch of local food . Particularly delicious was the poison cru . Marinaded fresh fish in coconut milk with onion , cucumber and tomato blended in and eaten cold. It was great to talk to experienced cruising folk like David and Jan from Baraka who had already been around once and strongly recommended Vanuatu as a place to visit. 

No shortage of wind!

The northern coast of Hiva Oa

Peter showing off his beard

We said goodbye to Ceri , who sadly has to return to work on the 28th April. We couldn't have wished for a better shipmate for the long 3,000 mile haul than Ceri known to his close mates as the enteropath ! (Look it up in a medical dictionary)














We hauled anchor on 26 April and went around the corner to Tahuata Island where we anchored in a beautiful sheltered bay with a sandy shore lined by Palm trees. Idyllic! We got the dinghy out. Pete scrubbed the top sides while Colin and I dived under the boat to do the bottom. Everything looked good. The anodes were all in position , the rudders attachment to the skeg was solid and we managed to get nearly all the barnacles off. At the end of it Kika looked respectable again .

The bay where cleaned Kika and swam ashore to hunt coconuts

Kika at sunset, Tahuata Island

and the anchorage by day.

We went snorkelling with Neville from Alba who told us how to improve our free diving technique. You relax totally on the surface taking long slow breaths to hyper oxygenate . Then dive down with the aid of a 3lb weight belt and fins performing the valsalva manoeuvre and equalizing ear pressure all the way down . Colin swam under the keel and I got down to the anchor. Snorkelling on the reef there were large Manta Rays cruising about and some white tipped sharks in the distance. The reef fish are a fantastic variety of colours.
On 27 April we went a further 3 miles South to the main bay of the island where there was a small village Vaitahu the capital. In the morning we dinghies ashore to go shopping and discovered there was no beer or much else as the supply ship from Tahiti had not arrived! We met Marie Christine and her husband Jean who showed us round and took us for lunch 

on their small holding. The Catholic Church was entirely built by the islanders. It is beautiful. The stonework is of excellent quality as is the stained glass window. The wood carvings on the lectern and were superb and incorporated ancient local tradition. There is also a small archaeology museum from an American dig which descended in layers through different epochs. The migration of the Polynesian people from China to  Fiji, Tonga, Tahiti and finally the Marquesas was routed. Looking around the island faces there are some Chinese features.

Catholic church..

..in a peaceful setting.

Marie Christine was a very youthful grandmother capable of climbing orange trees for us at her own grandmothers house . Her  grandchildren therefore had a great great grandmother still alive! We walked up to their small holding, met the pigs goats,poultry, dogs and cats all of whom got on very peaceably and after shaking down a few coconuts from the tree had coconut juice cooled down with ice and a splendid lunch of poison cru and red snapper. Marie Christine's dad is the village fisherman.
After lunch we walked up with Jean and Marie Christine to a cross overlooking the bay . There were some good quality Hereford cross cattle grazing on the top, but when it's dry their owner has to carry water to them every day in his jeep. At the top we gazed at the magnificent view with Kika in the middle of the sparkling bay. We had a good chat. Island life is hard because there are not many sources of income generation. They would like a motor vehicle but couldn't afford it. Their children start at primary school on the island and then go to board at secondary school in Hiva Oa, coming back for long holiday weekends and the school holidays. Apparently they don't get homesick but have a whale of a time away from parental discipline. University is an option for some and can be in Tahiti, France or America but is pretty expensive and beyond most families budgets. Not many graduates return. 
At home they speak a melange of French and Marquesan. Their generation were forced to speak French in school and punished for speaking Polynesian which they resented. However encouraged by some American scholars who compiled a proper dictionary there has been a language revival and all their children speak Marquesan at school. Just like Wales! The language has only 12 or so letters and sounds quite guttural. 
They were both very curious about Kika and all it's gadgets when they came aboard for a look round and it was great fun spending the day with them.

Marie Christine and Jean aboard Kika

On the anchorage we met Dave and Catriona from Crosshaven in Cork who play the  squeeze box and flute respectively . I bought the fiddle over and we had a great evening playing Irish music, it was also good to look at their fishing tackle which has 200 lb line , steel traces and a bungee cord in the middle to take the strain of the fish when it first bites. We need to revise our tackle as we are losing too many lures on the first take. During the day we had a serious go at the rudder stock casing. Colin managed to squeeze himself into an almost upside down position in the stern locker and was able to get a socket spanner underneath the flange holding nuts which we took out and re greased. Three out of four tightened up brilliantly and we're pretty sure the rudder is secure now so the snag list has fallen dramatically! 

Not for eating..this one went back!

On the evening of the 30th April after a brief stop at our favourite snorkelling bay we set off on an overnight passage for Ua Poa some 62 miles away. The wind was a steady 10-15 knots with a lovely beam reach under a star studded sky creaming along at 5-6 knots . We arrived in the morning in the main town Hakahau in the North with a spectacular background to the anchorage of a ring of mountains and huge gherkin like rock structures poking up into the clouds. The town was largely shut down because it was the Mayday holiday, however we found a bar for lunch and Pete sniffed out a shop that was open even selling beers. 

At 6 am on the 2 may the wind came round to the east and we set off on an easy 25mile day sail to Nuku Hiva which may even have good internet! We arrived in the huge bay of Taiohae which could anchor a fleet of warships and went ashore to the land of plenty.