April 9, 2008

Today we have to go ashore to check in. We were late meeting Sandra, they were dredging the bay and made us move our boat. We got wet going ashore. Once at customs I had forgotten to fill out the paperwork Sandra gave me yesterday, so that slowed everything down plus the writing was difficult to read and I didn’t understand it all. Stu didn’t bring his airline ticket so they wouldn’t stamp our passports or do anything without it. So we had to go back the next morning. At that time we had to pay 49,500 francs/$688.00US. It is amazing how much it all cost. There is a rumor that there will be a large swell coming in the bay tomorrow. Several boats were leaving the anchorage to avoid it and the dredging. Stu decided to go ashore and do his laundry, there was a faucet he could use.

April 10, 2008

5 loud blasts woke us up from our sleep! The supply ship could not get in the bay our boat was in the way. We had to move, it was just getting light. What a wake up call! We all got up and pulled up our anchors and found a new spot. Hopefully we won’t have to move again. It is very shallow here, but we plan to leave once we check in and meet Charisma on the other side of the island. We go to town and get checked in, it was pretty quick, so then we had Sandra take us to her house to check our email. Her home was 15 minutes or less from town, so it was a nice little island tour. Interesting house too, the kitchen/dining room was a separate building and more like an open air type place, it was probably to keep varmints that the kitchen could draw, away from the bedrooms and living room. The internet was in the dining room which had nice teak floors and a tree split in half for a bench, a little rustic but nice enough. Sandra told me they order groceries from Papeete and the ship brings them once a week. She orders clothes from a catalog. That explains why the stores don’t have much. Back at the marina it is chaos as a ship is unloading cars, lumber and who knows what else. There were a lot of people running here and there. We get to the tourist center and Paul and Gina are there waiting for Sandra to bring them their laundry, $30 per load. I guess I keep doing laundry with these prices. The gal at the tourist hut had pamplemoose for sale, we thought it was grapefruit. We bought two, they were big like a bowling ball and sweet, very good. They cost 150 francs each, I had no idea what they should cost but later found them for 50 francs and even free or for trade. Stu bought cornbread and shared some, it was so good! On the way back to our boat the dinghy engine died so Stu and I rowed us back. Once back on Airwego, we wanted to leave but the boat in front of us was over our anchor and no one was on board, so we had to just wait. The wind soon changed directions and caused the boat to move off our anchor, so we quickly pulled it up, no sooner did we finish and the wind swung back. We barely made it out. Sailing out was good, but we motor sailed to charge our batteries. The wind picked up as we rounded the island and on our nose, as Mike says so we decided to go to a closer anchorage, Hanamenu for protection. We won’t meet up with Charisma today and we can’t reach them either. As we went along dolphins followed us for a long time, they are very fun. Hanamenu was a great spot and no one else was there so we didn’t have to worry about where we anchored so much.

April 11, 2008

Charisma is meeting us here. Mike reached them on the SSB, that is great news. So after breakfast we went ashore with our shampoo and soap Vari said there was an ‘idyllic pool’ where you could bathe. Sounded good to us and we found it. It was cold but nice, we washed our hair. While we waited for Charisma we walked around but saved the hiking for when they arrived. Stu found coconuts to crack open and did general boy stuff. He seemed to be having fun! When Charisma came we hiked around and found ruins and or graves, saw wild horses and cows. We gathered limes, coconuts, mangos and passion fruit and got a couple more pamplemoose. There were huts near the beach and one house but no one seemed to be currently living here. It started raining and we ran to the hut for protection, not that we really needed it. We took one last dip in the pool before heading back to our boat. The tide was out and lots of rocks were exposed plus we saw small sharks. Mike and I pushed the boat out to deeper water and then Stu started rowing until it was deep enough to use the engine. Mike made top ramen for lunch. Stu cut up passion fruit and tried to collect the juice. He also cut up one of the coconuts and we ate the meat, it was so good. Mike moved the stern anchor as we were not pointing in the right direction which would roll our boat around, I want a peaceful night sleep. Kristen invited us to dinner and I brought a rice dish. She made goat cheese appetizers and tuna cooked in mojito sauce, it was very good. Very great evening enjoyed by everyone.

April 12, 2008

Boats seem to come and go in this anchorage but by night fall it was just Charisma and us. This morning we go to check out the bay next door where our guide book said not to anchor there. We took our dinghy, it was quite a distance in our little dinghy. It was a beautiful beach with white sand and clear water and huge surf. We didn’t land our dinghy as Charisma was swamped 3 times trying to get out and they have a bigger engine than us. The beach we were on was not clear and the sand was gray. Stu, Kristen and I decided to go ashore again and the girls went to the pool again and washed our hair again. Stu and Kevin, who kayaked in decided to hike around. Stu collected shells. On our way back to our boat we were swamped by two waves, Stu rowed and Kristen and I bailed water until we were deep enough and I started the engine. We made it but we were soaking wet, so much for that bath. I invited Charisma to dinner tonight and we made Pad Thai and Kristen made Thai soup. We had a nice visit and discussed sailing plans. Once they left, there were tons of dirty dishes, so I washed and Mike dried, Stu seems to disappear when the dishes need done. Tonight some locals came in a power boat. We had been watching 4 goats on the bluff and they shot 3 of them. One was crying, we think it was shot but not killed, finally they shot it again and the crying stopped L I guess goats are a main staple here and are frequently hunted. They climbed the bluff and threw off the goats into the water and the person on the boat collected them from the water. Later we saw a bon fire.

April 13, 2008

We decided to leave this morning and go to the other little island just for a change of scenery. It’s raining! I made eggs with fried potatoes and onions for breakfast. We pulled up the anchors, the stern anchor was a little difficult to get up, but of course they did it. Charisma should be right behind us. We shared one of the ripest pamplemoose, it was so good! Stu is trying to dry his clothes in the rain. We just arrived at Hana Moe Noa, its so beautiful, clear water, you can see bottom at 40+ feet, so we could see where we dropped our anchor and it had hooked on coral. So we moved to a sandy bottom spot. Six boats are here including Solace. Kristen and I swam to shore, hoping we would not see sharks. Mike stayed on the boat and Stu went snorkeling. Alan went to visit Solace so Kristen and I swam over there, later Mike came over in the dinghy and got me. We all took naps and then had a late dinner and watched the Spiderman movie.

April 14, 2008

Charisma left early this morning for the Atuana, Hiva Oa to check in. Solace left too to look for a fuel permit. We are staying another day, I love it here. Nothing ashore but a white sand beach but clear water and I can swim. We all went snorkeling this morning it was so nice. Didn’t see much but being in the water is great. Stu snorkeled to shore and since it was lunch time Mike and I decided to see if he wanted a dinghy ride back to the boat, he did. We discovered Hershey kisses and pieces of coconut are great together, better than a mounds bar. Started laundry today hoping we will be able to get more water once we get back to Hiva Oa tomorrow to get our fuel permit.

April 15 2008

We had breakfast and headed back to Hiva Oa. Once we arrived Stu went to shore to get water to rinse clothes. When we were done rinsing we pour the water in the heads to clean them out. We were able to anchor in the bay even though there were lots of boats. It is Kristen’s birthday today, she is turning 55 years old. I invited her over and we watched the movie Hairspray. Funny thing is we watched it last night and Stu hated it so much he went to bed. I didn’t mind it at all, good thing since I watched twice in a row. We had iced tea and coconut with kisses! Then Mike came home with ice cream bars for us. At least Kristen got good things to eat on her birthday plus we were planning to go to pizza to celebrate. Mike also bought eggs and cookies, how great! At 6PM we went to shore to meet our ride to the pizza place. We waited a long time and he didn’t come so we started walking. It wasn’t too far but the road was dark. The driver showed up at 7PM instead and gave us a ride the rest of the way. The restaurant also gave us a ride back to our marina once we finished eating. Great pizza!

April 16, 2008

Today we gerry jugged fuel and water to our boats, what a job! Between that and laundry cruising is work! We took showers in the outdoor shower by the outrigger boat launch. A woman just finished washing clothes here, so it should be pretty clean. The water was cold but worth it just to wash your hair. We met Mary and Joel from 360 and they sold us one of there baguettes. We never found any in town, so that was great! Mike, Alan and Kevin went on a hike in search of fruit. Just as they left, it started to rain. It poured longer and harder than any time we have been cruising. Mike came back soak and wet and very muddy. His clothes did not come clean after they were washed. He brought back tons of bananas, 2 papayas, limes, and a couple of extremely hot peppers. It was great. We dipped everything in salt water and went to bed. His backpack was too dirty to bring in the boat.

April 17, 2008

We pulled anchor at 7AM and headed for Fatu Hiva, the stern anchor was very difficult to get up again. Only this time it took both guys to get it up. Once out of the bay into open water the swells were so big, not a comfortable start on our journey. Once we were sailing it was better, we were cruising at 7 and 8 knots. We have only 40 miles to go and we should make good time. We put out our fishing line and the birds actually plucked the lure right out of the water. So we pulled our line back in, we didn’t want to snag the bird. Once the birds were gone we put the line back out. Charisma could not keep up with us but in defense they caught a 40# Dorado and a 50# Wahoo and a tuna, can’t believe it, we didn’t catch anything! They bragged about their fish and we bragged about our speed. Once anchored they invited us to a fish dinner. Kristen sautéed green beans, garlic and the fish together and it was wonderful. She is a great cook!

April 18, 2008

Today I made chili and eggs and put over Stu’s cornbread, it was pretty good. This morning we have to run the generator and then we will go to town. We walked through town and up to a waterfall through the woods. It took only about an hour but it was a difficult walk. The waterfall was 200’ tall and fell straight down creating a pool of water that we could swim in. It seemed very deep. To get in it was easier to just dive off a rock. Once in I washed my hair which felt good. After we got out we saw the eel. Other cruisers told us there were eels but after we discussed it we decided no way an eel could get up here. Anyway glad we didn’t see it until after we swam. We hiked back after our swim and at one point I fell. There were lots of rocks and some of them were slippery. Stu got me a walking stick which helped to make it easier. On the way back we looked at the scenery more than on the hike there. It is so beautiful here. Some kids followed us for awhile, they just wanted candy. Kristen had brought some so she shared it with them. When she wouldn’t give them more they called her names and left, just a little ungrateful. Back at the dinghy dock, we met John and Mary from Horizon, they seem like nice people.

April 19, 2008

We have no plans today, and it is sunny and warm, pretty typical. I reorganized the food storage cupboards and the boys got water so we could wash clothes. The mud on our socks won’t wash out, not even after soaking in bleach. Horizon gave us 2 gerry cans today, they are gas but say ‘diesel’ on them, which is what we need, diesel jugs. They came over later and shared some wine with us. It was called ‘Negro Gato’ which is Black Cat, which we have bought from Trader Joes before. Then they were off to a Marquesan dinner the locals were putting on for 24 dollars each. Kristen and Alan went too. We decided it cost too much and another cruiser that participated said they were served ‘mystery chicken parts’ and that really did it for me. Although everyone claimed to have lots of fun so I was a little disappointed that we didn’t go. Stu and Kevin didn’t want to go so I made chicken enchiladas for them too. We had our own little party.

April 20, 2008

We are leaving this morning to sail 40 miles to the other side of Tahuata to Vaitahu. Charisma left about an hour ahead of us. But we should be able to catch them. Well Charisma just put their anchor down. On the way a gust of wind hit us so hard our toe rail was in the water! I was at the nav station and the water was half way up the window. We were sailing 7 to 8 knots hitting 9.5. We had a fish bite our fishing lure on the pole and snap the 80# line. So it is out there swimming with 150 feet of line hanging from his mouth, not good! Lucky for us Charisma caught a tuna on their way over and said if we would cook it for dinner and invite them over we could have it. So Stu filleted it, Mike skinned it and I cooked it. Team work. There is enough left for 3 or 4 more meals. Thank you Jesus! I made a pasta fruit salad and Kristen made a potato salad, it was all great. The sheet line hit the dodger window today so we have another cut and tape to cover it up, looking ugly! We decided to go to Nuka Hiva tomorrow, it is 90 miles away.

April 21, 2008

It is raining this morning so we can’t leave the hatches open, but it is so hot and muggy! I made biscuits in the pressure cooker, but they didn’t turn out that great. Neither did the milk gravy. Stu even threw it away, that was odd for the man who eats everything. Stu laid low today, he hurt his back climbing a hill. Mike on the other hand was quite ambitious, he put out the fishing lure, he hung the fishing pole back in the cabin, we decided the hand lines are better. He hung a net under the solar panels so we could put our fruit there. The bananas needed to ripen outside but not in direct sunlight, so this is perfect. It was loaded with bananas and pamplemoose. Kristen came over in her kayak and picked me up so we could do a hike on shore. Kevin informed us that it was difficult to get to shore because of rocks and after surveying it for ourselves, we agreed. We went to our boat and painted our toenails instead. Then I made us all lunch of tuna salad on crackers. We planned to leave for Nuka Hiva at 5PM, so I cooked Mac and Cheese and had it ready for dinner. We had rough seas and had to reef the sails, so it was good that dinner was already cooked.

April 22, 2008

We had a rough night, when it was my watch Mike stayed up with me. We had high and fluky winds. We went into Baie Du Controlleur first. There were 3 bays, we went to Hodumi first as it was the most protected from surf. Charisma wanted to check out the middle bay, so after breakfast we went there. It had lots of swell so we decided to go to Baie Anaho, the dry side of the island. What a rough sail, winds hit 30 knots and swells about 10’, I wish we would have stayed where we were. Once we arrived we had to drop the anchor 5 times before we were comfortable. There were several French boats already in the bay. Charisma gave us another tuna, thank you Jesus. Today we lost our lure that Alan made us with metal leader, bummer! Mike had to fix a cam cleat under sail that had lost a screw. He got it fixed just in the nick of time, right before a big gust of wind hit us. The bilge pump quit working, it seemed that there may have been junk floating in the water that caused it to plug up.

April 23, 2008

Beautiful morning! Bananas were ripe so I made oatmeal with tapioca and bananas with chocolate and caramel, Mike’s favorite. The plantain were ripe too so I boiled them, mashed them with butter and cornstarch, stuffed with cheese and fried. A recipe I found. They were like fritters, not bad. I also fixed another recipe “Thai fish” and then I tried BBQ sauce on the fish too. We had an appetizer type dinner. It was pretty good.

April 24, 2008

Yvonne’s birthday today! We miss those guys so much! Frank, a single handed sailor came over and wanted charts, Mike printed him some off our chart plotter. Today we went on a hike with Charisma and they invited Naomi and Brett from Fearless. They had met them while taking the ‘ham license’ test. We took our dinghy to shore and had to get out earlier than normal due to shallow water and lots of coral. Good thing we had our water socks on, or our feet could have gotten cut up. The water was extremely warm, like bath water. We put our shoes on for the hike and sprayed ourselves with cutter off. On shore there was a Christian camp and a few other houses. On our way to the other side of the bay we found an abandon camp with running water. Brett used a machete and hacked open a coconut which we shared. The center of the coconut had turned to a cotton candy type filling and we all tasted it. Brett thought it was great, but we weren’t so sure. We preferred the coconut meat. On the way we saw a watermelon patch, but it looked like someone’s farm so we decided to try and find them to buy some. On the beach we saw wild horses, sharks in the shallow water, big crabs on the beach running everywhere and stinging jelly fish on shore, Brett got stung three times, he said it stung for a long time, but he was ok. We found the owner of the garden, he lived in a small shack with boards nailed to logs, dirt floor, campfire and no door, very open and kind of dirty. We bought one small watermelon with seeds, for 1000 francs, $14. We also got two pamplemoose but we didn’t have the change so he gave them to us. We were excited to eat the melon but when we did it wasn’t that great and so expensive. We thought the farmer made out pretty good with all our purchases. He can’t have much business up in the mountains off the beaten path. He had a horse and we figured he must take his produce to town on his horse. On our way back we stopped at the camp with the running water and we all showered, without soap of course, but we felt so much better. We were all sweating again by the end of the hike and wished for that running water again. Once at the boat we had a snack as we had missed lunch, then an early dinner. Naomi and Brett came over to see if we had any DVD’s to trade just for the night. We still haven’t watched all of ours but we traded anyway. They stayed so long I wondered if they would watch them before morning when we all plan to go our separate ways. I said we had a scale so we all weighed ourselves. Mike lost about 25 pounds and I am about the same. It seems most cruising guys have lost but not so much the women, that sucks!

April 25, 2008

It is overcast this morning and we are leaving for Daniel’s Bay on Nuka Hiva with Charisma. Fearless brought our DVD’s back and they said they watched them. We also watched theirs, but didn’t really enjoy one that we had picked out. Mike enjoyed watching Matrix, Stu was tired and went to bed. We were ready to leave by 8AM, it is about 30 miles and no wind. Kristen and I have so many bug bites, even with Off spray. They really itch, there are too many too count on both of us. Stu is making a fishing lure, sure hope it works. The fish bit our lure in half, so we got a bite but no fish! Daniels Bay is very nice. We went to shore to see about getting water, our guide book said there should be some. We met Tongai, he owned the land and it had more pamplemoose than I have ever seen! He gave us 3 and wanted to trade for alcohol, we had none but he let us keep the fruit anyway. He also let us get water from his hose. We all checked out the bay next door where there is a hike to a water fall. We saw goats running on the mountain rocks, how do they do that.

April 26, 2008

We got ready this morning to go on the hike. We packed our backpacks with water, snacks and bug spray. It is approximately a 4 hour hike, so they say. It was a high tide, so we took our dinghy quite a ways up the river closer to where the hike starts. We met Augustine, apparently he is Tongai’s brother, and both were very nice. He wore a necklace made of shark vertebrae, cow and boar teeth. These are his trophies, he is a hunter. He pointed us in the right direction, down a dirt road with several houses along the way. And to our surprise a telephone booth, that actually works! Most of the houses had a roof, dirt floor and a fire pit. Some had stacked large boulders around the perimeter. We saw lots of horses, cows, dogs and chickens along the way, most were tied up, but of course not the chickens. It took us 2 hours to get to the waterfall, walking along a cobblestone type path, it was actually difficult to walk on. We crossed the river at fairly deep spots a couple of times. Once we were there it was so beautiful, the sun made everything glisten which I am sure made the effect even more beautiful. There were bugs out in force, so we sprayed ourselves again. There were mice all over, I didn’t feel comfortable sitting down, especially to eat my snack, or one of those things might just hop up in your lap! We wanted to swim but there was an eel that was about 5’ long in the water along with fresh water shrimp, so no swimming for me. Stu, Kevin and Alan hiked a little farther in over big steep rocks to a cave and went for a swim. Kristen, Mike and I started our descent, knowing the others would catch up quickly, we were slow walking on the river rock. About half way back Kristen fell and skinned up her hand, but she was ok and could continue walking back. When we walked by Augustine’s house, he waved us over. He gave us pamplemoose, so juicy after our long walk. We gave him our Ritz crackers with cheese and Kevin gave him some almonds. He told us about his life, showed us his house where many trophies were hung. He hunts with a spear and fishes. He says there are many eels in the river and they are good to eat. He says he eats shark too. He catches chickens with coconut. Pineapple grows there but it was not in season. His kids go to school in the village and his wife works at the hospital in the village at this other house. He visits one day every three moons (once every 3 months). It is a 5 hour horse back ride. We are such city slickers! When we got back to our dinghy it was low tide and we had to walk and float the dinghy in the very shallow water, a couple of times we had to pick it up. When we got back to our boat, Myah was in the bay. We went over and invited them to appetizers. We made punch and tuna marinated in teriyaki sauce and some in BBQ sauce. Everyone seemed to like the BBQ sauce but at first they said it did not sound good. We also cooked plantain fritters again. Great evening!

April 27, 2008

Beautiful sunny morning and Mike and I had coffee out in the cockpit. Mark and Dan came over, they decided to go on the hike tomorrow. We are going to Taiohae, to the main Nuka Hiva port to buy some provisions before heading to the Tuamotus. We shared each others plans regarding which atolls to visit. They are not going on any that we plan to go to, mostly because we have to get Stu to the airport by May 12^th. Bummer! Hopefully we will all catch up in Tahiti. We motored all the way to Taiohae as there was no wind. It was a beautiful place and lots of room to anchor. They only had 3 little 7-11 type stores to shop at and of course all very expensive. Stu went to shore with Charisma and Mike and I cleaned the boat and ran the generator. We planned to go ashore tomorrow to check in, buy fuel and a few groceries.

April 28, 2008

When to shore to check in at 7AM. The dinghy dock was about a mile away from our boat. The dock was a quay, with one rusty ladder that everyone had to climb up while being slammed against the wall by the surf, and then move your dinghy down the quay wall to tie up to a cleat. We heard 2 boats dinghies were punctured on the ladder. First we checked in, and then we waited while Charisma tried to get their fuel permit. Then Kristen and I went shopping and Mike and Alan went to get fuel. We stilled used gerry cans but Alan was able to Med moor and get his fuel, he needed lots more than we did. Kristen and I walked to the store the farthest away first and worked our way back. Eggs were $7/dz, cabbage $7/head, cukes were 300 francs and bread was the only reasonable price47 francs. Then we had to take our dinghy back to our boat alone since the boys were busy. Another boat's painter was tangled in our prop, so we needed that loose and couldn’t get it. Pat from Don Padre took pity on us and jumped in our dinghy and untangled it all. Then we handed him our groceries and Kristen and I went down the ladder and crawled over 4 boats to get in our boat. Moving our boat to the ladder was much too difficult. Then the hard part, starting the outboard engine. On the fourth try it finally started, now to find our boat. As we headed in the general direction we saw Mary on 360, I told her we were going to pizza tonight and they were welcome to join us, she said yes! I was proud of myself for getting us back to the boat. Mike and Stu got me water to do more wash, but when Mike put the jugs on the deck, the handles broke on 2 jugs, what a pain. We went to shore early to try to get internet, we couldn’t get it on the boat. That was weird because the screen to sign up and pay came up last night but not today. Stu found out that a backhoe cut the cable this morning. So that explains it, it is not our computer, which is good. But this means no Internet until Tahiti, that’s 2 weeks away. When we were ashore we saw Mary and Joel, we walked to the restaurant with them. We did not know where Stu was and we were not sure where Charisma was going to go ashore. They all showed up at the restaurant so no problem, Argonaut with Liz, Mike and Roland were also there, so they sat with us, there were eleven of us total. Kristen and Mike traded places so Kristen could be part of the girl talk. Great pizza and great company, now to find our way home. It was so dark and confusing looking for our boat. We followed Charisma most of the way and finally made it. Took our laundry down even though it was a little damp. Went to bed.