Repairs, Horses, Steve and Ua Poa

We have been enjoying Hiva Oa.  The local people are all so generous and kind.  Marquesans  have given us so much fruit, offered us rides and happily shared their beach and waves for surfing.

On our last day we met a local carver who made us a special Dolphin carving with traditional writing embossed into it for protection and symbols of the sea and our passage.  He also agreed to let Sophie go horse riding after we collected his half wild horses from the woods.

Seth got in on the fun.

Before heading to our next island Ua Poa, the kids wanted to see Steve again (our Robinson Caruso friend on the deserted beach) and introduce Robert to him.  Sophie made him another chocolate cake while Steve taught us to properly open coconuts, find shells and finally to teach Yael how to spear fish.

Now we are exploring Ua Poa which is a beautiful Island with lots of Marquesan culture.  We are considering leaving tomorrow for a three day crossing to the Tuamotus as the winds look favorable.

Many dolphins lead us into Ua Poa

And Carrie studying the map and guides

 Here is Robert grinding coffee for the passage

Update : it looks like we will leave Ua Poa for the Tuamotus heading South West for 450 miles this afternoon, our last big crossing.  We met another boat with a family we will "race" as we cross.

Tahuata and Puamo

Tahuata and Puamo

After checking in at Hiva Oa we made a small hop to another Island called Tahuata.  This small, sparsely populated island has beautiful white sandy beaches.  We went to an anchorage called Hanamoeoa which we nicknamed  ‘Steve’s beach.

                                    

We enjoyed snorkelling in the clear water and seeing the fish.  Some were bright blue and some were almost translucent.  There was also a ferocious puffer fish hanging out under the boat.

                              A very nice guy named Steve lives on this beach and is a Marquesan Robinson Caruso.  We brought him chocolate and some other treats.  He took Seth snorkeling, shared coconuts and made us Marquesan espresso.  

Later Steve caught a wild pig and cooked up a feast for us and his American friends from another boat anchored in the bay.  It was a once in a lifetime experience.  The food was cooked to delicious perfection on Steve’s open fire. 

Robert joins the Crew

We went back to Hiva Oa to meet Robert.  Unfortunately the day we needed to sail back gave us a brutal 30 knot wind.  We spent five hours beating into the wind with a double reef.  Merry Dolphin did quite well considering and eventually we clawed our way east of the rocky headland to make our way back into the Atuona Bay.

After a day of rest we rented a car and drove over the Island from Atuona  to a small village that is home to an ancient site with “Tikis”.  Tikis are the Polynesian equivalent of totem poles.  The road over was brutal.  We had a 4 wheel drive Toyota but it was still a push.  The road was worse than the most dangerous BC logging road but the payoff was huge.

After climbing down the mountain to the coast we stopped and body surfed this beautiful beach with soft silver sand.

Tikis

The site in a little town called Puamau  has a well preserved sanctuary where the tikis are located.  The site is an ancient place of great religious significance,

Crossing and Landfall

We arrived at Atuona Bay, Hiva Oa in the Marquesas, May 4^th, 2016, just shy of 25 days after our departure from Half Moon Bay, near San Francisco.  The three Children, Carrie and I braved the Pacific Ocean, together.

The boat performed amazingly well.  Except for a failed fresh water pump on the engine, nothing significant went wrong with the boat or equipment.    With respect to the engine problem, you know our philosophy: “It’s a sailboat; we don’t “need” an engine.” 

We knew the Pacific was bigger than the area of land on the entire planet but still the enormity of the Pacific was surprising.  Day after day we endlessly covered areas of vast open ocean and a constant 360 degree horizon.  We saw almost no traces  humans as we were crossing, except a very occasional bit of garbage seen far off the coasts of Mexico and Central America and Mexico and one fishing vessel with which we crossed paths within one nautical mile near the equator.

Blue Water Sailing

Once we were a few days into the voyage, the ocean turned an unbelievable beautiful blue that is only seen offshore. 

Animals

We saw whales and dolphins.  The first exciting encounter was when Sophie said, “I think I see a Shark” and about a minute later an Orca whale swam within a meter of the boat, RIGHT NEXT to where I was sitting, I let out a very startled yell.

Another fantastic encounter was about 300 miles away from the Marquesas when a pod of dolphins spent an hour playing in our bow wave, really cool.

We saw a number of big whales too, nothing so close as the Orca but all exciting none-the-less.

Temperature extremes

The first week was nice and warm when the sun was up and quite cold at night.  As we got as far south in latitude as mid-Mexico it got warmer at nights.  This all changed quite dramatically as we got closer to the equator and it got much warmer.  The water temperature rose significantly going from 12 degrees  C in San Francisco to almost 30 degree C water at the equator.

By the time we were just south of the equator it was almost unbearably hot and humid in the boat, even at night.

ITCZ

There is an area near the equator (just north of the equator this time of the year) where there is sometimes light (or no) wind (also known as the Doldrums) mixed with occasional squalls.  We were lucky in this area as we had decent wind throughout.  We did encounter a few squalls but we managed to ride them out. 

On one occasion we went through a rain storm like nothing any of us have has ever seen.   The quantity of rain was unbelievable.  We managed to all get showered and wash clothes!

Flying fish

We saw a lot of flying fish which are amazing creatures.  The bigger ones fly over 50m just over the tops of the waves.  There are also big schools of smaller flying fish.   Some of the unfortunate ones would land on the deck at night.

Homework and reading

We all read a lot.  The kids did homework most days, except when we had rough seas that knocked our energy down too much.  We really enjoyed using the experience as a basis for some of our homework including geography, oceanography, astronomy and navigation.

The Equator

After 19 days, we crossed the equator.  This was a time to celebrate.  Sophie made cupcakes! 

Landfall in Paradise

Hiva Oa has not disappointed!  The landscape here is more beautiful than we could have imagined with lush vegetation adorning dramatic mountains shooting out of the sea.   We are surrounded by relaxed Marquesan Polynesian people and culture.   There is almost no English spoken here, it is entirely French, with some native language heard from the Polynesian rowers.   The anchorage of cruisers has a lot of French nationals.  There are a few US flagged boats, and we have the only Canadian flag that I can see.