I was in Vaitahu Bay in December 2023 when I sailed single handed in the Marquesas. That time, the bay was empty. Including MaRe 3 boats for one night and only 2 for the next days.

That time I already saw the wind is coming down the valley pretty strong and stable in strength and direction. I remember I estimate the wind angle fluctuating between approximately +- 15 deg.

Because of the village and the pot of dolphins, which came into the bay every morning for hunting, I felt in love with this bay and I wanted to visit it again.

Now I’m back in the bay. I enjoyed the village, and the people I met and could talk to with my 9 words of French.

A surprise where the dolphins. They came only in the bay this time when almost all boats were gone. So I hoped they will come next day again, but they didn’t. Maybe dolphins understand me, but I don’t understand them.

But what came was wind! A very gusty one. From 2 – 3 Bft normal wind speed in the gusts the speed went up to solid 6 Bft. Additionally the wind directions changed about +- 90 deg. Stimulated by these gusts, MaRe danced rock ‘n roll on her long, almost 80 m of chain.

During the last days, when I cleaned her hulls under water, she teased me. When I started to brush parts of her hulls, she asked the wind to quickly change directions because she felt tickled by me and my brush. As she and the wind are good friends, the wind came with very strong gust from a different direction and moved her away from me. Needles to say that this made cleaning her hulls difficult because I had to follow her. However, she’s a good girl and has now her hulls cleaned.

Today we didn’t only have gusty wind but also quite a lot of rain. Still I love Vaitahu, the windy bay and I love to look out over the Pacific Ocean expanding from the bay until the horizon with million shades of blue and grey and incredible sunsets.

Tomorrow, we will move on to the next bay south of Vaitahu. I’m curious what we will experience there. Vaitahu will stay, not only in my memory, but also in my heart.