Last night I first run the washing machine. As this was quickly done I wanted to make some water as well while charging the batteries a bit more.

However, the low pressure pump did not start.

This morning I investigated the whole thing and found that the capacitor at the electric motor of low pressure pump was broken.

So I spent quite some hours today to get more information on the capacitor as well as on possible sources for such capacitors. I wonder how this story will develop.

The main problem I have now is looking for sources of potable water and carry it in two 25 l jerry cans on board. It will be quite a work. But such is life.

Yesterday, we took the tender to go ashore.

On the way, we said hello to a French boat I met once in Fatu-Hiva, Hanavave Bay, when I was there with Shigeo.

There is no dinghy dock in this bay at all. But the swell and surf was low enough to use anchor of the tender in the sandy beach at a depth of about a meter. The water was warm like in a bathtub. The sand fine and white.

Although there are around 15 boats in the wide bay, the beach was dominated by local people. Even local tourist are staying in rental tents at both sides of the beach.

A girl in a hammock was busy with her mobile phone. Kids played in the shallow water. Two in plastic kayaks surfed the rather low waves successfully.

One house caught my interest. First there was the white, illuminated plastic Christmas tree and then the rather big photovoltaic installation. Comparing it with others I saw in the Gambiers, the installation should be good for two houses.

When the owner saw that I take a pictures of the Christmas tree, he first objected but when I had a chat in my broken French, with him, he became very friendly.

As this house was the end of the settlement due to the steep volcanic slopes at its side, I turned around and walked into other direction.

When I saw a wide trail I asked a local lady passing by if this trail is public. It turned out that the only public trail, is the one along the beach. All others are private trails, leading to private houses.

Shortly after that the man of a friendly elderly couple addressed the normal question about where to come from sand were go to me. We had a nice chat. I also asked him about the fruit of the tree we were standing under. It turned out that I didn’t understand the name but he showed that there is a soft, rather big nut inside, which cannot be eaten but is pressed for it’s oil to be put on the skin.

As Sam came back from the other direction where she hoped to get a better internet connection, we walked together along the public trail running parallel to the the shore but under trees.

We passed the little church where there was a service hours before. Inside it was very simple. No church benches only space to stand. Quite many nativity scene;
cribs (Weihnachtskrippen) showed that there is an intensive religious life.

At the school, children and two adults, most likely the teachers of this village, gathered for some activities. On our way back they sang Jingle Bells and made competitions in various activities.

The ground had many whole of about 5 – 10 cm diameter. We wondered if there are rodents or crabs inside. With the animal inside these many wholes, we connected that all coconuts lying on the ground have holes and are only empty shells still being in the husk.

At another house, a big family was sitting outside under the trees. A friendly “kaoha” and “bon jour” was exchanged. When, on our way back, we passed the house again, they offered us one of their puppies they had possible from one of their two dogs.

The trail continued over the rocks and, at some spots was made even made of concrete. We assumed that the trail continues around at least the biggest part of the bay and turned around to go back.

Then we saw what we missed before. A fully open air toilet. Using it, one definitely has a great view over the bay.

It was good to see, that there was not littering. Sam found only 1 piece of plastic, which she picked up to dispose into a plastic bag for garbage at the main part of the beach where our dinghy was at anchor.

Tired, hungry but filled with very many impressions we arrived at MaRe.

I’m using the PredictWind OffshoreApp to upload the narrations of the blog and also to get my weather reports.

Today, for almost an hour, I tried to upload the tiny little file for my the last narration.

First, the app needs to detect the registered IridiumGO device. That’s takes a kind of normal time.

Then the app attempts to dial in. This already sometimes takes minutes.

However, the silly things comes after the connection has be established. The established connection can be seen from the displayed word “connected”.

Normally, one would expect that the upload starts immediately after the connection has been established. However, the OffshoreApp first goes into a waiting cycling and waits very often in this cycle for minutes until the signal to and from the satellite becomes weak. When the signal drops from 5 or 4 to 3 or below, the OffshoreApp becomes very happy. It can start over all again. However, I’m unhappy because my narration for you is still in my mobile phone and there you can’t see it. But, the app is happy. May users who don’t like this silly behavior go to hell.

Poor programming leads to silly behavior and very unhappy users.

I’m curious how many hours it takes today to upload two small files, which need only a few minutes for the real upload.

At 1430 we dropped the hook at almost 17 m into sand and have a solid hold.

Sam is reading at the bow.

I read for a while about other bays along the N coast of Nuku-Hiva.

I also had a look about the best way to S in a few days. Most likely will go along the N coast towards the W corner of Nuku-Hiva and then turn S to Ua-Pou. Let’s see when the trade wind starts blowing again. Currently there is a big disturbance SW of the Society Islands. This was very good for today but not when we want to continue our sail.

As here are 3 spots marked for diving I’ll go to at least one for snorkeling and free diving.

Christmas dinner – I’m curious what Sam will prepare.

Now I’ll first take a late afternoon nap. I was pretty busy all day long.

However before the nap, Merry Christmas to all of you!

This morning er changed plans in the last moment. I checked all available information and plotted the route around the eastern end of Nuku-Hiva. Destination is the Hanaho Bay at the eastern end of the north coast of Nuku-Hiva.

Currently we are heading 70 deg, which would normally be fully against the trade wind. But the gods of wind, and especially the monkey with the tin tool (do you remember that nasty beast?) are celebrating Christmas and we have only 2 Bft wind from E. Thus, we will motor around the corner. It’s only 20 NM

Currently I’m also baking bread. When this is finished I try to get a Christmas fish, because there are not many Christmas turkeys our here at sea.

Shortly after 1800 the huge speaker started to spit out techno. Maybe Polynesian techno but I’m not an expert on techno, thus I could not identify the music clearly.

At 1830 a band 6 musicians with ukele , guitar and percussions started playing Polynesian music. What a great sound. Unplugged.

For me a surprising large number of Polynesian teenager showed up. Is there real interest in such a cultural based concert or was there nothing better to do?

It was nice sitting on the Center stand watching the people and listening to the music. The heat of the day is gone and the music relaxes with it’s smooth sound in the cooler air.

Another group were 3 man, guitar ukele, and percussions sang in several voices. The rythm was pretty fast, not the typical Polynesian singing. Suddenly the music reminded me to folksongs and I got the feeling I would like to play with them. But my guitar is orphaned since 30 years and my fingers are too stiff…

The program continued with various groups, some I liked more, some less.

Towards the end, a typical band with electric guitars but one plugged in acoustic guitar and drums played what I would describe as Polynesian pop music. I use this term because I saw people singing along.

In total, the concert presented many great musicians, some with outstanding voices. It was worth sailing 17 h to Taiohae to just hear this concert.

Tired, but happy I returned to MaRe. It was not that easy to find her among the very many boats in the bay in the night.

This festival in Polynesia is really a very big event. I don’t know from how many islands participants are coming, but per islands 150- 200 participant are coming. Considering that even Maoris from NZ are people from Hawaii, because they are Polynesians, there must be several thousand participants here in Taiohae and neighbor bays. I know 5 islands from which are people here. That amounts to about 1000 already. And I only know very few islands.

All these people are fed Polynesian food free of charge. One only needs is to bring a plate, container, or a big banana leave etc, and get whatever you can eat. Fish, pork, goat, vegetables, fruits. Tools to eat had everyone: fingers.

I found a stand selling drinks and a normal size plastic container for about 250 CFP (about 2 Euro) and ask for rice and poisson crue. I love this light and delicious way the Polynesian prepare raw fish. Completely different from the Japanese or Korean way to prepare raw fish.

To eat my food I asked if I can sit down at table and everybody welcome me to sit down. The couple from Tahiti sitting at my side gave me a banana, and a small bottle of home made lime lemonade. People here are friendly and easy going.

A very interesting food container I saw often, was made from bamboo. A piece of bamboo, about 10 – 15 cm diameter, length between 30 – 60 cm. The wall is remove over the full length and with a width of about 8 – 10 cm. The bamboo nodes create a natural division for the various food. Having seen this here, I wonder why the Japanese are not using such natural food container. Qqq

The performance place in Taiohae is not as big as I thought having seen such place in Atuona, Hiva-Oa or in Omoa, Fatu-Hiva, but groups with 150 – 200 people can easily perform there.

There are also cultural exchange programs concerning singing, dancing and playing the pahu, the Polynesian word for their drums. This program is unfortunately only privat on the the ground of the College de Taiohae, thé local college. It is a part of the program “Archipels Connectés and “Campus Connecté”.

It’s hot today and on land there is no cooling sea breeze. I’m sitting in the shade of open building where they qsell cultural pieces of art. At the first glance I would have said they are selling souvenirs for tourists. They definitely do that, but I got the impression that’s also a place where Polynesians buy Polynesian art.

In the afternoon there is live music at the stage of the Polynesian cultural center, the place where the dances are performed. The music partially unplugged, has an easy going, Polynesian rythm. I enjoy the sound. But right now it’s short intermezzo of Caribbean reggae.

I create a pause here and will write another narration about what I see during the rest of the day.

Yesterday, I got up at 0000 and at 1700 I was safe at anchor in the Taiohae Bay of Nuku-Hiva.

Sailing was great. Nice wind, pretty constant in strength and direction. I sailed almost all day with the auto pilot in TRACK mode.

Only NW of Hiva-Oa the wind was strange and turned even to westerly direction. I am not sure if the was the lee effect of Hiva-Oa’s mountains because I passed Hiva-Oa with quite a distance.

The Taiohae Bay is really a big one. No comparison with the Tahauku Bay of Hiva-Oa. More than 100 boats are at anchor here. The AIS display gave me some hints where there is still a chance to drop the anchor. I took the first chance and dropped the hook at 12 – 13 m I got a perfect hold while testing even with 1800 RPM which is the cruising RPM.

With so many boats in the bay, I wonder how crowded the dinghy dock will be.

As I knew, I will be anchor for the night, I had during the day only 2 times my 20 min sleeping breaks. Normally, I would have more to ensure I get enough sleep.

I’ll be here until Sam(antha) comes on board on the 22nd. Then we depart to visit other islands and bays.

I just wrote about these beautiful shades of blue in a message to a friend.

Sometimes I’m afraid I get addicted to them. Being out with no land visible, is, for me, completely different then to be a beautiful bay. A bay like the last one I stayed in for a few days.

Now I’m heading to new shores and I’m curious like hell about the situation to drop the hook in Taiohae Bay with many boats inside already. But maybe some have left already. Let’s see.

During the last days I was busy with cleaning hulls. After having been in Hiva-Oa’s Tahauku Bay for a bit more than 3 month some stuff grew at the underwater hulls. This, I wanted to clean off in the clear water of the Vaitahu Bay of Tahuata island.

Further I wanted to make water, and do some laundry. I also wanted to get some fresh fruits I hope to find someone who gives out sells me fresh fruits.

The nice thing in this bay is the rather constant and strong wind coming down the mountains. MaRe swung only +- 10 deg. The rather good windspeed kept my SuperWind 350 pretty busy. During the night it almost produced as much was was needed for lights and especially for the two fridges.

During the day I could see always a pod of a smaller kind of dolphins. For hours they swam in the bay being obviously busy with hunting fishes.

Yesterday, after finishing the work at the hulls, I lowered the tender into the water and dinghied to land. As expected, a stern anchor was needed due to the swell and wind.

I walked into the village. Many houses were built to be covered with trees. Just as it looks from MaRe in the bay. As I practice French since a while, asking a man I met on the street allowed me to have a simple conversation and asked for fruits. Here in Vaitahu one can really get fresh fruits; in the supermarket of Atuona, fruits are old already when they arrive in the shelf.
I was lucky, the first man in asked told me to follow him and I got pampelmouse (shaddocks), oranges, and limes. He also wanted to give me a breadfruit but the tool to plug them from the tree was too weak or the fruit was hanging too high… Happy with what I got, I went back to MaRe’s tender.

Before going to MaRe, I decided to go the neighboring boat to say hello and good bye because I wanted to leave shortly after midnight. They were only a bit more then 100 m away from MaRe and we could we only good greet each other by waving our hands when I arrived. They are a very friendly couple sailing very relaxed, staying in this bay already for a week doing lots of hiking to explore the area around the bay including the village. In a few weeks I hope to return there with 2 sailing partners, Sam(antha) and Inge. It’s really a nice place.

At the end Jo & Gerry came with me to MaRe to get some mother-yoghurt. Thanks to our friends Nora & Hacko of SY Anixu, I can make now very good yoghurt from powered milk.