It was a day with lots of activities on board. OBM started packing – very unfortunate!

Beside this I did a lot of IT work for OBM’s company in TYO and wrote plenty of emails. OBM also had to work on her PC.

In the afternoon, we took off for a visit to Atuona. We asked at the Gendarmerie for the address of a dentist, I need to see in the next days, and got it. Then we rushed through a sudden but not strong rain shower to the Paul Gauguin Museum. He really was a fascinating painter, who achieved a lot in his short life span of unfortunately only 55 years. Times were different.

We had a look for a restaurant. One was closed and the other opened only at 1800, which was too late for us. After a quick food shopping we hitched back to the dinghy dock. A very friendly couple gave us a ride.

Hitchhiking is possible here, but by far not as good as it was on Mangareva, Gambier Islands. On Mangareva never a car passed me without giving me a lift. Here a bit of patience is needed. But hitchhiking is always a good possibility to meet and talk to local people. I liked this when I hitched in my student years and like it now as well.

Back a few days to the Hanaiapa Bay, where I didn’t write daily. We spent some time on the boat. A few boat jobs and some IT work needed to be done. The 1. Sep we spent fully on board. On the 2. We went on land to return the plastic bags to Jean-Yves in which he gave us shaddocks and bananas. We also gave a bag of sconces I backed the day before.

We returned towards 1800 to MaRe because we invited Nora & Hacko on board for 1900. With them we had nice evening with very interesting conversations about many things. Not only boat stories but also very personal ones.

When we reached the NW corner of Hiva-Oa the wind pretty suddenly died. With engines we continued and changed course to SSE. MaRe propelled by her 2 en engines easily moved along the new course.

However then the wind came up again and directly on our nose. When using the sails, we would need to go about 30 – 40 deg off course. This didn’t look so attractive. Thus, we kept course using the engines.

When we reached our SW WPT, the wind really got strong. After we let a N sailing boat pass – it turned out it was the SV Tawaki and we exchanged greetings their crew we know – we turned more to SE we had almost 25 KN on the nose. This was the trigger to set sails.

Main sail up with reef 2 because in the Canal du Bordelais the wind can become even stronger. We unfurled the genoa almost fully to the 3. bar mark to compensate for the additional small jib sail I wanted to hoist. Even so we sailed 40 deg up wind we made good speed, sometimes we made almost 8 KN and the course was not too bad.

When I thought about a good point to make the first tack, the wind changed to ESE. With this wind it became better to tack immediately. After having changed to STB tack, the wind changed even a bit more towards S and we got a nice run already deep into the Canal du Bordelais. With only 5 tacks we made it through the narrow straight of the Canal. A bit after the last tack, and sufficient distance to the Cap Teaehoa, we changed course in steps until we were heading almost N to our destination the Baie Tahauku. Sailing became less bumpy and we enjoyed the last miles. Somewhere towards the end of the last leg to our destination bay, I put the small jib down. Then we furled the genoa and finally took the main down.

OBM steered MaRe into the Baie Tahauku where there were not too many boats.

We needed to drop the anchor twice until it got hold on the mud-sand mixture at about 3.5 m water depth and chain length of 25 m. However, hours later I needed to give MaRe another 5 m of chain because in stronger wind from a differently the anchor started slipping very slowly.

After 18 days of sailing, staying in bays, seeing incredible landscapes, meeting wonderful people of other boats and villages, we are back from where we started. A wonderful sail came to its end.

With an hour delay we got up, lifted the hook, and took off.

Nora & Hacko were still sleeping on board of SY Anixi, so we didn’t call them on VHF to say again good bye. We will meet again! Where, is another question.

Currently we are sailing very comfortably with an SE wind. It was just 4 Bft now it’s 2. It could be that the land covers the wind, thus I changed course by 20 deg to STB to gain distance from land.

Sailing live!

Gusts are coming in again. This indicates that land blocks the wind and the 20 deg course change could be good.

What happened the last days?

On 1. Sep I wanted to get my wheat grain out of the bilge for baking bread when I discovered weevils. The boat was bug free since Panama. But somehow weevils came again on board with food or food packages. Because all paper etc package are removed already in the cockpit and all remaining non-removable packages are cleaned with detergent, the weevils could also have been inside food. Currently, I think they came with a newly bought bag of rice because there we saw them first. It seems that wheat grain is the most preferred grain. I had to throw about 15 kg of wheat grain over board. One bag was still safe.

With a strong insect spray I treated all the possible areas and especially the bilge where grains are stored. The remaining wheat grain is currently in the hull fridge where it is safe and should there a few weevils inside, they die. Getting rid of the wevils was a several hour work, spread over 4 days.

Fortunately we had them only in one bilge in the PRT hull. No weevils on STB where we store rice and pasta.

I also studied the internet and found that weevils like all kind of grains, and pasta, which are made of grains. But I also observe that when wheat grains are available, they ignore rye and spelt. This gave me the possibility to built a weevil trap and early indicator. A marmelade glass with about 1 cm of wheat inside, closed lid with a small hole. They easily can go in, and I easily see them. Let’s keep fingers crossed it works or better we don’t have them on board anymore.

I also learned that they don’t like laurel leafs. I will put laurel leafs in small fabric bags and place them in all places where we store did they like. As it is also said that they don’t like white vinegar, I clean all areas vinegar.

But, the best countermeasure I learned from Nora & Hacko. They use 5 l plastics containers from bottled water and store almost all inside these container. It is a great idea because the walls are so thick that insects can bite their way through.

The bottles are 34 cm high with a cross section of 15 cm x 15 cm. Such container fit in our bilges and at the place where we store pasta, rice, lentils etc. So we will get such containers for our grains and other stuff.

Back to life sailing in MaRe. Getting away from land was good. We got more wind. Currently we sail with STW of 3.5 – 5.7 KN at about 120 deg AWA PRT. Swell of mostly only 1.5 m rolls on from astern. Extremely comfortable sailing We had breakfast in the cockpit sitting in the sun and enjoying the nice breeze.

At the next WPT we have to get the main sail up because our course will change to SSW and then to E. How will the course to E will be?

The last days I was too busy to write but I will try to write a throw-back or two about the last days.

Right now it’s 1908 and MaRe is ready for lifting the anchor. The wake up alarm is set for 0415. Thus, we might head out of the bay around 0445 – 0500. We will sail first W then turning slowly to SW and S, then SE and E. The E course is the passage through the Canal du Bordelais, the stretch of water between Hiva-Oa and Tahuata islands. I wonder what wind we will have there. Forecast says 15 KN from E. Wind round E means we need to track through the Canal du Bordelais. Last time I came with Shigeo from the S into the Canal and we needed 8 tacks.

Will see what’s going on there.

Our friends Nora & Hacko of SV Anixi booked already a rental car before we arrived and invited us to join them for an overland trip to Puamau, where we anchored just before. For sure we agreed.

The car was an SUV and this was good because we had to drive for kilometres also on dirt roads and there the bigger tires were of advantage.

The road became pretty steep immediately after we left Hanaiapa; not a surprise considering the volcanic structure of Hiva-Oa.

At the few intersections we had, my OsmAnd+ off line map turned out pretty helpful because there were no road signs. What for? Local people don’t need them.

I was surprised to see quite some small scale farming with cows. The cows, interspersed with a few horses, roamed freely along both sides of the road.

When the road returned to the coast line, we had magnificent views from high above sea level.

Nora took lots of pictures and videos for their YouTube channel.

We reached Puamau just before noon. Nora had the idea of asking in the little restaurant for a meal and give the lady time to prepare it while we looked at a historical site. However, it turned out that we could have a lunch immediately. We happily agreed.

The lunch was feast of Marquesasian dishes. We got raw fish local style with coconuts milk and vegetables, also in coconuts milk made goat meat, pork in a dark sauce. As side dishes rice and deep fried junks of breadfruit which the locals call “uru” even if they speak French. Then something made of dried boiled bananas where dried bananas, as they are made here, are completely different from what I know from Europe and Japan. This something came as floating dark small dumplings in vanilla flavored coconuts milk; vanilla grows there. This dish tasted kind of sweet. Another dish was made of dried bananas and shredded coconuts. The last dish was pieces of bananas with a very subtle sour taste. It seems they were prepare with banana vinegar.
Although it was a lot of food for 4 people, we didn’t stop until all was gone. It simply was too excellent.

The visit to the historical site TE MEÀE O ÌIPONA was interesting. With a private initiative a historical site of the is well preserved and gives a good impression on what was done that time.

Here you find a few links to sites in Marquesasian and French. It could be that some links explanations also is given in English. I did not check all links.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%22TE+ME%C3%80E+O+%C3%8CIPONA%22+English&t=fpas&ia=web

And the snow on the top of the mountains of Hiva-Oa. It was just an optical illusion created by a certain type of trees standing on the mountain ridges and white clouds in back ground.

On the way back we took a short deviation to Atuona to buy diesel for Anixi’s engine.

It was an interesting day. Thanks Nora & Hacko for inviting us to join.

The fact that we have here an excellent internet connection ,enabled us to have a very exciting day. We worked all day long on IT topics, wrote emails and made calls.

I was exhausted at the end of the day.

Yesterday, after our cup of coffee, we took the tender and went on land.

First we said hello to to Nora & Hacko and that we will come back later. Hacko gave us a good advice for docking our tender.

Docking the tender was not easy in the swell rolling in but we got it done with a bit of patience.

We took the dirt road towards the village. The first house was very simple. A wooden structure with a steep roof of corrugated sheet metal. The side walls partially closed with branches and leaves from a coconut tree.

At soon as we came closer, a friendly man waved is to come to him. We followed his non-verbal invitation. He disappeared in the house and came out with a notebook. When I saw the notebook in his hands, I was sure it was Jean-Yves with his collection of memos from sailors who visited Hanaiapa. It turned I out I was right. I learned about him in The Marquesas Compendium from SV Soggy Paws (http://svsoggypaws.com/files/#frpoly). Also other sailor mentioned him. He is a very nice person and enjoys collecting notes from sailors coming into the Baie Hanaiapa.

One was in Japanese written by a lady called Naoko (直子) and he asked us for a translation. It was written with very nice words about the very friendly Jean-Yves and how he spoiled Naoko and her family.

We kept sitting with him watching the waves rolling in and enjoying the sunset. It was a very warm feeling atmosphere in which we wrote our notes in Jean-Yves book.

Then 2 other men came. One of them a retired employee of Pape’ete airport who speaks fluent English. Although I love to derust my French it made the conversation a bit easier.

We learned that in 2000 a tsunami wiped out Jean-Yves’ house and he built the current house thereafter.

We were also shown the black faces rock at the NW corner of the bay’s exit. The right edge of the rock looks like a well balanced male face. From further west, about the position of MaRe there is a female face supposed to be seen. We are curious for that.

When we wanted to leave, Jean-Yves gave us a bag of shaddocks and banana. What a wonderful present.

We left, when there was still enough daylight, because we expected that it might not be easy to get back into our tender. It turned out that it really was not that easy. However, we made it.

Next we had a stop over at SV Anixi, to talk with our friends Nora & Hacko and listen to their experiences and impressions and also shared our sail from Omoa, Fatu-Hiva to here.

Hanaiapa seems to be a very nice place. As it has a very strong mobile phone network with at least a 4G internet connection, we will stay here a few days and I will do an IT work.

After lifting the anchor, OBM steered MaRe out of the bay and put the autopilot in TRCK (Track Mode, in which the autopilot steers MaRe exactly to the selected WPT, compensating wind and current drifts.)

Shortly later, while we still looked at the steep caldera walls at the western side of the bay, a group of about 10 dolphins came to MaRe from PRT side. They swam for about 5 – 10 around her bows. OBM watched them with a lot of delight; she doesn’t see dolphins as often as I do. But I still like to watch the incredible animals.

We are motoring along the N coast of Hiva-Oa. On STB we are in the haze the shape of Fatu-Hiku. A small insufficient charted island 16 NM N of MaRe.

The broken off vertical walls of the shore line show the many layers of lava, which flew down from the craters of the former volcanos. I often think about how it was here during thousands years when the volcano were still active and especially the moment when they blew off their tops.

With about 7 KN of TWS a gennaker would be right sail. Therefore, as we are not on a long distance sail, we use again the engines.

As for a gennaker I’m already in touch with Doyle NZ. Doyle NZ is a merger of Doyle Sails and Bout & McMaster. Andy P., the sail maker who will make my new gennaker, did his apprenticeship at the former Bout & McMaster. Thus, I expect a good quality. I hope to confirm the order in the next 2 weeks after shipment and tax clarifications.

I was introduce to Andy P. by the daughter of the founder McMaster who is the best support person of PredictWind. (Although I’m still using PW, I dislike their buggy OffshoreApp more and more. This morning or took me about 10 attempts to upload the previous narration. Do I get now the rate single attempt upload?)

My eyes follow often the coast line towards the west. The rust-brown volcano wall get an increasing shade of grey with the increasing distance.

How will the bay and the village Hanaiapa will be?

We dropped the hook in the bay. Good hold on sand.

Looking around it looks just nice. Tree covered green slopes. Looking at my OsmAand+ offline maps I can see the mountain in front are about 200 -250 m high. Further back thru go up to almost 500 m.

On the other side their are Nora & Hacko with their SV Anixi. There are 2 more boats on the bay. One of them looks familiar to me, thus I curious to the crew.

We just had lunch and, after a cup of coffee, we will go on land and have a first look.

Hanatekua Bay is nice, but it is impossible to land with a tender at the shore somewhere. The surf is too high. In this case a SUP (standing paddling board) or something similar would be needed. It could easily be taken out of the swell. The long sandy beach is follow by a stripe of palm trees before normal tree and vegetation follows. We saw 2 houses under the palm trees. Maybe there are a few people making a living with cobra production. But that’s only a guessing.

As we had no mobile phone connection at all, we motored back to Puamau Bay because we expected to get mobile phone connection. We got it and with a few tricks we got a mail for Makiko out. Thus, this was a success and worth motoring back.

The swell in bay was not that bad in a catamaran because the wind and swell direction were almost always the same.

Landing with the tender didn’t look possible. At the end we also didn’t try but had relaxed day on board. We looked often to the caldera walls which encloses the bay except for the entrance into the bay.

We also recognized that, different to the villages at Fatu-Hiva, there are no fishing activities in Puamau. The lack of good fishing areas could be the reason for a missing tiny harbor with at least a limited protection against the swell.

Today we will sail to Hanaapaia, a bit further west and see what’s there.