Hi from Apropos anchored on Ua-Pou island, our 3rd stop in the Marquesas. We left a very crowded but fun anchorage on Hiva-Oa mid-day yesterday for the 75 mile sail to Hakahau Bay on Ua-Pou, where there are only 2 other boats anchored. Our guidebook says this is one of the most “dramatic” islands with the tall rocket-shaped rock formations around the bay. We arrived at 7am and plan to stay here 2 days, then on to Nuku-Hiva, our final stop in the Marquesas, and Nick’s jumping off point.

The beauty of this place (and the fact that we’re in the South Pacific) makes the pain endured over the past 24 hours worth it! As we up-anchored yesterday, we fouled the prop with a line from the wind vane (capt’s mistake) just as the anchor was aboard. Being in such a crowded anchorage, we quickly dropped the anchor back down to keep us from drifting into any of our neighbors. I dove down and after 10 minutes was able to free the line from the propeller shaft. In the process, my hands, arms, and back got bloodied from scraping against the razor-sharp barnacles on the hull (there was a lot of chop so the boat was bouncing around a lot). Then for the next 12 hours we motored and motor-sailed through confused seas to get to Ua-Pou. Confused seas with little wind are a bad combination because the boat rolls a lot, making it difficult to sleep. We shortened the watches to 3-hours and used the electric auto pilot to steer since the engine was running. We poled out the genoa and had the main up until the wind went below 5 kts, then lowered the main at 4am. About 30 minutes from the bay a squall came through and soaked us, so we arrived tired and wet. But hey, like I said, we’re in a beautiful anchorage now in the South Pacific and the past 24-hours are in the past… We decided not to go ashore and just relax on the boat and swim in the water. Going to shore means preparing the dinghy (uncovering, inflating, and lowering into the water) and lowering the engine from the stern brackets down into the dinghy. Our 2nd day here was full of rain showers. Karen did laundry and had the clothes drying on lines and every time they were almost dry another shower came through. We collected lots of fresh rainwater running off the bimini and from atop the dinghy cover and Jacintha had fun playing with the water. The entire bay turned a muddy brown from the water runoff from ashore. The swell coming through the anchorage got worse and overnight our anchor alarm went off. At 3am we only had 8’ of water under our keel and were getting closer to a rocky shore so we up-anchored and moved to deeper water. This was the first time we drug anchor and had to re-anchor. I think it was a combination of bad holding (sounded like the chain was scraping on a rocky bottom) and the large swell and wind. We woke up tired to a very steep swell coming into the bay and decided it was time to get out of there!

Hi from Apropos in Hiva-Oa. We up-anchored from Fatu-Hiva at 7am and set sail for the largest of the Marquesan Islands, Hiva-Oa, the official port of entry. We sailed in light winds most of the way and arrived at 5pm to a full anchorage with a dozen boats, many of them from the Pacific Puddle Jump rally who we are friends with. Chris and Heather from Family Circus stopped by in the evening to exchange stories of our crossings. Jacintha was thrilled to see her two good friends and they played in the “v-berth club” while the adults talked in the cockpit. Family Circus is a fast Catamaran and did the crossing in 19 days and they’ve been in Hiva-Oa for a week so gave us lots of good information–where to find wifi, banks, pizza, tours, etc. We plan to spend about 5 days here before moving on to the next island. Tomorrow we will visit the Gendarme, the official who checks you into the country, then go to a bank to get some French francs and explore the town, which is a few miles from the anchorage. The only gas station on the island is next to the anchorage so it’s easy to hitchhike a ride into town.

We did the official check-in with the gendarme so we’re now legal and can stay in French Polynesia for up to 90 days. Afterwards we walked around the small town and found an internet cafe, small grocery store, hardware store, and a few restaurants. We bought some french baguettes and ate them with butter, cheese, and prochiutto for dinner. Today we went on a full-day tour of Hiva-Oa. Our guide Pifa, who also works as a fireman, grew up on Hiva-Oa but spent time in the states and spoke English. He drove us in a 4-wheel drive SUV from the south end of the island to the west end and then the north end along narrow winding roads that were mostly dirt and rock (felt like we were back on the boat!). We stopped at a recently discovered solitary Tiki that dates back to 50AD! At another Tiki sight from the 1800s there were a half dozen stone Tikis along with other stone arrangements and Pifa explained what each one symbolized as well as some historical facts about the site. He then lead Nick and I through the beginning part of a Haka dance, the ancient warrior dance that’s still performed at dance festivals throughout French Polynesia. Another stop was at the house of one of his Uncles (Pifa’s grandfather had 20-some kids and he joked that half the island were his cousins). The courtyard had mango, starfruit, banana, lime, pamplemousse, and breadfruit trees. We sampled some homemade vinegar and salted limes. A short distance down the road he stopped the truck at his cousins house and came out with cups of frozen mango juice and fried banana bread. The road continued along the coastline going around beautiful bays. Between the bays we were traveling on winding roads along steep cliffs many hundreds of feet above the sea. Much of the land we traveled through belonged to someone in his extended family. Hundreds of goats were on the hillsides or along the road. We stopped at one point where Jacintha got to hold a few-day old goat, and sit on an adult goat http://pong.uwstout.edu..ml! At the far north end of the island, where the road ended, we stopped at a house that cooked us lunch–fresh mango juice, plantain, breadfruit, fried banana, coconut something for appetizers; goat meat, raw fish (poisson cru), pig, and beef for mains. This was a great sampling of Marquesan style dishes with all locally grown/raised/caught ingredients. With full bellies, we drove another hour before stopping at a nice bay for a swim. We had fun playing in the waves, and Pifa cut some fresh mangos and a young coconut for us to enjoy. While we were drying off, he taught us how to make a fish on a fishing pole by weaving a coconut palm leaf. I’m sure I left out some things, but that gives you a taste of the tour, which began at 9:30am and we returned at 5:30pm. Pifa then even offered to take us to his Uncles restaurant for Pizza, and picked us back up at 7:00pm (we just had enough time to dinghy to the boat and turn on the anchor light). A dozen other Puddle Jumpers who we knew were also there so we joined them at a big table for dinner. Jacintha fell asleep soon after eating and had to be carried away. Pifa drove us back to the anchorage where we managed to launch the dinghy in the dark (with a sleeping Jacintha) and motor back to the boat for a great night’s sleep.

Compared to yesterday’s all-day island tour, we had a more relaxing day today. The highlight (for me anyhow) was getting a tattoo. When I planned this trip over 5 years ago, I had in mind I would get a tattoo in the Marquesas, in the traditional symbolic style they are known for. I discussed what I wanted with Pifa (our island guide) while we were at his uncle’s pizza restaurant and thought more about it overnight. Pifa picked us up in the morning and drove us to his cousin Piu’s tattoo shop and translated to him what I wanted. I chose a band around my upper right arm with Polynesian symbols–sailboat, my 3 kids, Karen, safe voyage, Marquesan cross, sharks teeth, and the sea). Aside from the sailboat, the other symbols are harder to recognize, but make sense once you know what they are. Karen took pictures during and after and the whole thing took about 2 hours. We also did some much needed boat cleaning today, then took the dinghy to the pier where there was a food truck cooking meals. Jacintha had a hotdog and fries, and the adults shared 2 huge plates of coconut shrimp with rice. The food truck shows up here once a week and a lot of locals and a handful of cruisers stopped by for dinner. We were thinking about moving on tomorrow, but the grib (gridded binary wind info) files show better winds on Sunday, so we may stay here another day. The anchorage is very crowded with 1 or 2 boats arriving daily, and few leaving! It’s a lot of fun since we know about half of the boats and exchange stories with them about our crossings. Everyone puts down a bow and stern anchor to reduce swing and allow boats to anchor closer together. We had never used a stern anchor before, but bought one (along with 50′ of chain and 100′ rope) when we were in San Diego so are glad to finally make use of it.

Hi from Apropos in Fatu-Hiva, one of the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia. We’re so glad we decided to stop here for a few days before going to the downwind islands of Hiva-Oa, Ua-Pou, and Nuku-Hiva. The anchorage is surrounded on 3 sides by steep mountains covered in green, with coconut trees along the shore and part way up the mountain-side. Jacintha and I slept in the cockpit last night and woke up at 6am to daylight, a cool breeze, and the scent of fruit and flowers coming off the land. We took the dinghy to shore in the morning just as it was starting to get hot (I had to jump in the water to cool off while waiting). Once we got around the small rock breakwater we were surprised to see a small village, which couldn’t be seen from the boat anchorage. Standing on land for the first time in 24 days was strange–maybe we had a touch of land-sickness. A man came to the docking area to great us (in French, with a little broken English). He wanted to know who was the captain and mechanic, and all fingers pointed to me. He hurriedly lead us to his house and showed us his broken washing machine and asked if I could fix it. It was an outdoor unit made of plastic with 2 lids–one for washing and one for spinning–and the spinning part no longer spun. Nick and I removed some screws on a back panel to gain access to the inside. I poked around and saw 2 electric motors and the one for doing the spinning wasn’t turning on. About all I could do without tools and a multimeter was to inspect  a fuse (good) and check some wire connections (good). The 4 wires (they use 220V here) that connected to the motor were not accessible without taking the motor out. So after about an hour, I had to tell the man I couldn’t fix it. He then offered us a bag-full of Pamplemousse (very large, sweet grapefruit) for trade, and asked if we had a spare dive mask (glass, not plastic). Nick happened to bring 2 so we told him we would bring one back after we hiked to the waterfalls. It took us about 90 minutes to hike to the falls, first along a paved road where we passed about a dozen houses,  cows, horses, goats, and boars tied to trees, lots of free range chickens, and lots of dogs. After a mile the paved road turned into a dirt road. Soon the road ended and we were trekking through waist-high brush, then scrambling over boulders. Eventually we reached a beautiful 200 foot waterfall with a deep pool at the base. We jumped in the water which was cold at first but felt great. The water ran along the sheer rock wall that the sun was shining on, so when we sat on a small ledge at the base, the water coming off the face was warmer than that in the deep pool acheter kamagra oral jelly pas cher. After getting out we warmed up on some large flat rocks in the sun. This was truly an amazing experience and well worth the trek there and back. On the walk back to the village, we picked a bunch of bananas from a tree along the road. Back at the village, a woman asked us if we wanted to see some wood carvings. Between our broken French and her broken English, we had some conversation as she displayed the Tiki carvings from rosewood and ebony. Her husband had a nice shop with electric tools such a a lathe, grinder, and buffer. Since we hadn’t been to a bank to exchange money, we had no French francs (the local currency). She didn’t want US dollars but would accept Euros, which Nick had. Even though we decided not to buy anything, she happily sent us off with a large bunch of bananas and some small fruit she said would be good in a salad. As we continued to walk, we began passing children walking home from the small school, some with their parents and some alone. We stopped to take pictures of the 2 boar, and 4 curious kids stopped next to us. We exchanged Bon Jours and then Karen pointed the camera at them to take a picture and immediately the turned away and put their hands over their faces. When she lowered the camera, they came back. We exchanged names and learned that 2 of them were neuf (9) and 2 were huit (8). They were curious about the camera so we showed them the picture of the boar we had just taken. As we walked past the house of the man with the broken dryer, we picked up the sack of Pamplemousse and continued past the school, where a dozen kids were playing soccer on a big slab of concrete. As we neared the dingy, the man was sitting along the road and reminded us about the dive mask and we told him we would go to the boat and bring it back. The spare mask that Nick had was plastic and the elastic strap was not in good condition, but we took it back to his house. He didn’t look too excited with it and asked if we had any wine or fishing lures! Back at the boat, we were all very hungry and tired. Nick and I replace the VERY chafed windvane line that had steered us for 2800 miles with a new line and got the dinghy back onto the boat while Karen cooked spaghetti with minced meat and anchovies. After we ate dinner in the cockpit, Jacintha fell fast asleep. Nick soon followed and Karen is reading on her Kindle as I type this email. We plan on leaving this bit of paradise tomorrow morning and sailing to Hiva-Oa, 48 miles away.