Ua-Pou (pronounced oo-pow)

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!

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Northern Coast of Ua-Pou
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It Poured Buckets! (great for topping off  the water tanks)
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Just Playing in the Rain
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The bay went from clear (before the rain) to muddy (during the rain)
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