Hello!!
We made it to the Marqueses. We made land fall in a lovely little bay with a village of 70 people, no store, no anything really. We are the only boat here! It is like a picture out of a storybook, neat little manicured lawns and beautiful lush plants and gardens that would make you green with envy!! Even a vanilla farm!! There is a 200 foot waterfall right off the starboard side of the boat. The name of it is Hanaiapa. The people speak French and are very kind. We arrived a little after midnight but was able to navigate into the bay with charts. We were both exhausted from steering(lost the autopilot). We went to shore this morning to find no stores to provision. The people were so kind, they gave us fruit. There were these six guys practicing in this long(50ft) canoe type boat with an outrigger, Louis invited them to the boat for a beer and they came all smiles!!! Well they were so happy they brought us back a whole side of pig, limes, papaya, and these great fruit called pamplemouse. Pamplemouse is a large grapefruit type fruit that is sweet and very juicy. WE went to see ruins that were 10,000 years old!! The were stone tikis in a ceremonial ground it was very eery but exciting. We will move on to the next island tomorrow which is Ua Pau for a day then to Nuka Hiva.
All is well we are on another island-it is totally different then the last island. The landscape has huge really tall spires that are way up in the sky and look like huge penis'!!! There is a little town but groceries are lots of money-28.00 for 8 tomatoes, 6 carrots and a dozen eggs, beer is 3.00!!! We will be in the Marquese for another week as we lost the auto pilot and had to have another one shipped in!!!
We are on Nuka Hiva and are just sailing around the north side to go to the main harbor to get provisions then we will head to the Tumotus. We have seen awesome stuff, archeological findings of great proportions!! Some 10,000 years old! We have seen melon headed whales, huge dolphin. rays that are 20 feet across. We are rested up from the long voyage hear. We mended the sails we blew out coming across, repaired all the rigging that got damaged from the high winds and seas-the boat is ready to go again!!! Thank God it is only a 5-6 day sail to the Tumotus. They are a group of islands that were once volcanos so they are lagoons surrounded by rock and reef on sort of a oblong shape. It is difficult sailing to enter them you have to wait until the tide and current is just right. We will set sail tomorrow and will arrive early next week. The Tumotus are spectacular diving and snorkeling with beautiful fish and lots of hammerheads!!
Day 3 underway after leaving Nuku Hiva headed to the Tumotoe's. We have caught 2 more huge Mahi's and have now restocked the freezer. still have 2 bags of Tuna left as well. It seems we will not be able to eat the fish in the Tumoto's because of Cigitera poisoning from reef fish.
We have decided to go to Fakurava, an Atol in the center of the Tumoto's and the 2nd largest of the group. We plan to stay there a few days then off to the island of Tahiti for the Dancing festivals. It should be a fantastic time in Tahiti for sure.
