May 23 to May 24, 2007 – Wednesday was a really mellow day. We had gotten in from dinner late on Tuesday, so on Wednesday we slept late. We spent most of the day tiding and doing some laundry. Tidying is another one of those chores that sounds easy enough, but is laborious on a boat. Putting things back often means pulling everything out of a storage area and repacking it all back in because it needs to be packed in a certain order. As we use up things, spaces open up that need to be repacked so things don’t move around within the storage space. We often need to shuffle things from one storage area to another, causing both areas have to be completely pulled out and repacked.

Around 09:30, “Special Blend”, another Nordhavn 43, pulled in and
anchored (translation: parked) near us. They came from Florida, through the Panama Canal, and departed for the Marquesas from the Galapagos. Eric took the dinghy over to visit them, and also went and introduced himself to some people on another nearby power boat. Special Blend is in the foreground and Kosmos is in the background and another one with Kosmos on the left:

The supply ship had arrived the night before and was already at the dock unloading by the time we awoke. The supply ship only comes once a month and its arrival is a big deal. Everyone apparently comes out to see the supply ship unload. We had stopped by the store a couple of times since arriving, and it was slim pickings in there. Anyway, while Eric was out in the dinghy, he also went into shore to grocery shop, figuring there would be more of a selection. They hadn’t unpacked the boxes yet, so no food shopping.

Later in the afternoon we went to the local museum. The museum is one tiny room, but is absolutely charming. The owner, Rose, is infamous and is mentioned in all the cruising guides. She is an American that moved to the Marquesas in 1972, when the chief still ran the show and there were no roads, electricity or phones. She is passionate about the Marquesan culture and people. She is fascinating to talk to. Cruisers: update your guidebooks. Rose is no longer at the Pearl Lodge, she is now at Rose’s He’e Tain Inn, which is a brand new place to eat and stay.

We got a small guide book from Rose and took this picture near sunset on the way to check out some of the nearby stone carvings.

From there we went to dinner with the crew of “Special Blend”, which was fun.

On Thursday, we went into town to confirm that we could get fuel at 10:30. Nope. A big ship was coming at 11:00, we’d have to wait until they were done, approximately 15:00 (translation: 3:00pm). So we went to the grocery store. The selection was much better. Christi almost did a cartwheel in the aisle when she saw they had Tim Tams in stock. We, of course, bought a box of each flavor.

At about 14:00, we lifted the paravanes and anchor and headed to sea to dump our septic holding tank. We returned to the fuel dock, patiently waiting for the ship to finish up and leave. We were a little nervous about getting fuel. The way it works here is you med moore up against a concrete pier and they hand you a hose to fill up with. We have never med moored before.

For the non-boaters, med moor is short for Mediterranean mooring. In the Mediterranean they don’t have nice finger docks like we do at home (finger dock: where you tie the boat up on two or three sides and have a walkway around most or all of the boat). In Europe, they pack the boats in close at the marinas by backing them in against the dock. So, in order to park this way, you get your boat pretty close to your desired parking space, drop the anchor in front, then back in to the parking space. Usually there are boats on both sides of you, which can make it very scary. Then you tie the back of the boat up to the dock.

In our case, there was no one next to us, thank goodness. There was some wind and current so it was a bit tricky getting the boat backed straight. We got in OK and tied up. They gave us a small rope to tie the fuel hose nozzle open, but it either pumped too slow, or too fast and stopped. So we got 3400 liters, holding the nozzle the entire time. We discovered we didn’t put out enough anchor, so the anchor wound up dragging a little, bringing us closer to the pier.

About half way through fueling we bumped into the concrete pier. This is bad. Resetting the anchor meant stopping the fueling process, so we decided resetting the anchor was out of the question. Eric wound up running the engine, trying to give it just enough thrust to keep us away from the wall, but not so much that we get pulled too far from the pier. We bumped into the pier a few more times while Eric figured out the right balance. It was really scary, but Eric did a good job of keeping us safe. Cruisers: update your guidebooks. Nuka Hiva has plenty of fuel and getting it is no big deal. Do work with the agent here to get duty free fuel, which is about half the price.

When we were done fueling it was 17:20. We asked the attendant where we paid. He said they had already closed and to come back tomorrow to pay. Uh, Toto, I don’t think we’re in California anymore.

We feel kind of lame with this report. Here we are on this magical tropical island, and we are spending our days doing boat chores and relaxing, instead of out enjoying the sights. Quite honestly, we’re tired. We were scattered and frazzled when we got on board the boat and our time at sea wasn’t as relaxing as we had hoped. Right now we want to relax, wrap up all the loose ends with life at home, and get the boat better organized and chores done so that we feel less discombobulated. But we need to get to sightseeing soon, as we can’t stay here forever and we certainly don’t want to leave without exploring the island.