Saturday, June 2, 2007 –The seas have calmed down from Friday, but it is still a rough ride. We feel like we are human pinballs in a pinball machine right now. We are still getting the ugly beam seas (meaning getting hit from the side by waves), but they are not nearly as strong or as frequent.
Unfortunately, the air Continue reading
May 31 — Thursday was uneventful. We spent the day doing boat chores, which means cleaning, organizing, and maintenance stuff. Eric changed the on engine fuel filters for the generator and main engine. Tip: If the primer pump is not working, turn over the engine to realign the camshaft so the primer pump works. If you forget this step you tend to panic because Continue reading
Wednesday May 30, 2007 We pulled into the Bay of Virgins on Fatu Hiva, Marquesas, French Polynesia, at 8:30. As promised, it is beautiful. Fatu Hiva gets the most rain, and is thus the most lush. The original name for the bay the Marquesans gave it was Bay of the Phalli, because there are several rock formations that do resemble penises of various shapes and sizes. Rumor has it the missionaries were unhappy with that name (Baie des Verges in French) and changed it to the Bay of Virgins (Baie des Vierges just added an “I”).
Like Anaho, Fatu Hiva is extremely difficult for tourists to get to without a private boat. There is no airport and no regular ferry to take tourists to and from here. There are two towns connected by a road that is mostly dirt. There are a little over 500 people on the island. Like Nuka Hiva, steep mountains just shoot out of the water with little flat ground. Continue reading
Monday, May 28, 2007 – Anaho Bay is truly amazing. It is a glimpse at what all the Marquesas were probably like 30 years ago. It’s probably what all the islands were like 100 years ago. It may be the last genuinely unspoiled town left on earth. We wish we could send a photo because words cannot even begin to describe it, but we’ll try to paint the picture with words.
Anaho resembles Taiohae in that high mountains thick with foliage plunge straight into the water with little shoreline. The bay itself looks like it is out of a picture book, with it’s beautiful horseshoe curve and blue water. In some small spots near the shoreline the water is a spectacular blue-green. The land along the water is odd there are a few small isolated spots of white sandy beach, but it is mostly a narrow beach that immediately becomes thick, dense foliage. Continue reading
May 27, 2007 On Sunday morning we decided to go to church. The tourist guides all said that Polynesians are deeply religious people and everyone goes to church. Dean Richard, our guide, said that was true in his grandparent’s day, but nowadays it was socially acceptable to not attend church. The tourist guides all said the singing was amazing and worth a visit on a Sunday morning.
The Catholic Cathedral we had visited the night before had very high wooden ceilings, rock walls, and lots of statues and crucifixes. The church could have held at least a couple hundred people and there were maybe 40 at the Saturday night service. Everyone sat attentively. The service was in Marquesan. The singing was really beautiful, as promised. The priest and alter boy were dressed in white robes. Since we wandered in out and while the service was going on, we had no contact with the church goers. Continue reading