Slideshow Tuamotus & Marquesas 2007
We’ve been cruising the Marquesas. From our arrival point in the pretty little bay on Tahuata we sailed to the island of Hiva Oa and anchored in the commercial harbor of the main town, Atuona. It was not the most pleasant of places as it was crowded with other yachts, most of them new arrivals still flying the yellow quarantine flag until they could be cleared into the country. A big dredge was running day and night deepening the harbor, and dump trucks were hauling the black mud down the adjacent road to a nearby landfill. There are only two places in the Marquesas to refuel, the other being in Nuku Hiva where Mike and I will catch our flight back to Papeete en route home, and where Raven will top off her fuel tanks again preparatory to her departure for Hawaii.
The anchored yachts were all arranged with both bow and stern anchors set to keep parallel with each other and save space . However on our last day one came free of its stern anchor and starting swinging sideways, coming very close to colliding with its nearest neighbor whose owner fended it off with his dinghy while crew from another neighboring boat raced over in their dinghy, climbed aboard the errant yacht, started its engines and moved it to a safer location….the owners not being on board at the time.
Atuona itself was attractive and pleasant, flowers and gardens everywhere. We rented a car, actually a very nice crew cab Toyota pickup called a Hilux (not available for purchase in the U.S.) for errands and sightseeing. One day we drove across the top of the island and down to a small flower bedecked village near the sea on the other side. Near Atuona they are building concrete roads, but not much further out the highways deteriorate into rocky tracks, probably pretty tough to negotiate in rainy weather.
There are archaeological ruins everywhere, literally thousands of complexes of rectangular platforms built with retaining walls of lava stones. Some are restored, some abandoned, and many are currently in use as foundations for houses, churches, etc. In its pre-European days the islands here supported a population of 100,000 Marquesans! The arrival of Europeans pretty much wiped out the populous with war and disease over the next 300 years, so that the population fell to as low as 2,100 in 1926 and as of now has only rebounded to about 8,000.
Another morning Mike and I took a 2-hour walk through the bush looking for petroglyphs. We finally found them on a huge boulder which was apparently used for human sacrifice, according to an older French couple we encountered hiking the same trail. At any rate we enjoyed the scenery and came home with our backpack full of limes that we harvested from the wild lime trees along the way. No scurvy aboard Raven! It was a hot and sweaty hike and Mike took the opportunity to cool off when we crossed an inviting little stream.
And in the evening we enjoyed cocktails and dinner out on the patio of a really lovely resort high on a hill with a spectacular view of the sea.
Our plan was to leave the harbor on Friday after refueling and filling our water tanks. Very luckily at the last minute Rod discovered that since it was Easter weekend the fuel station planned to close at noon for the entire holiday weekend, leaving us stuck there until Monday morning. Positioning Raven to refuel was an adventure in itself, as we had to set our bow anchor and let the boat swing around until we were stern-to the landing; then reel out carefully towards the shore (and rocks!) until we were within range of the fuel and water hoses but not close enough for the surge to bash us into the seawall; then use the dinghy to run lines from Raven’s stern to piling on the shore to hold us in position.
Next to us was the supply ship which had arrived in the night and spent the entire morning off-loading, by crane, supplies for the village. Recognizable to us were big tanks of diesel fuel, pallets of soda pop, and three brand new jet skis.
A couple of hours to fill up – 1200 liters of diesel and 2400 liters of water – and finally we were off to a pleasant little anchorage away from the big(!) city where we finally could jump back into the water to cool off.
More later about our Easter weekend spent in Fatu Hiva, the most beautiful of all the Marquesan islands, and in the opinion of some the most beautiful island in the world.