Tahuata – 22 July to 2 August 2020

We had a great day sail from Fatu Hiva to Tahuata in 15-18 knots of wind from the East, racing Hakuna Matata – they are much smaller than us, a lovely little Sweden yacht, and they actually are one of the few boats that we have sailed with that we have not completely left in our wake. As we approached the island the wind became really fickle and big katabatic gusts hit us from all directions so we furled the sails and motored the final stretch in the lee of the island. We had planned to anchor in Hakaotu where we had great memories of one of our favourite anchorages in the Pacific, however as we approached Hanahanaehi it looked so inviting and only 3 other boats we pulled in and dropped the anchor – what a great decision this turned out to be!

Dolphins Galore

Dolphins heading to Askari

Dolphins were often right out of the water to make big splashes

 

The light on the bay for our first evening of sun downers was just spectacular but the treat we had in store for the next morning was one of the best experiences ever. As we woke up we could here strange squeaky noises, going up on deck to explore our neighbours were already in the water with the largest pod of dolphins I had ever seen. We had coffee on the aft deck and just watched thinking they’d be gone by the time we geared up and put the dinghy in. However, they didn’t go and in fact they spent the whole day in the bay, fishing. They would work the bay in a huge line, splashing and jumping in turn, often coming quite close to the boats. We spent ages in the water with them and found even more under the water. They just totally ignored us but were not bothered by us being there, what a cool experience.

Dock at Hapatoni

 

Fancy Toilet Block in this lovely friendly village

Fermin Carving in Hapatoni

We went ashore in the next small bay of Hapatoni, we were met on the dock by a fisherwomen who was quite severe. She wanted to know where we had come from, we explained we had been in the Marquesas for over a month and with that she was happy and welcomed us, even though she really didn’t want us dropping our recycling at the village…. We strolled into the village and found a perfectly manicured neat village with a lovely carved central meeting area, where Fermin sat carving a paddle. We had a chat and asked him about his work, he fetched his daughter and also brought us a bread fruit as a gift. She spoke a little better English and agreed to open his chest in the village hall to show us his work. Of course we couldn’t resist – my argument being we are the only tourists in the islands at the moment so we have a duty to spend a bit ;-) We are now the proud owners of a beautiful carved paddle made by Fermin, who we always got a warm welcome from as we spent a bit of time around the village.

 

Walking in Hapatoni with our carvings

The next morning I had baked cake, so when a father and son paddled by in their canoes we invited them to share; we learned that the next day the Aranui was coming to the next bay for the first time since COVID lockdown with Tahitian tourists aboard. This was all very exciting as that meant all the carvers would have their goods on display – it also meant for the first time since we got to the Marquesas masks would be required and we needed to be careful about the damn virus. We opted to go early and leave before the tourists. We pulled up the dinghy in the main dock at Vaitahu, but quickly realised it would be in the way of the Arunui tenders – not to worry our cake munching friend was their in his canoe who swam

off with our dinghy to a secure spot – there’s nothing the Marquesan’s love more than helping with the boat. 

Vaitahu Church

Arunui Guests inbound - time to go!

Artisan Market in Vaitaha

Off for lunch at Jimmy’s – there’s wifi and fries – the best place in town. Within minutes all the other cruisers were there and we had quite a lunch party, then the ship arrived, masks went on and before we knew it the guests on the Aranui were running – yes running – to the artisan market. The next day we heard they bought literally everything. Tahuata carvers are known as being among the best, we bought a small tiki from shell carved by Teiki Barsinas who has work in a Paris Museum. Tiki’s ward off bad spirits so we needed one! I fell for a lovely sandalwood tiki but at $1000 I decided to pass and leave that for the Tahitians.  

 

Teiki and Andrew

We spent several lazy days walking and relaxing around Hapatoni, we had drinks with lovely French friends, met another family who make knives and soap aboard there boat and then Rik and Sanne on Incentive joined us. We were able to introduce them to our friend Tafata who is part of a well known family in the bay; he shared some pulpo and baked breadfruit with us all before taking us on a walk to explore and get fruit and eggs (the eggs ended up coming from his mum’s fridge – not the wild variety we thought when we set off into the bush. Lazy Travels then also joined us, so of course we had a bit of a fun night with them on board Incentive…. 

View from Tafeta's House

Tafeta polishing a swordfish bill he's carved for us

Yummy pulpo - sorry we don't usually eat octopus but as a guest you can't refuse

At Tafeta's House

 

After a few more days we all decided it was a good weather window to sail through the channel to Hiva Oa – we had a really good trip, but pulled into the bay and it was so swelly, full of boats and really not that nice, we opted to drop our rubbish with Mariska on Zouterik and head back to Tahuata. This time to the lovely wind sand bay of Hanamoenoa – our friends on Joy were there, all ready to leave for the Tuamotu but decided to stay a night. We had drinks with Micheal and Ariana and watched a French boat arrive at sunset – tsst typically French we said; next morning the lovely couple who were actually from Nuku Hiva rowed over to give us a huuuuge bag of avocados – I’ll never be grumpy about French boats arriving at sunset again. It turned out they hadn’t been able to catch any fish so I gave them some yellow fin tuna from the freezer – that was a surprise to them.

Askari from one of our hikes

It's always up in Tahuata - the next day we got a lift to no-where (another story)

Zouterik came from Hiva Oa to join us that day and we had a lovely day swimming with manta rays – our first time they got really close. Andrew brought the girls out to see them in the dinghy and Berber was so excited watching she fell straight in head first. Mariska and I went snorkelling and a shark swam by – this was the closest she’d come to one. We met crazy local guy Stephen who now lives on his own in the bay. We had a good conversation one day but he blanked us the next; we saw him paddle off to town with a dead pig on the front of his kayak and then had the beach to ourselves. 

Beautiful Hanamoana Bay

 

Another day we thought we might leave Tahuata and sail to the north of Hiva Oa – yeah we had a great sail but decided the anchorage that had over 20 knots blowing straight into it and huge ocean swell wasn’t for us – so back to Tahuata again – but a nice sail.

Back at Hanamoana Bay

 

We finally sailed off to Ua Pou on 2^nd August…