“Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air...” Emerson
After taking an advantage of the Salinas's yard
services to finish few projects we had in mind for a while and after
fixing the defective engine mounts we departed for the Marquesas
Islands, some 3,600 nautical miles away. The weather along the way
was great, sometimes even on the light side and we ended up wishing
just for a bit more wind. It took us 25 days to cover this distance
with about 12 hours of motor help when the wind got very light. As
almost always long passages come with some type of unexpected,
usually unpleasant surprise, and this one unfortunately wasn't an
exception. The rack and pinion system of our rudder wheel broke and
we ended up once again hand steering, this time only for the last 30
hours with just few gears left on the system, afraid we won't make
it, but at the end we did arrive safely in Nuku-Hiva and anchored in
Taiohae Bay. Nuku-Hiva is the largest of the Marquesas Islands and
Taiohae is the administrative capital, hence why this bay became our
choice for receiving the parts. The village is located in the centre
of a crater, half sunk in the ocean, with black sand beach, open to
the South. The trade wind at this time of the year is from South-East
and we ended up rolling almost as if we were sailing down wind! Not
the most comfortable anchorage! There has been about another 30
vessels of different nationalities rolling around with us, and I bet
at least half of them were waiting for some parts for repairs as
well! We were lucky as this is French Polynesia, our parts were
coming from France and surprisingly post office system was efficient
and we received what we needed in only eight days! Meanwhile, while
waiting, we investigated this sparsely populated volcanic island,
with razor-edged basaltic cliffs pounded by crushing waves, deep bays
with cobalt-blue water, dramatic tall waterfalls and many mysterious
looking valleys with lush vegetation that feel like the beginning of
the world must have looked like or like a countryside from the pages
of some fairy tale. The Marquesans are very welcoming and friendly,
women with flowers tucked behind ears, easy smile and both sexes
adorned with very artistic, tasteful, geometric tattoos. While
sailing around the island we were visited by very different looking
dolphins, and as we found out later this kind of dolphin, called
Electra, is only seen around this island. Since our arrival in
Marquesas we have been sailing together with friends we have met for
the first time in Morocco two years ago, then Caribbean and now here,
also owners of Amel sailboat, but 54 ft instead of our 46. We will
have to say good-bye to them soon – they, being French can stay in
French Polynesia for 36 months, we as Canadians only receive three
months and now we have only another two months left here and we have
to move on, while they can linger. Presently, since a week we have
been exploring Fakarava together, the second largest atoll of Tuamotu
islands. We snorkel every day, dove both passes here with
crystal-clear water, with very healthy corals of every color and
shape imaginable and fish so plentiful and colorful, one doesn't know
where to look first. Black-tip sharks (quite harmless) are one of the
main attractions here and we meet them everywhere we snorkel in this
lagoon. This is an unbelievable underwater playground with so many
species of fish we have never seen anywhere else and we wish we could
spend some more time here. However, soon we will have to lift the
anchor and be on our way. Next we will cross first to Papeete, Tahiti
island, before continuing westwards as we must...