UTC/Local -9.5: 1930/1000 a.m.
Latitude: 10 18.970 S
Longitude: 138 49.524 W
Conditions:
After a lovely, albeit windy, day in the Bay of Virgins, we are headed 303 degrees toward the island of Tahuata. This island lies just a few miles south of Hiva Oa, and we will reach it late this afternoon. We thought it would be better to anchor here in a bay with just a bow anchor than to negotiate the required bow and stern situation at Autona at dusk. The wind is blow 19 knots, wind waves of 1 meter and east south east rolling swells 2.5 metters high every 10 seconds while in sets. These sets rock the boat from rail to rail. In between set the boat is bounding along at 6+ knots.
By dusk last night, there were more that 20 boats in the Bay of Virgins. Many of them with the yellow quarantine flags hoisted indicating they had not yet checked in. We followed suite and raised our yellow flag on the starboard spreader with our French Polynesia flag just below. About 1/3 of the boats had no flags, and another 1/3 of the boats had the French Flag. We saw no other French Polynesia flags other than ours in the anchorage. Since this is not an official check in location, we were concerned about making landfall here and having to pay a fine for making landfall without the required check in, but didn't seem to have to worry about that. There were a lot of very tired looking sailors taking refuge here before moving on.
Day 1 Garyn lowered the dinghy into the water and while he was checking out the motor and riding around, he noticed a large gray shark the size of the dinghy following along side. Our desired to take a swim was immediately squelched. Garyn and Russ took a hike earlier in the day yesterday, Day 1, up to the cross on a pinnacle earlier in the day. Later in the day, Russ and I went back to shore and explored the little town of Hanevave which is at the end of the bay nestled between giant pinnacles. It was a tidy little village with a concrete roads. Houses looked like modulars set on pier foundations. Each of the 20 +/- houses had a garden with several types of plants and fruit trees. Some had pigs tied on tethers to one of their hooves getting fat for roasting and chickens strutted around the town. We saw one teenager carrying a large rooster in his arms. The rooster looked pretty content and wasn't worried about becoming dinner. Dogs and cats were in nearly every yard. The Marquesans girls and women we saw were wearing shorts and tops, the men no tops.
We had heard there was a little store, and saw some folks carrying things in their sacks, but didn't see the store ourselves. We said Kaoha (hello) to folks we saw and many responded either in Marquesan or in French. We stopped and talked to one young man who had a baby. He had seen Garyn and Russ earlier in the day as they hiked the road to the cross. He was one of the workmen who hauls one huge bag of cement up the hillside and extends the concrete road to the next village or wherever they want the road to go. This project will probably last the lifetime of the young man we were talking with. He introduced us to his son who looked less than a year old. We saw a couple of vehicles parked under ports, but none that were on the road.
The village had what looked to be a school/community center, church, volleyball court, soccer field, post office, breakwater with dinghy dock, and a restaurant that looked closed, but with a religious shrine erected in the front. We were told by other cruisers that there was a lady named Justine, near the socceer field, that would prepare a traditional Marquesan dinner with enough notice for cruisers at a price of about $11.00 each. We did not take advantage of this opportunity as we found out too late in the day and would not be there the following. But it sounded like it would have been fun and interesting.
Instead we had spaghetti on board, turn the clocks to Marquesan time. It was dark by 6:00 p.m. when we did this. The days on this side of the equator are growing shorter. By 8:00 p.m, we were all sleeping, not soundly, but sleeping. The boat had just a gentle rock, but the winds were fierce and would whip down from rock pinnacles and deep valleys from a couple of directions, stretching our chain, and often causing us to heel to one side. By the time we finally went to bed our anchor alarm had gone off at least 2 dozen times over the course of the afternoon and evening. Russ had set a pretty tight circle, so we weren't too concerned as we watched the gps screen - boat position draw a wormy looking pattern from the anchor. When we went to bed, our alarm remained silent indicating to us that we had tested nearly every direction downwind from the anchor and were still holding. It was nice to know that we weren't dragging, but didn't have the same confidence in the other boats in the anchorage, many of whom had come in and anchored in front of us.
Between all of us getting up a couple of times and checking our position and other boats relative to us, we got through the night with no problems. Garyn reported that he heard voices(real ones :-), and there was a boat that was trying to drop anchor right next to us and drop back. That didn't work out for them. They finally dropped way to the back of the fleet and dropped anchor. In this particular bay, there is a sandy shelf close to the head of the bay and slightly around the bay on the south side. If you don't drop the line on this shelf in 70 feet or less of water, your alternative is to drop anchor in 100+ feet of water. We carry 300 feet of chain, and to get the right scope, we prefer to drop in shallower water. We were anchored in about 60 feet of water.
When we awoke this morning at 6:00 a.m., we quickly had some cereal and coffee, secured everything for our passage to Tahuata. We turned on the motor to give us an assist in pulling up the anchor against the strong winds pushing us away from the anchor. I was at the helm, Russ and Garyn doing the anchor work. The anchor came up with no problems and by 7:30 we had headed out of the bay for Tahuata. It's been fun sailing in this direction. We hand steered for the first hour or so past the lee of Fatu Hiva because of the variable winds. Once we were well under way, we put Hydie to work and have been giving her periodic help when hit by large offsetting and rounding swells. The clouds are starting to build covering the sun and the temperature has dropped a little from 88 degrees.
We figure that Jessica is on her way to Tahiti now. We will see her tomorrow in Autuona about 4:00 p.m. We understand that we will probably not be able to do an official check-in in Autona until Monday or Tuesday. So we will either hang around there for a few days or go to one of the other close by bays.
As I close this update, we see the dark outline of islands in front of us. Either Tahuata or Hiva Oa or both. Can't quite tell yet.
All is well on Worrall Wind
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