Written by Mia on June 20th, limited internet access means many posts will appear out of order. This is written about the Marquesas and we are currently in the Tuamotus.
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The night sail was OK, a little light on wind so we motored more than we hoped and sailed slowly the rest of the way. However, the benefit of choosing to make the crossing at night was that we had no rush to get there, plenty of time. In the end we arrived into Taiohae, the main town on Nuku Hiva around lunchtime on Friday. Anchoring was easy enough as the bay is huge so there was plenty of room despite the 30+ yachts in the bay.
We spotted a boat that we made friends with in Linton Bay, Panama – ‘Ipanema’ and anchored near them. A quick tidy up of the yacht and then hop in the dinghy and head ashore to see if we could get Internet access and finally officially clear customs and immigration! Yes, we were still illegal after being in the islands for the last week and a half. But, it is quite common and generally speaking they don’t care too much. We were even advised by the head of tourism for French Polynesia when we were in Panama to visit the smaller islands before checking-in to the country.
The town in incredibly cute, beautiful, laid-back, welcoming and colourful. They use Polynesian fabrics with lots of flowers as everything from curtains to car seat covers. Oooooooh, I can see that Itchy Foot needs some hibiscus flower highlights! The place to tie-up the dinghy was understandably very busy, but we managed to find a spot and clamber up the ladder ashore. After a brief chat to some other cruisers we established several things, firstly that the police station where we were to complete immigration was closed in the afternoons (the criminals take the afternoon off), secondly that there was recycling on the island. Amazing really as we haven’t seen a recycling station since mainland Spain over a year ago. We also discovered that the fresh baguettes are sold-out by about 9am in the morning and that the fruit and veg market opens at 6am and closes by 10am. Clearly we weren’t going to have much luck this afternoon.
So, undeterred we decided to take a walk along the front past the the two market shops and see if they had anything left for the late arrivals. Tina managed to find some excellent coconut bread and that did a wonderful job of keeping us going until dinner. We sat under a huge tree with Itchy Foot in view and ate our bread and watched the local kids play in the park by the sea. Volleyball seems to be the sport of the islands and these guys were playing a great game.
The stores also had a very good selection of foods, and clearly the basics are subsidised by the French government as we haven’t seen flour and UHT milk that cheap since mainland Europe. Good news as we counted on being able to get the basics when we got here to avoid carrying too much across the Pacific. We stocked up on flour, UHT milk, powdered milk (for when taste doesn’t matter, like in porridge), butter, eggs and locally made cheese. I stopped by the man with the van who sells pan au chocolat to make an order for the next morning.
We also bumped into a good friend, Nicko from Urchin. We are part of the same whatsapp group and despite not actually having met before we have been chatting on whatsapp and have had the same circle of friends for the last two years. We finally saw Nicko for the first time when he came to Panama and we happened to be at the visitors centre at the Miraflores locks as he came through on his yacht. Much shouting and photos ensued before we finally met face to face later that evening when we shared a beer and anchorage in Panama City. He’s a lovely guy and Teo instantly bonded with him, so much so that Teo started calling everyone ‘Mate’ after his new Ozzi role model Nicko. So anyway, we invited him back for dinner and after struggling to find good internet ashore we gave up and headed back to Itchy Foot.
The next day we tried again to check-in and were told to return in the afternoon. So we headed again along the front. Tina zeroed in on some music coming from a school playground and we headed up to see what was going on. We met Meryem there a lovely Turkish friend we met in Panama. The girls joined in a Polynesian dance class and we stuck around to eat food from the bbq to support the school who were trying to raise money for a school trip to Hawaii. We had a short visit to the school and it was absolutely charming with coral and shell wind chimes hanging from the eaves and cut out paintings of colorful fish taped to all the windows.
In the morning Jon went ashore to retrieve our pastries that he reserved the day before. Even though Jon was later than he said he would be, the lovely pastry man had a bag waiting for us, with our order plus some extra croissants, for free! I think Jon found the guy he wants to apprentice with, I hope we will fit into our swim suits after an extended stay!
We enjoyed our time very much in the hustle and bustle of “city life”. Even here it is clear that people take great pride in their homes and seem intent to keep things beautiful and tidy. Meryem lived with a local family and the girls went to visit them. It was a treat to see how the three generations live there together with matriarch working on sarongs and jewelry for the artisan shop. And of course we saw lots of lovely gardens on our walk up the hill. In the afternoon Tina had a tattoo and it was fascinating to watch the artist work and to hear him talk about their culture. The Marquesas are known for their tattoos and Teiki has been doing them for over 25 years. We have a copy of his book onboard and love to browse it. Way too soon we were leaving Taiohae.
