Greetings and Happy Easter from yacht Ensemble.
We have spent the last few days in Taiohae Bay, Nuka Hiva.
Overall, you can't help but feel impressed with the Marquesas. The islands are beautiful, good climate, friendly people, clean towns - and french cuisine.
We started off in Nuka Hiva with a very daunting refuelling exercise. The fuel dock is really set up for big ships - and they just don't seem to understand that gel caot and concrete barriers don't mix. A number of the other WARC boats have had trouble - most having difficulty getting the anchor to grip - and then having problems with the stern lines being too close or too tight in the swell. We discussed this amongst the catamaran crews and decided the best bet was to tie up and an angle - with plenty of
line - and also have extra crew on board - and finally only pay after having gone back to the anchor (the jump from the boat to the jetty is an accident waiting to happen). The good news is that they were open today (Saturday) - and are supposed to be open on Monday morning too.
Once this drama was over the rest of the town was lovely. We found the shops to be both friendly and have a wide range of goods (watch the 'use by date' though) - we even found New Zealand and Australian cheese - all a little expensive though.
Restaurant wise we enjoyed the local Pizza bar / cafe' - and went there with the crews from At Last and Southern Cross - only to be met by the crews of Serendipity and 12 Moons.
Magali and I also went to dinner at the Pearl Logde - the sister hotel of the one in Hiva Oa. The food and the service were good - but the cocktails were a disappointment (twice so - because they were also stupidly expensive at Euro 14 each!).
We spent the last couple of days cleaning the boat up and doing minor repairs. The dinghy propeller got bent during the refuelling - and there was a minor scratch on the gel coat. We also managed to clean the mould off the cushions using watered down bleach. We also found swarms of ants on the boat - that quickly died off in the heat of the day.
We hosted the next round of 'Train Dominoes' with Southern Cross and At Last - and Magali won.
This morning Magali was up at 4:30am and went to the weekly local fresh food market. Limited selection - and pricey - but good quality. Unfortunately the fish market we saw on Wednesday hasn't been back - so pressure on me to catch some more fish!
This morning we upped anchor - and the ketch anchor is a real drama. It had got sucked into the mud. Fortunately I had a line on the anchor head - and through tying it to the dinghy was able to drag it backwards and then back to the boat. It is much too heavy though - and with 30m of chain it is almost unmanagable between the two of us. Hopefully will get a replacement in Papeete.
We are going back to Oa Pua - to have a better look around and also catch up with Sheila and Karsten from Gumvor who are back on the World ARC after a break. Should be good - and hopefully a nice restaurant.
Cheers
Dave & Magali
7April2012 007