Starblazer - 31/03/2014 – In search of water

On Thursday we went on a tour of the island, nearly as planned. The taxi
taking us, 4 wheel drive, double cab pick-up with bench seats in the back,
broke down. It didn’t so much break down as refuse to go uphill at anything
more than walking pace, diagnosis blocked fuel filter. Jean took us back to
the harbour and we managed to get another taxi, without the seats in the
back, much newer (3 months old) and very comfortable. Freda was an
excellent guide, very informative about the history of the Marquesan people
and knowledgeable about the trees. Lunch was a mix of rice with plaintains,
poisson cru (raw fish soaked in lemon juice and coconut milk), goat stew and
pork stew with lots of vegetables followed by a local speciality of fruit
cooked with manioc flour which becomes a jelly consistency. It was all very
tasty. On the way back to the boat Freda took us to the cemetery to see the
graves of Paul Gaugin and Jacques Brel, a Belgian singer songwriter and
actor.

On Friday John took our 9 fuel cans to the filling station on the dock,
diesel is reasonably priced here without the discount for duty free! We
paid for a certificate to enable us to buy our fuel duty free at 1 Euro a
litre throughout French Polynesia. Time for some culture, we headed into
town to visit the Gaugin museum and the Espace Jacques Brel then we had
lunch in the one and only café/bar in Atuona. After lunch we went shopping,
everything is expensive here but I found most of what we wanted with the
exception of eggs.

We still had not managed to refill our water tanks. We tested the water on
the quay, the World Health Organisation deems any water with fewer than 500
parts per million of dissolved solids to be potable. The water tested at
495 ppm, not really very clean so I only used it for doing the washing!
Charlie on Celebrate had agreed to fill our tank for us, all we had to do
was find where he was anchored.

First thing Saturday morning we set off around the island until we found
Celebrate on AIS, they were in Baie Hanamoena on the island of Tahuata. It
was a picturesque bay, sheltered from the prevailing winds and swell, with a
white sand beach fringed by palm trees. We tied up alongside Celebrate
where they kindly transferred about 300 litres of water, then we anchored
further inshore. A second reason for coming here was to scrub the hull
which had a fine crop of goose barnacles. John scrubbed the waterline by
snorkel on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. After lunch he used the
long air hose, kindly lent to us by Chez Nous, connected to one of our scuba
tanks so that he could swim right under the boat to scrub it off thoroughly.
I did some more washing. We invited Donna, Jonathan and Cameron from Chez
Nous on board for drinks. Celebrate, Trillium and Saphir all left late
afternoon to do an overnight trip to Nuku Hiva where we have a rendez-vous
on Wednesday.

This morning we pulled up the anchor at 0715 to follow in the wake of Chez
Nous and Ghost which were already over the horizon. We don’t fancy an
overnighter so we are sailing to Ua Pou today leaving us with a fairly short
hop tomorrow. John’s efforts with scraper and scrubbing brush have paid
off. We can motor at 6 knots on 2000 rpm, before the scrub we were lucky to
make 4.5 knots!

I mentioned in a previous blog about possible confusion around what the
local time is. We believe the islands have reverted to winter time since
the rally briefing, the Marquesas are 91/2 hours behind GMT which makes it
101/2 behind BST. My head hurts! Actually we only found out the correct
time when our taxi didn’t show up and no-one arrived to open the office. We
had gone ashore at 0730 believing it was 0830.

Joyce