Mischief - Even more Mischief Log 13

Day 26 Sunday 25 March 2018.

A bit of a headache this morning, can't think why! It may have something to do with the particularly nice bottle or two of Duoro red wine of 2011 Tintamara bought over last night followed by a few cartons of the cheap stuff we have on board.

We weighed anchor at 0820 and headed off towards our next destination of Ua Pou and the Baie D'Hakahau - every anchorage on the island is a Haka something-or-other by the look of it, which is the main settlement on the island and the third most populated village in the Marquesas. It is well known for it's beautiful wood, stone and shell carvings by all accounts. Whatever, there are restaurants there, as it seems we haven't eaten ashore for ages.

Trevor put the fishing lines out and almost straight away we had a bite but not one you would normally wish for: we had caught a Booby in the rod line and the poor thing was getting dragged through the water as if it were bare foot water skiing. We managed to hoist it aboard and Dave donned gloves to grab it whilst Trev tried to untangle its wing but it managed to free it's beak sufficiently to spike Trev in the arm, a vicious attack that very nearly took his arm clean off - well, in his narrative of the event anyway! The reality was a mere flesh wound, and once freed the duck flew off as if nothing untoward had happened at all, having lunched on Trev's arm.

We soon had a proper bite though on one of the fixed lines - whatever it was was swimming on the surface and nibbling the lure before taking it fully; Trev reckoned it was a Blue Marlin whilst the rest of us were unanimously agreed it was a shark, and big one. It took the bait and Bang! Snapped the 250lb breaking strain line without a care in the world - thank God, didn't want that on board!

We were experiencing a series of rain squalls, some with 30 knots of breeze so we were well reefed down, and in the rain Dave and I stripped off and got the shampoo out and lathered up (not each other you understand) and then waited for the rain to wash the soap away. Of course, as soon as you are soaped up the rain stops, it is the way of things so we had to resort to the deck shower to get the soap out of our eyes.

1400 we arrived at Baie D'Hakahau where several other World ARC boats lay at anchor, after a trip of c.40 nm and we dinghied ashore a couple of hours later to find something to eat. We were directed to a small hotel just up a hill off the beach but as it was a Sunday they weren't serving food and besides the French proprietor Jerome's wife who did all the cooking was back in France so we couldn't have eaten there anyway as he, by his own admission, couldn't cook for a toffee! They had limited Wi-Fi which was good but insufficient to download anything of size which is a problem as Barclays in their wisdom have updated their mobile app meaning that unless one downloads the new version you can't access your account - brilliant! Jerome was from La Rochelle and was sporting a tiny pair of shorts and training shoes with muscles bulging half covered in tattoos - not your usual hotel manager attire, but he served cold Tahiti beer which was far more important than sartorial elegance and his hotel outlook was stunning.

Jerome directed us towards an eatery, which was no more than a takeaway to find food. We found it with ease where we found a chap barbequing steaks over charcoal - Sold! Five steak and chips later and a couple of the sickliest crepes covered in nuttella and squirty cream (for Trev and Dave, who else), we paid the bill: about £9 each! We had our own beer and wine so we had a really nice evening there.

Back to the boat and we were much too close to another yacht as we had both swung on our respective anchors so we had to move slightly further out for hopefully a better position.

Day 27 Monday 26 March 2018

It turned out where we had dropped anchor was no better than we were before and possibly a lot worse as the boat was rolling all over the place during the night so sleep was a bit fitful.

At 0900 we went ashore to procure a tour guide to take us on an exploration of the island. We popped into the local library to get some wifi for which Dave had to purchase US$5 worth of ballpoint pens to qualify for its use and then proceeded to wait for over an hour trying to download the Barclays app before giving up in vain, only half downloaded. There is almost no decent wifi to be found in these islands which may cause us a problem sooner rather than later! Likewise phone signal for data download is all but non-existent too.

We eventually found a chap to take us around the island but he couldn't speak English and his 4x4 Toyota had definitely seen better days. Dave and I went to climb into the boot but he would not let us saying the Police would take a dim view so we had to squeeze four in the back seat which in that heat was not too pleasant a prospect. We would have bailed but he did say we could get into the back once out of town which we did once away from the Gendames and into the countryside. It was a case of standing in the back holding tight to the roll bar which was like riding a bucking bronco, but great fun, better than inside the car anyway as we could see everything although constantly ducking and diving to avoid low hanging branches etc.. It was like an off-road safari, the roads were generally unmade and muddy, very steep both up and down and twistier than a twisty thing. The interior of the island is predominantly rainforest and quite spectacular. We also managed to run over a dog which was most unfortunate, particularly for the poor dog and all our driver did was smile! On the way back we discovered that the dog wasn't too badly hurt but we don't believe it for a moment.
The driver stopped occasionally and plied us with supplies of bananas and pomplemous and stopped on a track to point out some wild chillies growing which we picked. I thought I would try one just to see how hot they were - aahhhh! Dave had a nibble too and couldn't taste anything else for the rest of the day. Our driver found it hilarious! It was a great day out though and great value.

Back to the boat with provisions and newly acquired fruit, then swam around the boat with a scrubbing brush to clean the waterline of algae which had started to grow back already! We then moved the boat inside the harbor wall as other yachts had moved on.

1700 we dinghied ashore again for beers in the Hotel Pukee with Jerome there still in his shorts. He told us where to find the pizza place and we made our way there for tea where we found three other crews from ARC boats filling the place. There was no table for us, oh no! but no problem at all - they went off and returned five minutes later with another table and chairs in the back of a pick up and laid it up for us! The pizzas were massive and very good albeit they took ages to produce as they were being cooked one at a time. We came back to the boat with half of it left so we have lunch for tomorrow, well the others have as I ate all mine!

Whilst in the restaurant we were being jibed by the crew on Foot Loose for beating Mischief into Hiva Oa on the Pacific crossing. Dave, on the defensive, blamed the lack of sails for such an exceptional outcome and maybe we should have put up a pair of Wendy's knickers - her 'Bridgets' as a spinnaker, which he suggested took five pegs to attach to the rail. This was soon embellished and so now Wendy's knickers are known as "ten peggers"! She said, "I bet that makes it onto your blog" but I promised it wouldn't. Oh well……….