April 8 - Yes, Land Ho (PHOTOS!!)

Blog 4.8 Mon
STATUS REPORT:
Fatu Hiva, Marquesas; Latitude: 10.5deg south, 138.7 deg west (S of Alaska)
At anchor in Bay of Virgins.  3,000 miles from Galapagos, 4,000 mi from Panama Canal start, 0 mi to Fatu Hiva, Marquesas.
Partly cloudy with occasional rain squalls.

Last night was our first night at anchor in 20 days, and it was cool and quiet and we slept for nine hours straight.  Such a luxury!!

Making landfall around the northern tip of this volcanic island was spectacular and pulling in to the harbor was as breathtaking as we had been led to believe.  Jan and I have had a double page spread photo from a sailing magazine of this anchorage in our kitchen at home for several months to get us excited about this sail.  We didn't know exactly what island the picture was of, but recognized it immediately as we rounded into the Bay of Virgins.  It was so stunning and the trip here so long that the sense of delight and relief at reaching this destination brought tears to my eyes!


Now that we're in French territory we were anticipating going ashore for a little wifi, some coffee, a baguette and some chocolate.  But none of it was to be found.  There are no stores or shops of any kind.  About all we could find to procure (no money, thanks, just bartering for things off the boat) were various fruits which grow naturally all over the island.  We happened into a conversation, mostly in broken French, with a nice lady who invited us into her house.  She showed us the carved wooden Tikis that she and her husband make hoping that we would 'buy' some in exchange for some cordage off the boat.  Then she had her two young children run around the back yard to collect about 20 limon (limes), some Pommes Cedre and banannas which she put in a plastic bag and gave to us gratis.  So kind and generous.

All the native population of about 200 in this village were very friendly and looked exactly how you would expect Polynesian people to look.  You couldn't walk past anyone along the single lane paved street without a 'Bonjour'.  The women seem to be the industrious ones and are as sizable as the men.  They wear wraps and roll their hair up in a bun around flowers and twigs.  It was difficult to figure out exactly how the residents earned an income.  But with the use of bartering so widespread the need for money is not great.  There seem to be but a few government jobs.  Everyone seems to just hang out, visiting with friends, playing volleyball or bocci ball or swimming with the children.  This is not a tourist destination except for a few sailboats like us that show up from time to time for a couple of nights, and sailors are notoriously stingy and self-reliant.

The one lane paved road which ran through the village runs south over some very hairy steep hairpin turns over the volcano ridge to the other village several miles to the south.  The small Toyota pickups seem to self-replicate because they're all over even though the only road is four miles long.  Everyone seems to own an aluminum runabout with an outboard which are kept on trailers in their back yards and wheeled down to the boat launch when needed - usually pushed by the whole family.

The highlight of the stop was a several-mile hike up the mountain to a spectacular 500' waterfall where we went swimming in the cool fresh water.  On the way up we took a wrong turn and wound up back in the tropical jungle where we ran in to an occasional horse or cow tethered to a nearby tree.  Just about when we thought we'd have to turn around and go back to the main road and look for the proper trail we encountered two men tending the cows and they showed us the shortcut to the trail to the 'cascade'.  Several of the cows got loose and started toward Jan who was very relieved when the cowboy got control of them.

So we're now in island hopping mode - heading toward Tahuata, Hiva-Oa and Nuku Hiva over the next few days.  It is probably going to be the latter stop where we'll find commercial establishments like a restaurant, wifi, laundry and groceries.  It's nice to be able to see our next destination clearly across the water, mainly due to the high elevation of the volcanic peaks.  We're having fun now!!!