Arriving in a new country on your own boat, under your own navigation is always a buzz, doing so after 29 days at sea, is next level excitement !!!
And this iconic, first anchorage in French Polynesia didn't disappoint, it's stunning.Once we had spotted land at sunrise on our 29th day on the ocean, it seemed to take hours to get close.
Because the island has a great height it was visible from so much further away.
We pulled in the sails and started the engine oomph who cares about saving fuel, let's just get there. The seas had been big and rolly overnight and as we had slowed down so that we could arrive in daylight, it had been quite uncomfortable and neither of us had had much sleep.
Motoring slowly into the bay there were a handful of cruisers already anchored there, we motored in and chose a spot not too far out the back but not up the front either, we originally anchored in around 30mt depth but upped the anchor and moved into the bay a bit further, sitting in 20mt we put out 90 Mt of chain, this is the deepest anchorage we have ever anchored in.
The original name for this bay is Baie de Penis because there are several towering rock formations that, really do look like penises. But when the missionaries came, they did not like the name and renamed it to “Baie des Vierges” which is translated to “Bay of Virgins.” The Marquesan name for this bay is “Hanavave.”
We dropped the anchor, and first things first we messaged family that we had arrived safely, and after a thirst quenching beer, I went to have a sleep and Craig pottered around tidying up.
After a couple of hours I woke feeling a bit more refreshed, although sticky and yuck, it's 30c and it seems to rain every 20 minutes, so its very humid too.
We winched the dingy off the deck, added the outboard motor and climbed in for a quick look around the bay. We stopped to chat to a Canadian boat from Montreal who had arrived an hour or so before us, its always fun to share the experience and compare notes.
We didn’t go ashore but did check out the dingy dock that we would use tomorrow.
Up early, we had showers and a quick breakfast, we had the last of the round muffin type rolls that Craig had made on passage, we toasted them, with butter and Promite, I had Vegemite, delicious.
The dingy dock was frightening, all high concrete and surging waves. I'm uncomfortable getting in and out of the dingy when its an almost level dock and with no swell.
We had to manoeuvre past the local boats that were tethered in front and also with a stern anchor thrown out the back, lifting one of the lines over our heads so we could get in close.
So with the dingy along side the concrete dock I had to judge the swell, keep my balance while standing on the slippery side of the dingy and chamber up the green slimy wall. Not to mention the shiny black crabs scuttling out of my way. I did successfully manage not to fall in or injure myself, not even a scraped shin.
Walking up a concrete road we were passing pretty coloured houses, big gardens full of trees and flowers and the smell of the earth and frangipani was beautiful.
There were a couple of Toyota 4wheel drives and kids on push bikes milling around.
The first thing we did was hand over a large bag of the yellow fin tuna we had caught on passage to the first random person we encountered, a middle aged lady waiting at the dock ?
We made the mistake of forgetting to download French on off-line google translate, so we did what we could using pigeon English/French and lots of hand gestures.
Walking up the road we came upon a little shop, a lady came out of the house opposite and asked if we needed fruit. We walked into her yard she had bananas and pampelmouss (grapefruit) we gestured that we were going for a walk and would come back later.
We had a look in the shop, it was quite well stocked with all the basics including breakfast cereals, tinned French butter, a few freezers full of meat and frozen goods.
Onions and potatoes were the only veggies we could see.
We said Merci and stepped outside the shop.
"You need fruit?" Asked a smiling, thin wiry man wheeling a wheelbarrow with 2 eskys in it.
Yes we do ! and we would like to go to the other village too, we replied.
Just as a Toyota pulled up at the shop.
After much smiling, broken English and gestures the plan was that would accompany Jack to his home to see what he had and then his sons- wife's - father would pick us up and drive us the 14km to Oama.
Taking a side road we walked with Jack and his wife, who had a bit more English, on reaching the end of the concrete road we kept climbing the hill until we reached their cottage. We would never have kept walking beyond the road if we weren't with them.
We were greeted by numerous mango coloured dogs, including a couple of very cute puppies
Open door and windows, fibro cement, with colourful curtains i would have loved to see inside their home.
Their youngest son was working undercover in a lean too, off from the house. I headed over there to see what he was creating. He was carving the most beautiful timber tikis.
I didn't remember his name but he is the youngest of 3 brothers and lives on the island, the eldest brother lives in France and the other one in Tahiti.
There is only a small elementary school on Fatu Hiva and the children are sent away to school after that. They stay in dormitories on Hiva Oa for middle school and then go to high school in Papeete, Tahiti. I think a lot of them return when it's time to settle down and have a family, that is what the youngest boy has done.
I stood chatting to the mum about families, meanwhile Craig had followed Jack and the dogs up into the bush.
The 4wheel drive arrived and Craig and Jack returned from what Craig told me was an epic hike up through the jungle. Carrying 2 papayas, a bunch of red chilli's, a heap of pampelmouss, a few passionfruit and a bunch of yellow ripe bananas and a bunch of green bananas. We arranged to leave our bounty there and pick it up on our return.
The drive was spectacular like something out of Jurassic Park and lord of the rings !!!
Huge black rock formations, millions of mango trees, coconut palms and other colourful tropical vegetation.
All very green, spectacular and beautiful. And a few mountain goats.
The drive to the next village turned out to take a lot longer than we thought, the road was incredibly steep, with razor switchbacks. The car was in 4wheel drive most of the way and literally had to stop and do a 3 Point turn to get around some of the corners. Our driver was lovely and stopped often encouraging us to get out and take photos.
It took us over an hour to drive 14km.
My ears popped twice, we were so high after being at sea level for so long.
Back into normal drive once the road became concrete again we decended into the larger settlement on the island.
Nestled in a deep valley, you can see why they settled there, it is so rugged and mountainous all around, and this valley ends in a black sand beach.
We stopped at the community open ground surrounded by open air pavillions to check out the different rock carved tikis.
This is where they hold traditional gathering, hukas and I guess the market when the cruise ship comes in.
Each island takes turn holding a interisland gathering, Fatu Hiva held one in 2022.
There is no airstrip nor do any regular interisland ferries come here, only a monthly supply ship and a seasonal smallish cruise ship.
We walked up the main road, well there is only one road, passing the catholic church and small neat houses with fenced yards and huge gardens, I'd say each one has at least one mango tree. We passed the soccer pitch, the only restaurant and two supermarkets, which were all closed. Turns out today being the 1st of May is a public holiday, we never, get it right we always end up onshore on a weekend or a holiday.
Still it was lovely to walk around and see the pretty village.
On the drive back, we stopped and our driver jumped out and picked us another 6 pampelmouss, from a tree at the side of the road, he explained in broken English this was his family's land and they don't live here but harvest and sell the produce.
Arriving back at Jacks house after we had had an incredible drive through the most stunning island., we knew we had to pay and we had read that we could pay with US dollars turns out we didn't have enough, silly us hadn't asked the price beforehand. Oops
Anyway we negotiated with the family and yes we could go to the atm tomorrow back in Oama. It was all a bit awkward at first but we left all smiling as we had worked out a payment plan.
We chose to go by boat this time to experience the rugged coastline close up. Jack would take us in the family skiff.
Jack walked down to the dock with us, wheeling his wheelbarrow full of our plunder.
It was decided that Jack would jump in our dingy so he could see where Adriana was out in the bay ready for tomorrows pick up.
We shared a beer with Jack before Craig took him back to land.
We swapped 10 beers for our fruit.
Jack finished the cold beer we gave him and had started on the warm ones. Afterwards we laughed, how come we end up the the cagey alcoholic man, not the Christian generous ones we had read about.
We finished the day by having a drink and sharing our day plus going over our experiences on passage with our New Zealand friends on their boat Sulis, who had arrived that morning after their 30 days at sea. It was a big day ...
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