Saturday was a beautiful day and we just rested. Sunday though was an interesting day of heavy rain. Well, at least for half the day. It poured and poured and then it poured some more. We had a tarp up over the cockpit area so we could catch rainwater off of it. By the time the rain ended we had collected more than 40 gallons. This topped up the water tank on board and left plenty for baths and laundry. The island was a beautiful sight after the rain and we counted 22 waterfalls cascading from the mountains around the bay. What a way to spend a day.
After a weekend of resting and sleeping, we assembled our dingy and rowed to shore, for what would be our first steps on land in over a month. After a month at sea, our legs were a bit wobbly and walking on something that did not move seemed terribly strange. But in a few minutes we were getting adjusted and struck off. Time check out the town.
Our first stop was the bank. After that long passage we were hoping to find some fresh fruit and veggies but that required French Polynesian Francs. Fortunately the nearest bank had an ATM machine that accepted our Illinois debit card. It is amazing to find oneself on a small island in the middle of the Pacific and be able to use our ATM card. Not knowing how much we might need we got the equivalent of $20 US. Big mistake.
After the bank we found a grocery store where we were shocked to find that the prices for just about everything were double the stateside prices. Pringles were $3.50, hamburger was $3.00/lb, and so on. Obviously that $20 was not going to do us much good. So it was back to the ATM for $80 more and then to the store. We couldn't bring ourselves to buy much at those prices but we still succeeded in filling a small plastic shopping bag - $36.
French Polynesia requires that cruisers from the US post a bond when they check into the country. This bond is equal to the airfare home and is supposed to guarantee that we will actually leave. At these prices, that should not be a concern. For the two of us the bond would be about $2500 - a sum that we simply don't have. So we decided to just hang low and not check in and hope to be on our way before anyone notices our presence. With boats coming and going and nearly 45 in the anchorage on some days, that might not be too hard.
We had just started to get comfortable with our beginning Spanish when we find ourselves in a French speaking country. Kathy took French in high school but for some reason she seems to have forgotten most of it. She still remembers how to say "little peas" which should come in handy if we save up for a few months until we can afford to buy a few little peas. Otherwise we are back to square one. But most of the officials and store owners understand a little English and a lot of sign language so we are getting by.
A good part of our time here has been spent repairing the boat and getting it ready for the next passages. On any passage a few things always break and that is certainly true of a passage like the last one. So we spent a part of each day running lines, rebolting hardware, and just doing general maintenance.
Between cleaning and working on the boat, we enjoyed strolling around on the island and visiting the shops. There is a place close to the dingy dock where we can access the internet so we finally were able to download about 6 weeks of emails. Now if we could just find time to answer them.
After about 10 days we were rested up, the boat was repaired and ready to go, and it was time to head southwest towards the Tuamotus, another part of French Polynesia. We set Wednesday as our departure date so on Tuesday we got the dingy hauled back on board and lashed down. We hoped to get an early start on Wednesday morning. That night though it rained off and on all night and by the morning it was a steady, heavy rain. Furthermore the morning forecast called for winds to be building to the 20-25 knot range. Previous experience told us that sailing in pouring rain, high winds, and heavy seas is not nearly as much fun as it sounds. So we decided to wait another day or two until conditions settled down a bit. So today, instead of sailing, we are catching up on logs, charging the batteries, and trying to do a bit of emailing.
It took quite some time for conditions to settle down so for some variety we decided to move west to Daniel's Bay, an anchorage on the southwest corner of Nuku Hiva. We had seen all of Taiohae Bay that we could so a change of scenery would make the time go quicker. Before leaving, we had hoped to be able to purchase some fresh fruits and veggies but had been disappointed so far at the lack of selection. Then on Thursday we noticed that a bunch of tents had been set up and there was something going on in town. So we hopped in the dingy and went to investigate. Lo and behold, the tents had been set up for a large open air market, like a farmers market. There were many different types of bananas, pineapples, pomaloes (like a big grapefruit), corn, and a host of other veggies. We hauled a couple of huge bags of fresh produce back to the boat and with that were ready to shove off. So on Friday, June 9th, we raised the anchor and headed out of the harbor.
The wind had been blowing 20-25 knots for a week now so the seas were fully developed. As we turned west we were carried along by the wind and the 8 foot seas. Since Daniel's Bay was only five miles away, we decided to just motor over instead of putting up the sails. Because the headlands on each side of Daniel's Bay overlap, the entrance is nearly invisible from the sea. But we had GPS coordinates and were soon at the point where we needed to turn in. As we approached the entrance to the bay the depth got shallower and the waves got higher. The wind too picked up as it funneled through the entrance. The high seas and winds made for quite a ride and we began to wonder just how difficult it was going to be to get out again. The surf pounded on the base of the cliffs to the west as we motored in so we just prayed that the motor would not take this opportunity to quit. It seemed like an hour but it was probably just a few minutes and we were through the worst of it and into the bay.
Daniel's Bay is a beautiful place completely surrounded by lush green mountains. The mountains on the west are especially rugged looking. A small river runs into the bay on the north side. Up that river a few miles is a waterfall that is supposed to be the third largest vertical drop in the world.
There were about a dozen boats in Daniel's Bay so we selected a likely place and dropped the anchor. It bit on the first attempt and quickly Stap Isi was swinging lazily on the chain and bobbing quietly in the gentle swell.
As we were coming in another boat was preparing to leave the anchorage. Our concerns about being able to get out again were confirmed when, about 30 minutes after leaving, they returned saying that they could not make any headway against the wind and waves. It appeared that until the wind died down we were going to be stuck in Daniel's Bay.
But it was not a bad place to be stuck. We had plenty of food and water and fuel for the generator so we could stay there weeks if necessary. Hopefully it would not be necessary. The enforced stay turned out to be a gift from God when Kyle was asked to edit a set of Bible study questions in the Nend language. Had we been under way it would have been hard to accomplish that but sitting in the bay gave us the perfect opportunity. So for several hours each day he worked at the computer preparing the study questions for publication.
Each morning we listened to the weather and each morning the report was the same 20-25 knots of wind and 12-15 foot seas. There were now fifteen boats in Daniel's Bay and no one was moving. The couple on the boat next to us were completing their second circumnavigation and they declined to venture forth in those conditions. We decided if it was too bad for them, it was clearly too bad for us out there too. So we waited.
Finally the high pressure system to the south that was responsible for the higher than normal winds began to move east and the forecast called for more reasonable conditions starting on Friday. There is an old sailors' superstition about it being unlucky to sail on Friday. Probably the sailors just wanted another weekend in port but in any case we are usually reluctant to set out on Friday. But we had waited so long for this window that we were also reluctant to waste a day of it. Several other boats, also aware of the superstition, were planning to leave on Friday so we decided to head out with them.