What a pity this beautifull passage has come to an end, we LOVE being at sea! But now we are at anchor in baie Omoa on Fatu Hiva, one of the Marquesas islands in French Polynesia!
Crossed 4 timezones while sailing 4005 nautical miles over the Pacific ocean in 28 days from Panama, an average speed of 6 knots. Fastest sail in a 24 hour period was 180 nm, an average speed of 7.5 knots. And the slowest sail: 84 nm in 24 hours and that is 3.5 knots average.
Look where we are on the chart! There in the left bottom corner, that blue dot in the middle of the Pacific ocean...
At sunrise six dolphins escorted us in
there we are: at anchor after almost a month at sea
Welcome to Fatu Hiva, the green is overwelming!
Steep bottom, better have the fenders out. This morning Moonshiner arrived, Moonshiner was rafted up with us in the Panama canal.
The weather is kind to us and the anchorage is calm enough so landing the dingy at a protected warf in the south corner of the bay is easy. A handful of aluminium fishing boats are attached to buoys a short distance away from the concrete. A telling sign of potential Big swell. We drop our picnic anchor a few metres from the wall and then tie the painter to a mooring bollard. This way the dingy doesn’t touch the rough concrete all of the time.
There is a female petroglyph to greet us, the first of many
There we are, at the end of the main street of Omoa. Omoa is nestled in a valley between two little lush mountains
We walk past well kept gardens and colorful homes surprisingly behind chainlink and this could be why: lots of dogs and chickens
Trees are laden with pamplemousse (=grapefruit), banana, coconut, papaya and lemons too
Star fruit
and coconut on drying racks for making oil
Mangos everywhere, just lying on the street
Paradise? It’s all immaculate. Along the main road we meet the odd pedestrian, bicycle, electric moped , mum with buggy. This village life reminding me very much of Auroville in southern India .
Two shops and a post office where we could buy a data SIM. 1 policeman who we dutifully greeted and a museum, closed.
On the way bee hives and wracks of coconut flesh drying ,the road strewn with fallen coconuts. Lush forrest on either side dropping to the river below with the peaks above. A few wild cocks and hens are scuttling around the semi cultivated edges of the road, and
We follow the road up to the water source of Omoa, a gravity fed system
Where the road ended we met a slight girl with a blue plait who was bringing some walkers bird watching . She first invited us, in fair English, to join her small group of bird watchers .We had walked enough already tho. She warned us to mind the traps and follow the main path. The traps are for wild boar it seems or rats. The rats are a pest, threatening their indigenous bird population. Rats were accidentally brought from another island and they are spoiling the balance of the ecosystem.
We had a lovely experience at the boulangerie. Although the word boulangerie is a little grand for this room with a freezer and small table . We were able to use euro to pay for our sticks which was generous of them ,we later learnt that you can get local cash with your card when you spend at the supermarket. She was very welcoming ,we left with a bag of lemons, and two mango . When she heard there was two other boats in the bay she gave us three coconut breads from her freezer and told us to give them out.
We happily passed by our neighbours with the light and lovely coconut bread. We received two pamplemousse in exchange so we were super happy. Our first of many I hope as they are yum. I m not sure how easy it is to get vegetables but a pamplemousse a day goes a long way. I hope.
We wanted to spend a few nights in the next very famous bay of the Virgins in Fatu Hiva
This book written by Bobby Schenk tells about the Marquesas. Paul and Lillianne gave it to me in Nosy Be Madagascar in 2017
Unfortunately there where too many boats already anchored in this small bay where there is only good holding in the middle. With the wind gusting off the mountains we chose to sail to Atuona, Hiva Oa at dusk.
