Marquesa's to Tahiti

Nuka Hiva above and Ua Pou left.

Well how do I describe what we've been up to since we arrived in Nuku Hiva??



The Marquesas proved a welcome stop over, to rest our weary bones and refill water, wash our damp salty clothes and get some fresh food. However, the anchorages in the Marquesas are notorious for being very rolly and the constant movement does wear at your nerves a bit. We cleared in using a local agent, this means they post the required Bond that the French Government requires for visiting yachts not from the EU. The Bond for Aussies is about $1300 each and you get a one month visa. However by using the agent we were able to let them do all the paperwork and we could also receive a 2 month extension to the Visa and a Duty exemption for Diesel. It was worth the $$ it cost and in Papeetee in Tahiti, the agent finalises the entry and handles our departure.



Nuku Hiva,is a dramatic volcanic island in the Marquesas, jagged mountains, lush valleys and bare rocky headlands give the islands a brooding ambiance. Clouds regularly sit over the high mountain peaks, though we didn't get much rain from them. It makes for incredible scenery, but not the best anchorages. After doing the necessary jobs in Nuku Hiva we did a day sail south to Ua Pou an even more dramatic island. This one has a 4000' volcanic plug that juts up in the centre of the island surrounded by more volcanic plugs. It's awe inspiring, photogenic and I could picture King Kong roaming the inland of this island. The first anchorage was the tiny main harbour were we had to put out a stern anchor so that we could keep our bow to the swell and fit in. There was only 5 of us here, but that filled the little harbour to capacity. There is a lot more yachts out here cruising the Pacific than there was 13 years ago! Reports we are hearing are saying that 400 yachts will transit the Pacific this year!!!! My God. It's quite busy in some of the more popular anchorages. The final anchorage in Ua Pou was on the west coast, lovely to start off with but the final night was.. nightmarish. A roll set in that had Sea Otter rolling gunwale to gunwale and things below had to be put away lest they fly across the cabin and smack us in the heads. It rained, it blew, it rolled. We got little rest. And the next morning decided that we would be just as comfortable at sea. So we headed off on passage to the Tuamotu's.



We are hopeless with decisions these days and could not decide which Tuamotu atoll to call in to. Should we go to Rangiroa the largest main atoll to the north, or should we go back to Apataki where we stopped for two days 13 years ago? All through the night we ummed and ahhed and looked at the timing for each option. Other yachts already in were raving about Kauehi and it's pearl farms and lovely anchorage, all though Fakarava looked good and in the right place to make the following passage to Tahiti easier. As the night drew on we realised that we were going too fast and would arrive too early.


The Tuamotu's are know as the Dangerous Archipelago for throughout history these low atolls have claimed many a ship and yacht, and still do! The southern coastlines tend to be reefs which cover at high tide or are permanently covered if the sea conditions are bad. The northern ends had lots of motu's (small sandy atolls) which stand out from only a few miles with coconut palms and structures. Risky stuff if you are not paying attention and on lookout. The entrances into the atolls are through breaks in the reefs and these gush the tides in and out of the lagoons at up to 6 knots. So timing to get in and out of the atolls is vital. You need to hit the entrances at slack water or the current, wind and swell can make for dangerous and scary conditions. For us, we bumbled towards Fakarava in the end and hit the 7 nm wide channel between it and the northern atoll Toau late at night. It was scary not being able to see land, but seeing lights and hearing surf. Thank god for the radar! It kept my nerves in check. We decided to keep going, then the wind died out! We motored to get through the final couple of miles of the channel, by dawn we had very little wind. 20 miles past the atoll we realised that the wind was not going to get stronger, in fact radio skeds suggested it was going to get lighter. We contemplated and incredibly turned around and headed back to the channel and the pass into Fakarava north. The though of motoring 230nm to Tahiti in calm was not enticing. Geoff was happy cause he was keen to go in, I was nervous as we were still plagued with a engine alternator belt problem and a dead engine battery. Funny though, even if we hadn't planned on hitting the pass at the right tide, due to the wind being non existent the entry through the pass was sweet. And Geoff beamed at how easy he had pushed Sea Otter though. From the pass it is a 5 mile motor sail to the north eastern corner where the main township of Rotoava.





We anchored in 30' over coral bommies and sand. Rotoava is a small township with two shops, a bakery, police, post office, pearl boutique, toy/gift shop and infirmary. It is bigger than we thought it would be. Our anchor chain immediately wrapped around a bommie so we had to haul it up and relay it with a trip line on the anchor. This would hopefully allow us to pop the anchor free if it got stuck again. What ended up happening when we upped anchor next was that the rope on the trip line had snagged around a bommie!! We stayed here and enjoyed the fabulous baguettes as only the French can make them and at 70 CPF around $1 AUD a true bargain. A slight swell from the south fetched up at the north end was a good reason to motor south along the inside of the atoll to find better protection. As we motored along we passed a huge mega motor cruiser that looked about 100' long. It was called 'BULLISH' and the flag looked Australian? Just as I was looking at it through the binoculars a radio call came in on our VHF from 'BULLISH' When I answered it turned out the Captain of the vessel was an Aussie from the Sunshine Coast and he was excited to see another Aussie flag out in the Tuamotu's! Gordon said that the vessel was owned by an American and spent the year in the Pacific and the Cyclone season in Australia. He offered us water if we needed it as they made 16000 litres a day! It was a nice surprise to chat to an Aussie voice at last and we found out that they were heading to the south anchorage too while filling in time waiting for their next guests to arrive. They passed us pretty quickly about 5 miles on and had an easier time of the squalls and rain than we did. We ended up anchoring in a little nook behind a sandy spit, to receive some protection from the southerly swell. We'd done 14 miles and were not keen on continuing through the reefs and bommies with the squalls. We ended up staying here at our little secret spot for 3 days. Anchored in 20' of crystal clear water with a white sandy beach and bommies to swim over, it was a little paradise. And no one lived ashore, so we had the place to ourselves. FABULOUS!!



After 3 days we decided to head north again, stock up on baguettes and supplies and head off to Tahiti, but..... of course the weather decided to pick up again and a strong ESE blew with more squalls and nasty gusts, with reported biggish seas outsides the atolls, so.... We stayed another couple of days, not hard to do. Gave us a chance to go check out some of those beautiful Black pearls that come from the Tuamotu's.