Anaho Bay, A Daily Journal

Wednesday the 16th we finally drug our hook off the bottom where it had been longer than we’ve been anchored anywhere else on Rocket Science. We’ve been hanging out here having so much fun with s/v Morning Stars with Amanda, Jason, and 13 year old Dylan and s/v Ohana with Niclas, Hanna, 12 year old Elvira, and 10 year old Klara. We all agreed it was time for a change of scenery and a calmer anchorage and got a plan together to head north. Hanna, Griffin and I made a final run to shore to return the diesel jury cans we borrowed to Nuku Hiva Yacht Services, Kevin has been a great help there. Next was a quick stop at the chandlery where we didn’t find any thing we needed to buy but the woman who works there gave us a thorough run down of everywhere we shouldn’t miss around the whole island. She’s so helpful! She also sent us to get some huge pamplemousse and mangoes at the best spots nearby. I think she likes talking about the gorgeous island and people here than the boat parts she sells. Last stop was the grocery store for whatever other vegetables we could find and some bread. Back at the boats we all got ready to leave, Morning Stars left first thinking they would be the slowest, then Ohana had a transmission cable malfunction so they dropped anchor again right after picking it up. They got it put back together (seemed as easy as a clip on a launch cable for those who know what I mean :)) and anchors aweigh before we noticed and got a good head start on us too. It was fun to follow them until we passed them. We all shared photos of each other’s boats, nice to have some cool shots of us. The landscape is absolutely stunning.

We got to sail right up to the bay’s entrance and kept up our speed as the winds lightened, our buddy boats ended up motoring the last leg- Rocket Science keeps going in lighter air while heavier boats don’t make enough headway. It’s a funny balance out here in the long term cruising world- those heavier boats with all their amenities sure are nice for movie nights, diving gear, toys, and parts galore. It’s also nice to keep sailing when the wind is only 8-12 knots.

When we got here the anchorage only had one other larger boat in it that has a for sale sign on it and a few runabouts anchored further in. We chose our spot and soon after our friends anchored on either side of us. This bay has a buoy line to mark where the reef starts though it’s easy to see the water color change. We swam from the boat in the choppy water to see the reef and fish, there are huge structures of dead coral with some small new heads and some soft polyps. It’s so much more calm here, we’ll all sleep well.

May 17th

Our solar charging is working much better on this sunnier side of the island. There are still big clouds blowing by but overall it’s much sunnier here which is great, though hot. Thank goodness for swimming. We’ve heard nothing back about the possibility of getting new batteries here yet and no matter what it’s going to be almost as much shipping cost as the batteries cost so it sure would be nice to get these to recover enough to last if that’s even a possibility… we’ll see what better charging does.

Ohana has a sewing machine onboard and they were kind enough to let me bring our sheet bags over to sew up stitching that had finally failed. Later in the afternoon we snorkeled again and Niclas brought out their battery powered underwater tow toy, this thing is amazing fun. You grab onto the handles and it has two little propellers that pull you around wherever you point the thing. It’s powerful enough to tow a few people if you grab onto the ankles of the person holding onto it. What fun to have toys to share. 

That evening we shared our silliest toy on board, the pasta maker. We had everyone over and Klara, who loves baking and cooking, helped me roll out so much pasta that the 10 of us didn’t eat it all. It took forever and I never got to making the salad that night. 

May 18th

Chill morning onboard with school and chores. Sleep here is so much better but we still fall asleep with hatches open to attempt keeping cooler. The disadvantage of that is that at some point almost every night a little squall will come through and we’ll have to jump out of bed to run around and close them all, frequently missing one in our sleepiness. In the morning we’ll find the stove top all wet or the head floor soaked. We all went ashore after lunch and walked along the bay. We checked out the tiniest church that looks much bigger from where we’re anchored, a small black tipped shark swimming along the beach, and the village water supply that runs along the trail in a large pex tube with spigots available to all, how luxurious! When we got to a beach on the eastern side of the bay with small breaking waves most of the kids ran into the water to play, the adults sat down on some benches under the palms and we stayed for a while.

We walked back and swung by the one place here that offers lodging in tents and has a kitchen and had some drinks. While we were sitting there our friends from the previous anchorage sailed in, hooray! They are s/v Pixie from Victoria BC and currently have the dad, Billy (a 2.5 time Antarctica) and his adult son, Willis, and are a great time. They joined us on Ohana later for dinner, a delicious pasta bolognese. Billy, whose nickname I’ve since learned is Scuppers, entertained us with stories and laughter, and was wearing an Antarctica hat! I hope to get to run into them closer to home.

May 19th

The crew of Rocket Science snorkeled with Dylan in the morning, he and Griffin are so good at diving down and investigating whatever they find. I got to do some laundry (wow) and then had some fun on Ohana with the girls. Amanda brought over a bunch of art supplies, Elvira was painting everyone’s nails, and I got to make an embroidery thread bracelet for Klara and do some painting. Niclas kept passing up pina coladas from down below and we had so much fun. Griffin and Dylan came over with fruit they’d been given ashore and some more knowledge about how to open coconuts. Willis joined us on shore for dinner, Billy stayed on board and rested up for their journey home that starts tomorrow. We sat at one big table outside and were served huge plates with poke, brown rice, and a pile of curried vegetables and goat. So much food! The goat is tasty but the consistency is chewy and sinewy. Great meal and so curious about how this tiny place is sustained. No cars and a single channel through the reef to the beach where all things come and go from. There’s a small trail to the next bay to the west that we’ll hike that horses and people walk. There’s no other way of getting things here except the small motor boats they have here. 

May 20th

We should’ve worn bug repellent on shore yesterday evening, we have so many itchy bites. It’s been windy at night on the boat and I haven’t noticed so many but we have bites everywhere now. It’s warm this morning and Griffin and I decided to go for a swim. Pixie is getting ready to head north this morning, they’re such stalwart Canadians and will head straight home to BC from here. They expect it to take about 2 months and are just plain jovial about the time at sea. As they left I snapped some photos and sent them to their wife/mom whose email was on their boat card. If I were in her shoes it would be so nice to hear from someone else that her boys were doing well and indeed, she wrote back quickly. Their progress is here, great updates too: https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/SV_Pixie/

Griffin was anxious to get to shore for our walk to the beach to the east and while he was getting ready to go he grabbed the dinghy painter which had a big wasp on it that stung his palm. Ouch! After some suction on the sting, an ice pack, and some Benadryl we picked up the girls on Ohana and dinghied over to the other side of the bay. We had an exciting surf landing where Greg ended up completely wet but that was quickly forgotten with some beach frisbee and coconut harvesting, drinking, and eating. Everyone else arrived with another exciting surf landing and we took off on the walk over a little hill through the local produce growers land and to the sandy beach. Before I even got down the sandy hill to the beach Griffin and Dylan were in the water with the boogie boards that Niclas had carried over. They were having a great time for about 5 minutes when Griffin felt sharp burning stings on his legs and ran out of the surf with Dylan close behind. With immense pain this stoic kid sat on the beach while I poured some water and Griffin picked the jellyfish tentacles off. There were already some red lines across his legs when Niclas thought to ask if anyone had a credit card- Elvira did in her phone case. He used that to really scrape where the red lines were and wiped off more of the sticky tentacles. Because of his earlier wasp sting he already had some Benadryl in his system and we had brought more of the topical pain killer so we used that but he was really uncomfortable and wanted to go straight back to the boat. He took of running and mad, a good distraction from the pain? Back at the first beach he got in the salt water again (we had been using a fresh water to rinse the tentacles away) and that did help him feel better. Back at the boat he fell asleep after a snack. When our friends came back later they said they saw lots of Man-O-War jelly fish along the beach there and they gave Griffin the goat skull they found. Next time at a new beach we’ll take a much closer look before running into the water. 

May 21st

After some cream of wheat breakfast we got the engine charging up the batteries which are doing better with the sunnier days and early morning engine boost. The solar panels do a great job trickle charging and if we could have some 16 hour days of bright sun they’d have a much better chance of recovering. The sun rises around 6:30 and goes down about 18:00 here, wintertime at about 10 degrees south is better for sleeping than battery charging. 

I finally got serious about cleaning our waterline and used the suction cup handle along with my fins, mask, and snorkel to help not consume as much sea water. It was so much better! Learning as we go here, looking forward to practicing efficiency in more ways. In my joy of getting the job done so well I somehow lost my mask and snorkel as I was getting into the dinghy to get out of the water. Didn’t realize it right away, what a bummer! I really liked that mask and finding a new one would have to wait quite some time. 

Dylan and Jason went to the east side of the bay to go diving and brought Griffin and Elvira too, Niclas joined with another dinghy but the diving was no good so they came back. Meanwhile, I was finishing the waterline and got totally spooked because weird bubbles were coming up around the keel. The boat was swinging in the wind on the anchor and at first I thought it was just wave bubbles coming around the boat but then I realized the divers were probably under me. Not wanting them to surprise me by coming up from underneath I gave up on the waterline cleaning and got out and made some nori rolls for dinner. Evening plans were to hang out on Ohana but Morning Stars was too tired and Niclas hurt his back so just Hanna, Greg, and I chilled in their cockpit and got to try some macaroons that Klara made, yum.

May 22nd

Not much exciting happened today except Jason and Dylan went diving and found my mask and snorkel! They won some coveted chocolate. We went snorkeling, did some work and boat projects, and hung out with our buddies. Niclas’ back is pretty painful so we’ll wait to leave here, it’s so nice anyway. 

May 23rd

Hike day to Hatiheu! Niclas stayed on board to rest his back and keep an eye on everything. Everyone else went to shore in the morning to take the well worn path made lumpy and odd by village horses that use it often. We were grateful that it hadn’t rained recently so the mud was mostly dry. The vegetation is lush and thick and people leave their horses along the trail to eat. I counted the switchbacks up to the top of the hill, felt good to move but my cardio fitness isn’t what I’m used to. We could see little views through the trees but when we got to the top the view was incredible. We could see the beach at man-of-war bay, our boats anchored in the bay, and out to the horizon of the vast Pacific. Down the other side to Hatiheu there was a paved road the last half, what luxury. Hatiheu is so tidy and beautiful, the bay has a few boats in it though our anchorage is much more protected. The streets have graphics painted on the cement, the waterfront is beautifully planted and cared for, and the surrounding hills are stunning. There are enormous basalt spires at the western side of the bay that rise up out of the hillsides like gigantic statues all covered in luscious greenery. We slipped into a late lunch right before the one restaurant closed and ate the best food we’d had on shore, we even had coconut ice cream for dessert! The back of the restaurant has a little stream where some fairly large eels live and our food scraps were fed to them much to the kids delight. We debated taking a power boat taxi back to the other bay but the ice cream fueled the hike back. A swim and a few beers when we got back to the other side felt great. Tomorrow we’ll keep heading around the island to our next anchorage.