With the McCormicks on their way home, we hung out in Taiohae for the coming of the New Year. On shore there was a party that we decided to go to along with a bunch of other boaters. We had dinner on our boat, met up with Henk and Caroline from Pandion on shore, and walked over to the party hall on shore to join the festivities. There was a performance of traditional dancing and drumming in costume, it was great.
On the 1st, we headed to the beach to do our traditional “polar bear” swim at high noon, it was quite different than normal but I’m glad to keep the tradition alive, we all happily dove in. For dinner that day we had black eyed peas, shared them with our friends, and I even sang Auld Lang Signe for myself. Happiness!
We had some boat projects to do with parts that Sean and Nicole brought so we spent a few days sorting those things out. The replacement solar panel they brought was doing really well so Greg arranged for our next visitors to bring another so we’ll be back up to where we were before losing our biggest panel. There were a few groceries back in the stores and we made the walk back and forth quite a few times to grab what we could.
On the 4th, Annemarie, her visiting sister, and the girls headed home for an extended visit and work trip, Siebe will have a few visitors while they’re gone. How strange it seems to be able to just fly home, especially for them when the Netherlands is so far away. Later that day we headed back over to Controllers Bay, or Taipivai, and past the striking cliffs that we’re feel like we’ve gotten to know now. Henk and Caroline joined us and a few days later Siebe and his 2 guests did too.
At the beginning of the 50 minute motor into the wind and waves to Taipivai, we bashed around in the waves enough to once again shake the anchor out of its nest despite it being tied to the eye on the roller and the chain tied back to the cleat in the locker. We have ideas about how to carefully and safely stow it away next time we are on a long passage but no way we’re doing that for just a quick bay hop. While we were underway I took some photos and measurements so I have some data to work with since while we’re anchored and I have time to contemplate the situation the anchor is doing it’s job on the bottom, not sitting where I need to figure out how to secure it. This boat is 30 years old and I can’t believe this problem hasn’t been remedied in an obvious way. (Feel free to speak up any of you former owners!) I did have an epiphany after we were anchored about a weirdly shaped piece of star-board that we had tried using in different ways to hold the anchor in place. Turns out it fits perfectly into the run the anchor rests in. If the anchor was removed it would block waves from coming in, brilliant. Now to try actually removing the anchor when we won’t use it for a while.
In Taipivai we got a bunch more fruit from another local, including a huge stalk of bananas and breadfruit, or uru, to try. Greg had found an uru cookbook in french that he gave me on Christmas and I was keen to cook with the abundant fruit. It’s starchy and so strange before cooking but after roasting or boiling it is like a potato and can be used in so many ways. We made some fried uru like french fries and added more to egg scrambles, curries, and other dishes.
We went around the corner and visited Hooumi again and while we were there we swam with mantas, looked for bioluminescence (not present at former levels), and went on some walks with our friends. We didn’t stay too long because our new to us generator was coming on the supply ship so we headed back to Taiohae to pick it up, get some produce, and meet up with Henk and Caroline.
We anchored in “our” spot in Taiohae and set a stern anchor to keep us from being blown parallel to the swell and rocking like crazy. Our generator was was waiting along with some CO2 cartridges for fizzy water, yay! I should have known not to get too excited though, nothing down here is easy. The generator somehow wasn’t exactly what we had wanted, we thought it had a larger 110v outlet but it was only the 220v. When we tried charging, it would overload and trip its breaker. Somewhere in the communication between the seller, Greg, and I things didn’t get communicated fully. That along with the pain of the Venmo transactions made me wish we’d never tried. Next, the CO2 cartridges didn’t have the right thread on them even though Tahiti Yacht Services had sent me a photo of the correct threads. Maybe it’s the heat getting to us? We’ll figure something out. Banana smoothies, boat made pasta, and cat treats helped us all feel better.
The next day we rented a car with Henk and Caroline and even though the car we wanted ended up not being available we all squeezed in to a different one and had an amazing day exploring more of the island’s innards. The center plateau is stunning lush land with cattle farms and timber forests. We went on a lovely walk there and met some neat people. We saw more ruins, restored to show the central gathering place. We ate at the a viewpoint, saw the giant pigeon birds, giant fern trees, and made it to the further away grocery store before it got dark. A great day with great companions.
When we went around Nuku Hiva at the beginning of this trip we only stayed in Daniel’s Bay for one night before being run out by tiny flies. We wanted to explore there more and headed there with Henk and Caroline. We enjoyed a nice walk from the anchorage at Hakatea bay over to the trail that goes up a stunning valley whose West wall was a sheer cliff with some serious elevation really close to the valley. We walked up the valley, through the river a few times, and past many more ruins where the King and Queen used to live. On the way back we made arrangements for lunch the next day at Kua’s place where she serves food to passers-by. We bought some expensive fruit from a beautiful garden run by a woman whose husband had passed away a few years ago. We were happy to support her but hadn’t been asked to pay that much for some pamplemousse and bananas before.
Lunch the next day was beautiful and delicious, it was only diminished a bit by the all flies who wouldn’t leave the food alone. Kua gave us a much better deal on some fruit and now we’re overloaded again. The beach on that side of the bay is a spit with waves breaking on one side and the river on the other. While we were there a speed boat navigated through by jumping in the water and walking it safely through the shallows.
We left Daniel’s Bay on a beautiful afternoon a few hours after Henk and Caroline and sailed back along the south end of the island to Hooumi again to meet Lars and Isabelle on Filou de Mer. During the sail we tried re-calibrating our wind instruments that haven’t been quite right for a while but we weren’t successful… we need another body on board to hit all the right buttons at the right moment or for Griffin to drive. The latter should be possible but he wasn’t feeling great by then and it’s better not to push it. We enjoyed sailing but then while we were motoring into the anchorage the transmission made a horrible noise a few times, OH DEAR. We took it slow and got the anchor down. We checked cables and connections and then the tranny oil… that was it. There no oil on the dipstick. Later when I drained it there was maybe 100ml when there should have been 750ml. The ATF our transmission uses is really thin and it’s difficult to trace leaks on a warm box. I tightened up the drain plug for the moment and cleaned up everywhere else to see if next time we ran it I could figure out where it was coming from.
The next few days in Hooumi we went on a nice walk to town with Lars and Isabelle, enjoyed some cloudy days, replaced a watermaker pump that wasn’t acting quite right, helped Lars with some engine maintenance (he has two!) and communicated lots with Ann and Gwen who were coming to all the way here to visit soon. Lars made us a delicious meal of some of his tuna, and I took advantage of the fresh water tap on shore and got a bunch of laundry done.
The cats are hanging in there, one is just plain fed up with the heat and the other is trying to figure out to release as much body heat as possible.
Next up, back to Taiohae for more transmission troubleshooting and to pick up our next guests!