9º 25.960s 139º 43.278w
Fri Oct 11 2019
Sad
to say, once you’ve been to Fatu Hiva, Tahuatua is a bit of a letdown. Pretty,
yes, spectacular, heck no. Hanamoenoa Bay was a fine place to spend the night
and offered a lovely sandy beach complete with the opportunity for a surf
landing in the dinghy, albeit a minor one given the existing conditions. A
lonely place with only one inhabitant present, after a walk and a swim and a
snorkel it was time to move on to other things. So up the anchor came around
noon and a quick 2.9 mile jaunt found us dropping the hook at Vaitahu Bay.
Andrew and Julia of SV Hullabaloo had told us some crazy stories of trying to
moor their dingy to the concrete pier, and after a reconnoiter I informed
Isabel and Shawnee that I would happily drop them off but that our dinghy wouldn’t
be left tied there. Worked out great, as the hammock was calling to me, and a
nap seemed the right thing to do before a long night watch.
They
tooled around the small village for a couple of hours while I examined the
insides of my eyelids, then I was awakened by the crackle of the VHF radio – a
“come get us” call. Upon arising I discovered that La Mitsu had arrived and
anchored next to us, so on the way in I stopped to greet Laurie and Sue. Onward
to the pier where after two approaches I had two lovely ladies embarked and
back to JollyDogs we went.
The
weather forecast informed us that a night sail would be a great idea, and with
a 96% waxing moon and clear skies the idea was irresistible. We got underway
around 1600 after a nice cooling off swim; once clear of the bay we raised the
main all the way up. The wind was up so out came the jib, and we were off at
better than 6 knots. Soon enough the wind dropped a bit and came further aft,
so away with the jib and out with the screecher, which bought us about 1.5
knots. Isabel prepared a lovely risotto for dinner and Shawnee made me a strong
cup of coffee before they both retired for the evening. So began the evening
watch.
It’s
almost like daylight out there. The moon is so bright it reminds me of the old
days of night skydives when we didn’t even need chemical lights or a lighted
drop zone. It’s been a lovely sail so far with only a bit of flakey wind where
I had to roll the screecher up and fire up an engine for a bit, but we’re
sailing well right now with 10 knots of true wind at about 130 degrees on the
starboard beam, putting the apparent wind at about 100 degrees and 8.5 knots.
That yields around 5.5 knots in these flat seas, and the screecher only snaps
and pops very occasionally. What a heck of a way to cap off a journey of over
1000 miles, most of which was upwind in difficult conditions.
We’ll
make Daniels Bay at Nuku Hiva around breakfast time and with any luck
conditions in the bay will be calm enough that I can ascend the mast and sort
out a bad connection to the anchor light. Hopefully there will be giant manta
rays there to greet us like we experienced last time we were there!
We’ve
got a flight out to the USA on the 16th of October, and on to the UK on
November 5th, finally returning to Nuku Hiva on December 5th. We’ve mixed
feelings about leaving this magical place, but there’s personal business to
attend to as well as family and friends to spend time with. Kevin at Nuku Hiva
Yacht Services will look after JollyDogs while she rests at anchor, and we’ll
shut down all the refrigeration and other loads on the house batteries. With
luck nothing will go wrong and upon our return we’ll easily breathe life into
all the systems again.
We
loved our home in Arizona and were always delighted to return, but we never
really worried about it not being there when we came back. This is different,
but no other choices for boat storage were available, so leave her on the hook
we will and cross our fingers. And we will worry.
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