Ua Pou 2

Anchored in Baie de Vaiehu

Leaving the anchorage at Hakahetau to explore another part of Ua Pou island has us anchored in a wilderness spot of large swells and surf pounding on the rocks. The above picture doesn't show the swells rolling in! We anchored in the deepest water yet for Wizard...47ft...so scope out was over 200+. This was a stop over place as the winds weren't favorable. We stayed here overnight. S/V Breeze followed us.  But in the morning we all decided to "get outta here!" It squalled overnight, but in the morning, the rainbow was a beautiful sight!

S/v Breeze

We decide to sail back south to Hakahetau Bay where it seemed a calmer anchorage.


May 15

Moving to Hakhau Bay. Small, lush green valley with quaint village at the base of the picturesque volcanic spirals reaching up through the clouds.  We meet friendly people and watch kids playing tag in the one street. We ask for ice cream and are directed to the snack shack Chez Ti’Pierro with friendly Pierre who aggress to prepare us a lobster dinner on short notice. We come back later to a fabulous whole lobster dinner presented cracked open on the plate, exposing the guts and roe, barely cooked in garlic butter. I didn’t say a word! I just ate it slowly and enjoyed the ambience and friends. I know this is the way the islanders eat lobster, but I just about croaked! It was too raw for me! It was served with fried bread fruit( tastes like French fries) vinaigrette green beans and cream sauce completed the meal. Our friends tried the smoked marlin dish and we all agreed this was the best!

May 16
Decide to sail back to Nuku Hiva, a 25-mile day trip back to Taiohae Bay. We are waiting for a Weather window to sail to the Tuamotus. Too big swells and high winds have been reported by other cruisers on route. Maybe 2 to 3 days when the winds back off.
 Oh, but we notice a problem.  There are broken wire strands on our two lower shrouds. There is failure here. We will need to go back to Trailhead Bay to see if Kevin at Yacht Services can order new wire shrouds from Tahiti in a reasonable amount of time. Price? It really doesn’t matter. This is a needed mast support repair.

S/V Sindbad is an interesting steel schooner

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Hakahetau

Back to Nuku Hiva and our favorite anchorage, Taiohae Bay! The swells continued even in this well proctected bay,with high surge making the dingy landing difficult. The surge was at least 6ft up and down at the dock. Two dingies were punctured when trapped under the landing ladder! Another fellow cruiser, in a separate event, while towing another dingy ran into an outboard prop and popped his dink!

He will have the sorry task of trying to patch it! We helped ferry his outboard and gear back to his boat.

Wizard under sail back to Nuku Hiva

Safe and sound in our favorite bay while we rest up for new adventures! 

AAhh...Nuku Hiva...again.