Written by Mia on June 20th, limited internet access means many posts will appear out of order. This is written about the Marquesas and we are currently in the Tuamotus.

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The night sail was OK, a little light on wind so we motored more than we hoped and sailed slowly the rest of the way. However, the benefit of choosing to make the crossing at night was that we had no rush to get there, plenty of time. In the end we arrived into Taiohae, the main town on Nuku Hiva around lunchtime on Friday. Anchoring was easy enough as the bay is huge so there was plenty of room despite the 30+ yachts in the bay.

We spotted a boat that we made friends with in Linton Bay, Panama – ‘Ipanema’ and anchored near them. A quick tidy up of the yacht and then hop in the dinghy and head ashore to see if we could get Internet access and finally officially clear customs and immigration! Yes, we were still illegal after being in the islands for the last week and a half. But, it is quite common and generally speaking they don’t care too much. We were even advised by the head of tourism for French Polynesia when we were in Panama to visit the smaller islands before checking-in to the country.

The town in incredibly cute, beautiful, laid-back, welcoming and colourful. They use Polynesian fabrics with lots of flowers as everything from curtains to car seat covers. Oooooooh, I can see that Itchy Foot needs some hibiscus flower highlights! The place to tie-up the dinghy was understandably very busy, but we managed to find a spot and clamber up the ladder ashore. After a brief chat to some other cruisers we established several things, firstly that the police station where we were to complete immigration was closed in the afternoons (the criminals take the afternoon off), secondly that there was recycling on the island. Amazing really as we haven’t seen a recycling station since mainland Spain over a year ago. We also discovered that the fresh baguettes are sold-out by about 9am in the morning and that the fruit and veg market opens at 6am and closes by 10am. Clearly we weren’t going to have much luck this afternoon.

So, undeterred we decided to take a walk along the front past the the two market shops and see if they had anything left for the late arrivals. Tina managed to find some excellent coconut bread and that did a wonderful job of keeping us going until dinner. We sat under a huge tree with Itchy Foot in view and ate our bread and watched the local kids play in the park by the sea. Volleyball seems to be the sport of the islands and these guys were playing a great game.

The stores also had a very good selection of foods, and clearly the basics are subsidised by the French government as we haven’t seen flour and UHT milk that cheap since mainland Europe. Good news as we counted on being able to get the basics when we got here to avoid carrying too much across the Pacific. We stocked up on flour, UHT milk, powdered milk (for when taste doesn’t matter, like in porridge), butter, eggs and locally made cheese. I stopped by the man with the van who sells pan au chocolat to make an order for the next morning.

We also bumped into a good friend, Nicko from Urchin. We are part of the same whatsapp group and despite not actually having met before we have been chatting on whatsapp and have had the same circle of friends for the last two years. We finally saw Nicko for the first time when he came to Panama and we happened to be at the visitors centre at the Miraflores locks as he came through on his yacht. Much shouting and photos ensued before we finally met face to face later that evening when we shared a beer and anchorage in Panama City. He’s a lovely guy and Teo instantly bonded with him, so much so that Teo started calling everyone ‘Mate’ after his new Ozzi role model Nicko. So anyway, we invited him back for dinner and after struggling to find good internet ashore we gave up and headed back to Itchy Foot.

The next day we tried again to check-in and were told to return in the afternoon. So we headed again along the front. Tina zeroed in on some music coming from a school playground and we headed up to see what was going on. We met Meryem there a lovely Turkish friend we met in Panama. The girls joined in a Polynesian dance class and we stuck around to eat food from the bbq to support the school who were trying to raise money for a school trip to Hawaii. We had a short visit to the school and it was absolutely charming with coral and shell wind chimes hanging from the eaves and cut out paintings of colorful fish taped to all the windows.

In the morning Jon went ashore to retrieve our pastries that he reserved the day before. Even though Jon was later than he said he would be, the lovely pastry man had a bag waiting for us, with our order plus some extra croissants, for free! I think Jon found the guy he wants to apprentice with, I hope we will fit into our swim suits after an extended stay!

We enjoyed our time very much in the hustle and bustle of “city life”. Even here it is clear that people take great pride in their homes and seem intent to keep things beautiful and tidy. Meryem lived with a local family and the girls went to visit them. It was a treat to see how the three generations live there together with matriarch working on sarongs and jewelry for the artisan shop. And of course we saw lots of lovely gardens on our walk up the hill. In the afternoon Tina had a tattoo and it was fascinating to watch the artist work and to hear him talk about their culture. The Marquesas are known for their tattoos and Teiki has been doing them for over 25 years. We have a copy of his book onboard and love to browse it. Way too soon we were leaving Taiohae.

No broadband. No photos. Sorry!

Ask a kid to draw you an desert island; the Tuamotus are about as close as you get.

It is a 3-4 day sail from the Marquesas to the Tuamotus and the less said about it the better. In short, next time you wish a sailor ‘Fair winds and following seas’ remember to put the emphasis on the following seas part. But we got here in one piece.

The pacific atolls of the Tuamotus are old volcanoes, sunk beneath the waves so that all that remains are their rings. These rings form clusters of little islands, or motus, in circles in the ocean. Between the motus are reefs. Imagine a loosely spaced string of pearls, each pearl is a motu and the string is the reef, some of the gaps are deep enough and wide enough for you to successfully navigate a yacht through. Once inside you are protected from the waves of the ocean and if you can get behind a motu covered in palm trees even from the wind.

Inside the atolls is an oasis. Flat, calm waters, the horizon on all sides dotted with islands and palm trees give the illusion of almost being in a lake. The atolls are lined on the inside with beautiful sandy beaches and coral reefs. This makes for great snorkelling and challenging navigation. There is no commercial nor military reason to survey these remote dots so many of them are uncharted or poorly charted. Also the coral reefs can form ‘bommies’ which are coral towers about the size of a house, which stretch from the sea floor (about 30m inside the atoll) unto a foot below the waters surface. Just underwater, so you can’t see an breaking waves and just the right high for hitting your hull (plastic breakable thing) against them rather than the keel (metal hard strong thing). So we move about in four hours in the middle of the day when the sun is over head and you can see through these crystal clear waters. If you move slowly and keep a good watch it is not dangerous, but not a good place to be complacent.

The reward for these conditions is isolation and incredible beauty. Every view is postcard worthy. Every island deserves a top Hilton hotel sprawling over it and yet none do. It is simply too remote and lacking in touristy things to do. Instead a little old lady has her simple home, backing onto a perfect white sand beach. Her house is a single story bungalow, with a tin roof and brightly painted doors which could do with a second coat. The windows are open or often missing, as eaves are long and low blocking the rain and the breeze is welcome. She rakes the leaves that fell on her stretch of perfect beach in the afternoon and tends to her garden. When she is done she sits on her back porch with her polynesian print curtains flapping in the breeze and watches the sun set on paradise. Tourists would pay a thousand bucks a night for a room with that view.

As the old lady sits a local family play in the sea, mum, dad and two kids are swimming in the beautiful clear water. They give a friendly wave and a big smile. Behind them on the one main street though the village the other kids play on their bikes. Riding up and down outside the main store, elder kids keeping an eye on the younger ones but with so few cars there seems little need. Teo runs between them, chasing and laughing as they share a commonly understood game of running and chasing.

The locals are welcoming to visitors. Always with a ready smile and a simple gift. Walking back through the village, from the ‘end of the road’ we were approached by a cheerful man working in the garden outside his house. He’d seen us walking the other direction 10 minutes earlier and being a one road town knew we would be back soon enough. He’d spend the time between husking three coconuts for us, one each, a presented them as we passed. Unlike in the caribbean there was no expectation of reciprocation, no hopes of money, it’s just what it’s like living in a community that is completely dependant on themselves and internal support.

We spent our time in Kauehi between the village and an lovely anchorage on the south coast. We were lucky enough to find a group of American kids boats anchored off a palm tree lined motu. The island had everything we needed, coconuts ready for eating, a fire pit built by a previous cruiser and even a concrete table which served as a nice place to put food before we grilled it over the fire. We spent many days and night just idling time away on this island. Heading ashore sometime after boat school and lunch, in a dingy full of bows and arrows, kites and snorkelling gear. Evenings were spent cooking food over the fire pit, usually bread wrapped around a stick or tinfoil parcels of fish and the last of our fresh veg.

During the afternoons the kids roamed wild, building forts, flying kites, throwing tomahawk axes (supervised) and archery filled the hours. Then they started collecting wood for that evenings fire, or collecting hermit crabs and building them a ‘house’ out sand, twigs and palm fronds. One evening we even managed to make an open air cinema. A Norwegian friend of ours who was also anchored in the bay had a very nice portable projector TV and combined with the projector screen we have on Itchy Foot, my laptop and other boats speakers we all watched a movie by starlight and the glow from a bonfire.

Teo has mostly been hanging out with older kids, two boys and two girls ranging from about 11 to 14 but they have welcomed him into their gang and not too old to love sitting playing lego onboard Itchy Foot for an afternoon. We’re hoping to keep in contact with these families as there is a good chance they will also be spending the cyclone season in the Marquesas too.

But our time in Kauehi has come to an end and it’s time for a new atoll.