Written by Jon:

Living aboard full-time is an emotional see-saw. It’s not a roller coaster, because it’s really not that extreme. They say they cruising makes the highs, higher and the lows, lower. This maybe true, or maybe cruising life, being so full of challenge and success has more contrast and saturation. And maybe in land life, at least for many of us, we try to remove as much potential for failure as possible; taking less risks, less challenges but by doing so we also remove achievements. Fewer failures, fewer successes, fewer lows, fewer highs. Obviously that is not true for all in land life, many people manage to fill their lives with adventure, passion and challenge without ever touching a boat.

We arrived in Fatu Hiva fatigued yet awake and energised. We timed the landfall perfectly, and were rewarded with sunrise on the east coast of the island as we passed it volcanic peak towering out of the sea, overflowing with greenery of all shades. Turning around to the west and leeward side of the island we scurried around Itchy Foot tidying the decks and preparing to drop the anchor. The anchorage in Fatu Hiva stood out, there must have been over 15 yachts in the bay with some very high masted super yachts at the back of the pack. Thankfully, as we motored into the bay another yacht motored out so after asking an early riser where they had been anchored we dropped the hook in the vacant spot.

On a normal vacation, this is the equivalent of dropping the bags in the hotel room. The moment where you maybe hang up the stuff mostly likely to crease but then quickly adjourn to the bar or the pool to wash away the travel fatigue.

Cruising is a little different. The dinghy on the foredeck needed to be untied, flipped and dropped into the sea. Then the items under the dinghy needed to be stowed and sorted. The engine for the dinghy needed to be removed from it’s bracket on the back, but the screws had locked tight so out came the toolkit. Thirty minutes later we are closer but need to fill the outboard fuel tank with petrol and so go digging for that. Next, we need to retest the anchor has set properly as this bay is notorious for high gusts and dragging yachts. Oh, and everyone around us as stern anchors out, so once more back into the stern locker to the very bottom and dig out the stern anchor last used in Spain. Rig that up with line from the anchor locker and motor it in the dinghy out behind the boat. Haul the line back in and make it fast. But the outboard engine is over-rev’ing in idle so back out with the toolkit. OK now it is lunchtime and everyone is a bit grumpy so let’s quickly make a lunch to take ashore. Below decks the boat is being prepared for life on anchor, the salty windows are being washed and the hatch covers are being replaced. Trash is being collected and sorted to go ashore with us and the bathroom is being cleaned. Now we are ready to go ashore!

Here is the thing about blog posts and cruising. That whole extended run-on paragraph could easily be condensed to ‘we sorted out the boat and then went ashore’. And you, dear reader, would not see the frustrations of cruising. These are not huge problems, they are minor, but at the end of our ‘long-haul flight to the sun’ not being able to just ‘pop down to the pool’ takes it’s toll.

But what a reward we had ashore! There are really only two settlements on the island, both tiny and both beautiful. Colourful little houses in their own plots of perfectly manicured gardens, overflowing with fruit trees and flowers, stretch along the one road town up into the hills behind. We walked along the road, into the hills with the goal of stretching our legs more than anything else. Locals greeted us with warm, wide smiles, Mia was given a beautiful bowl made from a coconut with no expectation of anything in return. Later a guy working out of the back of his truck gave us a beer and would except nothing in return. As we passed a house, Tina went to pick up some fallen fruit and the owner insisted we pick two lovely Pamplemousse (not sure about the spelling, but it is somewhere between a grapefruit and a large orange – delicious) directly from the tree. A wonderful welcome to their little island.

Local people were out and about, busy with their day and preparing for the highlight of the the month, the cargo ship was coming! Every three weeks the cargo ship stops in this bay and small barges bring goods, supplies and a handful of tourists to the village. Today was extra special as many of the local people were sending their handicrafts on the cargo ship to Tahiti for an annual crafts fare. Luckily for us the cargo ship also serves as a travelling bank and as the island lacks ATM or bank we has a two hour opportunity to change dollars to Polynesian French Francs.

We stood for awhile and watched the locals busy in the their activities, exchanging stories with other cruising and tips for other islands to visit. Listening to a group of locals play music and share delicious chocolate cake with the strangers from boats. And the kids all played together and even enlisted some locals into a game of chase. The sun set and we retreated to Itchy Foot for a simple dinner, a beer and an early night.

The next day was a morning of boat chores. With Tina sleeping in the main saloon we loaded the forepeak up with sails and storage, things we may need for the passage and also extra food or supplies. As we were now on anchor most of the time we could safely put most of that stuff back into storage and free-up half the forepeak for Tina to sleep in. The whole process, along with several other boat jobs took from 8am until about 2pm with a break for lunch and it was still only half done. With stuff spread out all over the boat we agreed that so long as we all had somewhere to sleep then we should get off the boat in the afternoon. Tina also jumped in the water and made a stab at cleaning the hull of Itchy Foot which was covered in algae. In the afternoon we headed ashore and took a walk up to a nearby waterfall. On the way we met a lovely guy and fellow cruiser, David, who regaled us with stories from Hollywood and life as a directors agent.

After a refreshing swim at the bottom of a towering waterfall we slowly picked our way back down the hill towards the village and the prospect of a meal prepared by a local family. For a reasonable fee they invite people into their homes and cook dinner, in our case it was about 15 cruisers and 7 kids who descended on their home and feasted like kings. BBQ chicken (from the garden), stewed goat (from the hill behind the house), marinated fish (from local waters), breadfruit fries (from the back yard) and rice. Then home again for another early night, cruisers midnight is 9pm.

Day three was almost entirely spent cleaning and fixing Itchy Foot. The second half of the project of storing and sorting our mountains of stuff took Jon the entire day. Mia and Teo did boat school in the morning and then Mia spent the afternoon helping Jon and cleaning the bathroom and kitchen. Tina met up with a group from another boat and hiked from one side of the islands to another for the afternoon.

Sometime in the morning the battery charger failed, turning itself of due to low voltage from the generator we have onboard. The generator normally puts out 220-240 volts, but was now putting out 190 volts – not good. Jon doesn’t know much about generators, but knows enough to look in the service manuals and other books to discover that when the voltage drops without any load being applied it’s not good.

We can theoretically live without a generator, but not easily. Our solar panels do a good job of keeping us topped up with power and on a 12 hours of sun kind of day we are mostly OK. The extra we need if it is cloudy we could take from running the main engine to charge the batteries. It’s noisy and takes a lot more fuel, but it works. The main problem with no generator is that we have a 220v water maker, so no generator equals no water maker. Right here that’s not too much hardship, there is a tap on the shore and we can run jerry cans backwards and forwards. But the next group of islands is the Tuamotus and if there is anywhere in the world you need a water maker it would be there. The islands have very little water and it is entirely from rain catchment, we’re in the dry season so there would be none to spare for us. Basically, as soon as we got there we would have to leave again to Tahiti. The one comment we keep reading about the Tuamotus is ‘don’t rush them’. Hmm.

So the next day Jon spent trying to fault find and fix the generator. Thanks to some expert tutelage from Jage, a fellow cruiser who is both a great guy and also a genius with anything mechanical or electrical, trying to fix the generator is a lot less scary than when we started. The workshop manual states four potential causes of low voltage when under no-load.

1. Low motor RPM – I don’t have a tool to test this and neither did anyone in the anchorage.
2. Faulty rotating diodes – no a clue what these are or where they are, oh and no spares.
3. Faulty windings – won’t get fixed until New Zealand – very expensive.
4. Excitation Capacitor faulty – wait a minute, we have one of those!

So given that Jon had no way of fixing or even testing three out of four of the potential problems, he chose to fix the only one he could. Guess what?! It worked! So after several hours of frustrated and muffled cursing from the engine room we had a working generator again and the ability to make water and charge batteries!  Hurrah!

Day four was also a laundry day. We were told we could trade flip-flops with the locals for a load of laundry but we didn’t have any spare. So instead we filled large rubber buckets on the back with detergent and 4 weeks worth of dirty clothes and bedding and let the soak for the morning. Just before lunch Tina, Mia and Teo headed ashore to rinse them all at the communal fresh water tap near the dock in town. It’s hard work, stamping on buckets of clothes but worth it to save us money and footwear. They came back in the afternoon and hung everything out on lines all over the boat – Itchy Foot was looking a little like the laundry boat in the anchorage.

Just before sunset Tina headed ashore to play volleyball on the grass with the locals and a few other cruisers. It would seem the Volley Ball is taken seriously on the islands and they all seemed very proficient. There was also a comic rule, if you are the last person to touch it before it goes into the harbour, you are the one going to get it – clothes and all!. Suffice to say the Tina came back a little damp. Jon also headed ashore, armed with a camera and a tripod, hoping to catch some of the majestic beauty the island has to offer. The sunset streams into the bay, over the boats on anchor and up onto the beach. It would be a shame to leave this delightful and beautiful little spot without catching a few photos.

We decided to stay for one more day, taking a moment to relax with little more planned than a trip to the local shop to hunt for flour and eggs. In the morning Tina headed off with friends on their dinghy around to the nearest bay and village, returning with 5 pamplemousse. Mia, Jon and Teo decided to go for a snorkel in the morning, unfortunately the wind picked up as we got in the water and Teo got trapped under the dinghy. He panicked, understandably, and dropped his face mask. Jon tried to dive for it but being anchored in 13-15m of water it was beyond him. Teo was quite upset as the mask was very good and a perfect fit, we spent a while finding the right size in Bonaire and it wasn’t very cheap. But, we have a spare and I’m sure we’ll find it’s equal when we get to Tahiti.

The shopping was a success, the only shop in the village had what we needed and quite a bit more besides. The prices were high, but not for the basics like flour, eggs and milk which we believe are price controlled by France. Just don’t buy Pringles! The trip to the shop was also an excuse to look for a few animal friends Teo had made over the last few days. All the locals seem to keep a selection of animals, pigs, chickens, goats seem to be the favourites but there was also many cats and dogs to be found. Teo made friends with a very cute little kitten up the hill, so we went looking for him again. No luck, but we did find three little pigs tied to the verge on the side of the road and they were very friendly!

We left the next morning, headed for Tahuata and the promise of a nice quiet anchorage with golden sands.