We all woke up refreshed after a very good sleep, without alarms waking us up for shifts. We heard Nevil get in around 2am, the winch to lift JeldiJeldi is so incredibly noisy, he couldn’t sneak back. The party was a great success with about 9 crew members, there is definitely a crew community as a lot of boats have crew, all European and Canadian interestingly. I’m surprised there are no South Africans or Australians, but think they may go for the super yachts. As we have an Arc get together on the 29th in the Northern most islands we have to pack in seeing the Southern islands as we wont be coming back down here. So it was quickly decided we should move on, Rowan found a spot on an island nearby with a sand beach on Tahuata, remote with no road access and nothing there but palm trees. We tooted a few Arc boats that were just arriving as we were departing.
We had our breakfast on our way over and motored the whole way, as there wasn’t much wind at all. We arrived to our stunning spot, a lovely coconut beach with clear water. Most of the beaches in the Marquesas are volcanic and black, with unclear water.
We were a bit surprised to find 10 other boats here, including the Arc boat that sailed from Baja California, Mexico. We had loads of boat chores to do, mainly scrubbing the hull which was a bit of a relief from the boiling heat, especially in the shade between the two hulls. It is incredible the green garden with all sorts of clams, barnacles and tiny crabs that we are cultivating under us.
When it cooled down we headed to the beach for a spectacular sunset. Hannah and Nevil had paddle boarded to the beach, poor Megan still feeling tired and below par had stayed on board. We had a lovely walk and looked around the few shacks that were obviously used in the past for the Copra plantation (making oil from coconuts). On our way back to the boat Nevil skied behind us on the the paddle board, which was quite impressive.
After supper we had the lights on under the boat and the fish absolutely loved it, flocking in hordes to eat what looked like clouds of tiny krill or something. When we turned the lights off the noise was like a rain storm, quite fascinating.
Leaving Hiva Oa
The rock island
Barren end of the island
The mountains covered by cloud again
We are off again
Such interesting landscapes
Passing a lovely beach
Here is out beach and clear water
Beach walk
Old Copra shacks
Another incredible sunset
Nevil skiing back
Fish swriling around the red bubbly krill like creatures
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