M/Y Iron Lady

On our first visit, we met a local named Temo who was an excellent woodcarver. In addition, he did jeep tours over the mountains from Bay of Virgins to Omoa. We ultimately ended up doing this trip one and one half times. On the first, the rain set in and the road (dirt) as we headed over the top became increasingly dangerous. While Temo was unconcerned, we weren’t and made the decision to head back. So here are a few shots of our fist effort.

The first is the road as we came up and out of the Bay of Virgins.

The second is looking back down on the bay and Iron Lady – and it is way steeper then it looks.

The road winds yet higher.

Our trusty 4 wheel ride and the end of the paved road.

The going gets rougher.

And a nice waterfall but time to head back to the barn.

Our guests actually walked back down to the paved road.

More next time and pictures of the full trip when we competed it during our next visit to Fatu Hiva.

As I briefly mentioned in another post, we visited our favorite islands in the Marquesas at least twice as we had two sets of guests and Fatu Hiva was at the top of the list. It is remote and only accessible by boat – no airport and no air service.

The reason is pretty apparent from this Google Earth image – there isn’t a flat spot to be found on the island except where the two towns are located – Bay of Virgins and Omoa. While it may not be geologically accurate, the view in Google Earth suggests to me that we are looking at the crescent shaped remains of a volcano where the western side is missing. There is a high ridge running down the centerline of the crescent suggesting the rim of an old volcano. Elevations along the ridge are as high as 2700 feet made more impressive as the terrain falls sharply to the sea. More about that in later posts when we took a jeep ride from Hana Vave bay to Omoa – it was as good as any thrill ride I have ever been on.

The population on the island is a mere 500 people with most living in Omoa. Most of our time was spent in the Bay of Virgins (Hana Vave Bay) as it is frequently referred to as one of the most beautiful bays in the South Pacific (we agree).

I’ll start with a few pictures of our first approach to Fatu Hiva – the low clouds lent a truly mysterious atmosphere to the place.

The following sequence was taken as we entered The Bay of Virgins.

And yes – that is a cell tower. Service, however was intermittent and no internet.

A nice little blow hole.

The story goes that the Marquesans named the bay the Bay of Phalanxes for reasons that are obvious from the above photos. With the arrival of the missionaries and their easily offended sensibilities, the name was changed to the bay of Virgins which apparently sounds similar in Marquesan.

Here are some of the locals hanging out. Lots around so it is no surprise that a favorite Marquesan dish is curried goat.

And a picture of the village and a rock jetty that protects a small area from the considerable surge in the bay.

And finally, my favorite picture of Iron Lady sitting nicely at anchor in the bay.

We were most fortunate that most of the cruising community arriving on the trades from the US had already cleared thru the Marquesas on their way to Tahiti so we had the bay to ourselves. There is very little room and the bottom of the bay falls away steeply. Many’s the sailor who has woken up in thousands of feet of water having dragged out of the bay in the dead of night.

Best

The waters off Monster Bay are prolific. The channel between Tahuata and Hiva Oa is deep and sports a large population of pelagic species. While trolling, bent rods were the order of the day and we picked up a number of the locals.

A picture of our friend Dan doing battle. Not sure which one this was, but here are the possibilities.

A nice wahoo.

A short billed Pacific spearfish.

Or a very nice yellowfin tuna.

As mentioned in my last post, a number of these critters (and others) moved directly in to the bay in 50 feet of water during the night time hours. It generally began with a good red snapper bite.

The snapper were exactly the size that everyone back here would just LOVE to catch. Unfortunately, the locals told us that they were all contaminated with ciguetara – a neurotoxin generated by small reef organisms that gets concentrated in larger fish up the food chain that feed on them. The effects if you eat one are serious so we sadly steered clear. They did, however, make excellent bait for our night time fishing activities.

We started out with our 30 pound spinning tackle but rather quickly realized we were out gunned.

This prompted a switch to our 80 pound trolling gear. Nope – that wasn’t enough either. Our friend Dave fought this critter for about 5 hours well in to the wee hours of the morning (I went to bed). Pretty good sized giant trivially.

Along with a pretty good sized shark earlier in the evening.

Despite our successes, there was some kind of critter down there that no amount of fighting on 80 pound tackle could bring to the surface. The result was always the same – after hours of struggling, it would break us off. Time to up our game.

We decided that our booms would make a good fishing pole and our electric aft deck winch would make a good reel. The setup was to reeve 1/2 inch spectra line thru a snatch block on the boom to a turning block on the aft deck to the winch. To put things in perspective, the spectra line has a breaking strength around 20,000 pounds and the aft deck winch generates 4000 pounds of line pull.

Attached to the business end of the spectra line was a claw hook the size of my fist. We tried several traces between the spectra and the hook. 6 or 8 parts of 600 pound mono and 6 or 8 parts of stainless braided wire.

Here is a look at the setup.

The first night we tried the rig, we hooked up a 6 or 7 foot shark. The winch and rig made short work of things and simply dragged the shark up as if there was nothing on the line.

Well we thought we had everything figured out but Monster Bay and its denizens had other ideas. Over several nights, we hooked up a number of the big critters but in the end, all we had to show for our efforts were broken hooks and leaders.

While the unknown monsters of Monster Bay still remain unknown, we do have some thoughts. Possibly monster stingrays. A better probability is monster jew fish which can reach upwards of 800 pounds. Locals fear these critters more then sharks as they have been known to grab unwary divers as they swim by there layers in the rocks. Once they have a hold, there is no escape.

Needless to say, night time swimming was off the agenda.

Tahuatu is a small island located not far from Hiva Oa. It was one of our favorite spots in the Marquesas and we made a point of stopping here on at least 4 occasions.

On each occasion we stopped at a beautiful little bay called Hanamoena on the northwest corner of the island, but for reasons which will become obvious in later posts, we nicknamed it Monster Bay.

Our initial visit began with a bit of weather as we approached our anchorage.

Generally, we had the bay mostly to ourselves but the weather had a number of boats hunkered down waiting for better weather.

And this goat watching over things.

We later learned that the boat in the foreground was occupied by a family of 5 – Mom, Dad and 3 little ones. They had departed San Francisco on their dream voyage which turned into the voyage from hell. The boat was ill equipped for the journey and this was their first major offshore passage. The weather enroute was horrendous and Dad lost half of his finger when some rigging let go. They were all shell shocked and a number of us tried to help them put things back together and muster the courage to head for Tahiti to undergo repairs. It was during this time that we met and became friends with Jim Mckay who is sailing around the world in his 30 something boat. Subsequently, Jim is now watching Iron Lady in Hawaii for us until his visa is renewed in French Polynesia.

A pretty sunset promised better things the next day. That is Hiva Oa across the channel.

The next day did indeed bring better weather and it was off to explore the beach.

There are few beautiful beaches in the Marquesas, but this one was spectacular – except for the nonos. Vicious little insects that are about the size of a grain of sand and have jaws as big as alligators. Late afternoon is when they tend to make their appearance and then it is time to leave in a hurry. Even the strongest bug repellents are no match for them.

Behind the beach was this collection of makeshift dwellings which are used by the locals when harvesting coconuts to make copra.

The water clarity in the bay was amazing with visibilities to 60 feet. It was delightful swimming during the day but as evening approached, large critters started to make their way from the channel into the bay. Large tuna actually herded thousands of terrified bait fish against the rocky shore and had their way with them.

As the evening progressed, the critters got bigger and more nasty – hence the name Monster Bay. But more about that next time.

Hiva Oa is another one of the larger islands in the Marquesas group. WHile there are various areas to explore including isolated bays on the northern coast, we limited our visitation to the main town of Atuona. The following are pictures as we approached the island.

The main town of Atuona is situated on a large open bay which is really unsuitable as an anchorage. The primary anchorage is actually located in small pocket around a point from the village. Protection is limited and is provided by a small seawall that can accommodate just a few boats with some protection.

As such, we limited our visit to just a day and moved on to a more secure spot on Tavuatu – an adjacent island. We were pleasantly surprised when we went ashore as the local gas station was well equipped with heavy duty fishing tackle that we were running low on after our encounters with the locals. Unexpected but expensive and we had little choice if we wished to stock up.

We were told it was just a short walk to Atuona. About an hour in to it, a kindly local stopped to pick us up.

When we got to town, the restaurant we wanted to go to was closed.

We did, however, find a nice little place a bit further down the road with ice cold Hinano’s – a welcome relief from the heat.

While I am sure there is much more to do and see in Hiva Oa, for us, other locations beckoned with the expiration of our 90 day Visa beginning to approach.

Nuka Hiva Part 2 was our post about Vaipo Falls and Daniel’s Bay.

Part 3 is about some miscellaneous things but mostly about the ride to the airport. First, this large Manta Ray that spent some hours swimming close to the boat.

But back to the airport. The airport lies on the northern side of the island some 2 hours distant from the main town of Taihaoe – and a very interesting ride over the spine of the island on some pretty scary roads. When Dan and Lisa flew in, Deb and I rented a four wheel drive vehicle and made the trek over to pick them up.

The ride starts with a spectacular climb out of the village.

As the road climbs higher, the temperature cools and the tropical rain forest recedes.

The wild goats are a constant presence throughout the islands – and on many are a nuisance. Perhaps that is why one of the traditional dishes in the Marquesas is curried goat. The last time I had goat, it was supposed to be milk fed and tasted like a ball of twine – but our experience in the Marquesas is another story for another day.

As we moved higher, there were cows, wild horses and pine forests that reminded me of the Rockies.

A view of our trusty vehicle.

And some of the scenery.

And some of the rock slides near the top. No pictures but the final piece over the highest point was dirt road with no place to stop.

The road back thru the high plateau.

And views from near the top.

A remarkable canyon on the far side.

And the more desert like terrain on the far side of the island.

The airport itself is a bit of an anomaly. A nice runway, good sized terminal and even a control tower.

All for one flight a day most days with two flights every once and again – and with everyone living in town, the airport is really abandoned most of the time.

Anyway – after a long journey and a hair raising jeep ride, our friends Dan and Lisa aboard Beer Can.

Daniel’s Bay is a short hop form Taiohae Bay and has two separate arms. One is best for anchoring as the other is subject to considerable surge (and problems landing the dink). The entrance to the bays is spectacular with high surrounding cliffs.

With a few views of both arms of the bay.

The light conditions are constantly changing so here are a few other views from our two visits to the bay with different friends aboard.

This view of a blow hole.

And this view of one of the many wild horses that roam the island.

The main attraction, in addition to the few families that live here is Vaipo Falls – arguably the third highest in the world or at least in the South Pacific at 1150 feet. Our guide books suggested that it was an easy 3 hour walk (in total) along a flat path and a small stream. A local women suggested it was a bit more.

Incidentaly, she was sporting a three holstered belt with a machete, a knife and a file for sharpening same. We were told that any self respecting Marquesan did the same (at least away from town). The Marquesans also pride themselves on being a fierce bunch as you can tell from this fellow who posed for us.

While there is some confusion over the issue, apparently eating the “long white pig” (white man) is not that far removed from their culture. A French tourist was apparently dinner last year for one deranged guy – but the Marquesans are quick to point out that this was a most isolated incident – the last confirmed evidence of cannabilism being over 100 years ago.

At any rate, here we are landing on the beach for our adventure.

The walk did indeed start out as advertised – a small dirt road along a gentle stream.

Contrary to the advertised, however, things rapidly turned in to a goat path and worse.

Well two hours in to our walk after fording two heavy duty streams, we got our first view of the falls.

It was pretty clear that we were at least an hour or two away (which we were). Before leaving, Deb was told by one of the locals (in French) to stick to the path, not to make any noises near the falls and stay away from the falls if it was raining. As we approached the base of the falls, we saw this ign.

And as we moved on from this point, the reasons became obvious.

We were in a very narrow chasm between two friable rock walls that extended over 1500 feet above us. Evidence of recent rock falls were everywhere – good reason not to yell. It was also obvious that any sudden rainfall would completely flood the chasm and trap us.

It also became increasingly obvious that we were the first to have been there in quite a while as the weeds were waste high and there was no clear track.

When we finally got there, it was obvious that the falls had eroded their way so far back into the rock fact that we couldn’t get to the base of then without significant risk. It was already now 3 PM and it got dark at 6 PM so we decided that our best course was to head back to the barn before it got dark as we had no flashlights with us.

With out next round of guests, we only went as far as the overview of the falls two hours in and that would be our recommendation to everyone who gets there and wishes to go.

To close, a few more views along with a family that invited us in for fruit, coconut water and socialization – which we highly recommend.

These folks are simply lovely, do not have much, are very generous and sharing and it means a lot to their daily lives to help them along in whatever way you can.

Cheers