We are leaving Nuku Hiva so we ordered baguette and eggs for the morning and we are going into the vegetable market. It is a very early society here. We came in for the vegetable market at 6:15 and missed the market by 45 minutes. If you do not get to the store by 7 am you will not be able to get baguette or eggs. If you would like more that 2 baguettes or 2 dozen eggs you need to order a day ahead. We have ordered ahead and are picking up our order early. On the dock in the early morning the fishermen clean their fish, all large yellow fin tuna. They throw the scraps at either the dogs or into the water. The blood from cleaning the fish is washed into the bay. This attracts lots of black tip sharks. Most are around 4 - 5 feet long. There are at least 10 to 12 sharks swimming around so close to the dock you could touch them. When the fishermen throw in scraps the sharks go crazy! If you are close to the dock and we were close, you get splashed. Zack was really into the it and the fishermen threw in some big pieces of scrap so he could get a good show. Really cool!!

We had a brisk sail over to Ua-Pou, the wind was forward of the beam and it was like being back in the Caribbean beating to windward in 25 knots of wind.. As we pulled out of Nuku- Hiva we hooked two fish at once. Unfortunately we were cruising along at over 7 knots, which makes pulling in fish super difficult. I was trying to pull in some sail and slow us down but I was too slow. When we finally got the lines in they were tangled up and one of the fish had taken our lure and gone with it, the other fish had been eaten by a shark and all we had left was the head. David and Zack were bumming because it was either a yellow fin tuna or a bigeye tuna, their favorites. We had one other bite on the sail but we were unable to hook it.

The harbor in Ua-pou was super crowded and we anchored outside of the breakwater, it was a rolly night. The next morning we moved into the harbor and anchored with a stern anchor. Three more boats have come in since but we all work together to make room for each other. We went into town for a recon mission and were given a short cultural tour by the second in charge to the mayor. It was all in French but Nathalie translated and we learned a lot. We were walking down the road and we passed a building under construction that had the most amazing stonework I have ever seen. We were standing there admiring it when one of the workers waved for us to come in. He gave us a tour of the building and turns out he is the mayor! He could not have been nicer, nor could the building, the stone work here is incredible. There were stone walls with turtles and dolphins and manta rays made of small stones in the stone walls. The concrete pillars are molded to look like tikis. The mayor told us that was his idea. It is amazing the pride the Marquesans take in their islands. They are all so extremely welcoming and giving.