Islands: 4, Anchorages: 6

On the afternoon of Tuesday, May 4, we moved from Hane bay to Haavei bay on the southwest corner of Ua Huka, a huge passage of just around 5 miles. Just before we arrived, we passed an island that is completely out of character for this area. Everything else, including an island right next to it, is clearly volcanic, but this island is flat and looks sedimentary. The air above the island was dense with birds, and the ground appeared to be totally covered with them.

Our email exchange with Marlin, our friends from Puerto Lucia, indicated that they were nearing the end of their passage from the Galapagos and they planned to stop at Haavei bay for their first sleep at anchor in nearly a month. They arrived at 4am on the 5th --- apparently they spent some time checking things out with a searchlight and generally making plenty of noise, but we heard nothing. We woke up to find them nearby, the only other boat in the bay. A little after dawn they called us up, so we made coffee and dinghied over them with the coffee and some banana muffins Sal had made for the occasion. They seemed no worse for wear, although their passage had taken 30 days. In fact, we stayed for breakfast with them and they cooked us a fish breakfast --- they'd caught a small black marlin a couple of days before!

Since they hadn't yet checked in, they left mid-morning for Nuku Hiva and officialdom. Tane and I took the dinghy to the bird island. The island has cliffs all around, about 30 feet high. The sea has eroded the base of the cliffs all around, so there's a major overhang at and just above sea level, making it more or less impossible to land. However, on the previous afternoon as we passed by, we had seen a rope hanging down into the water with a sign next to it. We went up to the rope and discovered that the sign had a warning about the fact that rat poison has been laid, but no prohibition against landing. There was no safe way to tie up the dinghy, so I stayed with it as Tane climbed up the rope, a respectably difficult rock climbing exercise. As soon as he reached the top, there was a huge increase in the cries of the birds and they started making mock attacks at him. There were eggs in nests everywhere, so he had to be very careful moving about. The birds seem to be a variety of tern, considerably smaller than boobies or frigate birds.

We returned to Kena and immediately set sail for Nuku Hiva, 30 miles distant. As we neared the island, we were surrounded by what at first looked like very large dolphins, but with quite different heads---we think they are melon-headed whales. As we approached the entrance to Taiohae bay, was falling. At the entrance itself, we were closely approached by two outrigger canoes, paddling vigorously directly across our path. Taiohae bay is quite large, and considered to be the safest anchorage in the Marquesas. We anchored with amongst 25 monohulls and 5 catamarans, with space to spare. That evening, we invited Tom, Sean and Brad from Marlin over for dinner --- they supplied vodka and black marlin. We supplied potatoes. As the rain thundered down outside, we tossed back shots of vodka, at fish and potatoes, and told tall stories. Their passage was considerably slower than ours, mostly because Tom decided to head back further north for reduced winds and a more comfortable ride.

We've just heard that Bruce McLelland fell off a ladder onto his face and was rushed to Auckland for many tests and stitches, so we're waiting to hear whether he's going to make his flight to Nuku Hiva on the 8th to join us.