Back in Taiohae Bay
26 May 2012 | 08 54.8'S:140 06'W, Taiohae Bay Nuku Hiva
Lisa
It is Saturday and we are back in Taiohea Bay checking on the status of the dingy motor parts again (same story - different day). John blew a gasket yesterday morning while on the phone with Boats.net - although everything on back order had arrived at their facility to be re-shipped to us, they never sent the package on to us because they said the address in Nuku Hiva was not a valid shipping address. It sure would be nice if they would call and let us know - but instead it just got put back into an email trail - of which we are having an extremely difficult time getting email from here. Anyway - John was terribly nasty with the guy on the phone, told him to cancel the whole bleeping order, and then hung up on him. hmmmmm - now what. So I sent John to his corner to go cool down, then I called Rose Corser - a lady from Oklahoma that cruised here back in the 70's with her husband, loved these islands, and has lived here for over 30 years now. As per the guidebook, she has a small hotel and restaurant/bar in Taiohae, and she is extremely yacht friendly - helping cruisers get boat parts shipped to these here parts. Sure enough she said go ahead and use her address and we shouldn't have any problems. So then I called Boat.net back, apologized for my husbands outburst (they must have a rap sheet on him a mile long by now), and tried to get the order re-instated with the new address. The gal at the other end said she would do her best, and would try to get the order out that day (as this weekend is a holiday weekend). Well, after getting yet another email last night - it looks like the entire order is all dorked up (extra parts we didn't ask for), and certain parts are once again on back order as our items were probably shipped to the next Tahatsu customer in the que. So John was back on the phone once again this morning - but handling himself much better I must say. He ended up talking to the same fellow again today, and apologized up and down fo r getting so nasty yesterday. So as it now stands, it appears their shipping system doesn't like Rose's address either! We are still not sure what we are going to do, but we will probably give it one last go on Monday - the fellow at Boat.net will work with us to get an address that will be acceptable by Fed Ex so we can get this thing moving. So we might be hear another week. Which is kind of a bummer as we are getting a bit wrestless - and there is lots to see in the Tuamotos and beyond, and our clock is ticking down here - we get kicked out of French Polynesia on 21 July, and there's alot to fit in by then! But alas, the saga continues....
On to other business. The last few days in Anaho bay were beautiful! We did a steep muddy hike with Bob and Ann (S/V Charisma) to the next valley over and the views were wonderful. The little village of Hatiheu was just how I pictured a perfect little polynesian village to be - it was gorgeous. The main road paralleled the bay and was lined on both sides with beautiful flowers and plants of all kinds. We had an excellent lunch at Chez Yvonne - it is suppose to be one of the best restaurants in the Marquesas and they were right! And the beer was exceptionally cold! The little store next to the restaurant had potatoes and onions - which we hadn't seen in a while - so we filled up the backpack with them - (nothing like a little added weight for hiking back up the hill again)! We checked out the church just down the road, then decided we had better head back as it was a 2 hour hike to get back to the other bay and it was going on 2 o'clock. (Sun starts setting around 5:30 pm here ). I would definitely go back to Hatiheu Bay and explore a bit more if we had the opportunity - anchoring in that bay is also suppose to be pretty good as well.
We had a bit of a challenge pulling up our anchor yesterday morning before heading out. We used one or our largest fenders to help loosen the anchor which was caught on a coral head. John dove down to attach it to the other end of the anchor, and then called out manuevers to me while I was at the helm to unravel it from the coral. I can also control the windlass from up at the helm - which can come in very handy! After about 30 minutes of mucking around with it we were finally free. We waited for Charisma to make sure their anchor came up okay, and then we were both off for Taiohoe - it was a really nice sail down the east side of the island with winds from the east at 15 knots. Last night we went into town and met up with a bunch of cruisers at a pizza joint. Most of the cruisers all knew each other from Puerta Vallarta Mexico and had made the crossing at about the same time - so they were catching up on everyones stories. We got to know a few more cruisers and had a really nice evening.
This morning was the 5am market again - man that hurts! But we did it, and picked up Ann along the way. Vegies were very limited this morning - I purchased some green beans and lettuce, but no tomatoes to be found. Not many other options other than the usual breadfruit, pamplemouse, and coconuts. I am looking forward to restocking in Papeete!
John's puncture wound is looking good - healing up very nicely. He has been working on rebuilding the dive compressor today. Nothing like a small project to fill up your entire day! And he has also been helping Bob on the side - his alternator bit the dust yesterday and we just happen to have a spare that looks like it will work for their boat - with just a bit of manipulation. (Someting about massive vice grips and angle grinders??).
Off to clean a water maker filter now. All for now...
Lisa