We awoke this morning about 30 miles from Fatu Hiva. The island was supposed to be quite tall but it was covered in clouds. Around 9am, we were finally able to see the shadow of the island in the mist. We curved around the island and powered into the Bay of Virgins, the nicer of the bays on the island. There were 2 other boats at anchor (one of them was an Amel Super Maramu just like ours) and we anchored between them.

The bay is very beautiful with steep volcanic cliffs on either side and a beach at the end with a few buildings peaking around the corner of a valley. Apparently, there is a hike to a waterfall and fruit is so plentiful on the island, we can just pick whatever we like. Island paradise.

Excited to get ashore, we stowed things on the Northfork and prepared the dinghy to go ashore. We got as far as Mark starting the outboard and then things went south. The outboard would not turn over. Mark checked the spark plugs and saw we were getting sparks. A dinghy from one of the other boats came over and mentioned that if the outboard had been sitting for awhile the gas could stick the floater valve in the carburetor. Indeed, when priming gas in the outboard, gas was spilling out which indicated the float valve wasn't closed. With no manual, we weren't sure how we were going to fix this. Realizing how tired we were, we decided to take a nap and perhaps row ashore later in the afternoon. Instead, Mark opened up the carburetor and indeed found the float valve was stuck. He cleaned it and the outboard started a few minutes later.

It was almost sunset so we decided to have a meal on the boat, get a good night of sleep, and go ashore in the morning. 17 days at sea, it would have been nice to be on dry land finally. But we are realizing how much more exhausted we are than we had appreciated after being on a boat and our sleep every night being broken up, so relaxing for a night isn't so bad.