This morning Hiva Oa honey topped my pain perdu (French Toast). We sailed from Controleaurs bay in the south to the north of Nuka Hiva. Here so much of the history and landscape is an intersection of the settlers from the west and the travelers from the east. In the dairy section of the grocery stores here multiple varieties of French whipping cream sits right next to several choices of coconut milk from across French Polynesia.

Controleurs Bay, a three-part bay tucked in behind a tall claw-like promontory of 4 million year old lavas. The ocean and atmosphere have had more time to work on this island widening more of the valleys and carving thin isolated peaks that look like a child's simplistic triangular drawing of a mountain. As we sail seaward thin vertical promontories slide away like curtains revealing the mountains behind. Nuka Hiva was one of the first island I sketched on the Pacific crossing as I tried to get my mind around the geography. Produced with only the resources on the boat these were simple flat pencil sketches without multiple overlays. The 1981 nautical chart based on the 100-year-old measurements was an improvement although it has very anglicized names: Jack and Jill Rock, Adam and Eve Point. In some places it honors the setters from the west. We rounded an isolated rock with breaking waves is labeled Rocher Te oho te kea and Sail Rock.

Highlights along the way include a broad bay (Bay Hatuhatia) with rolling surf crashing on what look like sand dunes and sailing in the Zone of No Hydrographic Measurements. The sand dunes ended up being an old reef covered with sand drifts. A sand dune from afar but when we walked over it and looked at the rock poking out from the sand it was not sand and not the volcanic rock so common here but a piece of old reef that crumbled in your hand. This island is old enough to remember when sea level was much high and reefs grew in place now criss crossed with horse tracks. The zone of no hydrographic measurement was almost identical to the unmapped region in 1981. We snuck across a corner of zone watching the depths sounder and the seas for any signs of shoaling. That is not where we went aground today. Rounding the northeastern corner of the island we can see the most protected bay in the Marquesas, Anaho Bay. Sailors insist you must visit. We have reached the bays inhabited earliest by the settlers from the west. We arrive at Anaho a harbor with several other boats including the boat we went through the Panama Canal with. We drop our anchor and absorb the scenery.

Here walking to look for vegetables my eyes and nose soak up the east west old new tension. The fruit trees that came from the west on canoes are carefully irrigated while the tomatoes are strung out along a series of strings supported by sticks. The ever-present chickens arrived from the west while the goats peering over the ridge at us and the horses the farmer uses to take his produce to market arrived from the east. The chorus of native birds are old but the chickens talking are new and the goats bleating are newer. I recognize the smells a sharp odor from a crumpled tomato leaf and the dank aroma of horse dung. The sweet smell of the fruits and smoke from the burning brush comes from a western origin. The landscaping fabric is new but the burlap bags used as horse blankets are old.

After facing 3-4-foot-high waves on the other side of the island the easy landing here is welcome. The swell that has rolled us steady night after night is present but very subtle. After facing 3-4-foot-high waves on the other side of the island the easy landing here is welcome. I can hear it pounding on the Bay Hatuhatia beach on the other side of the ridge. When you run your kayak aground in the dark you will sense the swell rushing towards you, as a noisy 2-inch-high wave. An ideal place to settle 1000 years ago and even as east west and old new tensions persist a beautiful place to anchor.