Wed, June 18
Weather: Sunny with large, fluffy clouds
Meal: Cheese Tortellini with Olive Garden fettuccini sauce
School: Full day of school
Movie: None
Other: I was determined to get up at 6am so I could go to the village for baguettes and croissants, but the night before was very windy and I couldn't sleep much. I was still asleep when we heard a man's voice calling to us from a boat outside. It was Louis, bringing us two larger tapas that his wife and daughter made. one of two dolphins and one of a tiki motif. He also had a bag of pamplemousse for us. We thanked him and he told me I'd better get to the village if I wanted to buy baguettes and then sped off. I grabbed Tara and we dinghied to shore. Louis was waiting for us and walked us into the village. He told us that he'd gone to the other village to visit his 71-year-old mother last night and gave her the reading glasses. She was so excited and picked up her bible to see if she could read it. They worked very well and she was thankful. He then had his 45-year-old brother try on the different magnifications and he found one that worked for him too. He gave an old man another pair and this is the man who gave him the bag of pamplemousse for us.

Maudlin and Theresa were standing in the street and told us to wait with them, the baguette truck would be driving to them soon and we wouldn't have to walk to the other end of the village to find it. A few minutes later, the truck arrived and we bought 6 baguettes. The croissants were all gone. You have to get up early for these very tasty treats. It was the chocolate croissants that Tara and I most wanted. I paid for my bread and then said, "Avoiour" to Maudlin and Theresa. Maudlin bent forward and gave the kiss on both cheeks greeting to me and then to Tara. As we walked back to the dinghy, Tara said to me with a grin, "Mom, that was my first 'French' kiss!"

Casey made us pancakes for breakfast and then the girls started on their schoolwork. Sean and I went to the village to pick up his dagger, which the woodworker had added a few finishing touches to. He showed us the dagger and then carefully wrapped it in some fancy paper. We met his 15-year -old son, who was home for a visit from his school on Hiva Oa. As we walked past Maudlan's house, we saw her on the step and went to say a final goodbye. The 15-year-old boy was sitting next to her, his grandmother, and I dug in my backpack for a deck of cards. He said, "For me?" as I gave them to him. Maudlin smiled. I knew that she lived a happy life on this beautiful island, surrounded by several generations of her family and friends like Theresa just a few houses away. What more could one want in life, except for baguettes and croissants, which she also had if she got up early enough...As we walked back to Adventure, a man gave us 5, 5-foot lengths of sugar cane. He told us to peel it and chew on it. We thanked him and continued on.

As we walked back to dock, I remembered that Tara had given me her pink nail polish for the lady with the little girl. Sean and I dropped the sugar cane off at our boat and then walked to her house. Her father led us to the post office, where she and her little girl were hinging with some friends. I gave her the nail polish and then asked two old ladies inside the post office if they needed reading glasses. One had a pair and the other didn't. I gave the one who didn't a pair and she seemed really happy. We walked down the street and the nail polish lady followed us. As we walked by her house, she motioned for us to follow and then yelled to her husband to come out of the house and pick us some oranges, which were high in the tree. He climbed the tree and picked oranges and she asked if we had anything else for trade, which we didn't.

As we were getting into our dinghy, we heard some boys yelling from the side of the rock beach about a boat. They were pointing and looking out into the anchorage, which we couldn't see because we were behind the breakwater. Sean and I quickly jumped into our dinghy, thinking one of the 3 sailboats at anchor was in trouble. The wind was gusting to 30 knots, so speed was of the essence. We rounded the quay as the boys yelled and pointed our hearts racing. We saw the other two sailboats and then, as we rounded the corner, we saw Adventure. Everybody was exactly where they should be. That's when we saw it...the soccer ball that had been kicked into the ocean. They weren't yelling "boat"; they were yelling "ball" in French! We retrieved the ball without further incident.

We motored around the picturesque bay, then around the corner, through another bay, and then we saw what looked like a window that went all the way through the cliff that jutted out into the ocean. It was very tall, and narrow. We could see the swell of the ocean coming through the opposite side and then gushing into the window as light flooded through the spray. It was stunning. When we returned to Adventure, the girls had been busy at school and were almost done. We hoisted the dingy motor onto Adventure's stern and were about to raise the dinghy when Casey mentioned that our large, laundry bucket had been blown into the ocean about a half hour earlier. I was very frustrated because we'd already taken the motor off the dinghy and I knew Sean wouldn't want to put it back on so we could go search for it. It was the only bucket big enough to do laundry in and, on these islands, it would be difficult or impossible to replace. I mourned for the bucket as we hoisted the dinghy onto Adventure. Our only chance to find it would be as we left the bay in Adventure, and the odds were very much against it. This was a perfect time to ask for God's help. I said a prayer that God would take us to the bucket when we left that afternoon. We'd need a miracle...5 hours later, in 25 knots of wind, we left Fatu Hiva, our waterline lowered by the mass of fruit and sugar cane given to us by the locals. In our haste to leave, I forgot to look for the bucket. We motored out about a mile and an half until the wind subsided and hoisted our mainsail. Our mainsail hoisting took an unusual amount of time and we were forced to motor parallel to the land to keep our bow to the wind. This put us in a path we would have not taken on purpose. The sail finally up, we headed back to our plotted course for Ua Pou. A few minutes later, an orange flash in the water caught my eye. I looked closer. It was our long-lost laundry bucket. Sean grabbed the boat hook as I swung Adventure around so he could rescue it. This was truly a miracle. God is good...

Our overnight trip to Ua Pou started out rough and all three of us girls got seasick. Sean did more than his fair share of the duties. Sean and I did 2-hour shifts during the night and Tara woke up at 7am, during my on-shift, and took over so I could sleep. It was just what I needed because I was really struggling to stay awake.

Thu, June 19
Weather: Sunny with large, fluffy clouds
Meal: Hamburgers, onion-garlic potatoes, chocolate cupcake
School: No school
Movie: Murder She Wrote
Other: We arrived at Ua Pou around 11am. There had been only about 6 knots of wind all day and night, so we'd motored the entire way. The good news was that we were able to make 90 gallons of water and fully charge our batteries. We'd left Fatu Hiva with our water and batteries fully drained.

We anchored between Our Country Home and B'Sheret. Michael from B'Sheret came to greet us and help set our stern anchor. The boat, Mr. Percival, was also in the bay. We'd seen the boat Our Country Home about a year ago in Mexico and Sean had spoken on the radio to Mr. Percival on our crossing, so it will be nice to finally meet them.

Mr. Percival came by in their dinghy and said they wanted to move closer to us before another boat, that had called on the radio, came in. After Michael and Sean helped Mr. P reanchor, our bow and stern lines looked almost criss-cross. Sean had had to take a lot of chain in on our bow to maintain a safe distance from B'Sheret and our stern anchor line came off our stern at a right angle. The guys all looked at the configuration and said it was good enough for a day or two. I was not happy, but was overruled. The other boat, Free Spirit, came in while Sean and I were cruising about the bay in our dinghy, so we used our hand-held depth finder to find a safe spot for them to anchor and then helped them set their stern anchor.

Michael came by, asking for eggs. Their bananas were turning and Linda needed to make banana bread. He asked for two eggs and I gave him 6 in case they wanted some for breakfast. Linda ended up making three loaves of chocolate-banana bread, sharing one with Mr. P and one with us. What a sweet trade! - six eggs for a large loaf of really yummy chocolate-banana bread.

Sean used our external wifi antenna and was able to pick up a light, but usable signal where we were anchored. The signal was coming from the post office service and so we could use our passwords from the 3-hour internet card we'd purchased in Atuana.

At 1am, the anchoring house of cards came tumbling down. Sean went' to check the anchor and noticed that B'Sheret, Mr. P, and Adventure were all very close and twisted in different directions. We were now on the opposite side of B'Sheret than we'd started on. Our anchor alarm hadn't sounded, so Sean was in denial that we'd dragged our bow anchor, but it was dangerous to leave the boats so close together. We pulled our stern anchor and then Sean took the dinghy to Mr. P to wake him up. Michael and Linda on B'Sheret were already on deck. When I put Adventure in reverse, our bow anchor chain pulled on B'Sheret's stern anchor line. Sean used the dinghy to push our stern at a different angle and I backed up again. We kept going back and back, obviously dragging our anchor, but this time missing B'Sheret's stern anchor line. We must have missed it by a just a few inches. Sean was now back on Adventure and pulled our anchor up. We motored out of the tangle of anchor lines and reanchored on the other side of B'Sheret, backing towards the shoreline. We knew we were in shallow water, but the tide is only 3 feet here. I looked at my depth meter and noticed it was rapidly going down. 8 feet...7 feet...6 feet. This was my limit and I jammed it in forward, hoping Sean had let out enough anchor chain. He came back to the cockpit and I told him we were getting too shallow to back further (we draw 6 feet to the bottom of or keel). We've been told that the saline layer at the bottom can give false readings. Also, we have two depth meters that give different readings, so we never really know the true dept. To be sure, Sean got out our handheld depth sounder (yes, a third depth meter) and checked. It said we were in 10 feet. We decided this number worked better for us, so we disregarded the previous two. The bottom is sand and the bay is calm with just a bit of a roll, so slightly grounding here is not a problem, but we didn't want to do it on purpose. We set the bow anchor and then Sean dropped our stern anchor using the dinghy so I wouldn't have to back Adventure over the shallower water to drop it. We were now clear of all the other boats in the anchorage. Mr. P pulled in some of his stern anchor rode to get some distance from B'Sheret. Peace now returned to the lazy anchorage and we all went back to bed.

Fri, June 20
Weather: Sunny with large, fluffy clouds
Meal: Duck, Lamb, seafood salad, breadfruit, gravy, rice, baguette, fruit custard dessert
School: Full day of school
Movie: None
Other: Sean and I left for the village early to get baguettes while Tara and Casey did school work. We went by Mr. P to chat and the police boat came into the bay to check paperwork on all the boats. They asked us meet them back at Adventure so they could check us into the island. Oa Pau is one of the 3 or 4 islands in the Marquesas that cruisers must check into. We saw our friends on Argonauta coming into the bay, so we helped them with their stern anchor. By the time we got into the village, the baguettes were all gone. The village was much larger than we expected, with 4 small grocery stores. At the most well-stocked one, I heard a high-pitched squeal and turned to see Sean holding a box of Fruity Pebbles close to his chest. I think he was hugging it. He's been out of this favorite cereal since Panama. We bought all three boxes they had.

A blue boat came into the bay and anchored in two different places, but was still not happy with their spot. In the evening, they motored to the concrete quay, set a bow anchor and then backed to the quay to tie a stern anchor. They're in a completely calm spot. The rest of us in the anchorage are sure jealous and are probably secretly hoping the gendarmerie will make them reanchor somewhere else.

The island's ex-English teacher swims each day around the anchored boats and gives the daily news to the cruisers and lets them know if there's anything going on in the village. He's invited all the cruisers to the end of school dinner party that night. The cost was 2500cfp ($33 US) per person and included island dancers and a DJ. The price was a bit steep for the 4 of us, so I asked if we could buy 2 meals and share. He said it would be fine. The cruisers in all 5 boats in the bay decided to go. They had prepared a large table for us. The food was already on the table when we arrived and included three trays of roasted duck, 3 trays of adobo pork (although Sean thinks it was goat), 2 trays of seafood salad, 3 trays of rice, breadfruit, baguettes and dessert. There was enough food for twice the number of people. We all ate and ate and then took a bunch of food back to our boats. The Polynesian dancing was great and Tara decided she'd like to learn how to do it. We left at 10pm, but the rest of the cruisers partied until 1am.

Sat, June 21
Weather: Sunny with large, fluffy clouds
Meal: Spaghetti
School: Half day of school
Movie: TruCalling (Tara and Casey)
Other: I helped the girls study for their science and history tests all morning. Before lunch, it started getting hot. The temperatures have been mild in the South Pacific so far because of the wind and clouds. We ate lunch and then went for a swim. We played on our taught stern anchor line, trying to sit and stand on it under the water. I noticed a young boy, maybe 12 years old, paddling in a wide circle around our boat. He was standing on a surf board and using a wooden paddle. We swam to another boat to chat and then back. We bathed and then the girls went below. As I was about to rinse with fresh water, I saw two boys now on the board and paddling directly toward our boat. They said "bonjour," and then played near our swim step and on our stern line. I guess it had looked like we were having way too much fun earlier and they came to give it a try. They hung around for about a half an hour, eventually calling to shore for some other kids to swim out to join them. Five more kids came to play on the stern line for a while and then swam back to shore. The two original boys still played and kept a constant watch on our boat so they could yell, "hello!" when one of the girls was in view. Finally, I went up on deck and they said, "Come swim with us!" They had been talking to each other to get the words right. I told them not now; we were getting ready to go the village. I went below and told Sean the boys wanted someone to swim with them. He found a nerf football and threw it to them a few times. Some cruisers came alongside Adventure and when we turned back to where the boys had been in the water, we saw they were now sitting on our swim step, smiling. As all this was happening, Tara was freaking out because I had mentioned that there was a clothing boutique on the island and she wanted to go check it out. We told the boys to keep the ball and that we needed to pull up our ladder on the swim step, where they were sitting. They tried to give the ball back a few times, but finally understood that they could keep it. They said, "Au revoir" and swam away.

We walked to the boutique and found the clothes to be quite expensive, but of good quality. Tara really liked one of the swim suits, but we decided it was too pricey at 3,990 cfp ($60). We checked out the grocery stores and bought a bag of 7 small tomatoes for 7 dollars and some crackers. I scoped out the boulangerie, where I hope to be at 6am tomorrow so I can buy croissants, which are only made on Sundays.

B'Sheret asked Argonauta and us over in the evening to say goodbye. They are both leaving tomorrow. I took the chocolate cake that I made the other day.

Sun, June 22
Weather: Sunny with large, fluffy clouds; brief sprinkles in the morning
Meal:
School: Full day of school
Movie: Myth Busters
Other: Sean and I got up at 6am to head for the Patisserie. I'd originally picked this time arbitrarily, but when I found out that other cruisers in the anchorage planned to go at 6:30 or 7, I decided firmly on 6am. When Sunday is the only day they make chocolate croissants, and only a limited number of them, one must make sure she's at the front of the line. I asked the baker if I could have 10 chocolate and 5 plain croissants and he said, "Oui!" and then stood and looked at me. I looked at him. Then he gestured for me to go get the croissants myself. It was self-serve. No tongs of course. Just use your grubby fingers to grab what you want. I tried to take ones from the back of the tray. There were only about 20 left. I also found three pastry-looking things on the far back of a stacked tray. Only eyes trained in the shopping art of finding the last pair of shorts in Tara's size could have spotted them. They were filled with apple sauce. We also bought 3 loaves of french bread (not baguettes!) and one loaf of coconut bread (not sure what this is, but I saw a local guy buy one).

On the way back we stopped to talk to a few other cruisers on their way to the patisserie. They'd ask if there were any croissants left and we'd smugly say, "Not many" and then add, "We just saw Anne going to the bakery and she looked really hungry..." They looked worried as they walked faster.

I helped the girls with school as I did a deep cleaning to the galley and salon. Sean began to fix a few odds and ends as we complained about the anchorage being so rolly. We heard a loud "SNAP!" Adventure lurched to the side. Our snubber broke again. This is the third time since being in the Marquesas. The snubbers we're using are old and one snapped from pressure. The other two times, it was from chaffing because we were bow and stern anchored and the wind and waves were on our side. Sean put out the new, heavy-duty snubber that he made in Hiva Oa. I think if this one chafes through, I'm guessing he'll probably decide to start using some chafe gear...


I noticed that all 50 bananas hanging on our stern have turned from green to yellow. It's "go-time" for eating bananas and we still haven't finished the large loaf of chocolate-banana bread that Linda gave us the other day!

When we'd come into the anchorage, we anchored in the same direction as the other boats, which happened to be sideways to the prevailing wind and swell. I presented my opinion about this, which was that it was going to be an uncomfortable way to anchor, but was overruled. For the past three days, we'd been living on a boat that was rolling uncomfortably from side to side. Today, 3 boats left and there was lots of room. So we reanchored in a more comfortable direction (head to the swell).

Mon, June 23
Weather: Sunny with large, fluffy clouds
Meal: Pizza from restaurant
School: Day off
Movie: Myth Busters
Other: I got my first good night of sleep in this bay last night. The wind had died and our new anchored position was much better. We had coffee and chocolate croissants and Sean messed around on the really slow, really expensive internet to download the movie trailers for the new Incredible Hulk movie. I think it took about $20 worth of internet time...

We started getting the boat ready to go, arguing all the time. Once again, we don't do changes very well. We departed at 10:30am and got just outside the breakwater, sails not yet up, when another boat hailed us to relay messages to a boat in another bay whom they couldn't reach. After messing with that for 10 minutes, our friends from Strummer hailed us. They were coming into the bay and saw us leaving. Finally we set our sails and motor sailed in 10 knots of wind to Nuku Hiva, just 26 miles away. We'd heard that the water in Baie de Taiohae, our destination, was not clean - so we wanted to fill our water tanks on the way. Taiohae is the capital of the Marquesas and the most populated village. We anchored in 39 feet of water, behind the other 25 sailboats already there. The bay is huge and, for now, very calm. The boats closer to the concrete dock are bow and stern anchored, but since the water was calm, we opted to be further away, where the boats only have bow anchors and can swing with the wind. If it's comfortable, this is a much better way to anchor. It keeps our bow always pointed to wind, so our hatchways catch it better and keep the boat well ventilated. It also prevents the huge strains on our anchor gear from the wind and current pushing on the side of our boat and keeping anchor lines very tight. Being in the back of the line of boats also gives us more privacy in taking showers in our cockpit and allows us to run our generator at night since the sound travels back with the wind.

We launched the dinghy and Sean and I went to check out the bay and to see if we knew any of the boats in the anchorage. We recognized a few, but really only knew Argonauta. I'd read that there was a good pizza place here and, when we got back to Adventure, we asked the girls if they wanted to go. After an hour of arguing and getting ready, Tara decided to stay on the boat and the rest of us went for pizza. The dock was dirty and a drunken guy said something to me in French. Sean told him, in French, that we don't speak French. The guy shook his head that he understood and then proceeded to speak to us using even more French. Casey and I kept walking, but Sean had stopped to chat. "Should we wait for dad?" Casey asked me. I told her it's best to keep walking because it gives him an excuse to break the conversation (which he's not understanding anyways) so he can catch up to us.

The large pizza was the size of a medium on in the States, and cost $20 for cheese only. We ordered one to each there and one to go. We thought about getting another topping, but anchovies and eggs didn't sound that good. We watched as the pizza cooker cracked an egg on the top of a perfectly good pizza before placing it in the wood oven. Casey noticed geckos on the ceiling and we watched as they efficiently snatched bugs that wandered too close to their long tongues. "I really want a gecko for a pet on our boat," Casey said. At the beginning of our trip, I had told the kids that the only pet they'd be allowed to have on the boat was a gecko. Now was Casey's chance. As we walked back to Adventure, she looked for a gecko that was low enough for her to reach. There were lots of them on the street lights, but up too high to reach. Tara was happy that we brought her a whole pizza.

Tue, June 24
Weather: Sunny with large, fluffy clouds
Meal: Cajun chicken, saffron rice, green beans
School: Full day of school
Movie: Napoleon Dynamite
Other: Sean and I headed to shore to check in with the gendarmerie. The hours on their closed door stated that they should have been open. A lady from a local tour company came by as we were waiting and verified that they should be open. "They are always there when you don't need them and not there when you do," she said before she left. We decided to go check out the village's three grocery stores to see what they had and then to lunch. This is where we found three of the gendarmerie, at the bar having beers. Sean asked them when they'd be back in the office so we could check in. We ordered the typical Marquesan dish of poisson cru, raw fish that's marinated in lime juice and then mixed with fresh veggies and coconut milk. It was really yummy and I decided that I'd better bring Tara next time so she could try it. By the time we were done eating, the stores had closed for siesta, or whatever they call it here. We had two hours to kill, so we walked to a couple of historical sites.

We walked to the church, which has an interesting historical motif in front of it. Long ago, at the exact spot where human sacrifices were made, ancient Marquesans carved out of stone an 8-foot tall explicit portion of the male anatomy. When the church was built on the site, the priest decided it did not reflect Catholic values. They corrected the situation by replacing the tip of the stone with a cross. It looks a bit awkward. The church has beautiful wood carvings of the standard biblical characters, all with Marquesan-looking faces. For example, the Virgin Mary has Marquesan high cheek bones and wide nose. It was nice to see something different than the Anglo features found in the US statues.

Next, we came to the village's ocean-front park that has about 10 tikis and stone carvings. Down the street, next to the unkempt cemetery is wood-carved memorial to Herman Melville, famous author of book like Moby Dick. This island is where he lived for a few months after jumping ship and then wrote about it in his book Typee.

We walked back to the store closest to the dock (about a half a mile) and bought a few groceries and a case of boxed milk, which Sean had to carry. Sean searched, but couldn't find Fruity Pebbles. On our way back, we stopped at a small sail repair shop and found that the sewer was away for a month or two. We were hoping to get our mainsail repaired, but will have to do it in Tahiti. We can only use the sail when it's double-reefed because of the 8-foot long tear right below the reef point.

On our way back to Adventure, we stopped by Argonauta. We told them we were going to go get fuel and Giorgio said he also needed fuel. Another boat, Ogopogo, had said we could use their jerry cans so we'd only have to make one trip to the fuel dock. Since our dinghy is big (13-feet), Sean took Giorgio to go get fuel with him. The tide was low, so the guys had to lower the full jerry cans into the dinghy using a rope. We spend a lot of time emptying jerry cans into Adventure's tanks and are still not full. We're thinking about renting a car in a few days to tour the island and, if we do, we'll fill another round of jerry cans using the car.