Photo: This Tiki is holding in his left hand is his war club, his right holds the head of his opponent; quaint art.

We are now at the largest and most developed island of the Marquesas, Nuka Hiva, the setting for Melville's Typee; things have changed since Herman was here, there is WiFi/Internet. As a result, you'll find a collection of photos in the Gallery section at the left margin of the blog and they are under South Pacific 07.

We left Hanamenu Bay, Hiva Oa early Thursday morning hoping to get into Ua Huka in time to hit the town in the afternoon. It was a breezy crossing of 58 miles and Surprise didn't disappoint; we arrived at noon after a 6 hour reach. Unfortunately, the brisk winds that sped us there also made both of the bays very unsuitable for anchorage; too much wind, swell and not enough depth. We ran down wind to Nuka Hiva; along the way our hero Otto the autopilot failed. Arrived in Taiohae Bay at dusk; a long day.

In addition to WiFi, we caught up with the CARE package that Ralf Morgan at KKMI put together for Surprise; lots of goodies, like a new gas strut for the freezer lid (high on the Admiral's list), a new vang, and some brass shim material to replace the rusting feeler gauge blades at the rudder bearing. Almost like Christmas. Otto got some attention and we found the ram, which is the muscle of the system, had died so our spare got installed; Otto's back.

The Admiral flies today to Ua Huka to make sure there are no local artisans that go unmolested. The taxi ride to/from the airport takes about 4 times as long as the flight and costs nearly as much. We'll spend a week or more here on Nuka Hiva exploring the local bays and indulging in the fruits of the urban setting, like vegetables, bakeries, and pizza from a wood fired oven (who would want that job in a place where it is in the 90s during the day?).

"Le weekend" in Nuka Hiva. On Friday morning two charming 12 year olds came by in their dinghy. Molly and Jessie informed us that there was a Saturday morning market at the dock, with vegetables, fish, and their favorite-little chocolate pies with whipped cream. But you had to get their early-it opened at 4:30am and was done by 7:00. Susan slept through the alarm but woke up before 5:00. A quick dinghy ride in to the dock yielded tomatoes, zucchini, croissants, fruit tarts and my favorite-a large head of leaf lettuce. Green salad! It's been a while. Slightly later in the morning we took a walk in the village and visited the small museum. Watched the local canoe races, which took us back to the early days of whitewater racing-lots of volunteers and camaraderie among the competitors. Then had lunch at the BBQ chicken fund raiser, followed by dinner out at a restaurant-two meals out in one day! On Sunday morning Susan got up early again and went to church. It was a lovely service, with lots of song. One guidebook noted that either all Marquesans have wonderful voices, or else they shush the ones that don't. In any case there was loud, joyful and tuneful singing, some of it call and response in male and female voices-by the congregation; the choir was very small. After that a hike up the hill to a restored ceremonial site. Invited Jan, a female single hander on Nerida, over for dinner. All in all a full weekend.