Fatu Hiva Boat Prep
27 June 2008 | Marquesas
Randy
Today we are getting the boat ready to sail for Papeete to meet our friends Pablo and Louise. It is a 700 mile hop so we need to leave today or tomorrow morning to arrive on the 2nd of July. We are sorry to leave the Marquesas so soon and plan to come back this trip. Organizing flights for Pablo and Louise to the Marquesas was not something we could do from Fatu Hiva and if we had sailed to Nuku Hiva we may or may not have been successful in getting them a flight there. We also don't want to waste a lot of time on their travel because they only have a week and a half.
Nobu and I cleaned up the broken battens to ensure the mainsail isn't damaged until we can get the battens replaced. This is a little bit tricky with the batcars but not too bad. We also cleaned up and stowed everything aboard.
I took Hideko in this morning to get Baguettes in the dinghy. Hideko went into town and I stayed on the quay. After a while another local boat came in. I helped the guy tie up and he asked me if I was here for the Baguettes. Seems he has the cruisers pegged. I said yes and he said the truck had already gone by. He asked how many we had aboard and I said trois. He then reached in his backpack and gave me a big baguette and said that should be enough for three. I said merci beaucoup but it was far from expressing the extent of my gratitude. We secretly dropped off a bottle of rum in his boat later in the day.
Hideko was walking around with a bathroom scale to give to the old man who so kindly gave us all of the bananas yesterday. She had three offers to trade things for the scale. If you have something you don't want it is quite likely that you can trade it here. These people have no use for your money however. Hideko did catch up with the bread lady and purchased 10 baguettes to pass around the anchorage. One of the boats gave us some grapefruits, which we were trying to come by anyway. Some Finnish folks gave us some yummy crackers from Finland. All in all is was a good morning's haul.
Later in the day we shared a coffee with with Jo from Sea Bright. We met Dave, Jo and their lovely daughter Beth in Shelter Bay, Panama, so it was nice to see them again here in paradise.
It has been a lovely stay here and we are a little sad to leave. However we're very excited to see our friends for the first time in almost two years. Tahiti here we come.
Nobu says: "I have been sleeping so well here in Fatu Hiva, it is nice to be at anchor."
Hideko says: "It was worth getting up at 6:30 for those baguettes!"