It is said that the island of Hiva Oa could entice the most conservative people to want to paint and fall in love. Carpeted in lavish flora, cut by crystal rivers and framed by lofty peaks, this island is the definition of abundance. Wild pigs and goats are hunted in the mountains, tuna and swordfish are caught in the fertile waters (although they must use different lures than us, because we haven't caught any yet!) and fruit so plentiful much of it falls to the ground. You could sit around all day doing nothing and still manage to feed yourself but yet the population of 1,000 does work and are very industrious. The land is so fertile but they don't grow vegetables, amazingly!!! I asked one of the ladies why she didn't have her own vegetable garden and she said that she's too busy collecting Noni Fruit for the American market plus many other things and they have all the fruit they can eat. Although they must grow potatoes somewhere as they eat a lot pomme frits, (French fries). Craving fresh vegetables after our long trip we did find a small truck in Atuona with a small selection of excellent vegetables.

Gauguin's House of Pleasure was in Atuona, Hiva Oa, he came here in the final years of his life and wrote, sculptured and painted his most famous nude, "Barbaric Tales" He died on the island in 1903 and is buried in Calvaire Cemetry, high on a hill overlooking the sea, along with Jacques Brel, the Belguin singer, who I must say we had never heard of but our French friend tells us he was very famous in Europe. He sailed here and lived here from 1975 to 1978 and died in the town. There is a museum to Jacques Brel and also one to Gauguin, which includes many prints of his works. In the grounds of the Gauguin museum, they have built a replica of the ground floor of Gauguin's house. We went there at 2.30pm last Friday and unfortunately it had closed at 2.00pm along with the Post Office which had the only computer with internet. So yet again, we haven't been able to check our hot mail which I know has up to date PICS of our beautiful little grand daughter, Jade (minus her hair apparently). We also need to order some new parts for the boat and can't do that till we find an internet cafe.

We are now on the neighbouring island of Tahuata in Baie Hanamoenoa which has a pristine palm fringed white sandy beach. Many of the bays have had black pebbley beaches up to date. We have about 6 of our new found friends are around us, so there is a party atmosphere. We have taken under our wing, Hide Seki, a Japanese single hander, on his Tayana 52, we met Hide in Zihuat. He started his trip 10 months ago and plans to finish in 2016 back in Tokyo. He has left a wife and 3 grown up children back in Japan to fulfill his dream (his wife says she's too busy with her own IT company to join him and anyway she gets very sea sick). He is a retired Commander from the Japanese Navy, and had a desk job designing airplanes. We had him over yesterday for lunch. The poor little guy has had a bit of a rough trip. He was caught in a bad storm between Japan and Seattle when his hydraulic furler on the headsail failed and he couldn't reduce sail. He was knocked down and stayed down on his beam ends for three days. Then on the Puddle Jump his self steering rudder sheered off and he didn't have enough power to run his autopilot all day so hand steered most of the way. He hasn't been ashore yet since arriving in the Marquessas. We had the last of the sashimi from our Chinese fishing boat and lots of coleslaw and fruit. Hide wolfed it down - he hadn't eaten fresh food for about two weeks! We have a real affinity with him, not just because we lived in Japan but because we met the first Japanese family to circumnavigate on the yacht "=CBrica" back when we cruised in the mid 80's with Mia. Mia is featured in a book, written by Hiro, the father, a full page photo taken in Palau with Mia and Erica, the daughter, swinging round a coconut tree on Erica's 10th Birthday, the first day they met.

We will stay today (Tuesday) on Tahuata, catching up with more seagoing adventures from our friends about the Puddle Jump and their future plans, before heading for the northern island and Nuku Hiva, the largest island in the Marquesas. After that, it's off to the Tuomotus.