Nuku Hiva – 2nd Day on LAND!

First, sorry for my delayed posting.  I know it’s been a few days.  It has been a bit overwhelming getting settled and rested after that major journey.  I do plan to post regular updates to this site as we continue to experience life in this remote and beautiful part of the world.

Today we got up bright and early to move the boat from Controller Bay, where we spent our first day and night, to Taiohae Bay, which is the location of the main town on the island.  It was about a 6 mile journey, and we wanted to get to Taiohae by 9am or so to start our official check in process into French Polynesia. 

At Controller Bay we had about 5 boats around us, but Taiohae Bay had over 50 boats due to this being the main village with the most services for boaters, and the administrative headquarters for the Marquesas..

It took us 20 minutes or so once we got to Taiohae to find a good place to anchor among the forest of boats.  We found a nice spot, got our anchor down and set, then got the dinghy ready for the ride into shore.

We were about ½ mile from where would “dock” our dinghy.  The “dock” is nothing more than a concrete sea wall with two ladders about 20 feet apart.  The ladders look like something you would use to climb out of a swimming pool.  There were at least 15 other dinghies already tied up on or near the ladders, making it nearly impossible to tie up and get ashore.  There was also a good surge going on from the ocean swell, that would cause the dinghy to rise up and back down 1 to 2 feet as you struggled to climb out on the concrete wall. Once we got tied up, we had to leave our dinghy there to play bumper boats with all the other dinghies tied up in the same place. Well, at least were on LAND again! 

We all continued to experience land sickness and the land continued to move and sway just like the boat.  But for some reason the motion on land was even more pronounced than what we actually experienced on the boat.  So weird!

Kevin is the main man here in Nuku Hiva who acts as the agent to get all the check in paperwork done.  He is also the guy who knows how to get just about anything you need done on you boat to fix any problems you had while sailing over here.  Kevin grew up in Glendale, and sailed to the Marquesas in 2006.  He met his Marquesan bride here and has not looked back.

The check on process went incredibly smooth, with Kevin handling all the details, and walking us over to the government official who stamped our passports.  It all took about 1 hour.  And what did Kevin charge for his efforts? About 50 bucks. I thought it was a great deal!

From there we enjoyed our first lunch on land together in almost 3 weeks.  We did some other errands around town such as getting some ice cream bars and other goodies at the store.  About two hours later we returned to our dinghy at the sea wall.

WAIT – I see the dinghy, but where is the outboard motor??

I could not believe it!  Our outboard was stolen within hours of our arrival, and in a busy public space.  I was so mad at myself for not locking it!

THE NOTE

Then I saw a folded piece of paper tucked away on the side of the dinghy.  What the heck is this? I unfolded the paper and it was a note someone left there.  The note explained that our dingy was getting tossed about, and a mooring line from a much larger boat got caught under the outboard, and as the boat went up in the surge, it knocked out outboard right off.  The outboard was now sitting at the bottom next to the sea wall.

A SUNKIN OUTBOARD

Well at least no one stole it, but now I needed to row back to our boat, get a mask and snorkel and try to find and retrieve the sunken outboard. I could not imagine that this was going to be easy nor end well….

So I made it back from the boat, put on my dive mask, and as Chris, Jade and David looked on, I jumped into the murky water.  At least it was warm! It turned out it was only about eight feet deep, and there lie our outboard sitting on the bottom, all nice and cozy.  I came back up, got a line and swam back down and tied it to the outboard.  Chris and I then got in the dinghy and slowly pulled up the outboard.  The 15 horse power outboard weighs about 100 pounds, but with all the water in it, it was close to 150lbs.  Chris and I were able to share the load and got the outboard dropped into the floor of the dinghy, as seawater gushed out of it and poured in the bottom of the dinghy. This was NOT a good thing.

For those of you who are non sailors, your dinghy and your outboard are like your car.  Its our only way to get back and forth to land.  Without the outboard, we were stuck rowing or using our backup electric motor that is really slow.  Not having our big outboard running was a bad thing for us.

So we all hopped in the dinghy with a huge puddle of seawater in the bottom and the outboard under our feet and headed back to the boat.  We struggled mightily to get the outboard out of the dinghy onto the back step of the boat.  Now understand, that same surge at the sea wall is happening on the boat.  As I tried to lift the outboard up to Chris and David on the boat, the dinghy was moving up and down and away and towards the boat, simultaneously.  It was NOT easy.  Chris reached out, grabbed the outboard form me and laid it on the back step of the boat.  We were then able to lift it  and place it on the bracket where we keep it when sailing.  This would allow us to work on it.

Then Chris and David went to work.  They completely disassembled the outboard, and drained seawater form every nook and cranny.  We used canned air to blow water out of the small parts and a small shop vac to blow it out of the big parts.  Once everything was dried out, they then put it all back together.

This was NOT how I planned to spend my evening on the boat.  Where is my hammock? Where is my cold drink? Where is the beautiful sunset for me to watch as I relax? But this is just the kind of thing that is the reality of living on a boat in a faraway place. 

Sooooo…..We go the outboard put back together and onto the dinghy.  I gave it a few pulls on the starter cord, and it roared back to life!  Now, it sounded a bit sickly, but it was running!

We decided to stop for the night and have some dinner.  Chris was up at 6am the next morning tweaking and adjusting the outboard until it was running as good as new!  Thank you Chris!!

This is just a taste of life living on a boat.  But its all part of the adventure.  And yes, you have to bit a bit crazy to do this stuff!!