Nuka Hiva

May 24, 2014

Nuka Hiva

Early morning at anchor, a cup of cappuccino, a baguette with marmalade, sheer green hills shrouded in clouds, roosters crowing.  The air is soft, and pleasantly cool   One truck heads along the waterfront road.  An outrigger canoe zips quietly past, the crew out for an early morning workout.  This is the life.  We have spent almost a week here.  It is easy fall into the slower rhythm of the islands.  Stores close from 11:30-2:30   Everything closes on the weekend.  There are constant holidays, being French and all.  It is difficult to remember what day it is. We sleep late, have a lazy breakfast and get into shore about 11:00, just in time for lunch.  There is a outdoor cafe at the dingy dock with free wifi where the cruisers hang out.  There are chickens and roosters and baby chicks and cats and dogs underfoot.  The roosters are beautiful, colored almost like a pheasant, red and white and brown and black and yellow.  The typical lunch is a huge plate of stewed meat, rice and sweet potatoes.  The most interesting dish is poisson cru, the polynesian version of cheviche, raw fish and onion drenched with coconut milk.

One of our main reasons for stopping here  was to get at least one of the sails repaired.  It took all week but It is finally done.  We are not the only ones with broken parts.  About half of the boats here came limping in with some sort of problem.  Everyone is jockeying for the attention of the one factotum who takes care of everything.  Kevin is the go to guy for everything.  Need to check into the country? Need to have a sail mended?  Need to rent a car?  Need to get fuel?  Need to make a phone call or get parts shipped in from the US?  Need info about the local farmers market or grocery stores or what’s happening in town?  See Kevin.  His store is right on the wharf, next to the cafe.  An American cruiser who fell in love with a local girl and never left, he has made himself the go-to guy for all the cruisers. 

The weekend we arrive there is a music festival, a perfect introduction to the island.  There is such a feeling of peace and good will and security.  I suppose the fact that we are on a volcanic island, thousands of miles from the mainland means that they do not have too much trouble from marauding gangs of teenagers.  I expect that the community comes down quickly on any problems.  The performance is held on what looks like the ruins of an ancient religious site (I find out later from Kevin that it is a recent recreation)..  Kids climb on the tikis.  The band is on the central platform and everyone sprawls around on the large stones of the  walls   The music is everything from American jazz to Marquesian nationalistic songs.

Our last night we attend the school dance performance.  Very sewed and typical school event.  All the proud parents with cameras.  The little ones looking like deer in the headlights except for the one little girl who was eating it up.  The next grade had it a little bit more together but by the time they were through all of the little girls strapless tops were around their waist.  Quality got progressively better as the ages got older.  Again a lovely evening and a fitting end to our stay in les isle Marquesas.

 We are heading around the corner to another bay where we can walk to the 3rd largest waterfall in the world.  Then we will head to the Tuamotos, .  We are only expecting to stop a couple of times before we head to Tahiti.  Should take about a week.  Hope it goes better than it has so far.  I am ready for those long easy sails where you just hang out in your bikini and watch the miles go by.