Leaving the Marquesas and underway once again…

Leaving The Marquesas and underway once again..
But not so painful this time! Only a three day sail to The Tuamotus which are our next destination. However, we have been screaming along for almost 24 hours at around 10 knots which does make for very uncomfortable sailing – albeit Oscar loving every second! Very sadly we have had the first two people drop out of the rally (D it is Nick and Yvonne which was very sad) – there is a lot of strain put on relationships when on a boat for such a long time and it is hard even if you are family and can have a good hissy fit occasionally – when friends do this it stretches the limits of those relationships. It is by far the very hardest part of long distance sailing in my mind.
We have been having an awesome time in The Marquesas – from Fatu Hiva we sailed overnight to Hiva Oa and as we came in to the bay and anchored guys on meteorite came over in their dinghy and told us they had been snorkelling with huge manta rays out in the bay alongside a huge rock – tired as we were we dropped the dinghy, grabbed the snorkels and headed off. We anchored the dinghy and were not disappointed – as I dropped over the side Oscar did hand signals (bit manic!) there in front of me was the biggest manta ray with the biggest mouth you have ever seen – at least three metres across and bigger than me. Was just the most incredible sight and it swam straight at me not in the least bit bothered – I was! If you don’t know what a huge manta ray looks like google it – was just unbelievable. There were three of them just cruising around feeding and we were just so close – even Richard was snorkelling with them albeit hanging onto the boat for security! With the help of our agent we go through immigration on a Bank Holiday and the Gendarme was dragged out of a makeshift gym to organise – very sweaty man straight out of Allo Allo who proceeded to put his official hat on even with a vest and towel round his neck! We all had to be seen in his office and very jolly he was too – delighted to see us and asked if our boat was big as the crew had very nice t-shirts and could he possibly have one! We set off on a tour of the island next day with some friends Cathy and Joe and our wonderful, huge guide Piefa who was adorned with a huge necklace of shark vertebrae, boar’s horn and a variety of exotic carved rosewood quite a sight. His surname was O’Connor and his forebears came here on the hunger ships during the potato famine in Ireland via New Foundland! Bizarre. Our end objective was to visit Puamau and the Iipona archaeological site which is on the outskirts of the village. There is one road across the Island and it was winding its way around the great towering rock faces with sheer drops and rough tracks it was hairy beyond belief. Piefa was very jolly and proceed to put on his stereo his brother in law who was a very big pop star in The Marquesas belting out Haka songs whilst he danced along in the front encouraging us all to join in (lots of grunting and ooh aah bit like a maori song but more melodic) – all I wanted was for him to keep both hands on the steering wheel! After two hours literally on the edge of our seats and having stopped numerous times to admire the spectacular views we arrived. The site is one of the best preserved archaeological sites in French Polynesia and what immediately strikes you is the eeriness of the place it actually feels very intense. There are five monumental tiki (great big heads) with enormous eyes and mouth because the priests could see everything and speech was the only form of passing on information. There is a reclining Tiki Maki Taua Pepe which represents a woman lying on her stomach with her head stretched out and her arms reaching to the sky – women would lay on her face down to increase fertility and when they gave birth would use her something like a birthing stool by sitting on her. The feet brace marks and a gulley where the baby was born into are quite clear. There is a huge Tiki Takaii which at 2.67m is the largest ancient Tiki anywhere in French Polynesia. Astounding thing to behold. This is an extremely spiritual place and regardless of which God you worship you cannot fail to feel the intensity of it. The Tiki once had a huge penis too but when the missionaries came they were appalled and chopped off all the genitalia. There are of course the requisite NoNos which are almost invisible little gnats but with a mega bite – we cover in insect repellent to protect ourselves and seem to be ok although a French woman walking around looked like she had measles she had been bitten so many times! This site was first discovered in the 1800s in records but was then massively restored in 1991 by French archaeologists.
On the way back we stop off at Piefa’s Grandfather’s house (he is 85) and what we are confronted with is an Irishman! He has reddish hair and very blue eyes and freckles and just looks like he walked out of a tavern in Dublin – so funny! Richard decides that he has to have a huge finger of bananas and Piefa climbs a tree to get them – half the size of me. We load them into the back of the truck and head back to the boat. We lug them out and onto the pontoon – Oscar comes to collect us and looks horrified. Richard explains that it will be ok as we can dunk them in the sea and tie them on the sugar scoop and creepies will just disappear. They don’t. BIG unidentifiable creepy with huge tail crawls out on the sugar scoop along with numerous other bugs and Oscar slings them into the sea with the bunch of bananas – Richard still hasn’t forgiven him!
We are anchored in a wonderful island called Tahuata with its very lush vegetation and white sand deserted beach. Here on this Island are master bone carvers and tattoo artists living on the smallest inhabited island in the archipelago. The bone work is exquisite. The works are very expensive but totally unique.
Nuka Hiva was yet another stunning visual attack – it is the second largest island after Tahiti but is sparsely populated with razor edged cliffs, crashing waves and wonderful bays with Robinson Crusoe like beaches, lush green valleys and dramatically tall waterfalls that feel like the end of the world. Taiohoe where we anchor sits at the base of soaring mountains in a perfectly crescent shaped bay. Two master carvers are also here and there is a small market selling fish and fruit (no vegetables to be seen!). The people are wonderfully friendly and warm and my French is being tested for the first time in a long while! Tattooed locals trot around on their horses – we decide that a trek on horses would be a wonderful way to see the gorgeous scenery. Off we trot to a small farm at the base of a valley and are duly met by a stunning looking lad in a cowboy hat, tight trousers, a small bolero and a BIG necklace with the requisite boar’s horns and sharks vertebrae all finished off with a pair of clear plastic jelly shoes – it takes someone quite special to rock this look but we all decide he definitely does! We are off – my pony has a wooden (yes totally wooden) ornately carved saddle as does Oscar’s pony whilst Charlotte and Richard get the padded leather saddles. Fortunately we had opted for only three hours not the full day – the trek was wonderful up through lush vegetation and into the hills where the steam rose slowly up to the peak. I broke my second camera by smashing it against the carved bone pommel of my wooden saddle! I could hardly walk when we got off and smelt like a sewer rat – a vision! Not sure how long my bum will take to recover.
We went on another organised tour to see some of the multitude of historic sites which are here and to experience some of the inner island. We see three interconnecting sites which make up the largest excavated archaeological area on Nuka Hiva and the sheer scale of these sites are amazing. The islands once had around 100,000 inhabitants which dropped down to around 2,000 when disease was brought by the West. The site has the largest banyan tree I have ever seen and when it was discovered was full of bones from the sacrifices and on one side is a huge pit for the same or to put prisoners or both – the area just exudes spiritual power. Other pits are scattered around (ua ma) which held breadfruit an important food. Further up are two huge rocks decorated with petroglyphs which represent turtles, fish and the eyes of a tiki along with human figures. There is a huge discovered in 1957 which dates back to around 1250 and was in continual use until the 1800s. The vast central tohua (big area) was used for dance festivals flanked by blocks of basaltic stone which were used as seats. There are nine Christian tombs here which it is thought were from the first missionaries’ arrival when the site was abandoned.
Whilst in Nuka Hiva we had an organised tour of the Aranui which is an iconic ship that has been taking supplies between the islands since 1984 and that is still its primary mission although it also carries around 200 passengers on a 14 day trip around some of the islands. A lecture from a leading expert archaeologist – Pierre Ottino – who was fundamental in restoring some of the ancient sites on the islands was wonderful to give a great feel for the history.
And so to another Oyster party – this one starting at 2pm and finishing if you were Oscar around 5am – or 10pm for the oldies! Outrigger canoes known locally as vaka line the shore and prepare to race – Oscar, Tom and Charlotte are at the front of the queue and clamber aboard. They head out only to be engulfed by a huge wave straight away! I think they still won. There were horses trotting through the waves on the beach for us and a troupe of tattooed dancers very energetically making their war cries in the blistering heat. Under some shade were coconuts cooled in ice and then the tops chopped off to make a wonderful drink women were making bead necklaces and woven baskets. There were demonstrations of local food – breadfruit and coconut loom large! Flower garlands, wood and bone carving, local music played on what looks like a ukulele, singers, masseuse and the list just goes on. As it gets dark the fire pit is opened up and the pigs that have been cooking all day are removed for the feast. We dine like kings and then the dancing begins with the conch blowing and maybe 50 dancers in amazing outfits twisting and turning – then they introduce fire and is truly an astounding sight.
The Islands are really spectacular to behold and really eerie – difficult to describe the beauty, the friendliness of the people, dramatic vistas and wonderful spirituality but it is all something I certainly will hold in my heart for a long time to come.