Howdy from Hanavave Bay (Bay of Virgins) Fatu Hiva

Dear Blog readers,


Howdy from Hanavave Bay (Bay of Virgins) Fatu Hiva

Lat 10 ,28 S

Long 138 30 W

Sorry to been so long quiet ...been lost in paradise here all is well and busy busy "resting" , fixing boat stuff, and exploring Fatu Hiva . Cath will fill in Fatu Hiva details ... great place and we are now even rested and all packed up for an early departure tomorrow AM for Tahuata Island AND Hana Moe Noa Bay.

All is good and we are settling into Cruiser mode working anchor settings,and dinghy details and hanging out only on our own time frame and routines.

Couple of details... Glad to have my suba gear as have used it to check and refine our tandom anchors in the teeth of the williwa gales coming down the moUntain side, replace our prop Zinc (again), and retrieve the speciAL Bucket in 40 Ft of water after I threw it overboard ... OOOPS.

Cath is a monster in the making regular ever ready Bunny visiting all her new Marquesen lady friends and oh yes shopping for Tapa cloth, wood work , fruit and veges. Me I am so happy to have sheets that need whipping, sails to change, and various boat jobs to keep me from going to shore every time. Works great. The July 14th Bastille Celebrations (that happily last the whole month of July have been wonderful and the nightly dancing, drumming, singing and performances amazing.

But I will leave that for Co-cap our Communications Officer.

YOurs in Paradise,

Billy

Hi everyone!

We have been having such a wonderful time here in Hanavave Baie on Fatu Hiva. We were here all by ourselves last Thursday and so were able to go ashore and get to know many of the wonderful Marquesans who live in Hanavave = a small community of about 200 people about 80 of which are children. They live the phrase "It takes a village to raise a child." One little girl told me she had 3 mothers... We have watched as the whole community has gathered by the sea to play volleyball, soccer, bingo, set up little food huts for people to order "barbecue" meat with frites (my favourite was the one with Roquefort sauce!! Unhuh!!! My least favourite was the poisson with rice (small red fish ...raw... chopped up with bones, fins, tail and eyes all included and served in a fermented coconut milk sauce over rice- the eyes were particularly big for such a small fish and made eating quite an adventure avoiding their gaze!!!).

We have had 5 days in absolute paradise!! It is like living in the Bouchart Gardens with an idyllic little village of tiny huts, backyard animals, located beside a lovely stream and dotted with coconut trees, banana trees,mango trees, papaya trees and then of course the flowering bushes of frangipani, hibsicus, magnolia and all of the plants and ferns that I have always attempted to grow as house plants in Calgary. The jungle has no biting insects, there are no poisonous bugs or creepy crawlies... there are no large predators, no rats, nothing bad on this island!! Unbelievable!! Oh no - there is one stinging insect - a very large wasp that are not very numerous and are so slow flying that one can usually avoid them. Now, did I ever tell you that Bill has an anaphelactic allergy to wasp stings?? We were visiting on one of our fellow cruisers boats (a very cool trimaran) when Bill felt something on his back, took a swipe at it and... yup!! he got stung on his hand!. Now despite having taken over a year of de-sensitizing shots he started to react and luckily we had all the intravenous paraphenalia that he needed. So, sitting around the corner of the dock Bill shot up and then I rowed him back to the boat where he could sleep it off. Luckily it worked and he was right as rain the next day. (oh and while Bill slept I was able to row back to the village and have a lovely time visiting with all my new Marquesan friends). Phew! That was a close one...

Having been sailing for over 6 weeks without being able to replenish our fresh food supply we have been craving fresh fruit and my, my we have come to the right place! The fruit that is in season right now is pamplemousse (delicious sweet grapefruit - that must suffer from a thyroid problem they are so huge!), oranges, citrus (limes and lemons), a few papayas were big enough and I illegally pulled a couple off as we were on our walk - everything here belongs to someone so one must ask permission to pick fruit - I quickly stuffed them in Bill's back pack and no one was the wiser. Yesterday we walked up the steep hills that surround our bay and at the top were able to take photos of Terrwyn with our zoom lens.

We were searching for a 200 ft waterfall that was supposed to be spectacular to visit and swim in the pool at the bottom ,, though very difficult to find. True to the description - it was very hard to find and it was spectacular once we found it (back down the hill and through the jungle clambering over roots and huge rocks through mud and finally to the waterfall. The swim in the beautifully clean fresh though cold water was a treat (even for me who hates cold water!!).

We came ashore last night to enjoy the traditional Marquesan dancing and singing = these people are the Welsh of the South!! Everyone sings and everyone knows their part of the harmony. They play ukeleles and drums - and today groups of men and women were sitting singing under the palm



trees or at the side of the fishing outriggers. I went over and joined in with one group and hummed my altpart - then one of the men let me look at his home made uke - with 8 strings, 4 pairs and the hole was in the back of the instrument!! It sounded like the cross between a banjo and a ukelele. I so want to find one of those to buy for us!!

We have taken hundreds of photos and many video and can't wait to share them with you. We will try to do that but probably not until we get to civilized Papeete in Tahiti.

Well, must get back to paradise now - love to you all and wish you were here!!

Love from Cath and Bill on Terrwyn in Tropical Paradise.