Baie d’Anaho & Baie Du Controleur -Nuku Hiva

Friday 5/17/13 20:30 08 52.874 S 140 02.832 W http://maps.google.com/?z=7&t=k&q=loc:08%2052.874S%20140%2002.831W Baie D’Anaho and Bai Du Controleur – Nuku Hiva Posting by Barb: We left Baie the Vaipaee at 6:00 am, Saturday on May 11th. The wind was still gusting and I was apprehensive about leaving and having to navigate through the narrow channel but it all worked out ok once we struggled with the stern anchor for a little while. We had a great downwind 5 hour sail. We sailed wing on wing with the Main and the 160. It was a pretty tight course so we could not use the wind vane and so we took turns at the helm. We so miss the auto pilot!! We were joined by a pod of dolphins again and they kept us company for part of an hour. Baie D’Anaho was a beautiful sheltered anchorage with white sand, Coral reefs, sea turtles and mountains. As we motored into the bay it didn’t look like there were any other sailboats there but as we got close we saw the boats anchored around a point. There were about 6 boats there. We decided we should stay here for a couple of days. We got a chance to clean the boat, wash some clothes by hand and socialize a little with a couple from Vancouver and do a couple of hikes. On one hike we went over a steep divide to the town on the other side. It was a 3 hour hike in total. It was a nice little town with a great restaurant. We ate lunch there. We started with a nice cold beer and then I had the Poisson Cruz which is raw fish marinated in lime juice and then tossed it coconut milk with other vegetables such as cucumbers, ginger and little tidbits of carrots. Dennis had curried goat. The food was great. The restaurant was just an open deck and there were chickens and cats roaming around and we were served by a Polynesian lady who ran around in bare feet. This along with the lizards crawling around the ceiling eating the flies made it an interesting experience. On the hike back we got caught in a downpour which turned the trail into a little trickling stream. It was difficult to run down hill on the slippery slope. Dennis did fall and got covered in mud. I, being the conservative one as well, did not laugh, ha ha. Well it was pretty funny!!! The next hike took us to a vegetable garden where we bought some vegetables such as cucumbers, Kale, tomatoes and green peppers. We also bought a little water melon. From there we went to a beautiful beach that had great waves rolling in. We stripped naked and tackled the waves. The white beach was a mile long and other than the large population of small crabs, we were the only ones there. The price we paid for such a beautiful hike was a barrage of ‘no-no’ bites. The next day, after spending every waking moment scratching I tried to count the bug bites and kind of lost interest after the 100th fly bite! They didn’t seem to like Dennis as much. On Thursday we left Baie D’Anaho and sailed to Bai de Controleur. It was a rough sail into the wind and we sailed to close to shore so the waves were erratic and it made for a rough sail. We again could not use the wind vane and took turns at the helm. There were no sail boats here and the anchorage was not as pretty as the last. There was a small town at the head of the bay but the people did not seem as friendly as the locals on the last island. We hiked up hill for an hour to the ruins of an archeological site which had several large tikis and a marae which is a ceremonial platform used by chieftains for worship, burials and sometimes human sacrifices. Although the site had historical meaning it really did not look like much. Tomorrow, Saturday May 18th , we leave here and sail the 8 miles to the largest town in the Marquesas called Taiohae. There we hope to get access to internet and we will have to stock up supplies, propane and fuel for the next 30 days as we make our way through the Tuamotu Archipelago.