Just can’t get Enough

After spending nearly a month on the island of Nuku Hiva, our place of landfall in the Marquesas, it was time to be on the move again and explore the other islands of this beautiful archipelago.

We departed one sunny Monday from the bay of Taiohae in Nuku Hiva, and blasted along toward Ua Pou, just 25 miles away to the South.

One special treat for this passage was the opportunity to sail side by side with our friends from s/v Enough – a rare opportunity to take pictures of our beloved boats under sail. We got caught up with some last-minute-things in Taiohae though, and left some 30 minutes behind Enough. As were would find out, Enough is a fast lady and we struggled to catch up for most of the way.

It was a great day for sailing and we were having a great ride.

 

 

Geoff eased the sheets, and we finally caught up with Enough. Here she is, sailing beautifully against the backdrop of Ua Pou’s dramatic geography.

Here she is again, this time a view from her bow:

They also took pictures of us. Here is Pesto approaching Enough from behind:

Here she goes with us, towards the horizon:

And here we are, taking pictures of one another. Cool.

It turns out, tough, that Ua Pou wasn’t supposed to be. We reached its main harbor – Hakahau – as the sun was settling, only to find out that the small anchorage was already full with other yachts. With little daylight left, we turned at full speed ahead to the next anchorage, Hakahetau, which we reached when night had fallen, thus breaching one of our internal policies of never entering an unknown anchorage at night. Oh well. To complicate matters, the swell was growing in anticipation of the approach of bad weather, and Hakahetau became very rolly during that night. The next day we scouted Ua Pou’s entire West coast.

Despite its unique beauty, we were to find out, to our dismay, that all available anchorages were too exposed to the upcoming weather. Without options, and not all too happy, we set sail back to Nuku Hiva. This pod of Dolphins came to cheers us up:

We arrived to Nuku Hiva just as the weather was turning. Upon arrival, we were greeted by a large swell and this beautiful sunset:

We stayed within the protected harbor of Hooumi, which we were already familiar with, and awaited for better weather to resume our cruise down south of the Marquesas.