Hanavave Days

This is the third and last post covering our stay in Hanavave, in the island of Fatu Hiva in the Marquesas.

As already mentioned on the previous post, this is one truly picturesque bay …

… and it was a privilege to just be there.

But there was more to do than enjoy the views and walk up to the waterfall.

While there, we were in company of our dear friends from sv Enough and also sv Nogal. One day, we gathered two dinghies and motored 1 mile north along the coast …

… and were rewarded with this amazing blowhole:

The kids played a lot together, including many hours of boardgames aboard one of the boats:

On the meantime, the adults were interested in Hanavave’s quaint little village. There, we attended mass:

Traded goods for local fruit:

Shared in the joy of the kids as they left school every afternoon:

And even found this local artisan carving out a small canoe from the trunk of a large tree:

And like this, our days in Hanavave passed one after the other, each one crowned by a spectacular sunset:

We were happy:

But it was time to keep going. As fantastic as our time in the Marquesas had been, the Tuamotus were beckoning. Moreover, what seemed to be a weather window was materializing, thus confirming it was time to go.

And so, one quiet night we readied Pesto, lifted anchor, and departed SW toward the atoll of Hao in the Tuamotus. We watched quietly as the small village and the picturesque bay slowly disappeared behind us, and looked forward to our upcoming destination.

It turns out though that we were about to learn the weather in this region has quite a few tricks, still unknown to us. The passage to Hao, which we thought would be a quiet and easy one, turned out to be very complex, with strong winds and steep seas. We eventually had give up Hao and sought for shelter in the Atoll of Makemo.

As destiny would have it, Makemo ended up being the place for a number of new, great stories. But these belong in other posts.

Thank You for following us along this Journey !!!