Catpain's Log #11: Moving On

Paradise in Nuka Hiva

uka Hiva provided a week of solid ground, plentiful fruit, delicious baguettes, placid waters and even a night of cruiser music on Saoirse. The serenade was a delight, as we have been without man-made music for a month; our stereo was not a willing host to salt water, which can find its way into boats with amazing tenacity. Paradise was difficult to leave, but thousands of islands lay ahead and only months until another season of cyclones begin. Not to shock our new-found land legs too much we started slowly, with a 5 mile jaunt to another bay, where we took to the hills for a view of the highest waterfall in the southern hemisphere, second highest in the world. The waterfall was indeed impressive, but we found our interests lay more in imbibing in crime. Fruit crime. Mango, guava, lime, papaya, star fruit, banana, pompamoose (large grapefruit), and other tasty fruit of which I have never seen abounded, and my backpack was mostly empty. Ripe, pardon the pun, for the taking.

Tamera in Nuka Hiva

The island of Ua-Po was just 25 miles to the south, so we took the afternoon to have a leisurely sail for another night at anchor before a 400 mile run to the Tuamoto chain, an enormous arc of coral atolls, known as the "dangerous archipelago", for its hazardous reefs and thus great diving. Our destination was the island of Raroia, famous for the landing of the raft Kon Tiki, captained by Thor Heyerdahl in 1947 after drifting 4300 miles from Peru. His trip took 105 days or so, ours would be three. Ha Ha! But that would be normal and normal is not a word I am inclined to use when describing sailing. We had three days of absolute calm, with the Pacific Ocean as smooth as glass. Our lack of respect for the wind was such that we even flew the biminy (a large sun-cover) for two days. Reading and dolphin siting kept us lazily busy. We have discovered that by hanging off the swim ladder when a school of dolphins come around you seem to be 'swimming' with them- quite a treat. Then the winds piped up, but from the wrong direction and with it came many, many, many squalls. Sails up, down, up, down, repeat. This is not a recipe for making quick time, so we had to use up 6 days instead of 3.

Waterfall in Nuka Hiva

On our slowest day we still averaged more than two times the speed of the Kon Tiki, and he didn't have a stereo either! As always, the arrival is the reward and these islands are no exception. The diving is superb, but that's another log...