June 10th – Fata Hiva

Hello to all

Two days ago we anchored at a secluded bay and began by swimming into
the yellow sand beach and diving around the boat at Tauahata. Yesterday
Paul and I found the problem with the voltage regulator, a ground wire
connection. When we finished it was after noon and we began our 50 mile
trip to the Bay of Virgins at the island of FATA HIVA. We arrived in the
dark and carefully anchored safely bow and stern amongst three other
boats. We’ve currently awoken to a breath taking view of majestic lava
rock spires along the green mountain cliffs lined with coconut palms and
continuous green vegetation from the surf line up to the mountain tops.
This is a the town of Hanavave which is the only place in the Marquesas
still making inked tapa cloth. About noon we are hiking to the waterfall
with the boat of two Norwegian policemen, Tom and Morton, next to us.
The warm rain showers have been keeping it at swimsuit or shorts and tee
shirt temperature. It’s not yet 9 o’clock and we still need to assemble
our dingy and row ashore to explore the town before our hike.
Aftrnoon
We managed to assemble the porta-bote and with the 3.5 hp outboard
motored ashore in a light swell. The hike to the waterfall was the most
continuous exercise we’ve gotten for weeks and the last 20 minuets was a
somewhat slippery up and down a rock strewn muddy jungle trail. It was
all worth it as the 250 foot waterfall was awesomely beautiful with all
of us taking swims in the deep refreshing pool its base. WE spent over
an hour swimming and sunning and finishing it off with late lunch
snacks. We stopped occasionally to sip the cool water from coconuts
lying around on the return hike.
After dinner we will go in to watch the Marquesan dancing and meet more
of the people of the village.

Love
Jim

Hi everyone-

This place is dramatically beautiful & rugged–sort of reminds me of a
‘tropical Alaska’, with the same feeling of pristine. It’s REALLY hard
to communicate from here, as our Sailmail is getting more restrictive &
getting off the boat is an ordeal at most places. Some places (villages)
you can only land by swimming ashore & not all villages have payphones.
Yesterday while enroute from Tahuata a large pod of dolphins showed up
to escort us for a couple of miles or so. I was ecstatic!

Love to you all,
Darla