The Island of Tahuata

We left Hiva Oa in the rain and went to the lee side of an island called Tahuata, about 6 miles south of Atuona, Hiva Oa.  We originally planned to head all the way south to the island of Fatu Hiva but with 2 meter swells (6 feet) we were making so slow of progress that we would of arrived at night which is something Trevor and I refuse to do unless we have been at the anchorage before, and even then we generally don’t do that either.  So we rounded the south point of Tahuata to get to our new destination.

Our sail around the southern tip of Tahuata. It was about 30 minutes after this photo we rounded out….(ekks)

Everything was going great…sailing downwind and then…. a gust of wind came rushing down the side of the mountain at about 50 knots and we basically were “knocked down”.  Without getting to technical, this just means the wind was so strong (and in this instance, sudden) it hit our reefed main sail which pushed our boat to the side (45 degrees which means our rails were in the water) and turned us 180 degrees (up wind).  Things on deck flew into the water and Trevor was on the floor holding the wheel to try hand steer.  Everything was ok…little time to freak out…we dropped the main in 30 knot winds and then turned back into the direction we needed to arrive at our anchorage.  Let’s just say I had 2 beers..at least when we anchored.

There were coral heads in the anchorage so we tried this anchoring technique. We would hang the buoys off the chain so when we swing the chain will not get wrapped around coral heads which at 45 feet depth would mean a lot of free diving to get the chain untangled.
These guys stopped by and sold us yellow fin tuna.
Trevor preparing the tuna we bought…we had tuna for days and thank goodness we had company to share (SV Fandango)
Tuna Dinner! so good and fresh!
Inside laundry day…still no sun yet
Tha Anchorage from our hike to the cross
The cross we could see from our boat that we hiked to
Our walk through town
This wonderful lady took us on a tour of the town
The tour…here is the church
We had heard this island had very unique carvings and we wanted to see what they had. We were greeted with such happiness and lots of love.
Trevor…had to get the necklace with a tiki that signifies “King”.
We heard music on shore right by our boat. When we did our hike we found this guy who invited us to his house. We ended up buying pomplemousse, limes, and BASIL!!!!!
This is the guys shower….it s a pipe from the stream that runs down the hill with a simple value. You can see our boats in the background.
Our friends SV Fandango who we have been buddy boating with for a few days and continue to hang out with in the next island…Nuka Hiva.

 

 

 

3 comments

  1. That’s an appropriate Tiki!

    Oy Vey! 45 degree Knock Out sounds vicious. I’m glad you’re ok!

    Selling you canned tuna woulda been funnier.

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