The most beautiful anchorage in the World.

We waited for a good weather window and headed further south to the iconic anchorage of Hanavave – Bay of Virgins or Bay of Penis’s, which was the original name but thought a bit too racy by early missionaries – in Fatu Hiva.   This is known as one (if not the) most beautiful anchorages in the World, certainly one of the most iconic, surrounded by high, jaggered hills and lush valleys.  

We had a fast sail into the wind and enjoyed watching the beauty of the island come into view, anchoring in 25m, the shallowest depth we could find, and used all our chain as we found a spot beside the team on Delos (Sailing channel Youtube followers will know who they are!).    Fortunately the prevailing wind is from the east, blowing down a valley at the head of the bay, so none of the other 18 boats in the anchorage swung much, which would have been messy when we all had almost 100m of scope out!  

Fatu Hiva is a beautiful lush island with tree covered steep, pointed hills, the valleys rich with grapefruit, oranges, limes, bananas, star fruit, guava and mangos in the most stunning setting.    Fruit grows abundantly in the wild and fish are plentiful so no one goes hungry, particularly as hunting boar or goats is also a popular pass-time.   The settlement of Hanavave has a lovely relaxed feel with all the houses built around large gardens containing several fruit trees, offering to sell grapefruit or oranges, climbing the tree to pick the best fruit while we waited below, hoping they wouldn’t fall as they climbed higher in barefeet, loading ripe fruit into the fold of their teeshirt!   The fruit was worth the effort with the juicy sweet grapefruit becoming a regular treat after a meal and the oranges providing a refreshing juice after a long walk.  

There is a lovely walk to a waterfall, taking about 40 minutes from the dinghy dock along a poorly signed pathway.    The water was brackish but refreshing as we swam under the trickle of water that cascaded from a great height above us.   We visited the small town of Omoa in the south of the island.   There is an anchorage here but several boats, including Delos, attempted to enter the bay, believing it would be a better, shallower anchorage but the surf was so great and the swell awful, they all returned quite swiftly to Hanavave!   The town of Omoa is lovely with a large “events” centre where the biannual Island Festival takes place, with tikis donated by the visiting islands.   There are some lovely Tiki’s along the waterfront and, once again, numerous houses displaying arts and crafts for sale.   We visited one man who made beautiful banjos in his backyard and he demonstrated the quality of the sound while his son proudly showed us his bone carvings. 

The road from Hanavave to Omoa is windy, mostly unsealed and steep with incredible views down to the anchorage.   Large groves of Mango trees grow wild along the road but sadly they are not ready until June so we were a month too early to forage for the delicious harvest!    Goats climbed high on cliffs along ledges that seemed like they would crumble beneath them and at night we could hear them bleating above us – I think I’d bleat too if I’d been up there in the dark! 

The anchorage was busy with boats arriving and leaving each day and then the jostling for positions as some of the good spots closer to shore and in shallower water become available.   We decided to move forward into a less exposed and slightly shallower spot, slowly hauling up our chain as we motored forward to keep the pressure off as our windlass winched up our scope.   We had been nursing our windlass for a little while, repairing it in Panama and treating it very carefully each time we used it, but hauling up over 75m of chain was just too much for it and, after depositing all it’s oil in the chain locker, finally made it clear to us it was terminally ill.   This isn’t the best news to receive when you are about to re-anchor in 17m of water but we had no choice and hoped the first attempt at anchoring would result in a firm hold, particularly as we had been told that wind gusts can get up to 60knots, so ensuring the anchor is well bedded in is essential.     The bottom is quite muddy, so it did take us a while to be happy that the anchor had indeed got a good hold but we now had 75m of chain out with the knowledge we would need to pull it up by hand in a few days time!    When this day came, Steve had set up a system where we could hand winch the chain from the cockpit while I hand fed the pulled up chain into the chain locker – a slow but effective method, made a little harder due to us leaving at 9pm on a moonless night, getting quite close to one boat as we worked together to haul up the anchor!  

We sailed overnight to Hiva Oa, and arrived outside the entrance to the main anchorage of Atuona as dawn broke, in time to see the supply ship slip into the bay ahead of us.   This meant that a number of yachts had been moved to outside the protected anchorage to allow room for the large ship, which doubles as a cruise ship, to have room to maneuver.    We were returning to the anchorage to get diesel and visit the ATM, as cash is king on these islands!    The only place we could anchor was to join several other boats outside the breakwater, all of whom were being bounced around in an uncomfortable mess.   We only wanted to drop the anchor once, so we chose our spot carefully and I stayed on board while Steve took the dinghy and our jerry cans ashore.    We could not leave there fast enough, feeling relieved when we had slowly hauled up the anchor and safely removed ourselves from the horrible anchorage.   If we had arrived from a long crossing to those conditions, I think I would have wondered why we had bothered to cross the Pacific!    A hot tip for others planning this trip – go to Baie Hanaiapa on the north of the island instead.   A car can be hired for a few hours on the west side of the bay – last house on beach – and drive to Atuona to check in, get fuel and provision.   Much more protected and a far better anchorage!

We left Hiva Oa with Freya and had a lovely fast sail to Ua-Huka, 50NM north.   We were hoping to explore this beautiful looking island with incredible rock formations, but the anchorages were far to exposed for us and, after watching Freya being thrown around after they had set their anchor in one of the bays, we made the call to continue sailing to Nuku Hiva.    We arrived at 11pm and were guided into the wide anchorage at Taiohae by a fellow cruiser we had been berthed next to in Shelter Bay Marina in Panama.    We had ordered a new windlass from Tahiti and it was being delivered on the next supply ship in a few days time.   In the meantime we could do some laundry, avail ourselves of the freshly baked baguettes and check out Nuku Hiva which, on first impressions, was equally as beautiful as the other islands we had visited.   Together with our friends on Freya and Coddiewomple we walked to the head of the bay and enjoyed spectacular views of the harbour and hills beyond.   The small village of Taiohae had a relaxed Polynesian vibe which I really liked with the locals cheerfully smiling and greeting you with “Kaoha” as we passed in the street.   The women often wore a frangipani flower in their hair while the men were heavily tattooed and equally ready with a welcoming smile.   Horses were exercised on the beach by young bareback riders who rode with elegance and expertise as they galloped the length of the sand at terrifying speed.  

Each morning fishermen cleaned and gutted their catch on the quayside, throwing the entrails into the shallow waters of the harbour where sharks gathered in anticipation of an easy feed.  We bought fresh tuna here for $5 a kilo – the cheapest food to buy in French Polynesia and caught in a sustainable way in local waters! 

While we were waiting for the supply ship to arrive with our windlass, we sailed to Baie d’Anaho in the north of the island.   We rounded the corner into the protected bay and were immediately mesmorised by the beautiful horseshoe shaped bay, surrounded by tree covered hills with a small village hidden in the trees just behind a wide sweeping beach.    The village had a school and small church with horses being the main mode of transport as there were no roads and one tractor which seemed to belong to the whole village and used as needed.   Everywhere was clean and well kept with well tendered gardens and horses tethered around the palm trees that lined the beach.    We found a track that led us to the top of a hill and, after stopping to admire the beautiful view from the top, down to the town of Hatiheu.    The path on the other side of the hill was less rugged and we walked through heavy ladened Mango trees on either side of the track.  

Small cruise ships occasionally visit Hatiheu and the town seems very well set up to look after them.   The streets are wide and paved, a large thatched restaurant with open sides caters for tourists, but was shut as it was a Sunday, and a large Norman looking church with two turrets, was set back in immaculate grounds and a beautiful backdrop of sun shadowed hills.  But one of the most striking features of this bay were seven high, steep and jaggered outcrops of rocks that dominated the western side of the bay.  They gave an impressive natural backdrop to the town, sandy beach and bay.  

The anchorage was lovely and flat, which was a welcome change to the roll we had experienced on the other side of the island.   Turtles occasionally popped their heads up close to us but the water clarity was not great so seeing other marine life, which we knew was there, was not possible.   This could almost be the most beautiful anchorage, but The Marquesas have so many you can choose from!

On the day the supply ship was due in, we left to return to Taiohae and excitedly jumped in the dinghy as soon as we were anchored to collect our new windlass.  We had only gone about 10 metres when the outboard suddenly stopped and refused to start again – very unusual for our extremely reliable motor.   We rowed back to the boat and Steve started to dismantle it while a friend picked me up in his dinghy to collect our parcel and purchase some fresh fruit and vegetables. 

I’ve said this before, but the cruising community are never slow at offering to help if they see a need and we were, once again, overcome with the kindness of our friends.   Todd from Freya gave up hours of his time to help Steve install the windlass while Bram from Coddiewomple checked out the outboard that Steve had not been able to fix the day before.   Todd and Steve had great success with the windlass which fit perfectly and sounded great, while Bram diagnosed the problem as being with our electrical coil which was not an easy fix as parts are hard to come by in The Marquesas.   We looked on line and discovered that Amazon had them for US$50 so, armed with this knowledge we contacted a supplier in Tahiti knowing that flights leave Papeete for Nuku Hiva every two days.   The supplier had the part in stock but were quoting US$450 for just the part and delivery would be on top of this.   Needless to say we decided to wait until my son visited in a few weeks and get the part delivered to New Zealand.   In the meantime we dug out our trusted old 3hp outboard and was amazed when it started first time!  

Boats were starting to leave Nuku Hiva for the Tuamotus as a small weather window had developed which was only going to last a few days.   We decided to forgo our planned visit to Ua-Pou, south of Nuku Hiva, and head south too, before the winds died later the next week.    So, early one Saturday morning of another long weekend (there are five public holidays in The Marquesas in May), we left the beautiful shores of The Marquesas behind us and with a heavy heart, bade farewell to these special islands which I could have happily spent a few more months exploring.