Nuku Hiva

We thought Anaho Bay was amazing - until we moved on to Hakatea Bay, which was even more dramatic!

It's also known as Daniel's Bay - you haven't been there before have you Dad?! Apparently a very friendly chap called Daniel used to live there, these days his son lives there who isn't so friendly. Sounds a bit close to home!!

The bay there was completely surrounded by really tall, very dramatic cliffs, with a beach at one end. We had a good beach fire one evening , and did a big hike one day, up a gorge between really tall mountains to the base of the tallest waterfall in Marquesas, where we could swim in a pool at the bottom, right under the waterfall. And were lucky enough to find a house where a couple cooked us all lunch on our way back. Great day!

We then moved on to the main town Taioha'e, still on Nuku Hiva, to rendezvous with the whole ARC fleet.

We hired a car and drove across the centre of the island, where there is some amazing scenery - it's an old volcano, with the road zigzagging right up to the rim, then down into the crater - at one point the road had precipitous drops on both sides. The floor of the crater is smooth, flat, grassy pasture, surrounded by dramatic volcanic rock formations. Another great day!!

ARC organised a get together last night - slightly odd feeling for us as it could be the last time we see many of the crews, and the organisers, as we leave the boat before the next fleet meeting. Even odder - it included a display of local dancing, and predictably they insisted on everyone joining in so I found myself stripped to the waist doing a Polynesian war dance.

The fleet will now disperse to individually explore the Tuamoto Islands then the Society Islands over the next few weeks. We leave tomorrow (Friday) morning to sail to the Tuamoto's, about 500 miles south of where we are which should take us around 4/5 days.

Odd how a 5 day 500 mile sail now feels a bit 'ordinary' - something we may do any day of the week!!