Living in the Marquesas
Photo by Spencer Call from SV Slawless.
April 30, 2024
It’s been one month since we arrived in the Marquesas after sailing for 28 days straight from Avalon Harbor on Catalina Island in Southern California.One month of living on the hook. Arriving to new places by sailing. Getting to shore by dinghy. Walking on land to wherever we need to go.
Each location has seemed to have a unique array of personality traits in terms of the landscape, sportiness of entrance, comfort of anchorage, access to resources and friendliness of people. How the town operates. Who to contact and when. When you can get what you need and how. How to get things you need and want without leaving too much of a footprint. It is truly being on the program of the local nature and society.
The busy small town of Taiohae with a dinghy dock and chandlery and yacht services. The large valley with one family living in Hakahea where we dinghied through the surf into a river to buy fruits from the grandma who ran an orchard. The friendly and organized main town in Ua Pou who shared their love for outrigger canoes with us.
In addition, it has been an absolute pleasure to be able to surf at every anchorage we have landed so far, albeit sometimes either small, soft or short. It is a gift to get in the water and surf a new scenery and learn a new wave as well as two new languages (French and Polynesian).
Inter-island sailing to new anchorages is exciting and liberating but to be honest, each time we bring up the “hook” (the anchor) and leave a safe anchorage protected by the winds, navigating a pass out to the true strength of the Trades, into the open ocean for a new home I have never seen always makes my heart flutter being a little nervous but exhilarated at the same time. These trade winds are excellent sailing with a beam reach heeling the boat over with a new island in sight. Leaving one home for another requires provisioning anything necessary including food and water in the event that you cannot find what you may need at the new location as well as putting things away to be able to sail heeled over safely with less to worry about below while sailing on deck.
There is a diverse and dynamic nature in cruising. From anchored in a bay, setting back up the home, to packing up for travel again. Although I’ve experienced this through the roadtrips through baja I traveled growing up and as of recent, the sheer vigilance practiced through each passage and at anchor requires a heightened sense of awareness while sailing my entire home through the vast nature of the world’s ocean. There is no escape nor pause button while out on the sea and therefore, it is of quite importance to take care of the crew, the boat and oneself efficiently and stay in flow with these surroundings and the changes that are happening each moment, realizing that the control of the boat is a dance with the weather and conditions surrounding.
Seeing an island in the distance, there are different possibilities of where to drop the hook next considering where will be safe from the forecasted winds and where there may be decent surf near a protected anchorage. It is so far until it comes close to show all of the beautiful features of life and land. The navigating of a new breakwater through an entrance and setting up to drop a bow and stern anchor in an unmarked spot in the bay. All elements concerned, it feels good to find home again with its new sights and sounds and feels along the water.
Putting the boat back into a home-order, meals are caught and cooked, shade is implemented and cherished, and surf is searched for and enjoyed.
