We brought a set of sheets to the lady up the hill at the end of town. She brought us into her house. There was the manufactured house with a brick and mortar patio built out. This was her kitchen. She has a closet just bigger than the stove itself where she cooks. There's a table on the patio where they appear to eat. A cupboard with some dishes is also on the patio. She showed us two sheep heads she had. I believe they are wild on the island, so they hunted them. She also brought out a necklace that she'd made. It was boar teeth, goat horns separated by wooden beads. She sells them at "Exposition" in Pape’ete, Tahiti, once a year. It lasts for 2 weeks starting possibly June 22nd. She said the whole town goes to Exposition to sell their arts - Tikis, tapas, necklaces, etc. We hope to be able to get to Tahiti in time for some of it. She picked us some mangos and oranges and gave us some dried fish.
We then went to the first house we'd done the trade with and said goodbye. We went back to the dinghy and did some anchorage errands. We'd lent some guidebooks to a new catamaran, so we picked those up. Another family borrowed my camera for some pictures at the first night dinner for their daughter to do a blog. They left to Nuku Hiva before I got them copies. I put them on a thumb drive and gave them to another boat that is heading there later today and can give it to them. The logistics are sometimes interesting out here. And I'm sure they are fine without the pictures, but I also think they'd like to get them. We picked up a kayak paddle the kids had left aboard another boat.
The prop on our dinghy is broken. Working, but broken and we have to baby it. Hopefully Courage's brother, Loyal, has ordered a new one to be delivered to Philadelphia. The boat who we are giving the blog pictures to has a girl flying out on the 9th to meet up with them and if things go impressively well, she'll have a new prop for us with her. We aren't sure when we're going to be in Nuka Hiva, or if they'll still be there, but it's closer to us in the Marquesas than in the states. We'll meet up with them again sooner than later I'm sure!
So, we set sail at around 11:00am today for Tahuata. Supposed to be one of the few beaches in the Marquesas that has sand, not rocks, and excellent snorkeling. We shall see. Another catamaran, the naked French boat, set sail just after us. After some tacking and issues, they appeared to turn back. We considered turning around and waiting for nicer winds, but we want to go, so we are going.
As we rounded the point, we saw a yellow mono-hull coming in. It was our friends on Elena just arriving from the Galapagos!! They are a British family with 3 boys; twins age 7 and a 9-year-old. Happy to see them again! They are going to Fatu Hiva, so we chatted on the radio and our reunion will be some time later.
We have turned out to have a lovely sail, slow going as it is. The seas are calm with occasional gusts of winds from squalls. Since we left later and were going to arrive later, it actually works nice to have light winds, drift at sea, and arrive in the morning. "Heave to" as it would be. Basically hover until morning light to make your approach.
We already caught 2 tuna on our way here. I was winding mine in, Courage his. We could see both of them just behind the boat. I was keeping tension on my rod, but something happened. As I finally pulled mine up, my hook was hooked on Courage's line. We both had seen two fish under water. Courage thinks I gave slack on my line. I think he cut me off and released my fish. Either way, we got one lovely fish onboard and had it for dinner. We have some for tomorrow also, so we are good.
Need to take baby to bed now; goodnight from the Marquesas.
Shannon
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