on our way to the Tuomotos - home of the Black Pearl(s)

we are leaving in about an hour, getting fuel and then we are off. stayed the extra day cause of the Agricultural Festival that started yesterday and goes til Sat. quite cool! they decorate every so great, had a canoe building by chainsaw , and veggie stands , even got sweet potatoes! first time since Mexico. ( veggies are harder to get here, even got some mangoes given to me from our buddie Tihiki - the fellow who took Steve and Kyle pig hunting)
I made homemade ice cream yesterday!! boy it was good, took a while has we had no churn and had to put my container on its side into my big ss pot and keep spinning it. but we enjoyed it! chocolate.......
once again we were the kid boat , having 11 aboard at once. makes everyone laugh. we are off.

last posting til the Tuomotos!

food is always desplayed beautifully!! I even got 2 of these "plates" given to me!!


the children here are so beautiful especially in their traditional dress!!


aboard O'Vive ( catamaran)from Florida! good people


hey all , we will be leaving for the Tuomotos tomorrow Tuesday. it is around 500NM about 3-4 days depending on wind ect. will be travelling with Malachi and O'Vive. and meeting up with lots more cruisers. here are a few more pictures for you to look at.

there are a lot of horses here!! and this is everyone reapplying the bug dope for the 10th time and we still got eaten alive!! its to bad about the nau naus, cause it is paradise here if not for those dam bugs! they sure bite and itch!!



the men looking in the western marine catalogue for parts! Dave, (Ovive)Steve,Jay (malachi)

We left Taiohae ( main bay in Nuka Hiva) and went to Daniels Bay ( Anse Hakatea) , very beautiful, enclosed bay. reminds us of BC. except for all the nau nau's - tons everywhere and bite!!! We hiked up to the cascade ( waterfall) 2.5 hrs there and 2.5 hrs back. went for a swim in the pool below the waterfall. the waterfall was really just a trickle however when the rains come I'm sure it flows fast and lots. loved the cool pool to swim in , even had to go through a cavern area to get to the actual falls and that was gorgeous, unfortunately no one had a water proof camera to get a picture, the only way in was to swim. the next day we ( adults of Orca III and O'Vive ) went to the village to get fruit, we brought stuff to trade and Steve ended up fixing the mans chainsaw! That scored us a stalk each of bananas -green so they will last longer, and we also got tons of lemon, some papaya, and starfruit. and the green marquesan apple that tastes nothing like an apple! tried for mango and pineapple and their oranges ( which are green when ripe) but not ready to have yet- and off course tons of pompemousse!! had a great visit with the locals - named Mathias and Monette and that is who I am pictured with. nice people !! came back that afternoon ( yes it takes 4hrs to trade and such, nothing fast around here) and I played a game of risk with all the kids (ours and O'vives) I won!! not that I am competitive or anything -tee hee , Kyle hates that I win, Maya was thrilled cause we were partners , so really we won! she is a good partner
We left Friday am and fished- caught nothing and made water. we pulled into Baie De Taiohae again and met up with other cruisers, went to the store as the ship came in and we got some veggies and things, market day Sat at 4:30am to get the rest of the veggies and fruits -pineapple !!it is so sweet, nothing like the ones at home.We will be here for a few more days before heading to the Tuomotos. thats a 4 day sail .
Here are some words we have learned in Marquisan
ka/o/ha - hello
ko/oo/ta/oo/nui - thank you very much
ka/na/hae/u - it's nice, pretty
ko/o/oo/a - grandpa
pa/ka/hi/o - grandma
nana - bye bye
kai kai - eating
have fun pronouncing these, I put them as they sound, it sounds like singing!

forgot to mention

Marquisans sure love their fertility gods!

Steve is in the March 08 issue of Lattitudes and Attitudes- in the back , have a look. have been beading ( making rings wait til you see them!) and gettting the boat ready to leave for the Tuomotos . today its up the mast to put the baggy wrinkles up, fix wind indicator, pull out spare sail to see how big it is for the real light winds out there as we have no spinnaker. I am off doing more laundry.... never ending

Nuka HIva continued

Steve and I went for a small tour with Dave and Natalie ( O'Vive) with the car they rented. the kids stayed on O'Vive and played., while we found a nice hotel restaurant with a pool. we decide to come back for lunch with the kids. nice view of the bay! had a great feast of food and an excellent swim in the pool.
love the desserts!! then we walked back and met up with some of the locals we have met, see picture of Steve with his buddie ( they love the harmonica!!) the locals play alot of Bocce ball, slightly different then we play . very friendly and invited us to join there little party. we had fun then left to see the sights of the tikis. toured the church grounds and finally came home. that was the longest lunch ever! we started at noon and got home at 5:30pm - we left the restaurant at 3:45pm ( little pricey but way worth it for the swim! thanks mom!!) I also bought a yogurt maker ( basically a thermos and 2ltr container that fits inside- but its way cheaper than buying yogurt already made here) besides its the cruiser thing to do!! everyone is looking for them, i bought one of the last 2 and another boat got the other one with 2 other boats still looking. anyway, it works !! mine turned out !! yeah for me.
all the kids ( and I mean all 13) went to O' Vive for a movie while Steve, Natalie and I went over to Malachi for a game of Oh hell! Dave joined us after. had a great time. now Steve is off fixing Tin Soldiers alternator and engine they wanted to leave today ...... we'll see

Still in Marquesis

enjoy your presents Emma!

Here is Emma's birthday party, we did it on shore and I made a cake in the shape of and 8

We were up at 4:00 am this morning to get to the Saturday Market, yes that's right it starts at 4:30 am, and you have to get there early or you will miss the carrots ! I got my 2 bags and even got 4 small pineapples ( those cost my 1000 Polynesian Franks - about $12 cdn) a couple of boats got there at 5:15am and missed the carrots! big deal getting them, cause there are none here, they are shipped in from New Zealand. oh the things we now call luxury!! Almost bought a watermelon, but after we figured out that it would cost $21 cdn all of us ( other boaters) nixed that idea..... will wait unitl we come back home for that treat! Steve is in the process of transfiering butane into our propane tank. and its only 6:30am.. but it is so much cooler out at this time!! sure was fun going to the market at 4:30am and seeing all our fellow cruisers there too. good laugh for all of us. And I thought it was crazy standing in line downtown at 5am for my passport!
We now have 2 more kid boats here in this bay, thats 10 boats here with kids!! oh my, and yes boys and girls we got to to the lice thing.... somethings you can not get away from. turns out 2 seperate boats had it and all the way from Mexico!! lucky for us just one kid of mine and we just caught so we are done. I have been checking for a week now and nothing! Yeah!! who would have thought! Just like being in school.
looks like we are here until Monday and then head out. there is no wind right now on the way to the Tuomotos , some boats started out and ended up turning back. we are not in a rush. so we will wait. May go to Daniels Bay and then back to Au Pou. ( may have to return the butane tanks there not sure yet)

Friday at Nuka HIva

tiki sacred site, we hiked up to this ,very gorgeous and lots of those nonos! ( bugs like no seums)

just hanging around Nuka HIva

local home on Nuka HIva

kids from Orca III, Malachi, and O'Vive

we are sitting here nursing all of our no no bites - these things are worse then mosquitos!! Kyle wins with having the most and also infected bites. have them all healing well now! sure takes time to heal in the tropics!! There are a ton more kids boats and Orca III has been called the babysitting boat as all the kids end up here!! had 10 aboard yesterday.
Today they have all been farmed out!! Steve got our generator working with a bigger belt by moving the mount and taking of the AC part. so that means we can charge the batteries again not using so much fuel. the main engine is what we have been doing and it burns a lot of fuel and heats up the boat. While he was doing that the kids and I did the laundry. all of you count your lucky stars to have a washing machine ! (never mind a dryer) we washed it all by hand, all of it and have been every since we left Mexico and will continue until Tahiti where we hope to find a washing machine - they are know where here in the Marquesis, I could pay some one but it would cost me around $ 100 cdn - so we will continue to hand wash, and where our clothes more than twice! ( no we are not always in bathing suits! we have only been able to swim in 2 bays, the one we are in now had 3 tiger sharks spotted last week and no one is taking a chance, those guys eat people!! and the last one there was one hammer head shark spotted and where there is one there are probably more! ) so we are waiting until the Tuomotos to swim lots. there are lots of rays in the bay too, they are nice! and really cool to watch
managed to get propane organized, Malachi is bring 6 13 kilo bottles from the Island of Au Pou as there is absolutely none left here on the big main island. apparently the ship didn't show up that has the propane ( actually its butane as they don't use propane here) . there are a few happy boats waiting for Malachi to bring it. then we have to transfer to our own bottles. Life is so different!! I am now making my own yogurt cause its so expensive to buy! and have been trading with fellow cruisers as I needed dental floss and have so many toothbrushes and dried basil. thats fun trading.
shopping is fun ( being cheaky!) everything is so expensive. just discovered that 30,000 Polyenisian Franks equals $410 CDN dollars. wow that was a shocker! A box of cereal is between 600-900 Polynesian Franks. do the math, we are not buying cereal here!! thank god we are getting all the fruit for free or trade. and catching fish. forget the pork and beef ( I have found some chicken at not a bad price) any way , we are still having a good time. love seeing all the cruisers. enjoy the pictures - the free internet didn't last long , had to buy it 10hr for $66 cdn. and it can be so slow!! the things we take for granted. oh well, have been getting it free all along so it balances out.
had a great pizza dinner for my birthday , all the kids went to Tin Soldier for popcorn and movies and all the adults went for pizza. Dorothy Marie was also there. had a great time!! got some great presents, Natalie off of O'Vive does beading too. she made me a necklace ( wait till u see this) she also does rings and is teaching me how to make them. this is so long cause I keep typing waiting for the photo to post - has been 15 minutes and the picture is still not up yet. see how I mean slow. trying to post one of Kyle and Emilie. they are inseperatable will try later.

Thanks for all the Happy Birthdays

the church at the Island of Tauapa - beautiful!!


Steve" B'day Waterfall at Futa Hiva!

you all are so very sweet ! made me cry!! Dad will call you in the next couple of days.this ones of the School Performance. all kids are 10 and under!! look at her move those hips! amazing

happy mothersday

happy mothersday to you both from us on Orca III - had a great birthday for Emma on Sat, lots of kids,even had some of the boats come just for the party. It was also another kids b'day on the 11 so we combined them together. played balloon pop ,had cake, did tug o war, played bocce ball, and got eaten alive by the nonos!! we built a fire on the beach and burned coconut huskes to make smoke , that seemed to help . We have been in Comptroller bay for the last 5 days, hiking up to the sacred tiki
sacrifice area. have all kids of carved tikis out of stone. very cool, then we swam in the river right by some rapids, was like having a jaccuzzi . lots of nonos ( bugs like no seums) and the eat you alive. we are all covered in bites!! and thats using 30% deet! but its the only place that had them so far. the kids and steve with 3 other boats hiked up to a waterfall, quite the hike!! and they met a local guy who gave all the kids a ride on his horse and tour guide. I stayed on the boat to enjoy
some quiet alone time and to plan emmas party with the other mom.

Then on Monday Steve and Kyle and Emilie from Ovive.... went on a tour of the mountains and brought back lots of goodies. the same fellow who had the horses loved the sharpening stone steve gave him that he took them there. brought back 2 hind quarters of a pig and flowers for me, lemons and honey!! even got a couple of zuccinis and yellow cucumber. He also gave Steve this great hand carved beeting stick thing. used to catch and kill pig ect. by the natives. quite the gift!!

well we are now in Taiohae bay , have internet ( looks like its free even!!) see how long that lasts!!

Dionne

some photos

here are some from Futa Hiva, that's me with Janet from "Shilling"
we did a local dinner - fun!!

Au Pou , Marquesis Islands

here we are , finally with internet, its very slow and spotty.. Will add just a bunch of pictures for now. Enjoy!
Happy Belated Birthday Erryn!! sorry but the ham is also spotty , couldn't get anything out but we thought of you!!

update...

Hey there, have finally been able to get out on the ham. we have left Tahuata Island ( Baie Vaitahu) and are heading over to Hiva Oa Island - Baie Hanaipa with O'vive and hope to see Dorothy Marie there. they left yesterday morning for there and we stayed with all the kid boats ( there are 6 of us) Emma has made a new friend - Tara, of Shamballa from Australia. they are the same age. we will meet up with them again in a couple of days, along with Malachi. WE are hoping to have us all together for
Emma birthday as well as a few other cruising kids and adults. there are a lot of us born in May - We went for a dingy tour with Ovive and Malachi to the villages here on Tahuata, managed to get a ton of mangos, bananas ( don't need much of those anymore,kinda banana'd out) pomopemouse and what they call Marquesan apples. nothing like our apples!! had a great time, took lots of pictures. will be loading the blog once I get to Nuka Hiva. We are heading to a bay where there is a fresh water water
hole with lots of mint growing around. looking forward to that!! Veggies are a prize here as we don't get much of them and they are expensive. tons of fruit and usually just given away to us. Am learning all kinds of ways to cook bananas!!

We had a nice pot luck dinner onboard orca III last night, 3 other boats - O'vive , Malachi, Shamballa. lots of kids (9) to be exact!! boy can we hold the people in our cockpit and down below. that was 17 for dinner and we still had lots of room. good time was had by all! looks like Kyle has a little relationship happening with Emilie ( O'Vive) they are quite cute together! Maya is thrilled to have a bunch of girls her age and teenage around . and there are a couple of boys around her age as
well. lots happening here for the kids. Still have 6 other boats that we know of with kids that we are hoping to meet up with as well.

we have had lots of rays swimming around our boat and the fish!! coolest ever, and Kyle is good at catching them, course he throws them back as we were told not to eat the reef fish. the kids have been swimming, and using the kyack all day. and going to the shore as a pack. even managed to find a lime tree and pompemousse tree and coconuts. don't think we will starve!

it rains a lot here for a short time, sure feels good to wash down with the rain. gets all the salt off. and its warm out as it rains. not like BC.

Well time to sign off. lat and long approximately 9*43's 139* 1' W