Ocean Echo 1: June 2012

Dear friends

Marquesas Islands are very beautiful and remote. Some people call them garden Islands of French Polynesia. I have managed to see majority of them last few weeks.
Hiva Oa is second largest Island of Marquesas. Atuona town is an official port of entry to French Polynesia. It has about 4 small stores, bank and Satellite Internet.
The Bay of Virgins on Fatu Hiva Island is definitely one of most beautiful bays in South Pacific. Anchorage is deep, but shore access is good behind the breakwater. Granite rocks surrounding the bay are quite impressive. About 45 min walk to waterfalls rewards you with a lot of flowers growing along the the way. Here was my first time to trade things for local fruits and branch of bananas.
Tahuata Island has some nice bays with the clear water for snorkeling, because they are protected from E & SE swell. I have managed to fix Mercury outboard engine for local carver Cyril in village of Hapatoni. He invited me to special religious ceremony next day. It was a real experience of Marquesan life, customs and the people. Their churches are very nice and interesting, decorated with wood carvings and flowers. People's singing at the ceremonies or Sunday morning mass is very nice. I have tried to attend Sunday morning mass in other villages and all of them turned out to be different and very enjoyable. I was told, that each island has a slightly different dialect. Each group of French Polynesia islands is using different language besides official French.
Hanamoenoa bay is well known among cruisers for frequent visits of Manta Rays. Swimming with them was a lot of fun. Blacktip and Whitetip sharks cruise the shoreline in most areas while snorkeling.
Nuku Hiva Island is a largest isl. in Marquesas. Taiohae is port of entry and it is a largest settlement of Maquesas. It is a nice little town with a beautiful church.
I have been quite impressed with clean and well organized villages and towns here. Most of islands have a small airport now days. Internet via satellite is available only at Atuona and Taiohae. It is getting harder to connect with HF radio, Pactor.
There was a smaller cruise ship "The World" visiting B. of Virgins, which is actually live aboard apartment complex. Interesting way of seeing the world. They have approx. 250 apartments of different sizes (expensive annual costs).
Next stop will be at Daniel's Bay, which suppose to have very impressive waterfalls away from shore. My last island in Marquesas to visit is Ua Pou. After that, sailing to Tuamotus archipelago for a few weeks.
Most of cruising boats around here are from Europe, only about 40% from Canada and USA.
The life is good now, but it was NOT easy to get here (several years of preparations and hard work).

Maintaining this blog could by complicated time to time, because Internet signal/connection for uploading pictures, will not be as good/fast as it is in large cities/communities. Please, excuse my poor writing skills and grammar. Google translate does good job converting text to other languages.
I hope, that you will find something interesting in this blog – enjoy.

Jara (JJ) Holcman s.v. Ocean Echo 1