Taiohae, Nuku Hiva, Īles Marquises

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Taiohae, Nuku Hiva

Rouser anchored in Taiohae bay

13 May 2003, Tuesday - Taiohae is a large town with many people in it. There are several grocery stores open most days except Sunday and is a bustling village. The bay is quite good for anchoring. There is plenty of room to swing and the holding is good. The opening to the bay is quite large, so there is sometimes a swell that rolls through the anchorage, causing us to bob up and down.

Anchorage
Taiohae, Nuku Hiva
08^o54.88' S
140^o06.10' W

Baby boom

Our friend Doug in his very high-tech bungalow

While here, we ran into our friends Doug and Sarah and their little one Hannah. They decided to stay here in Taiohae for the remainder of Sarah's pregnancy. She is now 6.5 months pregnant and has been having some early contractions. The doctors have requested that she not do anything too strenuous. Of course, everything on board a boat qualifies as that! SO, she and the family are renting a little bungalow for now and looking for a place to rent. We are interested to know if the new baby will gain Polynesian citizenship! We spent much time over at their bungalow while in the harbor. They are a great couple and little Hannah is a very cute little kid! On top of all that, they even let us use their shower! What a treat! We wonder how long it will take for them to get used to having a shower so readily available! They have their laptop and satellite phone hooked up in the bungalow... you have never seen such a high-tech bungalow!!! They have email abilities and everything!

Fresh produce... at 4 AM!

Who thought so many people would be up at 4:30 AM to buy produce and baked goods?

One of the first things that we heard about after entering Taiohae Bay was the fresh produce available each Saturday morning at an outdoor market. The catch? The market opened at 4:30 AM and most good produce was gone by 5!

Eric at the morning market with Neil (from Keeshond)

We REALLY thought that this was some kind of practical joke played on cruiser by those that preceded them. Actually, we thought it was a great idea too! Convince them of how wonderful the produce is and how cheap and most cruisers would wake up at any hour. We honestly expected there to be just one dinghy on shore with some knowing cruiser with his camera and a grin.

17 May 2003, Saturday - It turned out that this wasn't the case. We woke up at 3:45 AM and found the weather to fit the time of day. It was dark and raining! We searched around for our raincoats and began to dinghy to shore. We saw several other dinghies moving along the bay towards the quay with their headlamps and flashlights guiding their way.

Deb & Fiona, friends from Wings & Keeshond, at the 4:30 AM market

We arrived almost half an hour early (about 4 AM) and there really were trucks FULL of fresh produce spread out on the tables in front of them. Food in general is very expensive here in the Marquesas. We're still eating mostly Mexican food and plan to try to continue that until at least Tahiti to save some money. However, fresh produce from Mexico is certainly long gone! Fortunately, the produce was somewhat reasonably priced. That is, everything EXCEPT cabbage of all things - which cost about $5 to $6 per head!!! Ouch! Lettuce, on the other hand, was MUCH cheaper. We were able to buy lettuce here for the first time since California. Even in Mexico we had no luck. Ironically, all that was available there was very cheap cabbage!

Since the market, we have been enjoying salads like crazy! The first salad that we'd had in six months complete with fresh tomatoes, green peppers and scallions just about brought tears to our eyes (did I mention there were onions?)... it was SO GOOD!!!

Just about the time we were ready to head back to the boat, another little cart opened up with fresh pastries and coffee! They are the brains in this business scheme!!! We definitely stayed around to sample some of their goods!!!

Church

Women dressed up with flowers in their hair for church

Church in Taiohae

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