Full Day

09* 49.2' South
140* 03.8' West
Anaho Bay, Nuku Hiva, Marquesas, French Polynesia
May 5, 2010

The full day actually started the previous evening when we decided to have sundowners on CAPAZ. A sundowner refers to whatever drink you are holding when the sun goes down. Anyway, we invited the boats that we here: Oso Blanco, Totem, and Riga 2. Then, another boat that we had met in HIva Oa showed up so we invited them too.
That was a total 10 kids and 12 adults!
With that many people on board, plans were bound to be hatched. We wanted to get the kids to the beach that Tim and I had checked out on our first afternoon here. There was also a push to do an early morning snorkel session. Finally, before they headed into town earlier in the day, I had asked Annie and Behan to check out the restaurant for dinner possibilities and they came back with reservations for us for a pig roast! We had decided to take one of the boats to the other harbor and ferry people into the wharf.
OK, so the day went like this:
The sun wakes everyone up by 6:30 or 7:00, so the snorkeling was organized for just before 8:00. Brad, Kelly and Tim went and came back about an hour later so excited about swimming with manta rays. The boys had finished their schoolwork and wanted to go to the beach, so we had breakfast and packed up to head over. When we arrived at the beach, it was an easy landing, but it got progressively harder as the afternoon wore on. Mulan arrived and took a pass on going to the beach, but agreed to join us all for dinner (including the other two boats in the anchorage: Nika and Riga 2). After a couple of hours on the beach, it was time to get back to the boat to get cleaned up before meeting everyone on Oso Blanco which we would use to transport everyone to the next harbor where the restaurant was located. Once we were all (27 of us) assembled aboard Oso Blanco, the next thing to happen was to move everyone from the big boat at anchor to the quai in a dinghy where they could disembark to land. The men had it all planned out and it worked without a hitch, but our ferrying provided the locals with some Tuesday night entertainment. Everything had gone so well up to this point that we were a little early so we just did some walking around town. Since, we had added extra people to our group, the restaurant owners just added fresh fish to our feast. I don't know what kind it was, but it was soooo good. The operation of the pig coming out of the pit was a spectacle to behold! As well as the fish; the shrimp, the tapioca (with butter and garlic), several versions of breadfruit were all excellent. True test: the kids ate everything! The reverse process of getting everyone back to the Oso Blanco was a little more challenging in the dark with a higher tide, but all still went well.
We arrived back at Capaz wondering what Delos or Secret Agent Man would have thought if either of them had entered the anchorage only to find five sailboats abandoned with their dinghies tied to the backs. It might have been a little eerie!

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com/