Anaho Bay - the best yet

Tuesday 16Mar2006 After we got our Monitor wind vane pilot back we decided
to go around the east side of Nuka Hiva to Anaho Bay based on good reports
and the cruiser guides. We were going to the famous Daniel's Bay to the
west and then on but decided we should not pass up Anaho, and we are not
disappointed as it is the best part so far of our journey. We had to motor
right in to the trade winds at first but then put up the main and jib for a
leisurely sail up the rugged east coast. We could only make about 2-3 knots
in the light air but were in no hurry until two other boats powered up from
behind us so we turned on the engine to beat them to the anchorage to get
the most favorable spot possible.

The bay is at the end of a long inlet and around a dog leg to the right
which made it very protected and the best anchorage so far for many reasons
- not the least of which is no swell. The bay is also drop-dead, pick up
your jaw off the ground, gorgeous, with spectacular rock formations that
remind you of flying buttresses on a huge cathedral. Of course, everything
that is not rock is green, with the ever present coconut palm trees and many
flowering trees and shrubs. There are a very few houses with about 4
families here and no passable road in or out. Most everything comes by
small boat, which for the locals is mostly the small plywood proas with
their outboard and outrigger. The next bay over with a town with a road to
to Taiohae is Hatiheu, but the road is just a 4WD track for 45 km.

We dinghied over to Hatiheu (about 4 nm by water) out in the ocean but the
swells were small and wind light. You see small goats everywhere on the
rocks and hills. The bay at Hatiheu is not as protected but just as
beautiful with volcanic spires going up 2000 ft on all sides. The village
has about 20 houses with a really nice stone and wood church with twin
steeples set back from the beach with a cemetery behind it going up the
steep slope. We went into the small magasin (store) and got some ice cream
and other treasures. It was especially well stocked and the people were
very friendly. Down the road (a few houses away) was a neat little open-air
restaurant we decided to visit for lunch on the way back. P.S. There were 6
of us - Maggie Drum, White Swan and Andiamo - all from Washington.

We started off for the archeological sites we had heard about and found
ourselves shadowed by this tall, quiet Marquesan man with a yellow hard hat,
coveralls and calf-length rubber boots. He was Alfonse and was our
volunteer guide. He spoke some English and walked along with us up the road
a fair bit and showed us where the sites were. The sites were spectacular -
the largest we have seen and extremely neat and cleared off. The one site
had 1200 villagers at its heyday. There were lots of tikis (carved rock and
wooden tikis) and a huge set of banyan trees that completely dwarfed us
beneath them.

We went back to the restaurant and offered to treat Alfonse to lunch as he
refused any payment for guiding us. The menu had lobster, shrimp, fish,
pork combinations. It was a feast except that Cindy had Poisson Cru which
is raw fish cooked in lime juice and coconut milk which she did not like.
It was good but the idea of raw fish did not get out of her head. The food
was excellent and we had a great time - except for the flies, which were
thick and all over the food. Alfonse seemed to be grinning at us gringos
trying to swat them away.

Which brings up the cons to all these pros: bugs and heat. We all got
completely eaten up by mosquitos and no-nos despite several layers of Off!
and DEET bug juice. We all are itching from bites on all extremities -
serious itching where you wake up in the middle of the night and slather on
cortizone or other anti-itch creams and take Benzadryl. The heat is
something else too. You wake up in the middle of the night completely wet
in your sheets and turn over so the fan can try and dry out part of the
sheet and part of your body. You have to keep the portlights and hatches
covered with screens to keep the bugs out which reduces the wind flow. So
all is not perfect here but still pretty nice. This has been our favorite
spot so far and we all really enjoyed the day - despite the bugs and heat.