Just before 6 a.m. we made landfall off one of the easternmost Marquesas Islands, Na Huka and, having passed the south coast we made for the small bay on Nuku Hiva, in which Taiohae lies. We have traveled 3,860 nautical miles to get here.
A sharp turn between the headlands and the bay lies before us; now all we have to do is find somewhere to anchor; the bay is full of sailing boats, many of them in the area where we planned to ‘drop the pick’ (anchor) š Ā
A conference with the officers on the Bridge and a new anchorage position is decided upon; it will be further away from the pier than intended, however it will give us room to swing full circle, negating the use of azipods to hold a heading and thus save fuel, (1 diesel for Hotel load only).
There’s some tidal current here and we swing as anticipated, almost through 360Ā° during our stay.
The Karen’s went ashore, however I had several items of ship’s business to take care of before I could venture ashore for your photos. Ā It’s hot and muggy, however, as I had other work to do after my sojourn ashore, I stayed in uniform, brave of me under the circumstancesĀ š
And so now, a photo journal:-
We leave in 2 hours, bound for another Tropical isle, or atoll really, Avatoru on the island of Rangiroa. Ā One enters through a gap in the reef with a tidal current of 6 knots, it should be interesting; more on that later, we arrive on the 22nd. Ā Until then, stay safe and well……..
Captain Jonathan,
Thank you for your blog. The sunset photo is now my computers desktop. Top notch. Thanks again.
I am enjoying your updates. Please let Karen Hartung know that Moni says ‘hi’ (and she should call me)!
Enjoyed the charts on this post. Hope you will be able to include some for Rangiroa because I have been totally confused about exactly where we entered the lagoon and where we ended up on our last Tahiti cruise. Sometimes things just don’t look “right”!
Thanks for taking so much time out of your day to post!
Thanks for the report and great pictures. We enjoyed it all and are with you in spirit. George & Jean H
This was one of my favorite islands on the fall trip on the Amsterdam. The only thing missing last fall was Capt Mercer wasn’t the Captain but I know you deserve time off.
Thanks Captain,
The hills look greener than the two times we’ve been there in November.
I hope the passengers get on deck for the sail in and out at Rangiroa, which is impressive, though sailing with you in and out of Yap was the best, (for us but I think not for you!)
Jill and Joe