En route to Ua-Pou I tried hailing Whiskers a couple of times but received no response either time. Later on, to our delight, we heard them hailing us quite legibly. We said our hellos and checked where we each were and where we were heading. Turned out they had left Nuku-Hiva and were on their way to Ua-Pou too. They’d heard of some difficulties anchoring in the main town of Hakahau and were contemplating going round the corner to Hakahetou. They chatted to someone else they knew in the area and confirmed the difficulties so we were all set to rendezvous at Hakahetou. We’d also learned that Bristol Rose was there who were good friends of Whiskers too.
We had a couple of strikes on the fishing lines on the way over. One was a large mahi mahi which leaped out of the water a couple of times before managing to shake off the hook. The other bite merely triggered the falling nut alarm but we saw no further action.
As we closed the miles to Ua-Pou we first saw Whiskers off in the distance through the binoculars, then with our naked eyes and finally they arrived just behind us – spitting distance away.
Ua-Pou is spectacular. It is a recent volcanic island with steep volcanic plugs standing out in the middle of the island. These plugs form as magma solidifies inside a volcano and then the outside of the volcano erodes away before the plug. It is therefore an intermediate phase which won’t last long before (maybe less than a million years) before the plugs and the landscape erodes down. For now get to enjoy a fantastic view right from our anchorage.
We were soon dinghying over to say hello to Whiskers and we agreed to all go ashore together. Ashore we bumped into Trish, Rob and their kids from Bristol Rose as they were returning from a little shopping. We soon agreed to meet up for food and drinks aboard Dignity that evening.
We walked around town with Dianne and Gerald and checked out both stores before returning to the boat for a couple of hours prior to the evenings festivities. In town we met a local who gave us a couple of pampelmousses (not sure on spelling but they’re like a large grapefruit).
In the evening, Bristol Rose’s brought some excellently BBQ’d Wahoo which they’d just caught and the Whisker’s brought some home made pizza. With our nibbles we had a great feast to go with the beer/wine and excellent company.
Today we’re off with Whiskers on a hike to a nearby waterfall. Bristol Rose are off today to Nuku-Hiva so we may see them again soon. We’ve had no news on our water make pump for a couple of days so we’re in limbo at the moment wondering if it’s made it to Tahiti and hence onto Nuku-Hiva. While we’ve been collecting water from ashore, we have not been putting into our water tanks as the little water there is pure from the water maker and hence has no contamination of any sort. We’ve long since turned off the fresh water pump aboard the boat to keep the last half tank of water for any system flushing we’ll need to do. We’re therefore living out of the bottles and jerry cans which is a bit of a pain. We’re all looking forward to running taps and a good shower.
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