Gobsmacked! Fatu Hiva Marquesas - Primordial Splendor

Crenelated cliffs of Fatu Hiva, Marquesas, French Polynesia.  You know you're not in Kansas any more!

Iconic natural sculptures of Fatu Hiva's Hanavave Bay "Bay of Virgins."
Originally named the Bay of Penises and renamed by the Catholic church.
Really!

Fatu Hiva Marquesas, French Polynesia is a place that truly belongs on your bucket list.  That is if a remote tropical paradise seemingly more in keeping with all the primordial beauty of Jurassic Park strikes your fancy -- less the dinosaurs and populated with a small sprinkling of the nicest strangers you're likely to ever meet.

With all the challenges cruising great distances entails, Fatu Hiva is one of those truly rare and amazing places when you get there, you say "Aha!  This is why we're doing this!  And it's worth it.  Dang we're lucky to do this!"

Another slice of the too-big-to-capture-in-any-one-image portion
of Fatu Hiva's Hanavave territorial view. 

Recently, Wayne figured out we'd spent 40% of our time sailing this season since we left Jacksonville Florida.    Honestly - and this may seem outrageous - we don't like spending our time sailing.  A good day sailing for us is one so effortless, we get to spend our time doing something else we enjoy, for example

Trail markers for Vaiapo waterfall trail.

1. lounging in the sunshine
2. relaxing and reading a book
3. watching porpoises play in our bow wake, translucent jellies float past,  manta leap, whales blow and seabirds dive
4. landing a tuna or mahi mahi (rare - we're kinda lousy at fishing and often don't drop our hook)
5. watching the sun and the moon rise and set, rainbows and bad religious postcard lighting appear, and starry starry nights
6. taking in the scenery of some exotic and beautiful new destination
7. and, well, things I can't publish on a public semi-politically correct website

At that, I'm a much happier cruiser when we anchor, and I can once again

1. walk more than within our 150 or so square feet of living space
2. socialize with someone other than my beloved captain
3. buy fresh produce
4. swim
5. kayak
6. take a long shower off the boat with good water pressure without fear of draining our water tanks or clogging our sump pump
7. catch up on wifi & get reconnected with friends and family*

*Wayyy behind on Internet!  Watch for more blog posts on past, present and future adventures.  Lots of fabulous photos and some good stories, just really limited Internet time and bandwidth.... This may be more the norm than the exception until we get to New Zealand in November.

Jimmy Cornell's seminal guidebook to
cruising passages;
recommended route and distances.

At least at this point we know our future passages are child's play compared to our 3,000 mile, 32-day Galapagos to Marquesas stretch.  From Jimmy Cornell's World Cruising Routes there's only a few "long" passages left this year

1. Nuku Hiva -- Takaroa 436 miles
2. Takaroa -- Papeete 575 miles
3. Bora Bora -- Cooks 575 miles
4. Cooks -- Niue 590 miles
5. Niue -- Tonga 270 miles
6. Tonga -- New Zealand 1070 miles

Just for now, just a few photos on our second and current stop in the Marquesas islands, Fatu Hiva....

Hiva Oa was our first stop in the Marquesas, now we're at Fatu Hiva.

Location Location
Fatu Hiva, Marquesas, French Polynesia; (S10.47.854 W138.40.053).  We arrived here Saturday late afternoon, June 9th and finally signed up for Manaspot, the kinda expensive Internet that sometimes can be accessed while on our boat in few places in French Polynesia.  Who wants to spend their days in tropical paradise stuck in an Internet cafe?  We've spent our time catching up with other cruisers, hiking to and swimming in a waterfall and planning our next foray on the island, a 17 km hike, scheduled for tomorrow.