Anaho Bay

Dominic and I have spent the last week vacationing in Anaho Bay; it’s the first place we’ve visited I could imagine myself never leaving. The surroundings are gorgeous: 360 degrees of jungle green foliage, palm tree lined beaches, and a soaring mountain flanked with cliffs that run with waterfalls after the rain. These seven days have offered us the opportunity to view the scenery in all its moods, mostly bright, turquoise, and crystalline, and one day of stormy sheets of rain and temperamental clouds. Despite the shifts in weather, the anchorage itself is well protected from the swell and the boat is stable enough that we often feel as though we’re tied to a dock. There is a saddle in the ridge on the eastern side of the bay that let’s in a steady sea breeze keeping us cool and comfortable.

We’ve let the weather predict most of our activities. When the sun is out, we spend a lot of time in the water. I brought a swim cap and goggles and manage to spend about 15 minutes swimming laps to and from the anchor buoy before becoming completely exhausted. We’ve pulled out our fins and dive masks and gone snorkeling, swimming with the resident turtle and ray—both harmless vegetarians that manage to be terrifying when turned in my direction underwater.

We’ve hiked to the bays east and west of us. Westward we found an incredible view, delicious restaurant, black sand beach, enormous Banyan tree, and Polynesian ruins. Eastward we found a farm, and an older gentleman who found our attempts at communication hilarious and sold us tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, mint, and plenty of pamplemousse.

During the rain, we’ve spent time socializing with the other boats in the bay. We’ve had between three and seven neighbors. On our rainy day we enjoyed coffee and cake aboard Miss Behavin' and were blown away to find out they have something of an espresso machine onboard and offered us lattes. Lattes! Such a dream! We enjoyed happy hour aboard Il Sogno, a couple from New Jersey who bare a striking resemblance to my own family members. M5 arrived two nights ago. After speaking with a few crew members, we learned the owner has returned home and the crew is simply taking care of his toys while awaiting further instruction.

Our chat with the M5 crew was actually quite interesting. They mentioned thinking the owner was underwhelmed by their 13 day passage from Cabo San Lucas to Nuku Hiva; they blew a batten out of their mainsail the first time they raised it, the wind was too light to sail downwind given the size of the boat, so they motored nearly the entire way (the owner then left three days after arrival to return to work). I couldn’t help but wonder if the owner had just purchased a 38” cutter without a crew, he might have gotten the thrills he was looking for.

We’ve also been in deliberations about what the next steps of our journey will look like. We’ve been discussing our pre-departure to-do list, any other islands we might want to visit, when we will make the three to four day passage to the Tuamotus, the next island chain on the itinerary. The wind looks strong over the weekend, starting to fade on Wednesday, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we left the Marquesas sooner rather than later.