Continuing our circumnavigation around Nuku Hiva with Shawn and Sharon.  Starting at Taihoe Bay, to Controller’s Bay to Anaho Bay (northern part of the island).  We left Controller’s Bay and pointed the boat toward the northern bay of Anaho.  A short 17.5nm trip that took a little over 3 hours with an average speed of 5.5kt.  A large heard of dolphins came to play with us for 45 minutes showing their prowess and agility.

Anaho Bay has a lovely beach, tiny church, and a pension (hotel type place) with an eatery.  We thought it would be very crowded as Anaho Bay is known to be one of the prettiest bays in Nuku Hiva.  But it was not too bad with only 11 boats in the anchorage.  To put it in perspective, there are well over 50 boats in Taihoe Bay.

A few locals were hanging around enjoying the sun, cleaning their catch, and playing music.  The church cannot hold many people, but there are only 12 people who live in this bay.

There are beautiful wild horses that roam around and run the beach – because they can!

We did a quick walk about just to stretch our legs and then retired back to the boat for a lazy day.

The next morning greeted us with a gorgeous sunrise and motivated us to do another hike.

Hike to Haatuaua

Early the next morning we set out to explore the beach.  We read about a nice hike to another bay.  This time we clearly saw the trail the day before and we had a path.  It was a super easy and pretty hike along the beach and over the mountain to another beach. 

We had the entire bay to ourselves which was awesome.  The mountains surrounding the beach had spectacular ridges.  It looked like a large version of stalagmites reaching for the clouds.

On our way back we ran into a family and talked them into taking our photo at the top of the ridge.

When we got back, we found our dinghy on “the hard.”  Which means she was beached.  The tide had gone out and she was sittin pretty in the sand.

Hike was a total of 4.8mile and 12,991 steps.  Not a bad day’s walk.

Daniel’s Bay

Our longest passage with Shawn and Sharon was from Anaho Bay to Daniel’s Bay at 25.8nm over 5 hours. Only a few dolphins came out to play with us, but we did manage to land a rather large wahoo!  After about 30-35 minutes of fighting with the fish, he gave a little pull, then came in rather easily.  When we pulled him on the boat, we realized something (most likely a shark) ate his tail off.  With no means of propulsion and probably bleeding out he gave up. 

As the boys spent over an hour cleaning the fish, I enjoyed the amazing topography of the mountain ridges.

We arrived in the late afternoon and only had a short time to visit the beach.  A cute little dog befriended Sharon and stuck like glue to us.

We walked along the river’s edge where the river meets the lagoon and did a little photo shoot.

We all enjoyed a nice hot shower before dinner.  The boys in their towels being silly.

You can’t come to Daniel’s Bay without doing the nature walk to the “trickle fall” (which is actually a waterfall in the winter).  It is a gorgeous walk down an easy path lined with beautiful plants, flowers, and fruit trees.  You cross the river several times, climb over some rocks, and under trees.  Unfortunately, the waterfall was not even a trickle fall, but it still is really pretty.

On the way back took some fun and goofy photos.

Total hike 7.2 miles, 17,15 steps.  We rewarded ourselves with lunch at Teiki and Kua

Back to Reality

The next day we had to head back to Taihoe Bay so they could catch their flight back to the states.  We had an early birthday celebration with pork chops, cheesecake and my favorite rose wine! 

It was really hard to say “so long” to Shawn and Sharon!  They are such amazing people and great friends!