Circumnavigating Nuku Hiva and Watching an Impressive Display of Cooperation

As we whiled away our time in the Marquesas after the Matavaa Festival, Frank and I decided to circumnavigate Nuku Hive. We chose to travel in a clockwise direction and our first stop was Daniel’s Bay, just around the corner from Taiohae Bay.

As on our first visit to Daniel’s Bay, we decided to hike to the waterfall. We remembered the hike as long but interesting, ending at a large pool under a waterfall. Plenty of pictures are on this post.

This time of year there was more water on the trail and tumbling down the waterfall than when made the hike in May 2022. That made crossing the water areas a little more challenging but the waterfall had more water too.

After Daniel’s Bay, our next stop was Marquesan Bay, again. We had the bay to ourselves and we decided to scuba dive the point to see what lurked below.

The types of fish we saw were similar to those in the Tuamotus, but the color and clarity of the water completely changes the fish colors we perceive. The lack of visibility also makes the dives feel a little spooky. Diving here we saw large rock piles and walls with plenty of crevices for sea creatures to hide in.

One unexpected find was what I think is a False Stonefish. Is there an expert fish ID person who can confirm this fish is a False Stonefish?

The northwest side of Nuku Hiva, where the airport is located, is an arid climate sometimes considered a desert and we didn’t spend much time on that side. The island blanketed the wind preventing us from sailing, so we motored past the airport to the north side of the island.

Ticket to Ride entered Hatiheu Bay, which is large and open. We had visited this Bay on a driving tour of Nuku Hiva in May 2022, but we had not seen it from the water.

Hatiheu is a stopping point for the cruise ships that visit Nuku Hiva and we saw one leaving the bay as we were entering. As we puttered around the bay, we were very aware of the swell surging along the shore and decided that, as beautiful as it was, we did not want to anchor here for the night.

We immediately noticed the surge against the “dock” where many locals were gathered and we watched the water ebb and rise along the flat rocks. Notice in the video below, how the water falls about two feet below the flat rocks, then surges back up over the rocks and out again.

Amazingly, those flat rocks are where local boats are launched and landed! I didn’t catch it on film, but Frank and I watched as a boat driver aimed his bow toward the rocks, waited to time the rise of the water, then propelled his boat up onto the flat rocks.

As soon as the boat was up on the rocks, all the people standing around grabbed the gunnels of the boat and hefted it further up onto the land. Eventually, with the help of the water and cooperative strength, the boat and driver were safely out of the water!

We were very impressed with the timing and steady hand of the driver as well as the coordination of those on land. Wow! I’m so glad they were successful. Can you imagine intentionally landing your boat on rocks like that?!

After watching that feat, we left Hatiheu Bay and motored around the corner to drop anchor in Anaho Bay where several other sailboats were anchored.

Early one afternoon we decided to hike east along the shore of Anaho Bay and walk to the next bay, Haataivea Bay. We had heard that although Haataivea Bay looks like an inviting place to anchor, it is not and we heard the beach has a lot of no see ’em bugs.

Along our walk we ran into Bruce of s/v Migration and his friend, David, who was visiting from New Zealand. David is the superhero who generously agreed to bring an electric starter for our dinghy outboard!

The hike to Haataivea was easy and the scenes around Anaho Bay and overlooking Haataivea were lovely.

After our walk, David joined us for a scenic dingy ride around Ahano Bay. We found another blow hole and watched the clouds roll in toward the bay before dropping David back on Migration and returning to TTR.

Graeme and Simoné of s/v New Beginnings were also in the bay. Simoné was slightly under the weather, so Graeme joined us on a hike across the ridge over to Hatiheu Bay where we hoped to have lunch at a well known lunch spot called Chez Yvonne.

The hike was a little steep, but I enjoyed the exercise and the views were worth the effort. Lunch at Chez Yvonne was delicious and fortified us for the return trek.

Next we continued our clockwise trip around Nuku Hiva and anchored in Controller Bay. There Frank and I took Day Tripper to another finger of the anchorage to locate the waterfall hike. We started too late in the day to make the hike so we detoured along an untraveled dirt road.

As we walked, we saw several very healthy horses including two colts, one that moved unsteadily as if it was only days old. For me, seeing those sweet babies was worth any effort to complete the hike.

Simoné, Graeme, Frank and I spent another day hiking from Controller Bay to the waterfall. The company made the long walk pass quickly but we were prevented from actually getting to the waterfall by a fence. We were sure we were on the correct path since we asked a local person, but the trail was clearly restricted.

We could see a waterfall in the distance but it was still a long way off and none of us were up for creating our own trail to the waterfall.

Controller Bay was our final stop before returning to Taiohae Bay and the completion of our challenging “circumnavigation” of Nuku Hiva. 🙂

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