Marquesas, 26 June

The 16th of June I arrived in Fatu Hiva on the catamaran Yelo, and not until a whole month later did I leave the island, but this time on Gypsy Soul. During this month did I not only jump ship four times, but I also learnt Polynesian dancing, caught my first crab (with my hands!) and prawns (with spear), and dug up some old cannibal's skeleton... The thing is that four days after arriving in Fatu Hiva, Yelo left without me, because I was hoping for Gypsy Soul to take me aboard. Now, Gypsy Soul didn't show up until ten days later, after Ben calmly managed to single-handle it across the Pacific for a whole 23 days (compare to my 16 days on Yelo!). The time I was abandoned, I stayed afloat on other sailing boats in the bay. Thus, I had a great time "waiting" for Ben; first with Daniella and Rudi on Freedom (Swiss), next with Max, Jost and Martijn on Eclipse (Dutch), and last, but not the least, with Gabi and Frank on Buali (German/Austrian) - I wont tell why I could only stay a couple of days on each before I was kicked off... Finally, one morning Gypsy Soul made a grand entrance into Hanavave bay, with Ben dressed in smoking jacket, cowboy hat and black under ware, throwing me pearls and raising his martini glass. Obviously I was impressed enough to jump ships and I have still managed not to be kicked off...
Anyway, it was a super-great adventure to explore the island, thanks to making friends with the local people, and using Thor Heyerdahl's book "Fatu Hiva" as our "Lonely Planet-guide"!
We got to know the local carver, Temo, and his wife, Carine, when doing some extensive trading business in which Ben got himself a war club in exchange for fishing gear, T-shirts, make-up, rope and many other bits and pieces we found on the boat. The war club must have been a few hundred dollars, but money doesn't really have a value on these islands where nothing can be bought anyway. The trading affair ended up with us being invited for lunch at their home, where they taught me the traditional dances, and next they came out to our boat for dinner (most exotic to them was sandwiches with cheese and ham!). In the end I even went prawn fishing one moon-less night (important for success) in the river with Carine and her friend. We used a strong light and stabbed the prawns in the back with a long spear with six, sharp metal points on. It took me from 8 pm to 1 am to get half a bucket enough for me and Ben to have for dinner the next day! We also did the most exotic provisioning to me ever with Temo and Carine. They took us up to her father's land one day and brought with us a horse and some machetes. There we picked bananas, papayas, mango, coco nuts and chili peppers. We were shown how to collect and prepare some edible jungle fruit and nuts, E-I-Hi and Pu-A-U-Hi, of which the first one resembles a green mango but tastes like potato, whereas the second looks like an over grown peanut, which you are supposed to pressure cook for 45 min and have with coffee... Hmm?! To me it is actually a surprise that food is so laborious to get when you can't get it in your local grocery store. All though this "primitive" (?) food collecting gives an illusion of a culture which lives in a simple fashion close to nature, I once asked Carine in my cave-man like French, about her use of contraceptive since she has only one child. I was expecting to hear something the medicine man had recommended, or learn of yet another use of the medical Noni-fruit, which seems to correspond to everything ranging from Viagra to Imodium. But nothing of the sort; she is on the pill. I a sure you this answer brought a whole new dimension to my naive and romantic view of the world.

Not only was the people and the food a great adventure in Fatu Hiva, but also the island itself. Heyerdahl lived one year on the island in an attempt to get "back to nature" with his wife Liv. His book contains a map which points out where they lived and where they found taboo places and old ruins when they explored the island. With his book in hand we found several of these old cannibal-village ruins hidden away in the jungle! We even dug up a hole with our bare hands trying to do some archeology of our own, and actually found a stone ax and some skeletal pieces! Later, in a taboo place (?!), even intact human skulls!!! Unfortunately, one broke in Ben's back pack as he slid down the mountain side when trying to hunt a wild boar (or escape one, who knows?). We also found a cave with a fresh water lake, in which, according to Heyerdahl, there was supposed to be a water-filled tunnel leading to the medicine man's taboo cave. Of course we went diving there in search for the tunnel, but we only found a small hole with some old air trapped in it, and no sign of the skeleton of the medicine man himself on his thrown... Probably only a myth, since Heyerdahl didn't find it either...
Now, we have continued to some of the other Marquesan islands, which are impressive enough with high mountain peaks and old tikis (old god images). We have spent a lot of time socializing with other boats, throwing sushi parties (one with an all-you-can-eat Wahoo-sushi for 13 pax aboard Gypsy Soul!), and we also went goat-hunting once, all though I got lost on my own in the jungle as I was trying to walk quietly and swiftly behind the gun bearers who were too fast for me. Anyway, I was recovered and now we are trying out how to marinate goat with our home-boat-made coconut-milk! We have also been doing a lot of boat work, such as repairing the bimini, and scrubbing the hull, and I am covered with hundreds of itching bites from the terrible No-No flies, so everything is not only a dance on roses here in Paradise, :-) although the ground of the jungle is covered by fallen down Hibiscus-like flowers!
In a couple of days will be reaching "civilization" for the first time in over two months, defined as having internet, in Nuku Hiva's main village! Next we will be heading for the Tuamotus and then onwards to Tahiti... So long, for this trip is being continued!

Updated June 28