The Marquesas: Anaho Bay, Nuku Hiva

After 28 days and 3,763 nautical miles of open Pacific, the first thing we saw of French Polynesia was Ua Huka rising out of the haze on 29 April. The second thing was a line wrapped around the saildrive. Welcome to paradise.

Photo neededAnaho Bay from the anchorage — volcanic peaks behind the fleet (landscape)

We ducked into Hane Bay to clear the line, watched manta rays glide under the hulls while we did it, and pressed on to Taiohae, the main harbor on Nuku Hiva. We rolled in around midnight. After four weeks of nothing but stars, the town lights looked like Las Vegas.

Taiohae is where you check in, provision, and fuel — and it’s rolly. The fuel dock is shared with commercial traffic, so you take your turn: 862 liters came to $1,648. Groceries ran about $800. Baguettes are cheap; wine is not. Our advice: just get what you need and go.

Go to Anaho Bay. Tucked into the northeast corner of Nuku Hiva, it’s sheltered from the southeast swell and ringed by a fringing reef and jagged green peaks that look painted on. We were the ninth boat in and dropped the hook in 50 feet with 320 feet of scope. It was, without exaggeration, our most beautiful anchorage yet. Ashore there is a church, one restaurant, and a local man riding his horse along the beach like a real-life Juan Valdez. Call the restaurant a day ahead; there’s no walking in.

On the way round we also stopped at Daniel’s Bay, where Survivor was filmed. Nobody got voted off. The pugs made sure of it.

What surprised us

The sharks at the dinghy dock, for one — a dozen blacktips circling the ladder while you hand groceries down. How green it is, for another: after a month of blue, the Marquesas are almost aggressively green. And how quickly the crossing faded. Twenty-eight days, eleven of them in 12-foot seas, and one morning in Anaho was enough to make us forget most of it.

Read the full passage and landfall in the Captain’s Log.

More landfalls: The Tuamotus · Tonga