The voyage began in San Diego and headed west, toward Hawaii. Then, after calling at three of the Hawaiian Islands, it headed south, to Tabuaeran (or, if you’re a Westerner, Fanning Island) in the country of Kiribati. Then another 1500 miles south, to Rarotonga, in the Cook Islands, an independent country that shares a currency and a history with New Zealand. Then a tour of the Society Islands (Raiatea, Bora Bora, Moorea, Tahiti), then a stop at Rangiroa atoll in the Tuamotos, then to my favorite place, Nuku Hiva, in the Marquesas Islands. From Nuku Hiva it was a mere 3200 miles back to San Diego.
The immensity of the Pacific: In 30 days of sailing, we saw nary a single ship. (A few cruise ships were in ports with us.) As befits a voyage in the Pacific, the seas were for the most part calm, the weather sensational.
I had been to Tahiti and its neighbors before, so those islands held no surprises for me. But let me tell you about Nuku Hiva. The Marquesas, 10 islands of which six are inhabited, are the peaks of submerged volcanoes, so they are dramatically mountainous and fertile. Spanish explorers discovered them in 1595, and in the next centuries the white men came, bringing gifts like syphilis, smallpox, measles, malaria, and TB – and nearly wiping out the native population of Polynesians.
The village on Nuku Hiva we tendered to is Taiohae, a trim little place that sees a cruise ship only a few times a year. Taiohae has a Town Hall, a bank, a few markets, and the impressive Notre Dame Cathedral. The main road, fringed with flame trees, hugs the bay where the ship was anchored, and it is in surprisingly good shape (no ice or snow, of course). The people are friendly and helpful – just as Robert Louis Stevenson, Herman Melville, Paul Gauguin, and Captain Cook found them. They owe their allegiance to France, speak the French language, and use the French Polynesian franc as currency. As I found out when I was looking for a ride back from the Cathedral to the tender pier, there is no local transportation available. With an island population of 2700, why would there be?
We were on Nuku Hiva for only a day; then it was back to the sea, for the six-day voyage to San Diego. I will tell you more about Tabuaeran and some of the other ports of call, but Nuku Hiva earns a special place in the story.
