Everyone said that if you stay too long in Taiohae your boat hull will be covered in slime and you chain covered in barnacles. We stayed in Taiohae May 7-June 17 and upon raising anchor to head to Ua Pou our chain came up looking like a reef! You couldn’t see the chain for all the barnacle growth.
A few hours after leaving Nuku Hiva we were anchoring in Hakahau Bay and setting a stern anchor for the first time ever to keep the boat pointed into the very large swell. After anchoring we dropped the dinghy to explore the town. Ua Pou is the third largest island in the Marquesas and didn’t fail to impress with its rugged peaks and beautiful valleys.
We only stayed a few days here. There wasn’t room for us behind the break wall to anchor out of the swell. This resulted in us being anchored at the opening of the bay. The swell was so bad our stern anchor couldn’t hold us at all and so Pulsar ended up sideways to some really big swell. It is the most uncomfortable anchoring we had experienced. So we picked up and moved to another anchorage around the corner.
S/V Pulsar 