Day 21 - Tuesday Jan 17 Nuku Hiva, Marquesas Islands

Nuku Hiva photos

position at 8:00 am: S8:55:15 latitude W140:06:04 longitude
(Nuku-Hiva, Marquesas Islands)
temperature: 83F and 82% humidity (feels like 100% humidity)
distance since FLL: 8198 miles
blackjack status: -$112.50 (did not play - port day)

It was already daylight when Clay went up to deck 12 for his morning walk around 5:20am. And there was land off to the starboard side of the ship! Big rugged, green mountains with sheer cliffs jutting up from the ocean surface. Very much like the setting of St Helena in the Atlantic. Debbie was up in time to photograph the sunrise again with a small land mass off to the portside as well. We had breakfast in LaVeranda, which opened 30 minutes earlier today. Debbie had the special today of strawberry pancakes because there were no chocolate croissants. Clay had lox and bagel.

We went to the cabin to get bug-repellented and wait to hear the announcement that we were cleared to start tendering. The tendering was taking place on the portside which was facing the shore. Clay saw a tender leave full of passengers, so we went down to deck 3, by the infirmary, and got in line. There was never any announcement that we heard that tendering had commenced, so we're glad we did not dutifully sit waiting before going ashore!

It was a short tender ride and not too rough and we were ashore and welcomed with leis. Bob got to drive the tender briefly! We got on a shuttle bus for the Notre Dame Cathedral and were there in a few minutes. It was a special place with really amazing wood cravings. We walked back down from the Cathedral to the main road and turned right. We crossed the street to a big green area full of tikis and other rock carvings of various ages by the look of them. It was cool and breezy. Debbie spotted a Marquesan lizard there, but Clay was too slow. It was really hot and humid here but maybe thanks to the bug repellent, we did not have any problems with bugs. It was a very sweaty day though. We walked all the way around the semi-circle of the bay (end of the road) and back to the far side and the tender dock. We drank a bottle of water from the ship on the way and Clay was desperate for something else and something colder. Debbie kept telling him she saw some small stores with Hinano signs on them on the shuttle and to just wait. We only saw dogs, some people, horses, chickens, cats, birds, flowers etc on the walk from the church and back past it, no real businesses. We did see the "college." Nuku Hiva was a beautiful, deserted, tropical island kind of paradise. A wonderful place to visit for the day. Finally, we past the entrance to the Cathedral again and it would only be a bit longer to civilization. In a few minutes, we found the 2 "magazins" and chose the one that was downhill from us. Inside Laurens and Patrick were buying some native floral printed fabrics from bolts of it in the shop. We made our way to the glass-fronted upright coolers which were self-serve and selected a Hinano for Clay and a Coke for Debbie and paid $4USD. We sat in the shade, out on the porch, and drank them with a view of the ship. As we were sitting there, the doors to the shop were closed and locked. We had seen Laurens and Patrick minutes earlier head uphill to the other "magazin" and we headed up there. The doors to it were closed and locked before we got there.

We headed towards the small town and the tender port on foot again. In about 5 minutes, we reached an open-air covered marche and went in. Clay got a shirt with the tattoo designs and a big turtle and Marquesas printed on the back for $30USD. Debbie bought a T-shirt with a dolphins design and it says Marquesas, too, for $22USD. Not cheap, and we had to dust off our high school French. There was another open-air covered market a little closer to the tender dock which had different stuff, mostly carvings, but prices were amazingly high. Debbie picked up a little thumb-sized roughly carved tiki man and it was $25USD. We got our souvenirs and pictures and we've been there, but we did not buy anything for anyone else here. Sorry!

We tendered back about 12:30pm which was 1 hour before the last tender. We had time for a quick shower and change of clothes before lunching in Compass Rose. Debbie had chilled cream of raspberry soup and an iceberg lettuce salad with lime-vinegarette dressing and was in heaven. She finished with fried chicken fingers, in some sauce that she didn't like, on saffron rice and a flourless chocolate cake, that looked better than it tasted. Clay had the iceberg lettuce salad and red snapper and 2 scoops of Rocky Road ice cream. The last tender had arrived about the time we finished eating. We watched one of the tender get winched up and unloaded at deck 5 on our way back to the cabin. Debbie stopped in to check the laundry room on deck 6 and it was empty. She picked up our sweaty Bug-Off clothes and headed to the laundry on deck 7 and got an empty machine. We were just starting to sail by the time she finished with the clothes.

Tonight is country club casual and there is not a lot scheduled for the rest of today at sea. There was a popcorn movie of "Sense and Sensibility," which Clay cannot see enough times, but alas it began at 2pm before we even started sailing and he did not want to miss the sailaway. So, we still have not seen a movie on this ship outside our cabin! We want popcorn! If we don't find a time to go to a movie screening that does not conflict with something more important soon, we will have to call room service and ask for some popcorn. It is not on the room service menu, so don't know it that will work or not. We'll keep you posted. A month is a long time to go without popcorn, for us, anyway. There are 2 exercise classes scheduled from 5 to 6pm, so it looks like Debbie can still get her exercise in. Today was hard walking on the toe, almost all irregular surfaces and it took the whole foot to get around well. It looks like Compass Rose has a new menu today, so that is where we plan to eat tonight. Latitudes is back to the first menu we ate there. Frankly, we probably don't really need to eat either menu again. Yesterday at the galley tour, Mike did say that soon Latitudes would be changing from Indochine cuisine to Thai cuisine with 2 alternating menus again before it becomes TGIFriday's and it was not clear how long that would last or what would follow it. We will look forward to the Thai food and hope for some dishes we like to visit Latitudes again. Not clear if we will go to TGIFriday's, we don't even like to eat there when we are at home! We turn the clocks back another half hour tonight. Tomorrow is a sea day. Papeete the next day.

Today was just about a perfect day. As Clay said, "you could do this every day, couldn't you?". Yes! A beautiful sail-in, a short tender ride, a beautiful island with friendly, interesting people, a few hours on land and back to the ship in time to eat lunch in AC and go to the restroom. We had heard lots of not positive comments about Nuku Hiva, so maybe our expectations were suitably low, but we loved it! One note for future Nuku Hiva visitors, the public restrooms are at the tender pier, no where else that we found. Plan accordingly.

Nuku Hiva photos