Finally an Island in view after 37 days

 

We invested in the Spot Connect to be able to send messages via satellite every day. We baought all the extra options to be sure it would be enough. Cost, well lets say it was not cheap. Arriving at the MArquesas, getting internet for the first time in many many days we sadly found out that the messaging from the SpotConnect did not work. It works with satellites thats stationary over the continents, to our big big surprise. We ask our selves, why use satellites for something so silly if they do not have coverage where it really matters ? So I send a question to the support and did not get any answer. Obvious I was not the first one. Later I got an email asking if I wanted to continue our subscription, my answer was that I will use the equipment to have some more weight on my anchor. That’s the only valuable position I can think of for this piece. I also found out there is competition working global with messaging both ways to a similar price. Much Much better.

 

Hiva OA is so beautiful after a month at sea. This is from our tour across the island.

The anchorage at Hiva OA is the worst we had in all the Pacific ! But it’s nice to be able to drop the hook, the swell goes right into the small harbor and then bounces on the rocks and comes back again. The only places that’s somewhat acceptable is way back close to the beach. Here on picture from the small bay on a calm day.

Hiva OA is well worth a tour, just be careful to negotiate the price though and don’t accept the offer right out. 30% is no problem to cut off. We had a rather nice chat when setting our price to 20.000 for for people for a one day tour. We also told the driver we wouldn’t mind if they sold the other two places to someone at any price they could get. So we gathered the next morning and sure there was a couple from the Netherlands who should go with us. We had a nice day with a lot photos taken.

After the tour when we should pay the pair from Netherlands told us they negotiated a price for all of us ! Which by the way was higher than what we had accepted the day before. So we had to tell them about our price and then they went sour because they didn’t get the same price. But really that was not our fault I guess.