This morning we went into the village with Claire, Raoul and their little boy Victor (from the S/V Calyptus) in search of bread. Finding none we instead had a nice walk around the village and picked up some cold drinks and some green lemons which are not limes.

We returned to the boat at around 11:30am and made preparations to depart. By 12:30pm we were out of the bay motoring North in about 15k from the ENE. Of course, the sun is shining brightly and it is very very hot. The skies are mostly clear and the seas are 6-8ft from the NE. By the time we were ready to raise the mainsail it was blowing about 20k and we raised it with a single reef in it. We then let out the genoa part way and put the motor in neutral. We are now making about 7.3k over ground in about 20k wind from the ENE.

Our destination is Baie du Controuler on the island of Nuka Hiva, the largest and most important of the Marquesas Islands. Comptroller Bay contains three "lobes" the center of which is Tapivai the "Typee" from Melville's book of the same name. We will most likely anchor in Hooumi, the Easternmost of the three lobes on advice from Raoul who has been there and reports it is the most calm and attractive. It is now 2pm and we are approximately 18nm South of Nuka Hiva and expect to arrive around 5pm.

We arrived in Baie Du Controuler at about 4:20pm local time and dropped sail and motored into the righmost lobe (Hooumi) of the 3 in this huge complex of bays. We were amazed to find no other boats at anchor and gleefully surveyed the area before deciding where to drop the hook. Of course, I picked a spot too close to one side of the bay and we upped anchor and moved more over to the center and re-dropped it. This time we decided to stay put.

The bay is deep with a sandy beach at the head. Tall cliffs rise on either side of the bay to well over 200 feet (I think). The valley behind the beach reaches back into the hills in a deep lush green cleft. Things are very peaceful here and I think we will stay a few days.