On the 6th of December our last guests for the year arrived to our boat. Bryn and Jill flew all the way from England to join us for a 2 week cruise around the Marquesas Islands and I must say that we had an wonderful time together. These super easy going couple have spent a lot of time on the sea earlier and it took them about 3 seconds before they were sailing Bay Dreamer their own!
We managed to visit 4 different Islands during their stay on-board the boat; Nuku-Hiva, Ua- Pou, Hiva Oa and Tahuata. During these 2 weeks we visited two beautiful waterfalls, lost poor Jill in the water (a very scary story), caught two very big fishes, broke a free-diving record, snorkeled with over 40 manta-rays and visited the cultural festival on Hiva Oa.
The festival
One of the highlights was the festival in Hiva Oa. Around the Marquesas they have a cultural festival every 4th year and the locals takes this festival very serious. It is all about traditional dancing, arts and craftsmanship. The dancing was very impressive and it is almost impossible to be a bystander without getting goose-bumps. These warrior-style dancers with their outfits would scare the shit out of any Swedish “folk-dancer”. Hiva Oa isn’t a big place and it was amazing to see how many boats could squeeze them self into the anchorage.
Snorkeling with the mantas
We have seen and snorkeled with a lot of manta-rays by now, but that doesn’t make the experience less magical. You just can’t get enough of these giant “birds of the sea”. So you can imagine the feeling when we went into the water and were surrounded with up to 40 huge manta-rays. They seem so peaceful when the “fly” around in the big blue with their massive moths and kind eyes.
We encountered this group of plankton eating giants just next to the main anchorage in Hiva OA. I will never forget this amazing experience.
All alone
Our crew left us just 2 days after our arrival to Nuku Hiva. Bryn and Jill flew back home to England and a guess is that they are now spending a lot of time on the internet looking for their own future Catamaran! Thank you so much for your stay aboard and we hope that we will meet again in the future! Good luck with everything!
Jack that has been sailing with us for almost 3 months is back in his home country- the USA. During his time aboard we became truly good friends and I am curtain i will see his bearded smile abourd the Bay Dreamer again shortly.
//Daniel & Anna
