We pulled into Taiohae Bay after dark and dropped anchor out beyond the boats in fifty-five feet of water. Way deeper than I’d normally like, but it’s a muddy bottom and there wasn’t much wind, so we’d worry about getting into a better spot the next day.
In the morning Ali got cranking on some laundry while I headed to town to try and track down a water pump. Fortunately, the marine chandlery that is now here on the island is incredibly well stocked and they had a pump in stock. Back at the boat we were right back in business with running water again. I noticed at the chandlery that on the shelf above the pump they had dozens of pump switches, confirming to me that it isn’t the pumps that go bad, it’s the auto-switches. I’ll get the part numbers for our broken pumps and get those working again. Soon I’ll have so many water pump spares around I’ll have to get rid of some to conserve weight onboard.
In town I also stopped off at the mayor’s office to pay my garbage disposal fee. For about $7/mo they provide us cruisers with a convenient place to dump our garbage. Such a nice solution to such a big problem. I can’t imagine that dealing with the garbage from hundreds of boats each year is much fun for an island to take care of. Everyone who visits here seems to comment on how clean it is, too.
We got resituated in a much prettier spot a few hundred yards closer to the beach.
Nuku-Hiva is the epicenter of the Marquesas. The biggest town, Taiohae, with a population of about 2,200, combined with a huge protected bay, make it a popular spot.
The waterfront is lined with shady trees and a nice sidewalk. We quickly found our preferred hang out spot and would spend hours there every afternoon from then on.
I’d brush this guy off of me, and a minute later he’d be right back again.
At low tide it can be a little tricky to load back into the dinghy.
One day on the boat Lowe said, “Wait, there’s snow at the top of the mountains?” I turned around to see what the heck he was talking about, and my eyes saw it too. Rocky, snowcapped peaks, or a canopy of trees, what does your eye see first?
We have different dog friends every single day. This one walks with a sideways limp, but is so happy he can’t seem to stop his entire body from shaking with his tail.
I was very happy to find a spare battcar connector in amongst the various bits and bobs on the boat. I was able to repair the mainsail easily, and replaced all the lines that attach the battcars that are in-between these ones.
We’ve fallen into such an afternoon routine that we even remember to bring our own spoons for the ice cream, and coozies for the beer.
Maybe our eyese are just going bad, but every time we looked over at our bags we would see this sneaky creature coming down the tree eyeballing our stuff.
And yes, that’s a can of dog food. That’s also become part of the afternoon routine.
This really is a nice place to hang out for a while. I’ve got a new alternator on the way, and a handful of other projects I’m working on in the meantime.
The refrigerator power consumption remains top of the to-do list. Because this one is easy to pull out of its cabinet it was the first one to get tackled. Once it was out I was able to see just how much it was running. The compressor would cycle on for :30 – :36 seconds, and then cycle off for :15 seconds. An absolutely ridiculous cycle for a refrigerator to run at, and the reason why our power consumption has been so insane.
I contacted Isotherm directly for some help, and while they would reply to my emails they wouldn’t answer my direct questions or really provide ANY helpful advice whatsoever. They told me, “It’s hard to get in-depth with trouble-shooting without the unit being here.” Really? Is it? These are not rocketships.
I checked voltages, fiddled around with wiring, and anything else I could think of for two days, but nothing helped. But answers to problems like this always seem to come to me eventually. As I was lying in bed one night thinking it through it occurred to me that the thermostat probe was just dangling off of the ceiling of the fridge in mid-air. I remembered that on our Grand Banks refrigerators the probe had a specific slot that held it tight against the cold-plate. In the morning I looked in again and sure enough, there was a spot for the thermostat probe to slip right into. It looked like someone had replaced the thermostat at some point, but simply not finished the job correctly. I slid the thermostat in the right place, adjusted the temperature, set the stopwatch, and held my breath. The fridge ran for six minutes, then shut off. And then it stayed off for twelve full minutes. Ran again for six. Off for twelve. Problem solved. During the heat of the day the fridge now runs 1/3 of the time, with only about 3 cycles per hour versus ~70 cycles previously. That is a massive power savings.
That solves one fridge. Now I’ve got another fridge, and a freezer, to tackle. Hopefully these have the same problem.
Looking out at the entrance to Taohaie Bay on Nuku-Hiva.
Bumfuzzle at anchor.
The perception of what it is like to sail across the Pacific and anchor your boat in the Marquesas Islands.
The reality of anchoring in the Marquesas Islands.
Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of space for everyone here in the Marquesas. It is, however, a good reminder for us world cruisers that we aren’t quite as unique as we sometimes fancy ourselves.
16 Comments on “Nuku-Hiva”
May all your problems be solved so simply! 🙂
Thanks as always for sharing your adventures with us! Looks like paradise there-gorgeous pix.
Have fun!
Ugh, I hate it when the manufacturers are less than helpful. I find better info on you tube and Facebook groups most of the time. Best of luck with all the projects. Really appreciate how often you are posting. Your posts are a bright spot in my day!
Awe thanks, Marie! And agree about the Facebook groups, someone has had the same problem at some point.
So far so good….You guys are pretty special and you have the right to ‘fancy yourselves’…..lol….
Ran across this article the other day in a back issue of Cruising World regarding alternators and loads. Sounds like you already have a new alternator coming but you might find it interesting.
Great photos and really enjoy following the Bumfuzzle crew adventures.
https://www.cruisingworld.com/gear/adding-high-output-alternators/
Thanks for the article, DonPedro. Appreciate it.
I have a 12v refrigerator at our cabin that I run off of 400watts of solar panels and a 425 watt.hr. battery bank. The brand name is “Unique” and it has the “Danfos” compreser . It runs for about 20 minutes then cycles off for about 25 minutes , depending on the temp. in the cabin. I replaced the old propane refrigerator with this. I did have to change locations of the refer to a more ventilated area in the cabin and set the new refer on a pedestal so it could have air circulation under the unit and up the back. Pretty easy in a cabin but on a boat , not so much. It did help on the power consumption though to get better ventilation. My only thought is if there would be a way to get more ventilation with a couple of round grills and maybe a muffin fan.
The cabin is located about 100 miles South and a little east of Grammy in the central Oregon cascades.
So great to read about your adventures, thank you and your family so much for sharing.
It absolutely makes my day to find a new post from you and I’m so glad that you are posting so often. I love living vicariously through you… and Ali’s soft spot for any animal in need warms my heart. I would be no different. (It’s why I have 5 dogs.) So impressed with your troubleshooting skills. You’ve learned a lot these last 20 years. Glad refrigerator #1 was an easy fix.
Yes, Pat has definitely learned a lot of troubleshooting from all our different homes over the years. Thank goodness the beer fridge is fixed! haha (and pssst…you could have 6 dogs.)
I like the optical illusion you and Lowe discovered . . . my mind said, “snow-capped peaks” at first glance. The beauty of these snowy mountains in the tropics is that the snow is white or gray on an overcast day and blue on a clear day! That’s a neat trick.
Wow, your post provides the reasons why people sail thousands of miles to get to Polynesia. Magnificent scenery, beautiful waters, friendly people. Sweet.
Got a laugh out of the “perception vs reality”.. so true. Enjoying the beautiful scenery.
Don’t know why, but I keep thinking I’ll see a dinosaur come stomping out of the jungle in some of these photos – very Jurassic Park like! Keep having fun.
Wonderful photos, and glad you are knocking those items off of your “to do list” one at a time! I almost hesitate to mention it but will anyway. I do not know if you are aware of the Book “Fatu Hiva”. Thor Heydredal (Sp?) and his significant other stole away to this (I understand) farthest south of the Marquesa Islands just as WWII was beginning. The idea was to live a disconnected life on a remote Pacific Island. I will not spoil the end of this real-life saga. Whether you should decide to visit Fatu Hiva at some point or not, I am sure that one of your crew would be fascinated to read the story while in the Marquesas. Another time and another place.
Getting nostalgic, I was anchored in Taiohae Bay last year this week. It looks like they have improved the dinghy dock a little with a second ladder, plus not as many local boats tied up that regularly wrecked dinghies and outboards like mine. Anyway, if you are still there, two things that made it special for me were watching the local practise sessions for dances in the community hall, and the sandy beach on the other side of the big modern tiki, beyond the French embassy. And I hope you are enjoying the pamplemouse, if you don’t know, let them age for a week and they get really sweet. Oh, and the fishermen on the dinghy dock sell their tuna for $5 a kilogram, just too good. If you don’t sail back up to Fatu Hiva, I hope you at least sail to the nearby Daniel’s Bay (Hakatea Bay) for a more secluded time. I stayed there a week with 10-15 other boats, compared with 60-80 in Taiohae Bay.
You can hold Your breath for six minutes? Time for someone apnoe diving! ROFL!