From Fata Hiva we made the 45 mile trip to the village Atuona on the island of HIva Oa. Atuona and Taiohae on Nuka Hiva are the two main entry points for boats clearing into the Marquesas and the anchorage was crowded with new arrivals. A new experience for Christine, given the 1+ mile from the dinghy landing to town, she discovered the art of hitchhiking. We got a ride with a Frenchman on the way in and a a Finnish lady on the way out. As beautiful as it is, the anchorage was very congested and uncomfortable. The next morning we headed to the island of Tahuata. Hanamoenoa bay is the most popular anchorage on Tahauta. But it looked crowded on our first pass, so we continued to the village of Vaitahu. There was a multi-island football (soccer) tournament happening. A shoreside football filed was quite a view – you’d better make sure not to kick the ball too off. Ashore we found a small archeological museum and met Emily, a grad student from Boston. Helping with the English / French translation, her host-sister walked home and came back with two huge bags of fresh fruit. Refusing to take any money, we gave her a chocolate bar and a small golden pig Christine had from China. She was thrilled with the little pig – and we were equally thrilled with the fruits. The most amazing sight was the Catholic church in the middle of the village, stone arches, wooden windows and doors curved with Marquesans motifs – she was magnificent. We did another nice dive north of the village. Visibility was not as good as Fatu Hiva, but decent. We experienced for the first time swimming with thousands of fish – unreal. Sunday we moved back to Hanamoenoa bay to socialize with a couple of the boats we met in Fata Hiva. Well, it is crowded for very good reasons. Sendy beach, crystal water, and great snorkeling. The next morning we heard people in the water at 6:30am – and sure enough 3 or 4 giant manta rays were swimming in the bay. Monday afternoon we had the pleasure of welcoming our friends the Hamilton’s on Nordhavn Dirona, who arrived from Oa Pou. We had a great time catching up over a couple of Margaritas and will spend the next couple of days with them. It is somewhat Ironic that a chance meeting on our first outting on Gray Matter has now lead to a reunion two years later, 5000 miles from Roche Harbor. We are sitting in the southern most anchorage on Tahuata – just the two Nordhavns – waiting for the Nordhavn marketing team to arrive for the photoshoot. This morning before leaving with Dirona, we had special visit with the giant Manta Rays.right at Gray Matter. Christine befriended 4 or 5 of the giant manats, and swimming more than an hour together (with the go-pro camera) captured some great footage of these graceful rays. We are likely to have internet connectivity when we arrive in the Tuamotos Friday or Saturday and will be sure to upload the video. We’ve now been in the Marquesas Islands three weeks, at least once a day one of us says “can you believe we are here, this is really living the dream”. [google-map-v3 width=”350″ height=”350″ zoom=”7″ maptype=”satellite” mapalign=”center” directionhint=”false” language=”default” poweredby=”false” maptypecontrol=”true” pancontrol=”true” zoomcontrol=”true” scalecontrol=”true” streetviewcontrol=”true” scrollwheelcontrol=”false” draggable=”true” tiltfourtyfive=”false” addmarkermashupbubble=”false” addmarkermashupbubble=”false” addmarkerlist=”-9.9080,-139.1050{}cruiseship.png” bubbleautopan=”true” showbike=”false” showtraffic=”false” showpanoramio=”false”]