Hanamoenoa Bay, The island of Tahuata, Marquesas, French Polynesia – Most popular anchorage on Tahuata

JOINING THE CROWDS
We wanted to test the auto-helm so we moved the boat over to the popular anchorage of Hanamoenoe Bay. It is a lovely wide bay with a long sandy beach flanked by rocky cliffs either side. It rests in a fertile valley backed by dramatic volcanic mountains. There were 5 other boats already anchored here, but there is plenty of room and the bay selves at between 10-11m a long way out.

09 54.443S 139 06.326W

THE BEACH
The beach is lovely. Still not the easiest to get a shore on with a dingy and engine. You have to time the waves right, but they are small enough you are unlikely to dump. Again we are glad we have our light and maneuverable kayaks. There is a working copra farm here. This is the harvesting and drying of coconuts. So the shore line is backed by coconut trees. The owners of the farm must live in the village further down the island as they are rarely here. They have put a sign up asking cruisers to stay on the beach and not to wonder about their property. Fair enough.

THE WATER
The humans had an alternative reason for dragging us here, besides testing the auto-helm. The bay is reported to be regularly visited by giant manta rays. The humans have dived with these gentle creatures in the past and they inform me they are very majestic. Unfortunately the wind has picked up a bit creating a chop on the surface, so it has been difficult to spot them from above. The humans have been out to snorkel both the rocky sides of the bay, but not yet seen any manta rays. There are a lot of fish in the bay. The humans have been ‘hitting the books’ to learn the names of many of the new and exciting species of fish they have encountered. It has been reported in the guide books that cases of ciguatera* have occurred from cruisers eating locally caught fish. So it seems this scare has gone a long way to protecting the local sea life.

FLIES
The bay is a very protected anchorage to ride out a few days of forecasted stronger winds. It may irritate the humans that it is difficult to spot visiting Manta Rays, I am thankful that the wind keeps the flies down. Even though the humans have anchored well off shore, there is a lot of flies here. They do not seem to bite, but they are very, very irritating. When ever the wind eases, they find their way to the boat. They are most irritating ashore, where they try to constantly land on you, and bathing in the water is the only way to cool off and escape them. But I have seen anchorages with horrible no-seems that bite, so irritating flies is not that bad.

BOAT JOBS
The humans are still ticking off the boat jobs. It always seems, as they start one job, they find a few more that have to get done. So things do not move as quickly forward as they would like. And, of course, new stuff starts to break (eg. boarding ladder). But they are battling through it and still finding time to enjoy the scenery above and below the waters here. We have always insisted that cruising is just ‘fixing your boat in exotic locations’.

CRUISER INFO
The best sand for anchoring is in the middle of the bay. There is rock and only shallow sand on the sides of the bay. We even spotted a few large boulders along the south shore to avoid. The bay is well protected and the winds are funnelled straight down to keep the boats lined up to any swell from the West. If you do not like the crowds our former bay and the next two bays (going south) are also nice beaches. The closest is reported to be well protected from the swell. It is a 10 minute dingy ride south to the town of Vaitahu.

*Ciguatera is a type of neurotoxin that builds up in fish eating a certain type of algea on reefs. Unless you have ‘local knowledge’ of the areas and fish you can eat, it is safest to avoid eating any reef fish in French Polynesia. Open water fish like tuna, mahi mahi and wahoo are perfectly safe to eat and readily available.

I AM HAPPY TO REPORT THE HUMANS DID SEE MANTA RAY AND EVEN GOT TO SNORKEL WITH THEM.  THERE ARE CLEANING STATIONS IN ABOUT 11m OF WATER OFF THE ROCK AND HARD CORAL FORMATIONS IN THE CENTRE OF THE BAY.