Kevin, at Yacht Sevices, and his wife Annabelle provide a wonderful service to the visiting yachts.
He provided us with all the necessary documents required for checking in with the gendarme ( police). We provided him with a copy of our passports, the bond exemption letter, the ship mandate and the crew list. Then he drove David to the office of the Gendarme and we became official. The paperwork then gets faced to Papiette in Tahiti. Once everything has been processed they will fax us a document so that we can get duty free gasoline.
Annabelle took our laundry - $15 US a load - this is not Mexico! We did have a lot of bedding and mattress covers. But now I am being more diligent about doing hand laundry - David is only allowed to wear t- shirts for one day and then I wash them.
Kevin was able to loan us 5 more jerry cans - not really loan - more like rent for $2 each so we could get water. But for that price he also drove us to the town cisterns so we could fill them up and then Brought us back to the dinghy dock. So not really so bad.
My water boys!
He also had some diesel Jerry cans so we could make less trips to the fuel dock.
Rental cars can also be arranged through Kevin - a nice, fairly new For Ranger four wheel drive crew cab. Total cost including gas for 24 hours was $150. More about that road trip later.
There are a few places in town that provide some of the same services for a little less but Kevin is providing such a 360* service we just feel like we want to support him.
There are four grocery stores in the main town.
No fresh vegetables - you go to the open market for those. The main one is on Saturday morning and you have to get their early as the local restaurant owners also get their vegetables from them. Lettuce and tomatoes go quick. And when I say early I mean early - we had to set the alarm for 0430 to be on shore by 5 am! But I scored with lettuce, cucumbers, egg plant, cabbage and bok Choy.
And bananas by the stock! So we have been eating 6-10 bananas a day! Banana pancakes is a must. Thought we had the oven fixed so I made muffins. Got them half baked and then no oven so I finished them on the stove top. Not so light and fluffy but edible!
You have to test all the stores as they each have different things. Wonderful New Zealand lamb chops was surmising! Good thing I bought that jar of mint jelly in Puerto Vallarta! You can get some good frozen vegetables, chicken and hamburger patties. The funniest thing was the corn dogs!
The French influence was also evident. Good cheese and duck fat! in a can. And good butter in a can - both great for the boat! In case y did not know - duck fat is wonderful for home fries. Very difficult to find in a place like Victoria so I was surprised to see it here. And escargot and pate!
The supply ship comes in every second Tuesday - we were delayed getting our duty free document for fuel - good thing as we were able to get potatoes and carrots!
There are a couple of places in town to buy crafts.
The Marquesans are known for their tattoos and their carvings in rose wood, Tau wood and sailfish bone. Beautiful work. Annabelle hand pains pares - and David bought me one. It really is one large square of material that you use as a cover up and can tie many ways!
My immediate impression of the Marquesas ? It is an archipelago of 12 islands (6 inhabited) with stunning peaks and lush vegetation. The towns that we visited on Nuku Hiva were neat and incredibly clean. Many of the people smoke ( French influence) but I have not seen one cigarette butt. The lawns are manicured with beautiful tropical flowers and fruit trees. The people speak French, Marquesan land pretty good English. The Marquesan language has a lot of vowels in the words, all of which are pronounced individually so the overall sound is quite melodic.
On Saturday we picked up our rental truck but I will have a separate blog entry for that trip.
A few more images to take home with!
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