Nuku Hiva!

MFT: Finally going for a walk!
LFP: Carrying heavy samples

Hallo, so we finally made it to land again! We are in the Marquesas. These are all beautiful volcanic islands. Imagine soaring peaks with lush green foliage along the steep cliffs jutting dramatically into the ocean. There are almost no coral reefs but it is gorgeous never-the-less. Anyways, we anchored pretty early (around 8 am). The funny thing is that the clocks are all 30 minutes ahead here compared to the rest of French Polynesia. After anchored, we started sending groups ashore for a nice little hike up the valley. The issue is that there was no dock to pull up to with the zodiacs so we had to wade through the water to shore carrying all our equipment on our head. It looked pretty funny!

Unfortunately because it was the rainy season, there has been a lot of rain and we couldn’t hike all the way to the waterfall. I had packed a big bag to carry my samples. In the Marquesas, I am gathering fluvial sediment samples for Taylor Perron at MIT. It is fun, I have a lot less equipment to carry! Unfortunately I have to carry the sediment samples which are about a gallon of wet sand (weighs around 10-15 lbs). The hike was nice and easy (plus we were with a big group). I had lots of fun hiking back quickly so I could have time to gather samples from the river. Its hard to get enough sand from some of these rivers!


In the afternoon we motored out to the main bay where we are anchored for a couple of days. The BEST part of this bay? INTERNET access on the boat! Mostly…I mean I can sorta get wifi from the quarter deck but it is very slow and sending emails can be extremely frustrating. Still after 2.5 weeks of NO internet at all this has been VERY nice. Mostly I spent the evening reading and responding to emails. There was a LOT of important things that needed immediate or past action. I’ve taken lots of pretty pictures and I’ll post a blog soon with all the photos (can’t do it now as my camera is charging and I’m about to go on watch). All in all it was a lovely first day. It was capped by pesto pasta (heaven) and a freshwater shower (to wash away any nasty things from wading in the river). Plus we got lots of fresh fruit from the locals (mangos, papaya, carambola, bananas). 
Nuku Hiva Panorama!
The most gorgeous bay ever!

at anchor in Hakaui Bay 
 Fording the river on our hike

Jan with a cute and happy dog

A polynesian wedding ceremony between Levi & Zoe

Our welcoming committee :)

Gorgeous waterfall w/ Pat & Zoe

Are free leis! For Matt & Charlotte

SEA Students at pretty vista

Copra drying & Nanuk looking silly

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