Land Ahoy- Fatu Hiva

After 21 days at sea we have got to safe harbour in Fatu Hiva, in the Marquesas. Quite an eventful last few days at sea as we had to go to the assistance of a boat that had lost steering and was drifting quite helpless. The boat, a catamaran, had hydraulic problems, and no alternative way of steering the boat by motor or manually. Either we had to try and tow them, or they had to abandon ship. So we took them in tow, and luckily had good wind and seas for most of the next 2 days and nights. One night a squall hit, and after a very scary few minutes their bridle broke. We just had to heave to for the rest of the night, and keep them in sight. Boats in the Fatu Hiva anchorage were alerted that we were going to arrive in the middle of the night and would need assistance, and there were lights for us and dinghies to take over the catamaran. After 200 miles of towing, we were very glad that both boats had arrived safely.
The next morning we woke to the wonderful sight of the Fatu Hiva anchorage. A small, steep sided bay, with rock pinnacles and narrow gorges. It's one of those places that you can really only get to by boat. The copra boat calls in to another bay, but there is 17km of steep dirt road between the two settlements. To get to the small jetty it is necessary to brave the swell which breaks on the narrow bit of beach - several dinghies have been flipped over en route.
The town is tiny, but has a school (it's a French island so gets some French support), a church, a very small store (which only gets supplies when the copra boat comes in) and concrete roads but we haven't seen any traffic at all. It is green and lush, full of hibiscus, frangipani, and fruit trees. Breadfruit, limes, grapefruit, mangoes, papaya, bananas and lots of nonni fruit (not sure how it's spelt) which is evidently the in thing as a super tonic/heal-all in the US so I suppose they export it. Their main product is copra from the coconuts, and there are big drying platforms beside the roads. The well-kept houses have chickens and often a pig or two plus fruit trees, quite self-sufficient as there's plenty of fish in the waters round about. We passed a group of men with dogs going hunting up in the hills - wild boar and goats they said.
This is French Polynesia, and the people are very different from the African mix found in most of the Caribbean islands. Very friendly, and we are managing to communicate reasonably well with some very rusty French. Today we traded a cap, a little box of coloured pencils, some nail varnish, and a length of cord for a large quantity of fruit! They all ask for perfume samples which we don't have - should have kept all those little airline bags of shampoo and cream etc. they love those. We don't have any of the local currency (no bank, no ATM, no internet cafe, no cafe at all!) but they are very happy to trade for things that they can't get easily.
One local family cooks meals for the boats at anchor, and they take euros or dollars. 10 of us had a delicious meal on their terrace - fried fish, marinaded raw fish, chicken, breadfruit, carrot and green papaya salad, cooking banana, grated coconut, and rice. With large jugs of homemade lemonade. The husband gently strummed his guitar, their little daughter danced for us, and mum, after her efforts with the food, sat back and watched television! Then of course, on a dark dark night, we had to brave the swell in our dinghies to get back again - just as well there was only lemonade to drink.
When arriving in a new country, we have to check in for customs and immigration. The (one and only)local gendarme allows boats to stay for three days in Fatu Hiva before moving on to Hiva Oa which has a larger settlement, and the necessary officials. However, today is May Day, tomorrow Ascension Day, and then the weekend, so there will be no official on duty until Monday morning. Our yellow 'quarantine' flag will have to continue flying for a few more days. So we are moving on to the little island of Tahuatu for the weekend.
We are now nine and a half hours behind GMT. The Marquesas is only place in the world (to our knowledge) where the time changes by half an hour. Evidently a throwback to the time when the British and French were vying for control of world time, and the French system was 30 mins different.