The famous valley of Typee, Nuku Hiva

Herman Melville, of Moby Dick fame, spent time in Nuku Hiva having jumped ship and been kept prisoner by a tribe. His book, Typee, is an exciting novel based on his adventures here, and as is set in the next valley along from Taiohae in in Taipivai Bay. We've all read his story and as soon as our anchor problem was solved we set sail in that direction.

The bay is divided into three inlets by high rocky ridges. As we doused sail, a black cloud rolled down and the sea hissed white with torrential rain. We dropped anchor in 5 metres in the muddy flood of coconuts and tree debris washing down fro the valley. In a strange way it could have been a Scottish loch, with the high ridges swirling with mist, and dropping steeply to the water.

Tin Tin in Taipivai Bay - the setting for Typee

Our route through the Marwquesas to M Nuku Hiva

So cold did we feel that we used Rosalind's wonderful pressure cooker to brew up a nice hot "Lake Soup" for lunch, which it does miraculously quickly.  It is basically lentil soup, (carrots, onions, lentils and a bay leaf) but our family name for it derives from the days when Mark and I grew up in Malawi. Our family cook, Asafa, produced this soup every time the family arrived home tired and sunburnt from a weekend at Lake Malawi. Hence Lake Soup.  It gets augmented with herb dumplings from time to time too. Delicious!

The thatched ceremonial Marae

After lunch we clambered ashore on a rocky breakwater and waded through muddy tracks to the road, seeing lots of land crabs along the way. A "drift", still above water, crossed the raging brown river to the village where we inspected the church and chatted to various passers-by. The church was a huge open space under a high roof with no pillars. The side walls are waist high giving ventilation and some light. The pulpit was a large tree bole nicely carved.

Roaring brown river

Up the street we found a little shop and bought tubs of local ice-cream including a dark purple one called Taro, which is a yam-like tuber. Very nice. On our way we met Roy and daughter Lisa from yacht Mabroukha exploring in a hire car. The rain set in hard again and the road became a river, everyone getting drenched except for me with my handy brolly. We waded across a field to inspect a large ceremonial Marae, nicely recreated with thatched ceremonial houses in stone platforms, surrounded by carved Tikis.