Hakahetau Bay

On 28th April, we lifted the anchor and sailed over to Hakahetau Bay on Ua Pou, around the corner from where we last visited the island.

We didn’t intend to spend much time here. The anchorage might be an improvement on Taiohae, but not by much. It was the waterfall and the chocolate we came for.

A relatively short hike from the dock leads to Manfred’s house. Manfred has been in French Polynesia for over 35 years, most of his time in Ua Pou. He used to be a helicopter pilot in Tahiti but is now a chocolatier, growing his cacao on his property and using a carefully-guarded process for manufacturing some sublime chocolate of many flavours. It’s very easy to lighten your wallet here. After sampling some of his chocolate, we bought 10 bars and Pascale and Bertrand bought twice that.

Walk from the dock

Walk from the dock

View on the hike

View on the hike

Ua pou

Entrance to Manfred’s

Equivalent of a visitor's book. Small world - we know a lot of these boats.

The equivalent of a visitor’s book. Small world – we know a lot of these boats.

Manfred

Manfred

Around 1.5km from Manfred’s is the waterfall. And it’s a beautiful one. The water is cool but not too cold to swim in. And out of all of the waterfalls, we have visited, this is the easiest to access.

The waterfall

The waterfall

And the dinghy dock isn’t bad either. There’s plenty of room, the bollards are very strong, and you won’t catch tetanus off the stainless steel boarding ladder.

Local kids

Local kids

Back at the bay

Back at the bay

Dinghy dock

Dinghy dock

The crustaceans here have the fecundity of rabbits. So I dived on the hull (again) to find a coral garden on the hull and propeller (again). That severely impacts motoring speed, so I cleaned that off with a scraper and did the same again with the bow thruster the next day.

I’m trying to arrange an early lift out in Tahiti to get the old antifoul off and some new stuff put on. And, as expensive as it is, we will have propspeed applied while we are at it. I’d rather be diving for leisure than spending time hull cleaning.