Pitufa.at

The Baie du Controleur isn’t as spectacular at first sight as other anchorages in the Marquesas, it is even murkier, but we like it. Again, we’re the only boat anchored here, only occasionally a local boat goes by on the way to the village. We simply enjoy being in a calm anchorage. Only after a few days here, we fully realised how much of our energy was drained by the constant rolling and pitching in the other anchorages. Other cruisers say they don’t mind rolly anchorages too much, as they just spend little time on the boat then, but it doesn’t feel fair to leave Leeloo behind in an uncomfortable home. Now just the normal state of being–getting sleep at night, not bumping head and toes whenever the boat suddenly jerks–feels wonderful now. We did some nice walks in the area, up the ridge and to the neighbouring Hooumi bay, also a lush, gorgeous valley. Today we stayed at home, did laundry, wiped the boat inside and cleaned the algae-overgrown waterline. Sometimes manta rays come by to feed right next to the boat, floating like huge black bats right under the surface, swimming with their mouths wide open to filter whatever tasty things they find floating in the water. There’s a petanque (some kind of ball game) competition going on in the village this weekend, we might check it out tomorrow.