Day 36 Tahuata

Hana moe noa harbor
At 0630 we weighed anchor, said goodbye to beautiful Fatu Hiva and set sail to Hanamoenoa Bay on the West side of Tahuata Island. This small island is 2.5 miles south of Hiva Oa and makes a nice stop on the passage from Fatu Hiva to Nuka Hiva. Hanamoenoa Bay is uninhabited and has a smooth white sand beach.
MOB drill - No Regrets followed us for a while and called to say that Dave wanted to come aboard Southern Star. We set our boat in a position called “heaving to” where the mainsail is slack and the jib and rudder act in opposition to each other. The effect is that the boat slowly slides sideways in the water. This allowed No Regrets to catch up and as they sailed past us on the lee side, Dave jumped overboard. Mark had rigged a small block and tackle off the boom. Dave swam to our boat, grabbed the loop at the end of the rig and Andy was able to easily hoist him aboard. This whole exercise took less than two minutes and was a good demonstration of how a “man overboard” might be retrieved if necessary.
Fish - Once under sail again, we noticed a large flock of birds feeding so we headed for the spot. Sure enough, the fishing pole registered a strong strike. Before we could set the hook, the fish was gone but almost immediately, we had another strike on the drag line and pulled in an 18# yellowtail tuna. Kurt went into sushi chef mode and we sat down to a nice lunch.
Hanamoenoa Bay - Arriving just after lunch, we anchored near No Regrets and near Golden Lion who was already there. Dirigo and Far Niente arrived a bit later.
The water and white sand beach were inviting so we snorkeled to shore where we found a lot of coconuts. Andy husked a few so we could have fresh coconut milk.
The surf was also right for body surfing and everyone was having a great time until a wave swept over Dave and took his glasses. We spent some time trying to find them and finally realized with all the waves and stirred up bottom it was futile.
We all had a great dinner that night on the tuna and the remains of a wahoo we had bought in Fatu Hiva (even though Dave could not see what he was eating).