Cover Photo Series: Alone at Fatu Hiva

La Baie des Vierges – Hanavave in Marquesan – is probably the most iconic anchorage in all of the South Pacific. Certainly it has an outsized importance to small boat sailors on their way across this vast ocean. It seems to epitomize the remote, exotic, tropical idyll that so many people envision when then dream of a Pacific sailing voyage.

Tucked into the northwest corner of Fatu Hiva – the least accessible of the inhabited Marquesan Islands – Hanavave is a secluded bay backed by mountains coated in deep green tropical vegetation. Coconut palms fringe the shoreline, and giant basalt pillars give the cove a magnificence that separates it from the already stunningly beautiful bays elsewhere in the Marquesas.

Ashore the people who make this place their home are – in my experience – friendly, welcoming, and kind. As you walk inland, the smell of tropical earth after the rain overwhelms you, as do the luxuriant leaves of bananas and banyans, and the brilliant colors of the hibiscus blossoms. Back in the village, fresh, juicy tropical fruit can be found for sale or barter, a particularly welcome treat for sailors who’ve just spent a month out of sight of land.

So it’s no wonder that this bay has become immensely popular with ocean sailors, and that often there are upwards of 30 boats anchored in this small spot. While it’s hardly a bad thing to share an anchorage with like-minded souls taking in a very special place and experience, it’s also human to yearn to have such a place to oneself. And so I consider myself incredibly lucky to have experienced just that. With my boat all alone anchored beneath those iconic basalt pillars, I took my little dinghy out into the golden sunset light and shot photo after photo, trying to capture this precious moment. Of course the photos don’t do justice to my memory – they never do – but they do help to conjure up that feeling yet again, and to share it with others. Which is why I was so excited when Ocean Navigator wanted to share that magic, too, by placing my photo on their cover.