Maria’s Day Off Duty in Nuku Hiva

By Maria Andersen, apprentice from Denmark

February 25th, 2014

As the day went by the Picton Castle saw the big island of Nuku Hiva coming closer, and when we climbed the masts to stow the sails we were welcomed by dolphins jumping and playing in the water. We anchored in the afternoon and were excited to go explore the beautiful island the next day.

The morning came and because I am now the new purser assistant I had to do some grocery shopping with our purser Chelsea and Donald the cook before going on shore leave. We bought some bread, vegetables and other necessary things for lunch and dinner and went back to the ship to drop it off.

When I came back ashore I went to find some internet to contact my family and tell them that I am still alive and actually having the best time of my life. That’s when I got interrupted by Pania and Alex asking me if I still wanted to go horseback riding, and of course I wanted to do that!

An hour later we were picked up by a lady and drove to her ranch, which by the way was covered in skulls and bones from cattle and horses, really cool! We went riding in the pouring rain, and had a great time even though the horse lady were a bit impatient with Pania and Alex who had their first and second time on the back of a horse that day. When we came back we met up with the other guys and had a nice dinner together at the local restaurant.

The next day off watch day we decided to rent a car and go see the island by ourselves, because the other watch didn’t recommend the guided tour they went on the day before. Chelsea, Pania and I went to the rent-a-car place where we caught some internet and a cold juice and suddenly Alex came by with a smile on his face telling us that he just reserved a car for us at the dock. But anyway we sorted everything out and out on the road we went with Gustav driving up and down and in and out the mountains, we were handed at most simple map I have ever seen consisting of one road marked around the whole island, and of course we at one point took a wrong turn a found ourselves on a little dirt road crossing creeks and driving places where no one have been in a long time, we couldn’t turn the car around so we agreed that the road had to lead somewhere. During our drive we stopped the car a lot of times to admire the beautiful view and get a rest from the bumpy ride.

Nuku Hiva have brought us a lot of adventures so far so how can we tell what is going to happen on the next shore leave?

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