🌴 The Heart of Polynesia: A solo sailor’s journey through the Marquesas
Hiva Oa marked the end of a two-month solo journey across wide seas. I travelled through dark jungles, up steep mountain views to ancient stone temples, and encountered mysterious jungle ruins and memorable local islanders. The Marquesas, with ancient roots linking them to distant lands like Hawaii, New Zealand, and Micronesia, are, in my view,…
The Dangerous Archipelago: Playing Russian Roulette in Paradise
The French explorer Bougainville called them the “dangerous archipelago,” a name that echoes with the ghosts of old sailing ships. Before we arrived, I saw it as a romantic holdover. Now, as we point our bow north-east, back towards the safety of the Marquesas, I know better. The ghosts are real. They are the steel…
Landfall in the Land of Men
The Marquesas quickly began to reveal their dual nature. They are a place where the mythic and the mundane exist side-by-side. One day, you feel like you’ve sailed into a Herman Melville novel,
