Month: June 2018

I know there are people who think life out here on a sailboat must be just like living in a Jimmy Buffet song. If you’ve read this blog long enough, you know that the challenges we encounter would contradict that notion. But, every now and then it does actually feel like we’re in Margaritaville with a Cheeseburger in Paradise with each of our Changes in Latitudes. That is how I felt one afternoon at sunset as we sat in the cockpit in a beautiful anchorage on Toau with cocktails in hand listening to Kenny Chesney sing about sailing in the islands. (If you didn’t know Kenny Chesney had sailing songs, check out his “Be As You Are” album.)

After we left Fakarava, we headed north to Toau just about 15 miles away. Our stay in Toau started out a bit raucous as we had a bumpy ride going in the pass in waves that could only be described as a washing machine. We hadn’t hit the slack tide and there was about 5 kts of current headed out of the pass against the wind. We pushed the throttle hard and were only making 2 kts over the ground until we were safely inside the lagoon.

We headed up north into the lagoon to a pretty anchorage just next to a large shallow flat. We were excited to meet up with our friends Marcus and Diana on Allora who we had met two years ago in Mexico. They had already been in French Polynesia for a year and loved this spot. Marcus is an avid fly fisherman, and the flat was full of bonefish which are a prized catch on the fly. Mike was eager to learn how to try and catch these elusive fighting fish.

Mike and Marcus headed to the flat one morning while Diana and I did some snorkeling around some of the beautiful reefs nearby. Mike didn’t catch any of the bonefish, but he did get to see Marcus get one. Not only do you have to stalk these fish in the clear, shallow water, but you have to keep the sharks away. I swear the sharks have some sort of sixth sense to know that there is a fish on the hook in distress. (I’m sure a marine biologist could explain it to me.) Anyway, Mike said it was a very cool experience.

We spent the next week at three different anchorages inside the lagoon exploring various reefs and motus. We even had several bonfires on the beach and we’re greeted by baby piglets that belonged to one of the locals living here. They were adorable. And, apparently the pigs like to eat coconut. I mean, who doesn’t?

We met several new boats in Toau, and a few of the guys were keen to go spearfishing. Mike hadn’t done any spearfishing since we arrived in French Polynesia for two reasons: (1) It is hard to know which fish are Ciguatera free and safe to eat; and (2) Sharks! We got the word from these other boats that the locals said the blue parrot fish were safe to eat in the lagoon. So, Mike was game to try and get us some fresh fish.

Mike got a couple of parrot fish for us without any incident, and they were delicious. But, on the last outing to try and spear a fish with the other guys, the shark situation got a bit too intense for Mike. And, Mike is not easily spooked. The first incident happened with Chris from another boat. He speared a fish and was holding it to his chest to swim it back to the dinghy. The sharks started circling him and biting his gun getting way too close and aggressive. Eventually Chris just let the fish go so the sharks could fight over it. Mike said he was genuinely afraid for Chris and glad he let the fish go. The docile looking sharks just turned rabid on an instant.

Next, Mike speared a parrot fish in a shallow reef area and held it out of the water as he swam to the dinghy. He had no problem and saw no sharks. But, when he headed back into the reef, there were sharks everywhere. Apparently Chris had shot a fish but it got away. The sharks swarmed to get the injured fish. Then, the sharks came at Mike biting at his gun. He even butted a shark in the head, but it was undeterred. Mike ended up dropping the gun and backing up against some coral as the sharks still went after the gun on the sand. The frenzy soon died out and Mike picked up the gun again and headed back to the dinghy where I was waiting. He said he was done spearfishing for a while. I don’t blame him. Yikes.

We hung out in Toau a bit longer than we originally anticipated while a weather system moved in. There were a couple of squally days and some stronger winds, but nothing too terrible. Once there was a break in the weather, we decided to head over to Anse Amyot with Allora. Anse Amyot is on Toau, but it is outside the lagoon. It is what is called a false pass, because although it looks like you could enter the lagoon from the ocean, the reef would block your entrance. There is a protected anchorage there, and we heard the diving was superb.

We spent two days diving at Amse Amyot which was some of the most unique diving we have done. Outside of the anchorage on either side of the entrance is reef that drops off dramatically almost like a vertical wall. Once you are down about 40 feet, you can look over the edge into the deep blue which goes down several thousand feet. It was a surreal experience to feel like you could just fall into the deep abyss. Of course, we didn’t fall as we were diving and could easily control our depth. We ventured down the side of the wall to a safe depth to check out all of the coral and fish that the wall held.

The second day diving was the best. We had waypoints from another boat to a dive spot about a mile south of the anchorage along the wall where there were caves to explore. They weren’t caves exactly but better described as grottos. They were carve outs with overhangs where hundreds of fish gathered underneath. It was here that we saw the largest moray eel we’ve ever seen. We also saw several species of fish that we’ve never seen before. And, the colors were amazing against the bright blue background of the deep ocean in the distance.

But, I think the highlight for Mike was seeing a 3 ft long Whitemargin Unicornfish. It is a weird looking fish and hard to describe. He was silvery blue with a pointed spear off his nose and a fan shaped tail with long streamers. If you have a chance, look it up. He was just sitting stationary about 75 feet down along the wall while smaller fish were performing a teeth cleaning service for him. Another weird thing we’ve learned that happens with certain fish is teeth cleaning stations.

We wanted to stay in Anse Amyot longer, but we had committed to being in Tahiti by a certain date. So, unfortunately more diving and exploration will have to wait for next time as we make our way to the Society Islands. We’re already plotting out how we can come back to the Tuamotus, because we feel like we’ve only scratched the surface of these really unique atolls.

~katie

After four amazing days diving the south pass of Fakarava, the wind picked up and gave us our first opportunity to try out our new kiteboarding equipment. We had been trying to coordinate with a French guy on a sailboat who offered lessons, as we were true beginners. But, it just didn’t seem to work out to meet up with him. As luck would have it, there was another boat in the anchorage with a couple of expert kiteboarders who were willing to give us a bit of a tutorial to get us started. They were extremely generous with their time and knowledge spending a couple of days with us to at least get the beginnings of trying to learn this sport.

There is a pretty big learning curve in kiteboarding, so you have to struggle through those initial stages to get up and running. First, you have to learn to control this huge kite, getting it up in the air and steering it while it pulls you around. Learning to fly the kite you start by body dragging where the kite pulls you around in the water without a board. Once you have that down, you can finally try getting up on a board.

I’m still working on controlling the kite. My first few hours of trying to get the kite up, keep it up and steer it in the water resulted in my swallowing and inhaling more salt water than is good for you. When the kite starts dragging you without you having full control over it, you get sucked under the water with the salt water getting shoved up your nose and involuntarily cleaning out your sinuses! Of course Mike caught on to the kite much faster than me. He was up on the board in two days, but I still have a long way to go…

After two days, the wind shut down on us and we decided to head to the north end of Fakarava and the village of Rotoava. This is the biggest town we have been to in the Tuamotus, which means the one road is actually paved. There is more activity here though. They have an airport and a few small hotels. There are some dive shops and tour boats to entertain the tourists.

One of our objectives in Rotoava was to find some pearls. We have seen the pearl farms throughout the Tuamotus, but we had heard that Rotoava was a place you could actually purchase the pearls without the huge markup you would find in Tahiti. So, we set out on bicycles one morning to head down to a pearl farm that had a showroom with pearls for sale.

We biked several miles south of town until we came to a small sign on the road for the pearl farm. It took us a few minutes to find the “showroom” which was really just the living room of the owner of the pearl farm that had a couple of tables set up with jewelry and loose pearls to view. These pearls are not your grandmother’s pearls. They are black pearls, which is really a misnomer. The pearls aren’t black but various shades of grey. They are beautiful.

The owner of the pearl farm took the time to explain the pearl making process and how pearls are rated. The pearls have classifications, a bit like diamonds, based on the size, color, any imperfections and the amount of sheen. We were really interested in how the pearls are cultivated. The owner explained how the Chinese had developed the technique of grafting to get the round pearls. They insert a “nucleus” into the oyster that is part of a shell from a freshwater mussel from Mississippi of all places. The inserted shell is round and the oyster forms the pearl around the nucleus. He showed us a pearl that had been cut in half so that you could see the inside of it. Apparently it takes 18 months for the pearl to be created. When they remove the pearl, they can insert another nucleus the size of the pearl that was removed to create an even bigger pearl, and they can do this with an oyster up to four times.

We perused the jewelry that he had to offer and bought a few pieces as well as some loose pearls that we can take to a jeweler back in the States to make some gifts for people. They really are unique, and I was quite happy with our purchases for a pretty reasonable price.

We spent a few more days hanging out in Rotoava and snorkeling the north pass and some nearby reefs. We were waiting for the supply ship to come in, so that the stores would have fresh food. We knew we would need to provision up for a couple of weeks before we made our way to Tahiti, and we were just about out of all fresh fruits, vegetables and meat.

Everybody in town knows when the supply ship is coming into town, and the dock is full of people waiting for the goods they ordered to be offloaded from the ship. Likewise, everyone is in the stores waiting for the new goods to be put out. We were in one of the magazins waiting for the produce to arrive and were not the only people standing around the store. As the store workers started setting out the apples, oranges, lettuce, broccoli, eggplant, etc., there was a bit of a feeding frenzy as the store patrons surrounded the bins and filled up their baskets. We were pretty excited to have some fresh food.

We had spent about two weeks in Fakarava, and it was time to move on. So, we made the decision to head up to the next atoll, Toau. More on that next time…

~Katie