French Polynesia – Adagio’s Voyage

Best for Last

After a little over a year, it was finally time for us to check out of French Polynesia and head west. We definitely had mixed feelings about leaving. There were still islands and atolls we hadn’t seen in French Polynesia, but there is more to the South Pacific to explore going west.

We headed to Bora Bora to check out of the country, as it is the furthest port west where you can check out. We were feeling grateful that we had spent some time in Bora Bora last year before new regulations came into place this year restricting where private boats can anchor. Apparently the high end resorts that cater to honeymooners didn’t like sailboats anchoring out in front of their hotels. I’m really not sure why were so offensive! So, sailboats are now restricted to certain spots away from the hotels, and some of those anchorages are pretty deep requiring you to use a mooring which they will gladly charge you $20/night to use. This time, we were going to make our visit short.

Even though Bora Bora is the last place you can check out with the officials, there are some islands that are part of French Polynesia further west. One of those is Maupiti, only 27 miles from Bora Bora. The officials (unofficially) look the other way if you check out in Bora Bora and stop over in Maupiti for a few days before leaving the country.

We really wanted to visit Maupiti, but the prospects weren’t looking good. There is only one pass into the lagoon in Maupiti on the south side. When there is a large south swell running, the pass can be completely closed out not allowing any boats in or out. We were carefully watching the weather with our friends on Allora and hoping that we would get the chance to go.

We finished the checkout process with the officials and got our exit paperwork. Some final provisions were done at the local magazins, and our fingers were crossed for Maupiti. There was still a south swell, but it was a lot less than it had been for the last two weeks. Our friend Diana contacted a local on the island who said that the next day looked doable, not ideal, but possible. We decided to go for it.

We pulled up anchor before the sun was up and headed through the pass in Bora Bora. There was little to no wind but we could see the long, slow rollers of the south swell. Allora, as always, is faster than us. So, we knew they would go through the pass first. We saw them lining up to go in and waited to get a report on the VHF. They have been in FP for two years and are not shy or hesitant to go into sketchy anchorages. So, when I heard Diana on the radio say the pass was “lively” with excitement in her voice, with a warning just not to look back once we decided to go for it, I knew we were in for something different.

We lined up to go in the pass based on the heading set out on our charts and held our breath as we started toward the narrow pass with large waves breaking on the reef on either side of us. The current coming out of the pass was immense. The current was 4-5 kts against us – easily the most current we have ever had in a pass. Mike gunned it and we both prayed our engine wouldn’t die, or we would be up on the reef in no time. We pushed it to 2500 rpms, and I watched the engine temp tick up over normal. Despite the engine working as hard as it could, we were barely making 2 kts over the ground. Mike had so little steerage between the current and the waves that I could see him working harder than I’ve ever seen on the wheel to steer the boat. I just tried to stay out of the way.

But, before we knew it, we were inside. We had made it! What awaited us inside the lagoon was amazing. There are fringing reefs and motus on the outside of the lagoon and a beautiful island in the middle with large rock faces on one side and the rest covered in green. I think it is one of the most beautiful places in French Polynesia. It definitely made me think that this is what Bora Bora must have been before tourism came there.

We navigated the marked channel to the anchorage and set the hook. Then, we were off to explore. I think I said over and over that we had saved the best of French Polynesia for last. We biked all around the island, hiked up to the top of the mountain and swam with manta rays inside the lagoon. We went fishing and snorkeling and stared at the beauty of this magnificent place. We played around with local kids on the dock and laughed as they tried out the few words in English they knew and asked us silly questions like, “Are you a peanut?”

But, it was time to move on and the weather looked right for the four day passage to Penrhyn in the Cook Islands. We raised anchor and said goodbye to French Polynesia as we sailed out the pass and headed west.

~katie

The Pull of the Ocean

When we left Rangiroa, we had a 36 hr sail back to Tahiti. It was the best sail we have had this year with 15 kts of wind on the beam and calm seas. We barely had to touch the sails as the consistent eastern trade winds pushed us back to Tahiti. The nights were clear without any squalls, and the stars gave us plenty to ponder when alone in the cockpit overnight. I needed a sail like that. We had had a few uncomfortable passages this year, one in which I was sick the whole time. I was beginning to dread being on passage again, but this sail brought me back to the joy of just gliding on the ocean.

We arrived back in Tahiti before dawn and tied up to the dock at the downtown marina. We had planned for one week in the marina to do a bunch of boat chores and provisioning before heading out again. We finally were starting to wrap our heads around the fact that we were going to be leaving French Polynesia after a year. Our last time to pull into Tahiti was bittersweet. But, after a week of hard work, we headed out west again for Huahine.

Huahine was probably our favorite island in the Societies that we visited last year. And, it is the place that Mike really got his surf groove on. He had done a little surfing before that, but not much. Just outside the entrance to the pass was a great wave that Mike got out on almost every day for two months last year. And, as we were departing Tahiti, Mike checked the surf forecast to see that the surf report looked good for the next week.

We arrived in Huahine to find a couple of boats that we knew and quickly met others in the anchorage. There was a fleet of about six other boats, all families with kids, who were going to be traveling to the Cook Islands at the same time as us. So, we’re going to have lots of company.

As soon as we dropped anchor, Mike grabbed the surf board and hit the waves. It had been awhile since he was able to surf, so the first couple of days he was a bit sore getting those paddling muscles back in shape. But, he was determined to get as much time on the waves as possible.

Our friends Ken and Edith on Alondra wanted to go check out the surf and get some pictures of the surfers. Edith has a nice long lens on her camera (better than mine) and thought we could get close enough to get some good pictures. Ken volunteered to drive the dinghy, which took some skill to get inside the waves but then get out of them in time before they were breaking. We didn’t want to get caught inside and roll the dinghy!

We had so much fun for two days capturing Mike and the other surfers catching waves, missing waves, getting pummeled by waves and generally having a good time. I was so impressed by how well Mike was surfing. Its not easy to pick up a new sport at age 50, but his determination and strength have paid off. He was catching more waves than most of the other surfers and actually looked like he knew what he was doing!

After seeing him surf up close, I really started to understand the draw of surfing. The power of the ocean is most evident by the visual of the large waves breaking down on the coral reef. Sitting and waiting for the perfect wave in the clear blue ocean where you can look down and see the coral and fish below as if you could reach down and touch them makes you feel how tiny you are in the vast ocean.

That pull of the ocean, what drives us to spend our days sailing, surfing, diving and swimming is something that feels so raw and natural. It is the opposite of living in the concrete jungle of the cities and spending your days immersed in the online world. Its something I wish I could capture in a bottle and take with me to give to anyone who has never been to the ocean. I think if we could spread that feeling around the world, we’d all live in a better place. A world that appreciates and reveres our environment, is kind and generous and finds exhilaration in the little things in life that make up this wonderful world.

~katie

Diving with Dolphins

After leaving Fakarava, we had an easy overnight sail to Rangiroa. Rangiroa is one of the atolls in the Tuamotus which we weren’t able to visit last year. So, we were excited to explore a new place. Our friends Diana and Marcus on Allora came along with us, and we were very excited to run into our French friends Caroline and Philippe on Ivadel when we arrived in the anchorage. We first met Caroline and Philippe in Mexico and reconnected with them last year in the Marquesas. Upon arrival, they told us that they were in Rangiroa so that Philippe could complete his dive master certification at one of the local dive shops.

One of the reasons we really wanted to visit Rangiroa was for the diving. As many dives as we have done in French Polynesia, we have never seen dolphins in the water. We see dolphins from the boat, but it seems to be really rare to see them snorkeling or diving. However, Rangiroa is known for some local dolphins that either tolerate or actually like playing with the divers. We’ve had friends tell stories of dolphins coming right up to them like dogs wanting to be petted. We had no intention of actually touching a dolphin, but I really wanted to see them while diving.

There had been a rather large south swell for a few days filling the lagoon which meant that the current in the pass into the lagoon was always going out. With wind opposing the current, this also meant that there were some rather large waves in the pass. Due to the conditions, and our desire to get the best shot at finding the dolphins, we decided to go with some local dive shops rather than attempt the dives on our own.

We didn’t waste anytime getting to the diving and scheduled a sunset dive for the same day that we arrived. On the first dive, there were no dolphins, but lots of great barracuda, a school of twenty spotted eagle rays and a fantastic end to the dive where we ended up in a huge school of thousands of small jacks of some sort.

The next day we were back at it with even more determination to see dolphins. We had a different dive guide this time, a young French woman who was the most at ease in the water I had ever seen. She just kind of floated with an occasional frog kick to propel her forward, unlike my clumsy diving where I’m always trying to dial in my buoyancy and not look like a flailing fish when trying to deal with current. I aspire to look so calm in the water!

Anyway, our guide suggested that our best shot at seeing the dolphins might be to go out a little bit further from the reef “into the blue.” After a “one, two, three, everybody into the water,” we descended into the blue. I had never had a dive like this where all around was blue. You couldn’t see the bottom or the reef off to our right. As we descended, I had to carefully watch my depth gage, because I had absolutely no sense of how deep we were with no reference points around us. Even looking up at the surface didn’t give you any clue as to where you were. It really did feel like floating in outer space. I thought it was awesome.

We swam for a while with some fish drifting by and eventually over toward the reef. All the while, we were constantly looking for the dolphins. As my air showed less than half a tank left, I was beginning to think that dive number two was also going to be a bust for dolphins. But, just as I was beginning to lose hope that we would see them, they appeared. The dolphins were above us toward the surface, but we could see a small pod of four or five. And, the most amazing part was a baby dolphin who we were told by the dive guide had just been born about 10 days prior. If it is possible to smile with a regulator in your mouth, I did it.

After three dives, the weather forecast was not looking too good to stay anchored up by the pass. We looked at sailing down to the southeast part of the lagoon where we would have some protection from the wind and fetch. That part of the lagoon also has large sand flats where Mike and Marcus were very excited to do some fly fishing for bonefish.

The boys had a fun time that week out every morning stalking the fish on the flats. Diana, who is an artist did an awesome mosaic on one of the sand spits which a bunch of shells she collected. And, one day Diana and I went out to do some fun photo shoots. Diana caught this cool photo of me and an a sting ray. (I now want a dome lens for my camera!)

She also got some awesome drone photos of our boats, that I’m thankful she shared with me.

The wind subsided and we headed back to the anchorage by the pass to do some more diving. We got in a couple more dives and even got to have Philippe act as our dive guide as part of his training with one of the dive shops. We saw the dolphins (and the baby) a few more times, but they never got too close to us. I was a little disappointed that I didn’t get my close encounter, but we gave it our best shot.

We loved Rangiroa, and I could have stayed there a lot longer, but the time was coming for us to head back to Tahiti and to start to head west. Leaving the Tuamotus with no idea if or when we will every be able to return gave me a sad pang. I know that there is more to see out there, but it is hard to wrap your head around leaving a place that it truly a paradise.

~katie

Dinghy Walkabout

After leaving Tahanea, we headed to the atoll of Fakarava. Fakarava was one of my favorite places that we visited last year. The southern pass is known as one of the best dive spots in French Polynesia, if not the world. The fascinating thing about diving the pass is the wall of sharks. I posted a video last year of diving in the pass. If you haven’t seen it, click on the videos link on the front page of the blog and check it out. Hopefully, I’ll eventually get up another video from this year’s dives.

We arrived early in the morning and found an open mooring to pick up. And, as we came in we recognized another boat in the anchorage, Alondra. We got to know Ken, Edith and their two daughters last year and were excited to see them again. Ken and Edith are marine biologists and avid divers, so we knew we were in for a treat to dive with them again. The minute we said hello, we were already planning a dive with them.

There was a lot of incoming current in the pass, so in order to dive we tied up one dinghy to a buoy outside the pass and left another dinghy inside the pass. The plan was to surface in the shallow water near the second dinghy where someone could then head back and retrieve the first dinghy. It’s been fun learning how other people dive on their own without paying to go with a dive operation. It’s a little more work, but it is rewarding to plan and organize your own dives and then successfully fulfill them.

We descended down to the ocean floor full of coral and beautiful reef fish about 60 feet down and then headed to the middle of the pass where there is a deep canyon. The canyon is where all of the sharks hang out. Ken and Edith showed us where there was a cave located at 90 feet down. The cave didn’t extend far inside, but it provided a fun sandy spot to hang out and watch all of the sharks drift by. The sharks really do seem like they are floating in air as they calmly swim against the current. It is a lot of fun to watch.

We didn’t stay that deep for long, especially because once we were out of the cave the current pushed us further in where we could just relax and float by all the fish. As we got even shallower, there was an area Ken referred to as “Superman Alley.” That’s because the current really has you flying over the coral at that point. If you want to stop, you’ve got to grab onto something and hold on tight! It was all super fun, and in all we got about five more dives in there.

Another boat had invited us and our friends Marcus and Diana aboard for cocktails at sunset. We had fun with friends new and old telling lots of sailing yarns, but we got a real shock when we went to leave. It was about 9:00 pm and pitch black out. So, when we discovered our dinghy was no longer tied to the back of their boat, we both had a bit of a freak out.

When you live on a boat, your dinghy is your lifeline to shore. It is a bit like your car to get you from A to B, but also lets us do fun things like dive and snorkel and fish. And, when you are in a remote spot like Fakarava, you can’t just go out to the store and get another one. So, if we couldn’t find the dinghy, it was going to seriously put a crimp in our future plans.

I got dropped off at our boat while Mike in our new friends’ dinghy and Marcus and Diana in their dinghy went out looking with spot lights. It seemed hopeless, especially when Mike got back about an hour later with no sign of the dinghy. Neither of us slept well that night.

The next morning we were up early trying to come up with a plan. Fakarava is an atoll, which means that other than the two passes, it is a lagoon with a fringing reef and lots of motus (islands). We thought about the winds and tides and all came to the conclusion that it would be unlikely, if not impossible, for the dinghy to have gotten out of the lagoon. But, to search the lagoon seemed like an insurmountable task. It is huge!

As soon as it was a decent hour to bug people, I started getting on the phone and email to contact anyone and everyone we knew in Fakarava to get the word out. We figured if the dinghy was found, it would likely be brought to the main town of Rotoava about 25 miles away. In the meantime, Mike and Diana went to shore to see if they could hire a local boat, that would be much bigger and faster, to go searching.

Just as I had about exhausted everyone I could think to contact (boats in Rotoava, yacht services, gendarme, etc.), Diana excitedly came over the VHF to say that they had found the dinghy!

We don’t know how the dinghy came loose. Mike tied the line around the rail the way he always has done, but somehow it came undone. So, the line was dragging in the water as the dinghy blew away. That ultimately was a blessing, because that line just barely snagged on some coral as the dinghy drifted over a shallow reef. And so, the dinghy was just sitting there waiting for us only a couple of miles away. There were all smiles aboard both the boat that took Mike and Diana out searching and aboard Adagio where I was waiting. Whew!

~katie

Jellyfish

Right before we left the Gambiers for the Tuamotus (about 650 miles), I started having really severe headaches that were causing me to be nauseous, vomit, dizzy and generally incapacitated. At first I thought it was just really bad migraines. But, then they would come and go. I would be fine one day and in bed the next. We were in passage planning mode, and this was really not the time to be sick.

We had a decent weather window to leave the Gambiers, and if we didn’t take it we might have to wait another couple of weeks. After a bit of discussion, we decided to go anyway. Mike said he could handle the boat himself, essentially single-handing, if I could just stand some watches for a few hours at a time to let him get some rest. It was a huge undertaking for him to do, but he was confident it would be fine.

Thankfully, we had a wonderful passage from the Gambiers to Tahanea in the Tuamotus. The wind was perfect, and we sailed almost the whole way wing and wing downwind. The first few days I was really feeling bad, but then I started to feel more like myself and could help out a bit more. I tried to get as much rest as I could, and Mike was wonderful. By the time we arrived in Tahanea, I was hopeful I was finally back to being 100%.

My hopefulness was short lived when we arrived in Tahanea, as I had another horrible day where I couldn’t keep any food down. My friend Diana was so lovely trying to help me troubleshoot what could possibly be wrong. I didn’t have a high fever or any symptoms that were life threatening, so we didn’t feel the need to bolt to civilization for medical assistance. It was just a long two weeks of on and off days. We still don’t know what the problem was, but suspect it was likely one of those lovely tropical mosquito borne viruses that you can’t do anything about except wait it out anyway.

We ended up in the most beautiful anchorage in Tahanea with clear, sunny days, and I was miserable that I wasn’t able to go out and enjoy it. We had seen these very strange looking large, purple jellyfish around the anchorage when we approached. Diana has inspired me with her amazing underwater photography, so I was not surprised when she immediately dove in to photograph them. Later that night, she showed us her amazing photographs that looked unreal. The jellyfish looked like alien creatures with amazing colors of blues and purples. Her pictures looked like works of art, and I was determined to get some photos before we left this place.

Finally I was feeling up for getting in the water and set off with Diana and our cameras to capture the jellyfish. Each one was slightly different in shape and color. Some of them would dive down toward the sand while others stayed up near the surface. It was a sunny day, and the sunlight reflecting through the water onto the jellyfish made them seem as if they had internal lights lighting them up inside. We tried photographing them at all different angles and at different stages as they swam. Despite my best efforts, I really can’t even describe them. The best pictures, to me, are shots zoomed in that show the unique detail on each one. We were both so fascinated by them that I think neither of us wanted to leave the water even though my fingers looked like prunes.

These jellyfish were so unreal and like nothing I have seen in the water. They were also the most fascinating thing I have ever photographed. Diana was right in her assessment that an awe inspiring day with creatures like that can be very healing, and it was. It was just what I needed to get out of my slump and start feeling more like myself.

~katie

Shark Bump

We followed our friends Marcus and Diana on Allora to a beautiful anchorage in the northern part of the Gambiers, where their friend Eric owns a pearl farm. Marcus and Diana have been in French Polynesia for two years and really made some wonderful friends with some locals, including Eric and his family.

We took the dinghies over to Eric’s place which has a huge sand flat out front where Mike and Marcus were going to do some fly fishing. Around the side of the island is what is called a “false pass.” A false pass is a break in the reef that heads out to the open ocean, but it is not deep enough for a boat to be able to pass through across the reef. But, the false pass made for a great snorkeling location.

Diana and I left the boys in the flats and headed to the pass with our snorkel gear. We had to almost crawl across very shallow coral to get to these large caverns or bowls of deeper water cut into the reef. It was a spectacular site. Diana and I each started exploring the area, diving down to look in little crevasses under the coral and getting great pictures of all kinds of colorful reef fish. We saw several species of huge grouper lumbering around and even had a couple schools of bluefin trevally swim by.

After swimming for a little while, several whitetip reef sharks appeared. The whitetips have been the most curious sharks in my experience. Most of the other reef sharks won’t get that close to you, but the whitetips don’t seem to have much fear. They are usually in the 4-5 foot range, so they are big enough to be substantial but not usually frightening. A couple of times I would turn around to see one only a foot or two next to me just staring at me. It was starting to get a bit annoying, because I then became distracted constantly looking around me.

At one point I was at the surface and turned to find one shark heading straight for me at an angle from below quite quickly. At the same time, there were two or three others swimming nearby me. It was a little unnerving. I faced the shark heading toward me. As I had my fins out toward the shark, he came up and bumped my fins. I kicked him to get him to move away from me, which didn’t really do much in terms of a deterrent effect. Finally, he moved away a bit as I looked over at Diana. She asked me, “Did he bump you?” When I said yes, we decided to move out of the area. Some locals had told Diana that the sharks will bump you before they decide to take a bite.

Neither of us wanted to be shark bait, so we swam to a shallower area where the sharks didn’t follow us. The whitetip reef sharks aren’t known for being aggressive or dangerous, so we don’t know if these particular sharks were just curious or being territorial, or what. Whatever it was, we didn’t really stick around long enough to find out. Luckily, the sharks didn’t bother us the rest of the afternoon as we snorkeled around the shallows and headed back in toward where the boys were fly fishing.

As I’m sure you all know by now, Mike loves to fish. But, he had done mostly deep sea fishing and had not tried his hand at fly fishing. Marcus is a huge fly fisherman and inspired Mike to try it. So, when we were back in the States, Mike bought himself a fly fishing rod. The sport of fly fishing is really fascinating to watch. The technique used to try to catch a fish on the fly is really an art and quite graceful.

We’d heard tales from Marcus about the fascinating fish that he had caught fly fishing. But, by far one of his favorites is bonefish. These beautiful, slender, silvery fish dart around in the shallow, sandy areas eating little things they pick up on the sand. In order to catch one, you have to see it first, then present the fly just in front of it and then be able to hook it and reel it in. Once they are on the hook, they like to fight, giving the fisherman a bit of fun.

Mike had now been trying to catch one of these elusive bonefish ever since we arrived in the Gambiers, with no luck. But, just as Diana and I were coming out of the water from our snorkel, we saw Mike in the distance hook up. We all ran over to see the action as we hoped Mike would be able to score his first bonefish. It was fun to see him quickly stripping the line and reeling it in to get that fish, and we were all there to see it! Mike was beaming and having so much fun. He is definitely hooked on fly fishing!

The next night we were invited aboard Allora for dinner with Eric and his son (also Eric) and had a wonderful time with a fantastic meal and great company. It was a great end to our time in the Gambiers. After a quick stop in Rikitea, we were off to the Tuamotus.

~katie

Putting the Boat Back Together

We’re back in Tahiti! We had a wonderful couple of months visiting with friends and family back in the States over the holidays, but it was time to get back to Adagio to start our fourth year of our sailing adventure. We had waited too late in the season last year to find a spot in a marina to leave our boat while we traveled, so we reluctantly left the boat at anchor (something we had never done!).We anchored the boat in Port Phaeton in Tahiti, which is the most protected bay here on the island and paid a local guy to look after our boat. That gave us some comfort, but as December technically was the start of cyclone season in the South Pacific, there was always a remote chance that a huge storm could arrive leaving us helpless to do anything half way around the globe. Luckily, everything went fine.

We arrived back in Tahiti at about midnight, and the anchorage was close to 30 miles away from the airport. So, it was not possible to get back to the boat that night. Our friend Dan was nice enough to pick us up at the airport and let us stay aboard his boat in the downtown marina so that we could get back to Adagio in daylight the next day.

I was a bit concerned about what we would find when we arrived back to the boat. On the day we left, it was pouring rain. We had taken down all the canvas and sails and had to put them and the cockpit cushions inside the boat soaking wet. As it is pretty hot and humid and the boat was going to be closed up for two months, my main concern was mold. It wasn’t that bad, but I did have to wipe down just about every surface and wall inside the boat with vinegar to kill any mildew that was present.

Our first order of business was putting everything back in place when we arrived. Everything on deck had been stored below, so it was impossible to even walk in the boat. The paddle boards and surf boards take up quite a bit of room, so they were the first to be evicted from the cabin to be stored back on deck. Next came cockpit cushions, scuba tanks and canvas for our dodger.

We had to wait to put the sails back up as there is a bit of a funnel effect of the wind in the bay. So, we got up at 5 am the next morning just before sunrise, which was the only time we found it still enough to hoist and furl the jib and staysail. The bottom of the boat didn’t look too bad, but our prop was fouled with tons of barnacles. Mike spent over and hour chipping them off of there. We weren’t going anywhere with a prop full of barnacles. As bad as the prop was, it was nothing compared to the anchor chain. As we pulled up anchor, the first thirty or so feet were just covered in the stinky crustaceans. It took two and a half hours of back breaking scrubbing to get them off as we raised our anchor chain.

Slowly, the boat systems came back online. We got the refrigerator running again after recharging it with a ton of refrigerant, flushed the pickling solution out of the water maker to get it running again, and changed the oil and filters on the engine to be ready to go. So far, its been a solid five days of hard work to get back to normal around here, but we’re feeling pretty good about it.

Next, we have to get ourselves put back together. After two months in the States of overindulging in food and drinks, we’re finding the clothes don’t fit so well. When you’re hanging out with friends and family you haven’t seen in a year, everyday is a bit of a celebration. In addition, we celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, an anniversary, three birthdays and a new baby (my nephew)! Its going to require a bit of discipline on our parts to get back into good shape. We also lost any tan that we had acquired. As it is summer time here, the sun is particularly strong. So, we’ll be wearing long sleeves, hats and lots and lots of sunblock for the near future.

We have some more work to do on the boat, provisioning and other errands, but soon we are going to start looking at weather windows to leave Tahiti. Our plan is to make it to the Gambiers, but we may make some stops in the Tuamotus along the way depending on what the wind and weather do. We’re excited to see what is in store for us this year!

~katie

Diving in the Tuamotus

We’ve been back in the States visiting family for the holidays, and I have been busy editing videos of the scuba and free diving we did in the Tuamotus this year. The best things about the remote Tuamotus are the clear water and abundant sea life. That made it the perfect place to get in the water daily to check out what was below the surface.

If you’re wondering what our process is/was for finding places to dive that were fun and safe, we actually had a lot of help. Thanks to sailors who have gone before us and published their favorite dive sites, there is a lot of information you can find online. We also asked other sailors we met along the way for their favorite spots. In places where there were actual dive shops, we found the people to be very generous with their local knowledge even when we weren’t paying to dive with them. But, sometimes we just had to do some exploring on our own to scope out some new spots.

When we didn’t have any information about an area, often we would do a reconnaissance snorkel to see if it looked like a good dive spot before breaking out the dive gear. That let us assess the depth, current, visibility, etc. We have our own dive gear, including a compressor to fill our dive tanks, which lets us dive wherever we like. We’ve also met lots of other divers on boats doing the same thing who have become fast friends. That means it is rarely ever just the two of us diving. There is always safety in numbers!

Pretty much all of the time, we are diving from our dinghy. We get all our gear ready and pile it into the dinghy to head off to the dive site. If the site doesn’t have any current, we anchor the dinghy or tie it to a mooring ball if there is one. The dive shops have been really nice about letting us use their moorings. But, if we are scuba diving or free diving anywhere that has current, especially in the passes, we tow our dinghy. Mike has a 100′ floating line that he attaches to the dinghy and his BCD. That way, when we are ready to ascend, we just come up the line and are right at our dinghy no matter where we are. We’ve also been lucky enough to have other sailors that just wanted to snorkel the passes while we dove and were willing to tow the dinghy at the surface for us and keep an eye on where we are. So, overall, we have had lots of fun and easy dives without incident.

Below are a few of the videos that I put together about our time in the Tuamotus this year. I hope you enjoy them. You can also read more about the Tuamotus if you go back and check out my blog posts from earlier this year.

Diving Fakarava – June 2018

Exploring Tahanea – June 2018

Diving Makemo – May 2018

Free Diving Raroia – May 2018

Happy Holidays!

~katie

We got Tattoos!

Tattoos are part of the traditional culture here in Polynesia and have been for hundreds of years (or more). When the Europeans arrived with Christian missionaries, they tried to eradicate a lot of the local culture, including tattoos. But, tattoos have reemerged in the culture here and are seen everywhere. The tattoo artists create designs using the traditional symbology. The tattoos are supposed to tell a “story” about who you are or what is important to you. After seeing so many locals and friends on boats with these unique tattoos, we decide to take the plunge and get some ourselves.

We had met several people with beautiful tattoos who recommended one artist on Moorea named Gilles. So, when we were back in Moorea we sought out Gilles to make an appointment.

We were anchored in Cook’s Bay and took a dinghy ride east of the bay to a small dock in front of Gilles’ house where he has a small tattoo studio overlooking the water. We had some idea of what we wanted, but not an exact design. I explained that I wanted to incorporate the symbols of the ocean and sea life to memorialize our life at sea and on the ocean. The center of the tattoo is a small manta ray, and around it are the symbols for waves, sun, turtles, wind and birds. Mike liked the fish hook symbol for fishing, which is the center of his tattoo, but he wanted it to also reflect his love of water sports, so waves play a prominent part in his tattoo as well as other ocean symbols.

Gilles listened to us and nodded before getting us up to draw freehand on our bodies with a pen. His drawing was just a template as all of the detail work he did just with the tattoo needle. So, it was a lot of trust in someone we just met to have a bit of free reign in inking our bodies!

We were both really excited about the final products. It was such a fun and unique experience that we got to do together. And, will always have this permanent memory of our time in French Polynesia.

-katie

Whales in Moorea

I mentioned in a previous post that it is the season in French Polynesia where the humpback whales travel up north from Antarctica during the winter months in order to give birth to the calves. It is toward the end of the season now, and soon the whales will be headed back down south for the summer. We had only seen one whale when we were in Huahine, and we were hoping for the chance to see some more when we arrived in Moorea.

While we were anchored off Opunohu Bay, we heard from several boats that some mother and calf pairs were spotted just outside the pass and occasionally came inside the lagoon. The authorities here have put some very reasonably regulations around getting close to the whales, as there are quite a few tourist whale watching operations on the island. We were told that you could not get close to the whales if they came inside the lagoon. However, outside the lagoon it was permissible to swim next to them as long as you kept the boats a reasonable distance away.

Our friends Marcus and Diana on Allora had been able to jump in with the whales a few days earlier and promised to call us the next time they were able to spot them. So, we weren’t too surprised when Diana called us one morning to say that they were near some whales in their dinghy just outside the pass. So, Mike and I quickly put the dinghy in the water, threw on some wetsuits and gathered our snorkel gear to go join them.

When we arrived, the whale watching boats were a bit in the distance watching some other whales. No one except Marcus and Diana were close to a mother and calf that were just hanging out right off the reef. I quickly threw on my mask and fins and slid into the water. Unfortunately, the visibility wasn’t as good as the last few times we had been outside the lagoon to dive. In order to see where to swim to, you had to look for the whales on the surface. But, once you got within 10 or 15 feet of the whales, they were quite visible!

I was a bit nervous to get that close to these large animals. The momma whale was about 40 feet long (as big as our boat!). The calf was probably 15 feet long. The calf was swimming at the surface just above the momma whale’s head. Occasionally, the momma whale would nudge the calf up toward the surface, but she stayed submerged and almost stationary in the water.

As Diana and I got closer, the baby whale would do flips and turns and just stare at us with it’s big eye. They weren’t bothered by us being close to them at all. They seemed curious and a bit intrigued by us being there. Diana was a bit braver than I was getting pretty close to the calf to get some incredible photos. I tried to keep a bit of a distance knowing that if the whales decided to take off quickly, we didn’t want to be anywhere near where that powerful tail could accidentally hit us.

It was fascinating to watch the baby whale play at the surface while the mother kept close watch. She would let it go a few feet in front of her and then come up underneath it again. The adult whales can stay underwater a lot longer than the calves can. She had to make sure that the calf stayed near the surface to be able to breathe. But, other than nudging the calf, the momma whale didn’t move very much. I had read that whales, unlike humans, don’t truly sleep. They just rest one half of their brains at a time. They are conscious breathers, again unlike humans who breathe unconsciously, so they have to be aware enough to decide when to come up and take a breath.

We wondered if the momma whale was basically sleeping, as she really hadn’t moved much for the 20 or so minutes that we were swimming all around her. But, then suddenly, she decided it was time to come up. With one flick of the tail, momma and baby were on the move. We looked up out of the water to see the baby breach out of the water followed by that momma whale jumping clear out of the water as well. Then, they both did it again giving us a fantastic show.

We weren’t in the dinghy long before we saw another momma and baby whale a little bit off in the distance. We turned off the outboard before we got too close and slipped back in the water again to swim over to them. They let us swim around them for a few minutes before they turned and headed right toward us! We were trying to keep some distance from them, but again, they seemed to be quite aware of us. Right before they got to us, they dove and swam right under us! It was thrilling!

It was such a fantastic experience to swim with these magnificent animals. Its almost unimaginable how big they are until you see them up close. The humpbacks look almost prehistoric to me. I don’t know how long they’ve been on the earth, but it isn’t hard to imagine that they (or something like them) were around at the time of dinosaurs. They are clearly intelligent creatures who were as curious about us as we were about them. They could have easily swum away the minute that we got close, but they didn’t. Perhaps we were the real tourist attraction.

My video did not turn out nearly as well as Diana’s fantastic photos of our experience. I hope you enjoy this brief glimpse of what we saw in the water….

~Katie