Neighbours

We were having lunch in deck when a man approached and kindly offered us 4 passion fruit.
Christian and his wife Agnes live on a nearby yacht, with the deck piled high with boxes, that turned out to be beehives. They had just returned from their hives ashore, and Christian had a swollen eye from being stung.  One of their bees joined Tin Tin for a bit too.   We quickly established that we could buy some honey, and now have a large bottle of delicious aromatic honey with a skim of pollen on top as they do not use a centrifuge.

Opposite us is a large gleaming white yacht called Alumni from Guernsey sporting a discrete German flag on the cross trees.    The grey haired skipper keeps it immaculately clean and tidy and, always fascinated by other boats, I went over to admire.   It transpires that Hans and his wife Sylvia have been cruising for 8 years doing a circumnavigation and a half including a long period in Patagonia.  They used to have friends and family all the time, but no one wanted to join them for the long passages........  understandable!  They had their boat designed by Bill Dixon in Southampton, and built in aluminium in Germany. Everything run on hydraulic pumps it seems, so very easy to sail solo.  He offered to show me his walk-in engine room, but sadly I didn't have time then, and now they have headed home for 2 months.

Living alongside the dock for a week means that we get to meet interesting people and see new boats. At the end of the dock is the largest cruising catamaran, which was raced solo by a Frenchman...... and for cruising has now had 20 tonnes of ballast added so it doesn't spend the whole time up on one hull !

Moorea, Anne and the Shark Pack

22nd May 2017

Justin left yesterday evening and after filling with fuel we set off to sail to Moorea. It was Julien's first sail and he handled the boat well. The mountains are so dramatic, rising out of the calm blue water of the encircling lagoon inside the reef.    We anchored in Cook's Bay supposedly visited by him in 1777.

Neighbouring boats include Oceana with Canadians Luke and Aline on board and Tina of Poncé with Guy and Rika (Frederika) who we had corresponded with on the Puddle Jump Net crossing to the Marquesas.

We took the dinghy out to the reef, swimming a long way against the current and eventually getting to the breaking waves.   Coral mostly looking rather dead, but nonetheless there are lots of interesting fish.  Such huge variety of fish! Each time I float, gazing down them, I try to memorise their amazingly individual patterns.   There's a thick book of fish on sale in Papeete - I will buy it!

Sketch from memory of the White-banded Triggerfish

Having observed the white banded triggerfish closely for several minutes on many occasions I've now tried to sketch, it but find that my memory just will not produce an accurate map of its colour and pattern.  I noted the pale yellow band across the lips with a middle stripe of iridescent blue interspersed with black.

Across the eyes are three stripes of vivid deep blue interspersed with black, but I cannot recall how they terminate! On the back there's a pale patch bounded by black and often crossed with a band of chestnut brown which bands down to the belly.

On the flanks are deep black veins of which two are larger and the other two shorter.  The tail escapes me!   Its behaviour pattern involves taking bites out of bits of coral growth and then spitting out larger chunks while spraying fine white sand out of its gills  Parrot fish on the other hand secrete the sand from coral that they have eaten.

We had moored opposite a café and went ashore for sundowners.  It turned out to be heavily themed on Veuve Cliquot, complete with souvenir shop.  A bottle of VC cost $220!   Instead we drank expensive Piña Coladas whilst watching a vivid red sunset.

23rd May 2017
We motored round to the next bay to track down TopDive for Emily and Julien.  Many more boats here but no cafés.  We went snorkelling again on the reef.

24th  May 2017
Next day we motored 3 miles down to the Intercontinental Hotel to find Top Dive.  En route we explored and found the spots where tourists swim with sharks and rays. It was quite amazing having 15-18 black tip reef sharks at least 4 feet long swimming past in shoals and I got a great video of Anne swimming with the sharks.  Then there were the sting rays under one's feet which was quite worrying!

Black Tip Reef Sharks

Emily and Julien on alert as stingrays circle them

The infinity pool at the Intercontinental Hotel

Sadly Emily and Julien's dive was cancelled due to an engine failure, so we had a drink and a swim in the infinity pool and then went off to see the Dolphinarium where, for $260, you can swim with the dolphins.  It was a sad sight with the ocean just the other side of the net and three bored captive dolphins, two of which had floppy fins - apparently a sure sign of depression.  We considered whether we could release them by cutting the wire that night, but failed to do so.

Turtles

Then we went to see the turtle clinic where injured turtles are fed and cared for until released again. There were lots of babies plus some very large adults - both Hawksbill and Green turtles.

On the way back we stopped in at the Town Quay to find that the four-masted cruise ship WindSpray was delivering all its guests ashore. There were stalls set up and Anne enjoyed shopping for more pearls.  We mooched round a couple of local supermarkets and then went back to Tin Tin for supper.

The WindSpray cruise ship

Know your Pearl!

Local supermarket

However Bill Hirsch on Sand Pebble invited us aboard for drinks. So at sunset we took him a bottle of wine and met his 5 crew.  One of them, Robyn Love, was cooking a delicious Chicken Gumbo, but we weren't catered for so we had a cold beer and a tour of the ship and then left. It was an impressive amount of space in a 55' hull and, if we didn't have sailing in mind it would be a brilliant boat to have.  It had 3 double cabins forward and a big state room aft with  saloon, dining room, galley and big engine room, workshop and storage. It seems that he had the boat built in China, and then had it shipped out to Tahiti with the intention of cruising westwards to Indonesia.  He's on his own, so he invites crew out through websites, and they fund their own flights and get food and lodging on board.  Robyn Love was keen on Mark!

25th May
Had a happy morning snorkelling along the shoreline and saw lots of new fish and a turtle. I tried diving down deep, equalised twice but it hurt a bit!  Not sure whether the perforated eardrum, that was diagnosed on my medical course in November, is healed yet.  We set sail about 11:30 for Papeete and with little wind motor-sailed to get there by 16:00.  marina manager, Philippe, found us an alongside berth which Mark surveyed with him, as it was a tight manoeuvre, and then parked us into it beautifully.  

We organised a taxi to the airport for Anne at 05:30 and dined ashore on a metre of pizza (again!)

26th May

I was up early to see Anne off at dawn, only to have her return at 07:00 as her flight was cancelled!  It was a busy day as I'd arranged, through Tehani of Tahiti Crew, for various workmen to do jobs.  She and her female team set up shop at a table under a tree at the Casa Bianca bar every morning and then dealt with all the requests for help.

Holiday over - now it's Maintenance Week!

27th May 2017

Anne finally got a flight back to the UK after frustrating cancellations and delays in Tahiti and then in Los Angeles.  After six wonderful weeks together it's hard to be on my own again. Indeed I felt like jumping on a plane and coming back too, but the schedule is a bit tight to get to Tonga in time for the next crew change, so I had to resist the impulse.

We have sailed together from Hiva Oa, to Ua Pou, then Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas islands, and then for three days to reach the Dangerous Archipelago of the Tuamotos. What a change from volcanic islands of soaring spires to the flat land of the atolls, bounded by a narrow strip of coral and palm trees sheltering lagoons that  can be twenty miles across.

After visiting Manihi, Ahé, Apataki, Toau and Fakarava we set sail again for a few days to Tahiti and neighbouring Moorea, where the two topographies combine to some extent to give mountains encircled by a sheltered lagoon with surf crashing onto a bare reef which has no dry land or palm trees.

We have met lots of people local or transient, and many sailing couples have a lifestyle living on board and slowly exploring together over several years, with regular periods back in their home country.

Perhaps we will find time to travel like that later.

Meanwhile work is going reasonably well on getting things back in order.   Thought you'd like to to hear the fun we have in this Pacific paradise!

1. The generator has been serviced by Ramon and water pipe replaced.  Needs a new water pump that the next crew will have to bring out. 
2. Sails have gone off for minor repairs.
3. New nav lights have been wired in by Mark
4. Both outboard motors have been serviced by Ramon, as they weren't starting or running smoothly.
5. The bow thruster failure diagnosed as two failed batteries.  Being replaced today by Will.
6. Our mid-Pacific mended electrical system has now had two new switches fitted.
7. The freezer which had been only managing -5degrees C has been regassed by fridge engineer, Toni, and is now heated up to +27degrees C! They have to come back...... 
8. I fixed a load of appalling electrical connections for the freezer, which explains why it turned on and off.
9. My iPhone died completely - so cheap(ish) Android phone acquired and expensive pay as you go credit installed.  I can now contact local workmen successfully.....phew!  You can call me on +689 87278645 if you need to....doesn't cost me anything I think, but it will be expensive from Europe!!!!

Oh yes, having finally found a cafe in Carrefour which gives internet access
I have now fixed the link to Emily's blog on TinTin's page.

We sent the sails off for repair in Tahiti. Here's the genoa neatly folded before fitting it back on the fore stay
  

Emily, Mark and Julien putting the mainsail back onto the roller boom after various minor repairs in Papeete.

Tahiti

16th May 2017

We motored out of the pass at Fakarava as the sun set and set sail for Tahiti. Winds were light to start with, so to make sure that we arrived in time to meet Julien, we motor-sailed the first night until the wind picked up enough to maintain my desired speed. After two nights we woke to find the slopes of the 4000' mountains of Tahiti angling steeply up to left and right into cloud ahead.

As we closed the land it took form and colour, showing deeply ravined valleys, richly covered in vegetation. To our right the land formed a low promontory called Venus Point, where Captain Cook set up his observatory to observe the transit of Venus across the face of the sun to determine the distance between the Earth and sun.

Approaching Tahiti

Beyond this the surf broke heavily on the outer reef, beyond which yachts were anchored on flat water. We could see lots of buildings up the lower slopes of the mountain, and much development on the shore line with large rocks ahead. I called Port Control on VHF Ch 12 and was allowed to enter the port behind a fast cat from Moorea. They then told me off for going left towards town quay rather than right to the Marina. I tried my best Polynesian politesse with "Mauru uru!" or thankyou, and then set off round the airport runway, needing a chat with port control at each end so that we could pass safely between flights landing and taking off.

We were lucky to get a place in Marina Taena immediately, and we parked behind motor yacht Duet and met Nancy & Ron.  It was a great luxury to be able to walk on and off the boat whenever required, and to have as much electricity and water as we wanted. We went ashore to the bar at the Marina called Casa Bianca where we could sit out under shade.

Justin and I had a few beers and then Anne and Emily arrived with new friends Christophe and Carina.  They were looking for a boat with Raymarine equipment and had seen us come into the marina.  They need to  link up and load firmware onto their new equipment.

A metre of beer and a metre of pizza!

Having paid our bill we went in to supper and ordered a metre of pizza and a metre of beer for CFP 9700 ($97).   It was lovely, but too much beer for me and I felt quite drunk.
Unfortunately Casa Bianca charged twice for the drinks which left us all feeling furious.  Justin very kindly picked up the whole bill.



The row of super yachts was impressive, and when we gate-crashed the super yacht crew party that night we learned that Annata had the tallest mast in the world until last year, when a newer yacht took the record. We met her nice skipper, Fabien, and some hospitable crew who plied us with punch and small eats. It seemed that none of the yachts were put out to charter, and all hung endlessly in port awaiting the whim of the owner. One Maltese deckhand, Luke, said that they had waited for 9 months for orders in San Diego. The owner had only been on board for three days in 14 months. They never put up the mainsail unless the owner was on board, for fear of damaging it, and in any wind over about 25 knots would have to take sail down. Every time they sailed they broke things it seemed. It
became a 9-5 job, endlessly polishing the boat, waiting for the owner to call.

Next day we explored Papeete a bit, and found it a charming town along the harbour front with a dual carriageway boulevarde shaded with mature trees. It seemed to have every kind of shop available and a fantastic covered market.

Papeete Market

Evening out at the roulettes

 One evening we returned to visit the roulottes, which are food vans, twenty of which form a well organised open air food market in the evenings, with a neatly laid-out grid of dining tables under pretty lights. The range of food was impressive with a preponderance of Chinese, but also grilled meats, traditional burgers or galettes. We settled for Chinese, and
 I had one of the national dishes - chow mein.

Anne and I took the dinghy out to the reef, and came across a great Saturday party where boats anchored along the calm inner edge, and people partied in waist-deep water on sand. Barbecues were set up, each on a single spike driven into the ground, music pounded from big speakers, and young and old boogied in the clear aquamarine water. Surfers were paddling across the lagoon to the breakers, and one hitched a lift with us and we towed him out to the edge of the break.

We hired a car for a day and drove halfway round the island on the thin strip of flat land between the sea and the impressively steep mountainsides cleft with deep vertical ravines, all clothed in mature rain forest. We stopped at Vaiapu to see the water gardens. Here a sacred waterfall roars down into a pool, and here the legend of the conversion of a spirit into man is rooted. We enjoyed the gardens through which the clear waters from the falls meander in streams and pools, overhung with massive trees, giant ferns, bamboos and palm trees. We climbed a steep trail up the mountain to a viewpoint 200 metres above the plain which gave excellent views of the lagoon, and the lower island Tahiti Iti. In flip flops the muddy path and steep slippery steps were rather a challenge, but thankfully there was a new installation of thick rope handrails which stopped us skidding off the cliff. At the bottom we washed our feet below the waterfall, slightly nervous about the four foot long eel that came fearlessly to investigate as soon as we entered the water. It reminded us that when we swam in the waterfall pool in Fatu Hiva there was something that slithered disconcertingly past us in the water.

The time came to say farewell to Justin, but with the nice thought that he and Siobhan will join us in Tonga soon. Julien arrived and he and Emily spent a few days in an AirBnB nearby. Finally Mark arrived laden with much needed spares - engine mounts for the generator, cooling water hose, navigation lights, deck hatch locks, and all sorts of items that I'd emailed him to get.

Arrival in Papeete

Finally arrived in Tahiti!

Fakarava & South Sea Tales

The atoll of Fakarava offered us a lovely place to sit and enjoy the view at La Paillote, which served Breton galettes and Breton cidre on the Sandy shore of the lagoon. Their little dock made it easy to come ashore in the dinghy and wi-fi meant that we could catch up on communications.

We also dropped in at a little art atelier, where the bearded man in nothing but colourful Hawaiian surf shorts showed us his creations of driftwood and shells. His paints glowed on the shelf backlit by the sunshine with the blue of the lagoon bright through the split-cane sunshades. Nearby Stephanie at Fakarava Yacht Services took in our laundry and rented us bikes for the morning. We cycled out 12km to the end of the atoll by the pass into the lagoon and had a look at the old lighthouse built like a skinny Mayan temple out of coral blocks and concrete.

It's great to be able to read books that relate to the places I am in. Fakarava features in several of Jack London's gripping South Sea short stories, of which I've downloaded 138 onto the Kindle free of charge! He had a huge amount of experience in South Seas trading, the great Klondike Gold Rush, and writes very vividly of the challenges of life in those times. I first came across him in a book of biographies of sea faring authors. His best known book is The Call of The Wild. By chance I then found his name branding a faded antique Hawaiian surf board in a Galician sea-side house where Anne and I stayed with my sister Sarah and Antony in 2016!

Anne's journal of Polynesia :part 2 : the Tuamotus

Of these 70 or so atolls , about half are inhabited : some only with 100 or less residents : these are connected to the bigger world with an airstrip with a weekly flight ( even if only big enough for a ten seater ) and the weekly freighter which moors on the wharf usually near the pass. Tahiti is 100 or so miles away .....2 days sail for us tomorrow. The whole archipelago stretches 1,000 NW to SE.

Each community lives for pearl fishing or copra ( for coconut oil). Tourism had not reached the four islands we have so far visited Manihi, Ahé, Apataki, and Tao, but even this one Fakarava, being the second largest, has only a little more in terms of services: most people come here to dive. We've found a lovely waterside cafe , four bikes to hire to cycle around a good part of the atoll 25 k . Every island "capital" has at least one church : sometimes 3 ( the villages are empty during services, with a really strong delivery through the open windows of hymns and music with drums and guitars ) They are simple but beautiful, and well kept in every case. Every village has shop with a very limited range of anything , and is only is "full" a couple of hours after the boat/ freighter delivery ! There is tremendous activity as these delivery vessels come in once a week : everyone joins in .

Each atoll has one or sometimes 2 "passes" which empty the water to and from the inside lagoon according to the various states of the tide . Because of the speed of the race , it is very tricky to navigate , but after the first, Paul's got increasingly confident though it can be very hairy. The passes are where fish of all sizes congregate and sharks, all for general feeding . Emily has dived in these doing "drift dives " that take you gently through the gorges and currents of the pass. Once inside the pass it is all eyes for coral, as very few channels are marked : again amazing navigation and guts from Paul and Justin jointly to find us the most idyllic anchorages with no one else in sight just off coral reefs for snorkelling . Entering these waters is really only possible in full sunlight otherwise you can't see the changes in colour to alert you to a collision with coral .The quality of the coral has varied in each atoll , but the abundance, range, size, behaviour, and colour of fish is astonishing . In some places the coral seems almost dead , in others live and vibrant. We can only assume a dramatic change of some kind , or that the parrotfish are succeeding in their work of munching it and turning it into a film of sand over everything . You can hear them munching under water , but I guess they can't cull them . They are the loveliest rainbow fish .

Some atolls are so huge, and like a big lake you can't see the other side or the ends : our smaller ones have even so been at least 5 miles radius . As well as the passes , the sea swells in over the coral bank in places along the edge creating a ring of little islands called "Motos". Some of the shacks on the Motos look like Robinson Crusoe's makeshift shelter , others seem more substantial . This applies to the range of houses in every village : some are barely more than sheds and some are well tended buildings and plots . The government (French) supplies everyone initially with materials , but each household has to fund the construction costs and presumably the maintenance thereafter : which explains the variation.
Each main community also has a central building like a "Bastide" built strikingly and strongly on concrete stilts , where everyone shelters for the duration of storms . The last devastating cyclone hit in 1983 , but there have been numerous other storms since .

Tourism has definitely not reached the smaller reefs / islands .Few people are indifferent , most often offer a cheery hello , and sometimes long conversations will ensue . This is how we find out the most , chatting to fisherman on the jetty thus leading us to our pearl farm visit . You can do these on a "tour " in the larger Islands.

There are no harbour dues, no landing fees, but when we've moored against a wharf , eventually a good many people rock up to chat ( for hours ) ! Always a good source of local information and gossip , using the ubiquitous tricycle as a platform for conversation. These wonderful vehicles ( imported from China and universal here ) provide a seat to chill on and chat , and with baskets on the back to carry produce , a friend , children , dog or simply as a way of getting around the limited lanes and streets of their community.

Many unpushy dogs lounge around , most clearly attached to someone (sacks of dog food available in the shop) . When at Apataki there were several waiting for their owners working at the pearl fisheries just off shore . Cat's not widespread ( we've seen 3 ) and chicken which are wild and endemic everywhere in polynesia . No rats though one hears horror stories of them getting into boats via the mooring ropes . Justin found one nibbling his toe in his bunk 42 years ago on Ahé , so we were not unconcerned especially there, and I've seen the harbour banks at Gosport teaming with them !

Not a lot of bird life , since the trees and vegetation is limited except in bigger Motos ( mostly just coconut palms ) occasional heard beautiful song across the water , diving birds , boobies and noddies. The life here us UNDER the water !

Our pearl fisherman Oro took us to his farm which is a shack on stilts in the middle. of the lagoon . They are all like this except some big enterprises. He showed us each process from start to finish : from seeding and grafting through the four years of an oyster's life : the thrill of extracting a pearl and re seeding the oyster. The pearl culture industry developed in the 1960's , and it was like the gold rush , with some farmers making a huge profit in a very short time . Oro's father earnt 25 times what he earns now , but it is still a good living despite the market dropping out in the 80's. Some employ scores of people , he has 5 . The concession for his plot is not cheap : he has 38 hectares . He explained that the problem was that although the "industry " is regulated , it is chaotic and like any commodity vulnerable to the whims of the international market .

Emily and I have just swum off an idyllic beach : white sand and every shade of blue and Palm fringed : still mindful of the pesky "Nonos"*.We have been reading the pilot guides and advice about sailing the Australian seas: we have all unanimously decided that there can be no greater hostile environment in the world in or out of the water , compared to here where there is nothing unpleasant except for the invisible sandfly* and he is bad enough, but no death ensues.

Tomorrow we sail towards Tahiti and the capital Papeete which promises to be very different as the city capital of Polynesia, but apparently the island itself and those associated in the Society Islands are stunning with the mixture of volcanic peaks surrounded by reefs : the best of both such different worlds put together . However we are braced for the difference between our voyage of exploration in deserted places to meeting a higher density of other boats and more developed communities . This will be the first the sailors have seen since February in Panama. One of Emily's dive group said he saw Obama last week on Moorea who is there writing his memoires, so it's back to "civilisation "!

Generator repair

The leaking coolant pipe

Cross section of the collapsed pipe.

Recently we have been finding the bilges full of water almost up to the floor boards. Dipping a finger in confirmed it was salty sea water. Eventually we found the leak was in the generator. The yellow and black pipe carrying seawater to cool the engine had gone soft and had split the picture shows it squirting vigorously. Yesterday I taped it up as a temporary measure until we got to Papeete, but then the engine overheated and cut out. Today we set about fixing this and cut out the soggy bit of tube and re-routed it so that it would still fit. When I cut the tube you could see that it had collapsed and almost blocked the cooling water flow. Justin did a great job in a confined space refitting the pipe and now it's working well again.

But before all that took place we hired bikes and rode about 12km along coral trails along the thin atoll to the pass where we sailed through. On the way we passed the airport with its runway sandwiched between the sea and the lagoon. An old lighthouse built of coral blocks has been replaced by a red and white tower with solar powered lights.

 It was great to come across the sailing Pirogue which we had been told about by its creator when we were in Nuku Hiva.  It was a modern take on a traditional inter-island sailing canoe and had been built with sponsorship to try to re-interest the youth of the atolls in their traditonal sailing canoes, or Va'a Motu.  When the French started employing people for the nuclear testing station at Mururoa atoll money started to flood into the communities and soon everyone had outboard motors, and there wasn't a sailing vessel left.  Yet that obviously imposes considerable costs on local people for fuel and expensive equipment.  It seemed to me that they should have concentrated on smaller lighter craft that local children could sail and race in the lagoon, rather than this large craft that required some hefty men to launch and sail.  

Va'a Motu - The Sailing Pirogue project, Fakarava

 Later I was delighted to find a beautiful book called Va'a in Carrefour in Papeete, which shows the adventures of a couple who came to help on the Va'a Motu project.

 

This evening Justin treated us to a lovely fish supper at a little place with a terrace over the lagoon. We were the only guests served by a family team including a RéRé, a large man dressed as a woman.

Beneath us reef sharks, 4-5 feet long swirled like extras in a Bond movie, but were then chased away by a dog which leapt into the water.

Signs of change in Apataki. Calm in Toau. Fun in Fakarava.

We moored alongside a concrete wharf in the southern village on Apataki. Strolling around in the evening, we came across a dozen children playing noisily in the light blue waters of the shallow harbour, with one or two fishing skiffs moored bow to the low concrete waterside.


The small boat harbour lies in a shallow side lagoon off the main pass, with a couple of pearl industry shacks on stilts on the edge of the deep water. As we approached, one or two of the boys began throwing big black Sea Cucumbers at us, like huge slugs or outsized rotten bananas. It felt really unwelcoming and threatening even though they were only 8-10 year olds. It was the first sign of foreigners being unwelcome.

Charming flower gardens

Inter island ferry discharging at the wharf in the pass.

We've seen a few children who are amazed at our beards (Justin and I that is). The adults here seemed much less interested in us than in Ahé or Manihi too although people are polite.

I set out last night looking for a recycling bin for all our tins. Every house has net receptacles on the roadside made from pearl fishing materials for plastics, glass and tins, plus bags of green waste, and things like old scrap metal or wood are piled separately for collection. No public bins existed so I asked at a house and they let me use their bins.

Today, Friday 12th May dawned calm and after a six o'clock breakfast we set sail out through the pass, narrowly escaping contact with coral thanks to the pearl fishermen who yelled at us just before I went out a dangerous way between coral heads.

 We set sail towards Toau, but with a light headwind we ended up motor sailing for 40 miles all the way to the pass, and to my dismay did not have time to explore Anse Amyot in the North of the atoll.
As we skirted the atoll looking for the pass we could see over the breaking surf and coral to the anchorage where to our surprise we spotted first one and then two, three and four yachts anchored serenely.


The pass was wide and calm and we headed south to an isolated spot and dropped anchor about 14:00  in mirror calm conditions off white coral and coconuts. Looking across the lagoon was like a vast infinity pool on the edge of the world, glassy surface for miles, with one or two tiny islands at the far side, but most impressive was the view of the six foot swell rearing up and curling in great white breakers to crash on the coral, yet with impossibly still water right up to the inner edge.

Within half an hour two more yachts had  arrived and chose the same area, albeit half a mile apart.  We feel that we are coming to much more densely populated cruising grounds.  Indeed the following morning we were amazed to see a small cruise liner or mega-yacht anchored in the pass.
Ashore in the afternoon sun it was very hot and we snorkelled on disappointing coral but saw some little reef sharks which was exciting.

13th May 2017

Anne and Emily did early morning yoga on the foredeck, while I swam to ease my aching back and right hip.After breakfast we saw 3 large reef sharks swim past! Too big for comfort - the largest sharks I've seen!

We sailed out of the pass on th eebb and crashed through heaving overfalls in the tide race. If a big swell had been coming in it would have been suicidal!
Then we had a nice tack towards Fakarava withEmily at the helm, getting good speed out of the boat.

We arrived on the flood tide against a sudden 30 knot wind which raised a rough chop.  Then we bore away towards the village of Rotoava where we dropped anchor in 10 metres opposite the church and the pontoon of Top Dive.

Ashore Emily quickly booked a dive for the next morning.  We tramped the long concrete road into town but found the best restaurant, Le Grill, was closed fo the week!.   So we dragged hot heavy feet back past the shops till we came to La Paillote, which was to become a regular haunt. Here they served galettes and Breton Cider!  Some locals (a fisherman and a pearl farmer) invited us to Boire un Coup so Justin and I accepted a cold beer and joined a rather inebriated chat.

Mysteries abound and today's surprises were the failure of our depth metre and the speed and distance log. Dismantled again, but no apparent problems I could fix. Then wondering if they had got submerged in the bilges I lifted a floor board to find water almost up to the top!. Where is it coming from? Are we sinking? Last time I looked was 8 days ago, so we will have to check daily. Once the water had been pumped out the depth meter started working again, but the log/ speed is a mystery!

The second surprise was when we refilled the diesel tanks from our deck-borne fuel cans. For over 50 hours of motoring and 50 hours of motoring at high speed we only needed 280 litres, so that our fuel consumption seems like only 60% of the published figures, giving 3.1 instead of 5 litres per hour for the engine and just 1 litre per hour for the genset instead of 1.9 published.

Stuck in Apataki - wind on the nose

Yesterday we were anchored in the north of Apataki atoll in clear blue water 60' deep, and after doing some maintenance we went snorkelling in on nearby coral heads. Turns out to be the best we've had so far. At last the coral seems alive and well with a huge variety of fish. Elsewhere it's been mostly dead. I even saw a reef shark and swam vigorously after it filming with the GoPro.

There are constant repair challenges on TinTin. Making do with the assortment of kit on board can feel quite like Scrapyard Challenge or Apollo Thirteen. Latest is that the anode on the prop has almost disintegrated since installation mid-Feb in Panama. The last one was barely corroded when we changed it in Feb, having been installed in Sept. Luckily Justin spotted it was loose, and then discovered it had lost a bolt. Amazingly I found a substitute with same thread, but longer shank, but a couple of nuts allowed us to tighten it. Justin was very courageous at diving down and removing the old one and fitting the new one. We hung a bucket over the prop to catch any bits that fell off. I tried doing it, but felt claustrophobic pressed up under the hull, with my mask askew and filling with water.

More frustratingly the speed/ log goes off unexpectedly so we don't know how fast or far we travel. Dismantled that, but no sign of a problem. However not solved. When it is dead I need to tap it hard with three fingers on top and it reboots. Most frustrating!

Then the aft heads won't pump to the holding tank but go direct to sea, which is inappropriate in harbours. Disassembled entire toilet, found all pipes and valves thickly crusted with calcium deposits. Valve handle had been forced and cheesed off so it didn't turn the valve. Cleaned it all down one lovely hot sunny day while the girls sunbathed, and it now works again!

We have been having northeasterly winds till last night, when it's gone southeast and right on the nose to our next destinations - Fakarava atoll. Pouring with rain and blowing hard with a 2 metre swell breaking in great white spray over the coral reef, so unusually we are sat in port, tied up to a pearl farm wharf. Opposite us are twenty people working hard in an open building on stilts in the lagoon, hauling up strings of young oysters, cleaning them, drilling holes in the shells, restringing them and hanging them in fresh net bags to go back for fattening up before grafting black pearl material to generate oysters.

Anyway the challenges remain, but I only have to look outside to see that I am in the most fantastic place. In fact we have to keep reminding each other not to take it for granted!

Tin Tin tied up to the pearl farm wharf with dogs keeping the rats off :-) or waiting for their owners to return from work across the water.

Black Pearl, The Declining Jewel of the Tuamotous

Black Tahitian pearls were once the black gold of the Tuamotus. Though farming officially began in the 1960s, the industry didn't have the technology to make it viable till the 1980s. For the next decade and a half, the world market price for these 'rare' pearls was so high that many farmers became ridiculously rich, ridiculously fast.

By the year 2000, so many farmers had begun mass-producing that the market became saturated and prices began to drop. With very little centralisation or government organisation, the future of pearling now looks bleak. The Tahitian pearls that are 'farmed' are cultured; a cultured pearl is created by an operation called a graft. This culturing process takes approximately four years from the time the first oyster spawn are collected to the harvest of those oysters' first pearls.

For more information on pearl grafting, go to www.pearl-guide.com/tahitian-pearl-farming.shtml.
Lonely Planet Guide

Ahé's Old Sea Dogs!

Sunday 8th May 2017

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We arrived off the pass into Ahé at 15:00 as planned, and Justin helmed us into the lagoon. It felt wide and clear, and as it was High Water there was only a knot of current against us. The channel to the village crosses the lagoon for 5.5 miles and there are red and green beacons on the main coral heads making for an easy passage.


 The pilot book suggests anchoring off the village in 12 fathoms (24 meters) which is a bit beyond the scope of our chain, and so when we saw a Swedish yacht, Tina Princess, moored alongside the wharf we took the other side of the dock. We were soon tied up and welcomed by an old man in a red T-shirt, called Eric, who cycled over for a chat. No sign of a harbour master.

AHÉ. The first time alongside since Shelter Bay, Panama. 

Ashore we wandered the concrete streets and found everything seemed less well cared for than in Manihi. There are apparently three shops, one of which is a snack bar.

Wilson (in white) and another local chatting on trikes, having spent lots of time alongside TinTin chatting to us.

Everything seemed very deserted on Sunday night, but we came across a group of men sat by a field who each held a bundle of spears with sharpened steel points. They were out for a practice session before the inter-island competition of coconut spearing. The coconut sits atop a thirty foot pole, and the teams aim to stick spears into it. I was invited to cast a spear but the length of my throw was pathetic, and they told me I was too old! We watched the three men launch their spears, rather like billiards cues, toward the lone coconut, behind which the moon had risen brightly. One man got two spears in, and the others one each.

Coconut spearing practice

Tricycles are the preferred mode of transport

Back at the quayside people gathered to chat, sat astride their tricycles. Wilson, an effeminately dressed RéRé, was most chatty and as Emily got supper ready to eat at the cockpit table, we became uncomfortable with the prospect of eating in company, but like all polite people they said Bon Nuit and Bon Appetit ! when we sat down to eat.

The next day we found the shop open, but terribly sparsely stocked, except for pumpkins and potatoes which we bought. Bread only comes occasionally from the bakery in Manihi on the inter atoll supply boat, Dory. I felt bad that we hadn't known that and arranged to bring a boat load from Ahé.

Justin and I took the rubbish and recycling to the public repository, and then walking back to the boat we spotted an old man in a pink shirt and camouflage sun hat hobbling across to intercept us. It turned out that this bearded, toothless old man was an American called Bill, who lived here with his adopted daughter and son-in-law. He had come by boat and reckoned he'd been here thirty years.

Bill and Justin last met in Ahé at the 1975 Bastille Day party.

Then it transpired that he'd met his wife in Manihi in 1975 and had been in Ahé for the Bastille Day feast that Justin had attended, when the visiting yachtsmen had been guests of honour. Bill had then sailed off with his new wife in his 32 foot yacht, Gallant, to Hawaii for 8 years where they'd lived working in boat yards and fisheries. Now back in Ahé, cared for by family, he was very impressed with French healthcare, which sent a special plane to take him to Papeete when he broke his leg in September. Not something he would experience in America as a poor uninsured citizen.

Black Pearls!

Sunday 8th May 2017
We were collected in a big fast workboat by the mayor's son, Oro, and his mate Norbay and sped across the lagoon to a collection of sheds on stilts in the middle. Here we were shown the skilful process of farming pearls.

Hauling up oysters on the farm

They hauled cages out of the deep clear blue and Norbay pulled out a rope of old looking oyster shells, cut them off, and then opened them a crack and inserted half a plastic clothes peg to keep them open.

Cutting the black pearl lip to seed new oysters

The tray of prepared shells was passed to Oro, who chose one with the right colour mother of pearl and opened it. From this he cut a thin strip of the lip which secretes the pearl. This was carefully cleaned and then chopped into 2mm wide squares.

Oro seeding an oyster

I had always thought that pearl farmers popped a grain of sand into the oysters and then had to wait many years for a pearl. However, Oro showed us the technique learnt from his father, who in turn had learnt from the Japanese. He mounted a shell in a clamp at his work desk, inserted metal forceps which prised it open. He then took one of an array fine tools reminiscent of dentistry and fished inside the oyster, pulling out a perfect blue black pearl, balanced on a little ring at the end of his probe.

He then selected a ball made of shell, which was larger than the pearl, and with great care inserted it back into a special sac in the oyster. Each oyster is used to make 4 pearls in successive years. The shell for the spheres comes from Mississippi and is sent to Japan to be manufactured. The balls are treated with antibiotic to avoid infecting the oyster.

Black pearls fresh fro the oyster

The first seeding of the oyster is critical, as a small shell sphere is placed in contact with the small 2mm square of tissue harvested from the donor oyster. It must be carefully done so that the host grows pearl of the right colour and surrounds the ball of shell perfectly. If an oyster produces a nice spherical first pearl it is reseeded with a larger shell ball, but there is no need to add the piece of tissue that is used to seed it the first time, as it will now continue to produce the same colour pearl each time.

Poor placement results in misshapen pearls, or in rejection of the ball. If the oyster produces an irregular shaped pearl it is not used again. Oro said that 50% success rate was the minimum he could accept. He had hired 4 Chinese workers last year but although they had worked fast, their success rate was terribly low, but of course he didn't find that out till a year later. He said he would hire locals next time.

His friend Norbay had worked there for six years, but had now set up on his own as an eleveur. He put strings of fuzzy material in the lagoon to which oyster seeds would attach. Once he had grown them to a reasonable size, Oro would buy 20,000 a month at 50 cents each. During the season he and his seeding team would work for three months seeding 500 oysters a day each. He reckoned he had 300,000 oysters on the buoyed lines radiating from his work island. However it is hard to get started as he must pay the government to lease his 38 hectare concession, and it then it takes four years before any return can be had. He remembers that his father eclipsed 16 million Pacific Francs (CFP) for 700 pearls taken to Tahiti for sale. However Oro's last harvest was 10,000 pearls, but they only sold for 9 million CFP reflecting the huge increase in pearl farms over the last years.

Sales happen every three months in Papeete, where Chinese and Japanese buyers come, look over the pearls and then make sealed bids to each vendor. As well as dropping prices, there have been years when the oysters died from pollution resulting from over-exploitation of the lagoon.

As a finale Oro cleaned off a number of rejected oysters and cut out the muscle, laid them in a shell and squeezed lime juice over them. Crunchy and delicious!

Oro's home dock

Watching the World Cup Beach Soccer Final

He sped us back to his home and invited us in. The big screen TV came on for the soccer World Cup final between Brazil and Tahiti, and Norbay was excitedly cheering on his nephew at No. 8 and his mate, Jo, the goal keeper. Sadly Jo let in 6 goals, and Tahiti scored zero. Nonetheless it was a victory to be in the final. What was new to me was that it was the Beach Soccer final! A good one to add to the Olympics!

Oro brought out pearls and jewellery made by his sister, and we pored over them looking for a beautiful memento. A string of black pearls was about £350, and a bracelet £50. Unfortunately we were low on cash, but everyone came away as a satisfied customer!

Preparing coconut drinks

Oro's house

Meanwhile my planned exit for Ahé was getting short on time, and so after giving us a fresh coconut to drink, and showing us the sack of coconut crabs that he was sending by plane to his mum in Tahiti, he dropped us back to the boat. We were away quickly and motoring flat out managed to force our way out past the incoming flood tide by 12:30 and set sail the 29 miles to Ahé, last visited by Justin 42 years ago. Once in the lagoon we will have to traverse 5 miles of coral heads to reach the village, or if the light fails us I will try to anchor just inside the lagoon.