The Dangerous Isles - the Tuamotos

2 June 2006 Break, Break!! We are just 12nm off of the atoll of Kauehi and like most of them we can't see the tops of the palm trees yet because the "land" is just a few feet above sea level and they are below the horizon visually. We can pick the atoll up on radar though. It is about 9AM local time and we are both tired from 5 days on the passage with watch keeping at night. More to follow in the next couple of days. Lost a brand-new fishing lure, weights, hook, leader, swivels, everything to a tuna or something. I got too excited and did not let him run enough. I won't do that again (I hope).

3 June 2006 (Saturday) What a fantastic day! We made it into the lagoon at Kauehi no sweat yesterday before sundown (a good thing) and then motored across the lagoon to the anchorage just off the village. It was a LONG way and took over an hour especially given the strong head wind. We were glad that there was a "channel" on the chart and guidebooks because the sun was so low and the waves were big enough that we could not have seen coral heads even a couple of feet down, even with the super clear water. We could see the bottom of the pass on the way in at 55 feet! There were three other boats there, including White Swan which got in just ahead of us, and Andiamo who we knew from the Marquisas and one other - Aurora, all from Washington. When the wind died down later there were no ripples and we slept like babies after the four nights and five days of the passage over in rough seas.

Today we went in to the village and left the dinghies at the jetty watching carefully for the coral heads all around just under the surface. We watched two remoras (fish with flat sucker heads that attach themselves to sharks and whales often) swimming around the boat just before and passed a turtle on the way in. On this Saturday there was a party of some sort in town and the one store was closed in the village of 150 people. There was a awning/tent set up and the locals were intensely involved in a Bocci Ball tournament. Bocci Ball is where you throw a marker ball out and then your team has to throw these heavy bigger metal balls to see who can get closest, sort of like rolling horseshoes. They play it on all the islands and it is a serious deal. Turns out the day was a church fund raiser too and there was a BBQ platter you could get for $5 which we all did. Andiamo has been here a few days and knew some of the locals and we ran in to them. We were invited to eat on the patio of the local school teacher by the village nurse. The nurse then invited us over to the village medical clinic and let us pick out any drugs we needed in the back room. Cindy got some anti-inflammatories for her knee, which is still bothering her from Nuka Hiva. She then took everyone's blood pressure and weight and entered all in her log books, including the drugs given out (no charge).

Kids were everywhere and we were the playthings de jour. They kept around us all day, taking turns it seemed to get our attention and play games or just kid around. Bob showed them how to play Paper-Scissors-Rock which was a hoot. I shot hoops on the B-ball court with several of them. The school teacher's husband is a mother-of-pearl artist so they invited in to see the jewelry and items. I got Cindy a beautiful necklace and our friends got other even fancier stuff. Then the "Madame", who was a real character, pulled out a log book going back to 1987 with entries by other cruiser yachties who have been through in years past. We put in a notation with our boat card for posterity, then we talked for over an hour with the teacher and the nurse, with the nurse translating for us French-English. We had a great time in their living room.

The villagers make most of their money from cultured pearl farming. There are farms scattered throughout the lagoon in shallow waters where they grow and maintain the oysters in which they have put round "seeds" about half the size of a small marble. The oysters coat the marbles with the pearl material and they harvest the black pearls months later. All the good pearls go to Tahiti and then to world markets to sell in jewelry stores. The pearls are exquisite and come in a variety of shapes, sizes and lusters. We will be trying to find some tomorrow or on other atolls when we can, if we can get good quality ones. A first quality necklace in the states can go for thousands of dollars.

The atoll itself just takes your breath away. As Bob on White Swan said "It is like the world's largest infinity pool" like fancy homes and hotels have where the flat water extends to the horizon and looks like it just falls off the face of the planet. The atoll is one big donut, 12 miles by 8 miles wide, with a narrow strip of low lying (2-4 feet above sea level) "land" around the central lagoon. There is only one pass, or entrance, into this particular atoll. Some have two or more, some none at all. It is so calm inside the lagoon that you can hear a whisper a half mile away - just incredible. We have never, ever experienced anything this calm. The water colors during the day are the kind in your dreams with every color of aqua and turquoise and blue you can imagine with splotches of dark where the coral is just near the surface and beige/tan when it is just coral sand under the surface. It is wild here though. A week before we got here, a lightening storm came through and a lightening bolt just missed one of the boats by 20 feet! Yikes! A strike on the boat would not make your day. If the wind blows hard from across the lagoon the fetch can create huge waves, enough to require you to move the boat to keep from dragging on your anchor. Which is something you don't want to do if you can't see under the water for the shallow areas which of course you can't do if it is dark and stormy.

Right now it is dead, dead, dead flat and we are getting ready to have dinner and call it quits. Tomorrow is church day and we should be able to hear the singing very well as the church is just by the jetty across from us. Then a local freighter comes in the afternoon which will bring everyone out, including us. BTW - they get baguettes flown in by airplane. Instead of 40 cents they cost a buck and they freeze them but they are still just as good. We are so spoiled eating them - one of the good things from the French.

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