The trip to the Tuamotu's is about 550 nautical miles. At 8 knots it will take about three days.
We are hoping to fish all the way. Saturday night the sky is clear with thousands of stars. We woke up on the first morning to find the weather has deteriorated, with strong winds and large swell. It is still very relaxing reading all day, light meals from the galley, no internet due to the direction and nearest satellite location.
We are entertained at night with more 'Downton Abbey', TV series which we are really enjoying, especially as the last few novels we have been reading have covered this period of the late 19 th century to the First World War.
Monday night the weather is getting worse with rain squalls. We have had to stow everything on the floor as we are pitching quiet a lot, but stabilizers are helping. JB queries wether we should sleep in the lounge as it is so rocky, however we persevere and go to bed. It is hard to get to sleep with the concern we may fall out of bed, plus the loud slapping of large waves on the hull and windows.
Sam our hostess, is on late watch and is sea sick with the large pitching and rocking motion of BP.
Early Tuesday morning Paul is on watch. He experiences massive winds gusting from 40 to over 60 knots. He has filmed on his 'Go Pro', how the sea is blown flat with these gusts.
Paul is concerned about entering the passage to the first Atoll. Although it has a wide entrance there are strong currents and he is unable to get accurate readings on the tides. If it is wind against tide it could be horrific. Although the sea appears really rough, the entrance is not too bad and we are relieved to sail into calm waters at last. Finally, relatively flat water.
All day it is torrential rain and we think it will be the same for a few days. Not what JB thought was a tropical holiday, but we are all pleased to be in a protected anchorage.
The Tuamotu's. Of the 76 Atoll's, some are huge such as 'Rangiria' at 45 nautical miles long and 18 miles wide. Others are very tiny island Atolls and only a few are mentioned in the cruising guide.
The history of the Atoll's is not glowing, they were named ' the dangerous archipelago' by the first Europeans.
They were discovered long before the Society Islands. Little is known about the eastern Tuamotu's, except when the French used some of the Atoll's for Nuclear testing.
The Atolls are very beautiful and sparsely populated. Their economy today relies on Black Pearl farming, fishing and tourism.
Wednesday. The weather is slightly clearing. We go with Paul to what we thought was a village. The afternoon we found that what looked like a white sandy beach was actually bleached coral, very difficult to walk on without shoes.
The village is only a group of old shacks, lots of fish traps and fishing buoys hanging from trees. It's only inhabitant at the moment is Phillip, who appears to be about mid forties, stocky, happy and french speaking.
JB is acquiring a real skill in communicating in broken french, with the natives and enjoying it.
This place looks bleak. His home is rough and bare. He has a tiny light running from batteries recharged by solar panels. He is excited to show us this modern concession as his one piece of luxury. He is very hospitable and happy to show us around. Very little grows on these Atolls except for scrubby bush and coconut trees. The ground again, is covered in rock and coral.
Philip indicates that he makes a living catching crayfish and fish which are shipped by air to Papeete. There is a beautiful, fairly new concrete church here. It is very neat and tidy, but who uses it is a mystery. Phillip's grandparents are buried in a well maintained cemetery on the Atoll.
We ask him about 'Ciguatera', a microorganism that lives in seaweed growing on dead coral, that is carried by some reef fish and is toxic to humans.It is not easy to get an exact answer with our limited french, however.
We leave to fish from the tender in the channel where we entered the lagoon. With wind against tide it is very bumpy and not pleasant, anticipating we may be hit by a rouge wave. We immediately hook up a solid fish on light tackle, that gives us a good fight. Alas, we only bring up the head of a large Job fish, due to sharks! After another good fight we bring in a Blue Fin Trevally. Next we bring in a huge Coral Cod. A beautiful fish, but we put it back in fear of being poisoned. All the fish here appear to be
huge. We then troll a large bomby and immediately we get another large coral cod around 12 pounds. MB trolls a 'ballyhoo' which Paul describes as great shark bait. He is right as we pull in a 1.5 meter Bronze Whaler. It is probably good to eat but we cut it loose as there is still plenty of Mahi Mahi and Tuna onboard.
The next day, the weather is getting better. We take Sam for a fish in the channel, we are hoping to get Mackerel
and Wahoo. Again we get large Coral cod and Trevally. We decide to keep the smaller fish and take them to Philip in the village to see if they are poisonous. He feels they are ok to eat, but when we offer them to him he only wants the lighter coloured Coral Cod and we sadly ditch the rest.
In the afternoon MB and Paul go exploring some remote areas. Paul is keen to catch some coconut crabs which he has heard about and seen on TV. He is armed with the short gaff and a large hunting knife.
He finds one at the base of a clump of several short coconut palms, where the fronds have fallen, creating a natural den for the crabs. They have beautiful bright blue speckled colouring. We end up getting half a dozen crabs.
The cruising guide says the locals enjoy the green Parrot Fish and Bass, of which we saw many along the shore. Back on board we cook the crabs and the meat is delicious, most of the meat is in the legs.
We are now starting to run out of fresh fish to eat, so we decide tomorrow we will leave this anchorage for a new destination.
JB and Mick