Pearl Farm

Well as promised, Alfred took us diving with him to see how they manage the oysters that produce the pearls. They are hung on strings inside mesh baskets, suspended at about 25 feet below the surface in about 60 feet of water. Each oyster is seeded with a tiny round piece of oyster shell, this irritant causes the oyster to layer protective material around the round piece and in 13 to 18 months time, there is a beautiful black pearl formed inside. Surprisingly only about 50% of the seeded oysters produce pearls of enough quality to sell. So it really isn't a cash cow like we would first think. They collected one basket of oysters and then when we were back at the shop, Toni opened the oysters and Caroline and I popped the pearls out of the oyster's flesh. I must say it is like opening presents at Christmas, a surprise in every package. We pulled out some stunning pearls, but in keeping with the percentage, many were not of jewelry quality. We visited over a cool drink and some of the raw oyster mussels done up in lime juice, very tasty, and made plans to dive again in the afternoon. Russell came with us from the boat to shore in the afternoon and while we dove, he hung out, read and stood guard over the cooler of beer. We felt that Alfred's family's generosity warranted sharing some of our Canadian beer with them. Our Canadian beer is closely rationed as it will be a very long time before we can stock the boat with Canadian beer again - if ever! The apres dive was a wonderful visit with all of the family and all of the other boating people (Belgium, Finland, Australia/Italy) as they all come up to the lunch hut for "Happy Hour". It was a good chance for us all to swap stories and boating information. The perfect day was topped off with a dinner of rice, tuna and deep fried oyster with Pauline's special spicy sauce. Ooooh, forgot to mention Alfred's fresh squeezed coconut milk and vanilla rum drinks - you can't have just one! Yummy! We ordered some fresh eggs, that Alfred's Mother's chickens provide so in the morning Alfred, Toni and Caroline delivered them to the boat and had a coffee with us, Pauline gets sea sick so she couldn't come out. After many Thank you's and goodbye's, we upped anchor and head back to the north end of the atoll in preparation for leaving the next day. Our intention was to get anchored early enough so that we could dive in Tehere Pass at slack water. But the weather was not wanting to cooperate. We anchored in three foot waves that grew during the rest of the day and 15 knots of wind and endured squall after squall. Anchor held really well. We did a dive off the back of the boat, but since we were anchored in sand, there wasn't much to see. It was so rough that we couldn't load the whaler on top of the big boat in preparation for our trip to Rangiroa. So today is now May 5 and we finally have the tides figured out (we think) as we left Apataki through the Tehere Pass on slack water. It is still raining, blowing and wavy in the anchorage and we are towing the whaler. We expect to be at Rangiroa for 5:30 pm, hopefully slack at the Avotoru Pass. It is a lovely clear day out here in the ocean, sun is shinning, the water is deep blue and the temp is 30 degrees C.

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