Tahiti - Here We Come!

Well, we are on the watery road again. We departed from Rangiroa at 10:00 am on the slack tide and by tomorrow at about the same time, we will arrive at Papeete, Tahiti. The weather for travel couldn't be better, blue sky, light wind and smooth blue water. We watched Rangiroa slide into the distance behind, wishing we could have been there a couple of more days. Yesterday we did two fantastic dives with one of the local dive operators. In going with a local dive guide we were able to dive the outside reef where all of the large and prolific sea life lives, this because he has somebody knowledgeable in the boat above the dive site to pick us up after our time is up. It is a little tricky to follow underwater divers from the surface (rough surface) only by the bubble trail and to get to some of the best dives you have to go by boat to the middle of nowhere so that special pickup guy is very important. The weather was crappy all day, alternately raining buckets of water and blowing wind, but when you are under water, it doesn't matter. The first dive was on the outer reef and we have never been with so many large fish, nor so many large schools of fish than we encountered there. Absolutely stunning! We are diving with fish that we have never seen before, which for a diver is always a big deal. The rainbow of colors, myriad of body shapes and the variation of behaviors are all thrilling observations and then conversation for divers. We saw a couple of "Jew Fish" (that's their name) that were about 100 lbs each, BIG FISH! As the dive ended we could hear dolphins, but we didn't see them under water, when we surfaced and were already in the boat, we spotted them playing on the other side of the pass. The dive boat picked us up from our big boat and dropped us back off again. During our break between dives, the weather calmed enough that Glen and I were able to hoist the whaler up onto the boat deck of the big boat. It was still a dicey process as there was enough swell in the water to cause the whaler to swing on the lift harness and it is really difficult for mere mortals to control a pendulum of 1500 pounds. We certainly didn't want to tow the whaler all the way to Tahiti though so we were very happy to have it up and out of the way. The second dive we did was along the opposite side of the reef on the pass entrance with the tidal current flooding into the atoll (so we don't get swept out to sea). The boat dropped us off on the outside and after we dropped down to proper depth, we drifted (more like rushed) along the coral walls, sand valleys and lava caverns googling at the fish, eels, sharks and so forth along the way. It was the most amazing ride. I just wanted to have the boat take us right back out and do it all over again. So another day to stay and dive certainly wouldn't have been hard to talk either Glen or myself into, but we have a schedule to follow. Russell departed early yesterday morning, he had some personal stuff to take care of and just couldn't hang out with us for the last 5 days. So he was able to arrange a flight from Rangiroa to Tahiti and hopefully he is able to change all the rest of his flights from there to home without too many problems. So now it's just Glen and me bobbing along in the blue.

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Rangiroa

Every night is a photo op for a beautiful sunset. Rangiroa is a huge atoll with most of the population situated on the small motus between the two main entrances. Avatoru/Tiputa is a sleepy collection of homes with several grocery stores, a handful of good restaurants, a fuel station, several jewelry shops, 6 dive operations, two small resorts (one closed for reno) and a whole bunch of family run pensions. We finally have the currents down so we came in on the morning slack tide and anchored north of the Avatoru pass. We have explored the town on foot and rented a car for a half day to explore all the rest of the town area. We did our part to support the economy by buying some souvenirs and groceries. Eating out initially was a challenge as when the sun goes down it is pitch black dark and there is a maze of fish traps, floats and extremely shallow spots that you have to thread the whaler through in order to make it to the boat quay from where we are anchored. The first night was very harry to say the least and we have a few new scratched on the whaler as souvenirs. Then our Captain came up with the ingenious idea of making a trail on our GPS during the day (even though we don't have a chart) that we could follow at night. That and the fortunate find of our spot light in a hidden cabinet (and it works) has made night cruising a more relaxing experience. The main attraction for us here in Rangiroa has to be the diving and snorkeling. The water is crystal clear. We have had three fantastic dives in the Avatoru Pass, there are loads and loads of fish. We saw three small white tip sharks on one dive - they were not interested in us at all (good thing), some barracuda and some large eels. The coral life is very healthy, predominantly hard coral, but I did find a huge anemone with a resident clown fish. We have made arrangements with one of the dive operators here to take us out on the reef on the Tiputa Pass, the current flows up to 8 knots there so it is best to go with somebody experienced in the area. It is reported to have the most marvelous sea life, so we will see. Two nights ago, it just poured rain here, buckets and buckets. Our whaler has a finicky bilge pump and that was one of the times it decided not to work, there was a good 6 inches of water filling it. Nothing that an ice cream bucket can't handle for bailing out. Today is a fix up day, paint the deck, polish some dull spots, make good old Mystery Ship sparkle again. We'll do our diving tomorrow and head for Papeete, Tahiti on Tues.

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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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Can't Believe it's May Already!

It really is tough to keep track of the date and days, I suppose because there are no deadlines or schedules to meet. So Saturday, we took the whaler (tender) in to Niutahi (the water is too choppy for the dingy) and tied up to the nice concrete wharf using the parking lanes that are there. The pearl guy wasn't visible at the meeting place so we continued to wander the village until we found our English speaker, his name is Atana (spell??). He and two of his brothers were sitting in the shade with a big pile of coconuts, trimming them for the church. The church makes community food for sale to everyone to support the church - much like our bake sales I guess. So Glen and I bought a big bowl of rice, beans, cabbage and pork, enough food for three people each, it was very good. We chatted with the brothers while we ate. These islands are very exposed to tsunamis because their elevation is so low. In 1966 this town was wiped out and has been rebuilt since then. They are busy building a tsunami wall right now. As we returned to the boat, we passed by a house/shop sitting apart from the village on the water where some people were working, we stopped to talk and discovered that we were meeting with the Mayor, Jacky. He is very proud of his community and was very welcoming of us. We asked what they were doing and he explained the fishing and gave us some nice fat fish. This will be on the BBQ tonight and I might add, they were very very good. Glen and I dove the Pass Pakaka in the afternoon. What a beautiful dive, like being in an aquarium, there were so many fishes and different types. We came across many lion fish and two very large green eels. The coral life is all hard body and limited to a few varieties. Everything looked very healthy, probably due to the currents that flush by during the tide changes. Russell was our bubble watcher and was right there to pick us up when we surfaced.

Sunday, we were up early and all three of us headed in for Mass at the Catholic church. This is a great way to meet and mingle with more of the people. Back at the boat, we upped the anchor, tied the whaler on behind to tow and headed for the motu Totoro. According to our guide books, this is where a very friendly family have a pearl farm. Alfred, the owner, came out in his working boat to guide us in to the best anchorage. It is probably as much for the security of his pearl nets as anything, as they are all over. He and his family have recently started a boat service business, so several boats and their owners were there. One couple from Australia/Italy, one couple from Finland and one couple from Belgium. Alfred, his wife Pauline their son Toni and his girlfriend Caroline, showed us around their business, then showed us their pearls - very beautiful. Alfred and Pauline chauffeured us to the fabulous outer reef by means of the front-end loader tractor, we three in the bucket. It was just easier than walking. In usual tourist fashion, we snapped many pictures and had tons of questions. Pauline speaks very good English and though Alfred says he does not, we got along very well communicating. Very nice people. We made arrangements to go diving with Alfred and Toni the next day to see the workings of a pearl farm, below the surface.

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Heaven on Earth

We are in Apataki, Tuamotu. After 2.5 days from Nuku Hiva, we arrived at what we thought should be slack water in the north pass, Tehere. But it was ebbing pretty strongly as we made our way into the atoll, probably about 4 knots, so we will have to re-evaluate how the tide/current calculations work out here. We broke through a small rain shower to see the atoll and as we made our way through the pas, which is nice and wide and accurately charted on Nobeltec, we looked back to find a rainbow arching over the entrance. The water inside was like a lake (it was on the outside too - that morning) and the early morning sunshine lighting the lush vegetation and highlighting the turquoise water with white coral beaches made the word "Paradise" pop into my head. Actually the song with "I've got two tickets to Paradise, won't you pack your bags and fly tonight" kept running through my mind as we chose our anchorage. It is difficult to find a sandy spot to drop anchor, that doesn't have coral heads close by that the anchor chain would wrap on. We couldn't wait to jump into the water and snorkel to shore. Which Glen and I did as soon as we turned the engines off. Russell decided that he would just relax on the boat and soak up the view. Close to shore, there is lots of coral heads with multitudes of little fishes, in the sandy valleys between, the larger fishes hang out. All of the corals look very healthy, probably because of the minimal human impact on the reefs here. No rocky and rolling in the anchorage, so nice after where we have been. Glen and I dove in the deeper water in the afternoon and enjoyed more abundant life forms as the creatures change from the shallows to the depths. The next day, we headed south inside the atoll to the village site, Niutahi. There are many bouys in the water, we suppose marking pearl farm locations, so it is a bit of a dodge game. There are about 500 people here and we only found one person so far that speaks any amount of English, so our French is really getting a dusting off. There is one store that we have found with some supplies, but we will have to ask around a bit more to find out about fresh vegis and fruit. So far as we understand, the fresh stuff comes in on the supply boats and we weren't able to determine a day for that yet. Our afternoon snorkel taught us a new lesson, the sandy parts on the outside of the atoll that have breaks in them are tidal flow areas, so don't swim in them during high flow times. We certainly got a workout though. This morning, the winds seems to be from the north and we have a small chop on the water, so it would be difficult to move at this point. We are taking the small boat into town though as we have made arrangements to meet a fellow to see pearls. We'll see how that goes, yesterday when we set the time up, he wanted to trade for Glen's sunglasses, not sure if Glen wants to part with them. We'll try trading for money instead.

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Un-Believable Water

The ocean is un-believable out here. Today has been fantastically smooth, a long, low swell with O sea. Nice!!! This is day two, no actually it is into day three now, it is 2:00 am, of our trip from Marquises to the Tuamotos. We are at 12 44.834 S and 143 46.666 W and we haven't seen anything on the 12 mile radar screen but rain clouds since we left yesterday morning and we've only run into a bit of rain so far. Today and yesterday were sunny and blue and the nights both moon lit. We are missing John, he is good company, but he was so anxious to get back to Prince Rupert and it's cool rainy spring (why?). We are managing the night shifts between the three of us, no problem and spent the day lounging in the fly bridge after our heavy work schedule. You know things are slack when it becomes fun to polish the stainless!

We received an email from a good friend, still in the work world trying to make his "90th million" and I quote, "I read your blog you guys still suck! I'm starting a blog about my day at work..." and he goes on to whine about his personnel/work problems to a tune much the same as a sad country song where the truck broke, the dog ran away and so on. We had a good laugh, he made our day.

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Moving On

We came back to Taiohae early Sunday morning from our jaunt to Daniel's Bay (English Name). We had rain overnight so mopped the boat all down and when we got all anchored up again, it rained some more, so we mopped some more. It is so hot here that it would probably evaporate quickly, but we are needing something to do for activity sake. Russell and John headed into town early afternoon, something about building courage to get tattoos done. Marquises is the prime location for tattooing here in the South Pacific and we have been admiring the exotic tattoos that many of the other boaters here have had done. It makes us feel a little left out not to have a permanent souvenir, Oh well, I did get a nice bone bracelet and a carved wooden bowl. Glen and I puttered on the boat a bit then went to shore to see if we could get internet service and find out what the rest of the world is up too. We succeeded on the internet, but it was so slow that we only got a bit of banking done and caught up on the recent news before we got fed up. Nice to see our dollar is over par right now. With beer at $7.00 equivalent here we need a good exchange. Only one restaurant/bar is open in town on Sunday and nothing else. Russell arranged for a ride for us to meet he and John for dinner (20 min walk otherwise). Luckily or un-luckily for our two guys, the tattoo artist is also closed on Sundays, so they just spent a nice afternoon chatting with all of the other boaters that came in and out of the bar. Dinner was good, because I didn't have to cook it or do the dishes. Russell offered to free the dingy from the fray at the bottom of the ladder at the dingy quay on our way back to the boat. It is quite the system, a large concrete wall with one ladder and one tie ring with a minimum of 10 rubber dingys floating out from the wall like a cluster of balloons. Anyway complications arose and Russell up ended our dingy earning himself an evening bath in salt water. Fortunately his final action before descending the ladder was to give John his camera, also fortunate is that Russell can swim as we were all too busy laughing to save him. It will take a few days for him to live that one down.

Today, Monday, we had to get up early to make it in to the bank, it opens at 7:30 am. We all need cash, the cash machines ran out of money on Friday, nobody here takes credit cards and we have to head out to places even more remote than this, so cash is essential. Early out also gets you a nice loaf of fresh French bread and the pick of the fresh fruit and vegis. We also had to have John on the dock for his ride to the airport, he starts his way back to his real world today. He looked a little reluctant to leave. After our farewells, Glen, Russell and I headed back out to the big boat, pulled in all of our gear and headed out. We are now on our way to the Tuamotos, 550 miles away. Piece of Cake, only three night shifts and we are there. The water is great, the sky is clear, the temperature perfect and light winds. We are driving from the fly bridge with a full moon over our shoulders. Yes, still in paradise.

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