We arrived in the Tuamotus 3.5 days after we left the Marquesas on April 29. The 500nm crossing took a bit longer than expected, due to slowly dying wind. The first days we had good wind with confused seas, not totally comfortable. After that we came into a rhythm again with standing watch and doing school.
Then early Wednesday morning we saw palm trees growing out of the Ocean! It was the atoll of Kauehi, one of the Tuamotus. We were nearly there. Now we had to go through the pass to enter the lagoon. We were all a bit nervous as the timing of going through a pass is very critical. However it was timed with Ewout-precision and exactly at slack tide and sunrise (!) we glided into the lagoon, no problem. After another hour of sailing through the lagoon we reached the anchorage near the village. We managed to miss all the coral heads and anchored safely. Now we were really in paradise: white beaches, palm trees and turquoise water.
We went to the village and organized a tour to a black pearl farm with the mayor. His pearl farm had two million oysters! He asked us to be there at 7am the next morning, but timing turned out to be variable and we had to wait for 4 hours. This was not a problem. We were sitting in front of the 'town hall' and observing village life in the Tuamotus. Kauehi has about 200 inhabitants and half of them passed by that morning. We saw a rather big man walking his rather large pig on a leash. We also saw a group of older women sitting in a circle and smoking together. Mothers with children who were too young to go to the local school, etc.
The tour of the pearl farm was done a bit hastily, and we wanted to learn more. So we visited an other pearl farmer, who was so nice that we invited him to our boat with his whole family, which included a wife, 4 children and 3 cousins. He brought us a bag of coconuts, that we have not managed to open yet. The next day all the girls came back to watch a movie with Jet.
After 5 days in Kauehi, dinner with our friends on Love Song, and two lovely evenings with Wayward Wind and Lady Annabelle, we left early in the morning, when it was still dark to go to the next atoll: Fakarava. We came through the south pass to a beautiful anchorage. This is a UNESCO Biosphere. We snorkeled in the pass with our friends from Zen. When snorkling, we tie the dinghy to our waist, so we can quickly climb in if we need to. The snorkeling was absolutely beautiful, so many different colors of coral, and so many wonderful tropical fish. There were also a lot of sharks, and although it is said that the black tip reef sharks won't harm you, by the time there are fourteen of them swimming around you it gets a little scary.
Then, after bumping into one coral head (what an awful scratchy sound) we went to the north end of Fakarava. We anchored near the village and the airport. Here we were reunited with Lariekoek (our Dutch friend Aedgard) and Apple (we 'raced' with Apple from La Cruz to the Marquesas). After two and a half months we had to say farewell to our wonderful crew member Gerbrand. In three dinghies we brought him to Fakarava 'International' Airport. The airport has a jetty to moor the dinghies! Three times a week a plane from Tahiti flies in. For this one plane that arrives at about 4pm, they have a manned traffic control tower!! There were no metal detectors and we could walk Gerbrand into the plane. We were so sad to see him go, all the female members of the family were in tears. However, we were very grateful to Hermine that we could have him for so long. Now any Dad in Palo Alto who goes on a 4 week trip will be OK as Gerbrand set the bar at 10 weeks!!
As Gerbrand left us, the good weather also left us. The wind started blowing and changed direction, so we were now on a lee shore, close to the rocks. We had some restless nights, being on anchor watch and feeling like you were in a washing machine. But then we sailed with our spinaker under great conditions to the next Tuamotu: Toau. We moored in a 'false pass', Anse Amyot, at the north end with two other boats. On the shore was a little village, with only 6 houses. One of the houses was a resaurant, and the English boat in the anchorage arranged for all of us to have a meal together at the restaurant. A young couple cooked a most gorgeous Polynesian meal for us with parrot fish, octopus, coconut bread and lots of other delicious treats. The cooks sat with us at the table, which made it even more special. Although my French conversation skills are somewhat limited, I still managed to learn a bit about their life in this remote place.
That same night we left at 11pm for Tahiti. Ewout steered us in the dark between two very shallow reefs on a line of sight. This made me a little nervous, but he said it was a piece of cake. It all went well and we are now underway to Tahiti with good winds and mixed seas (or as the French say: mer agitee).
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