Nuku Hiva to the Tuamotus

We spent our last morning in the Marquesas in the main town of Nuku Hiva where there was an agricultural fair. Men were hollowing dugout canoes and selling their beautiful carvings and the woman selling lots of fruit and vegetables. I had to wait before the judging had finished before purchasing a pineapple as it was the centerpiece of their display. I also got a couple more of the enormous grapefruit which are the highlight of their produce as they will not grow in the Tuamotus. The fair gave us a last colourful look at the Marquesas which are certainly a tropical paradise. There is a lot of French and EU money flowing into this part of the world which makes for immaculate villages and even where there is only 1 mile of road the locals have a fancy 4 wheel drive vehicles. They seem to have a very relaxed lifestyle where they catch some fish and grow some produce but not a lot else. South American people have to work a lot harder to maintain their families.
We had delayed our departure for a few days as the winds were very light but our forecast showed the trades returning so we set off for our 470 mile voyage. The first evening we had to slow the boat down as Aaron caught a 45lb barracuda—the teeth and size of this fish was amazing—it took him an hour and a half to land—we had all hoped it would be a massive tuna and visions of mega sashimi left as he threw it back—next time.
We had a great passage with our first day of 152 miles and subsequent days of over 100 miles each arriving at dawn after a 3 ½ day passage.
Unfortunately neither Aaron nor Ashley were able to handle the somewhat choppy conditions and both suffered from sea sickness and were very happy to set anchor in Manahi Atoll in the Tuamotus. Luckily we had picked a good weather window as a boat which left before us took 9 days to do the same trip with very little wind Ashley and Aaron were grateful for our shorter trip. We did have one calm period during which Aaron took a swim off the boat refreshing himself. We also caught a skipjack tuna which became sashimi and Aaron and Ashley made some sushi which was delicious.
We arrived to find a very strange part of the world; the atolls are virtually the craters of volcanoes with the sea dropping off to thousands of feet deep right off the land. There is a ring of coral on which sand and coconut palms have developed and most of the atolls have a small village and possibly an airstrip on a wide part of the rim. There is a pass or two which in favorable conditions enable boats to pass into the lagoon in the interior of the ring which can be up to 40 miles long in the largest atolls. Many of these islands have developed pearl farming as a major industry. Manahi, where we arrived at was an original pearl lagoon where 30 years ago divers free dove to get the oysters, one in a hundred of which may contain a pearl. After the Japanese discovered how to cultivate pearls the Tuamaotu Atolls became a natural environment to develop a successful industry.
We spent our first couple of days snorkeling around in the turquoise clear water with the colourful fish and went shell collecting around the ocean side of the rim. Ashley proved to have the best eye for shells and has a collection of beautiful cowries and other lovely shells. Ken’s best ones always seem to have a live fish inside and we felt too guilty to kill it.
We visited a French man who had set up a sail mail (the email and info sent over single sideband radios) base. He has a huge antenna and communicates with boats from Panama to New Caledonia. He was happy to talk with us and welcomed us to his home. He is managing to grow fruit on his sandy coral patch of land—most islanders appear to find it too much trouble. The French enable these people to be very lazy and unmotivated by paying for all health and education amongst other benefits.
The next day we had arranged to visit a pearl farm where they showed us the complicated and labour intensive method used to cultivate pearls. This involves growing oysters to a certain size then impregnating them with a bead of shell which if it takes will become a pearl. Many are irregular and worth very little and it seems as though these people work harder than any other Islanders we have seen so far. It was an eye opener and we all came away with pearl souvenirs. We were also fed and watered with coconuts and found that choosing the right coconut seems as difficult as choosing the right oyster.
The pearl farmer (he is also the baker), his son and his friend with his son then invited us to partake in their spear fishing and grouper fishing exploits. Aaron and Ken both had a lot of fun spear fishing for the first time and Ashley fished for her first time and between everyone caught about 40 grouper. The locals do not go out often so freeze a lot and they pressed us to take more than we can eat.
When they brought us back to the boat we persuaded one of the boys to perform the French Polynesian version of the “haka” (maori war dance). He did this with great flourish and we enjoyed it very much
These people are very generous and are happy to share their lives with strangers. Baguettes were delivered to our boat in the morning and we are going in to visit with the local English teacher this afternoon. He and his wife are here for 2 years from Paris and it seems as though the expatriate French people hunger for outside visitors.
This is quite different from my visions of the atolls—I had not realized how large the atolls are and how narrow the rim where all life is. They are also affected by the trade winds and ocean weather patterns as there is no height of the land to create local conditions. Since we have been here it has been very windy with occasional squalls coming through. Very little rain falls here and local are forced to ration there water from one or two catchment tanks on their houses.
On our last morning our friends from the pearl farm took us to an area to find the beautiful cowrie shells which are from the area. Aaron caught an octopus with his hands which he cooked for lunch and then we prepared to set sail. We tried to time our exit from the passage through the channel out to sea and it was easier than our entrance.
We then had a windy overnight passage to Rangoroa. We arrived too early for the slack tide to go through the channel so spent an uncomfortable 3 hours waiting 3 miles off shore buffeted by big seas and winds. We were very happy to get through without incident and are now anchored amongst many of the boats we have been with since Panama.
This is the largest and most populated atoll where we will have a week before Aaron and Ashley will fly home to prepare for their upcoming wedding. They are very happy that their open ocean voyaging is over and look forward to some snorkeling in calmer waters before they leave.