July 25, 2012  Went for an afternoon snorkel among the fishies.  It was a beautiful reward for a hard working day.

July 26, 2012  This morning we took simple gifts and the prints of the photos to the girl putting flowers on the grave.  Met her older cousin, a young mother, with a baby, who communicated quite a bit with French, sign language and some English.  The grave was of a great grandmother.  The girl is 10.  There was area near their 2 houses  which looked like the native trees had been burned so that they could plant coconut.  Again, their yard was nicely raked and clean which is not easy when you live in a forest of trees. We moved east about a mile to a new location for better protection from the swell within the lagoon caused by the strong SE winds.  Fantastic snorkeling with lots of coral and a million kind of fish. We think only God could think up such a whimsical variety of colorful creatures.  Saw a medium sized reef fish trying to shake off a remora.  Poor thing.  Next we took the dinghy to Iles du Recifs, Isles of Reefs.  A flock of eight Bristle-thighed Curlews  with one Golden Plover in the midst came near.  We got a  long close look at them.  They visit the Tuamotus for the winter coming from the mountains of Alaska .  Or the nonbreeders hang around here all year.  All over the ground were coconuts ruined by rats who chew holes in them.  Then we saw the culprit and then another, but they are too sneaky to get a picture.  They were brought to Polynesia to be food by the first immigrants from Southeast Asia (which in hindsight was probably not the best idea).  We were searching for Blue Lorikeets, but there were none.  The landscape on the reef is an unreal jumble of super sharp coral remnants with swiftly flowing and cascading sea water meandering through.  Outside the reef is the violent ocean with spray from the pounding surf rising many feet in the air like a cloud.  Interspersed are many motus with the trees, bushes and rats but very few birds.  We finished up the day preparing the boat for the trip back across the lagoon to town for fuel and groceries and an anchorage suitable for the expected change in wind direction.

July 25, 2012

July 25, 2012 Still doing laundry (sheets and towels that are not on the hotel's list).  And now cleaning frig which is a big deal.  You couldn't find a more beautiful spot to do your chores!  When we first arrived here we wondered what the bright turquoise birds were and then realized they were white terns with the lagoon reflecting off their wings.  If we get tired of working, we just go on deck and look at the fish swimming around the boat.  Yesterday we saw a big dark  shark, the Gray Shark, the first we've seen this trip and considered dangerous.  He was afraid of us and quickly darted off.

July 21 - 24, 2012

I've been reflecting on our visit to Toau and decided that, really, we did not value our time in Toau for the snorkeling and birding but for the long social interaction with Pamela and company. Toau hasn't changed for the worse, except for the pearl farm experience. Valentine has a nice modern phone booth but it's "broken" she says. Gaston has a cellphone which worked sometimes if he stood on the roof - that phone is broken too. It is really funny to see a phone booth in such a remote area but the telephone system is a source of technological pride in Polynesia. You can buy phone cards at the Poste and use them in any phone booth.

Waves in the pass

The pass into Rangiroa atoll was the biggest deal so far. We looked at our Tides and Currents program in order to determine the time to leave Toau so that we would arrive at slack current. JJ had given us WxTides which the dive boats use and we consulted that. We arrived 2 hours early and tacked back and forth in front of the pass watching the gnarly maelstrom of fast outgoing current colliding with income wind and waves. We spent our waiting time calculating and observing other boats. The straight shot in was full of breaking waves. The dive boats came out along the east edge, having a relative smooth trip and dumped off their passengers for the wall dive outside the pass. Three sail boats came out after the dive boats and followed the leading line showing the direct route into and out of the pass. They got tossed and turned in a terrifying manner. We heard one boat say that they had not closed all their hatches and their bed was drenched. It was so bad that, in addition to already closing all the hatches and thru-hulls, I even put my computer away in a cabinet. Every possible point of entry for water was blocked and every movable object stowed securely. Time marched on and we decided we better go for it, even though almost the whole pass was covered in breaking waves. Barry deftly steered the boat along the edge (not the straight shot) of the pass where the current was slower and the water calmer and the boat smoothly and gracefully slid in the pass and around the turbulence. I am so glad I am married to Barry!!!

We anchored in front of the hotel where Vince & family will stay when they come on Saturday. Nice easy dinghy dock, wonderful restaurant, laundry service, help with directions and information of all sorts. Lovely.

We left our anchorage in front of the hotel when the wind changed from NE to SE 17 knots. A lovely sail across the 17 miles to the opposite side where we would be in the lee of the motus. We found a beautiful spot all to ourselves with fantastic snorkeling. About 4 pm a giant sailing yacht came and anchored right beside us! Why?! They followed us in Fakarava also. (See info about SY Tamsen. ) A huge sailing yacht with two mast so tall they had red lights to warn off airplanes. They made Sunrise look like a little peanut. Then about 5 pm we saw 2 Polynesian young men with their dog walking along the beach. The presence of dogs puts an end to just about any kind of bird that nests on or near the ground. Off we went anyway at 6 am to search for the Spotless Crake and Blue Lorikeet but saw nothing but Great Crested Terns, Black Noddies, Pacific Reef Herons and Fairy Terns. A family lives in a hut where we beached the dinghy and a young girl (about 11)) came by picking leaves and flowers and making an arrangement. We asked to take her picture and found that she was making the flower decoration for a grave there. Sweet. Because the locals know the birds better that we do, we showed her the bird book and she said no to the crake and the lorikeet. Her family has 3 dogs.



Tamsen



Tamsen has sailed away. This afternoon is laundry day.

There Goes the Neighborhood

My parents asked a little about their current neighbors, Tamsen who arrived next to them.  Here's what I found out. New York Times Article on Tamsen and California Style Article on Tamsen

Apparently, the Firestones have excellent taste in location.

July 22, 2012

Spotless Crake

A few days ago: I took the bird book to Valentine to show her the picture of the Blue Lorikeet and the Spotless Crake.  She said the Spotless Crake used to walk along the shore but no more. Lorikeet, yes, years ago, but no more. Toau was nearly birdless compared to Raroia and Tahanea. Valentine wanted us to know that Gaston quit smoking. Did we nag at him about that the last time we were here?

Church this morning: little flags, like Tibetan prayer flags, were strung back and forth across the ceiling - very pretty!  The church was filled with local plants and flowers arranged by church members. Other than that I don't like this church so much. It looks like some European came and tried to build a heavy airtight stone edifice like you would find in Germany or somewhere.  There was certainly no view of the lagoon, hardly a breeze and very few smiles. Same priest as in Fakarava, 110 nautical miles away! After this service he will go to the church at the other end of the motu. We wonder how he does it. 
 We've had two meals in the hotel where Vince's family is going to stay. Last night, fafa, something like spinach. Today crudites (raw vegetables). Yum!! It's amazing the things you crave when you've been deprived.

July 20, 2012

We had a long visit with Valentine and Gaston made a brief appearance.  Since he had much to do and did not speak much English, he was not motivated to hang around with us.  They have made many improvements to their property since we were last there and cater to the cruisers coming through.  In 1999, Toau was a little visited place.  Very vew boats entered the lagoon through the pass and only 12 boats visited Anse Amyot, a small, deep bay on the leeward side of the atoll.    However, in the intervening years, the location was written up in some of the boating magazines and blogs.  The end result was 279 boats visited last year.  So Gaston  has put in some rental moorings and built a little restaurant to serve the cruisers.  He catches the fish and prepares the coconuts and Valentine is the cook.  He also harvests coconuts for copra and they have a small pearl farm.  The end result is a much bigger house, generators, freezers and a large speed boat to go to Fakarava or Apataki to get supplies that they cannot get off the supply boat.  They have just had about 12 yards of topsoil brought in from Tahiti on the supply boat with which they are starting their garden! (No soil in most of the Tuamotus.  They even sometimes have to import sand for the beaches at the luxury hotels.

Valentine did not remember us at first and Lynne tried one thing after another to jog her memory.  Finally something clicked and you could see the look of recognition spread across her smiling face.  She said, "We all ate together and you brought a  cake!"  She remembered Sunrise being moored at the motu pearl farm, that we came loose, the ride with Gaston in his skiff to bring us to Anse Amyot and how we all went aboard Cobia 2 when she came to Anse Amyot.  She filled us in on the demise of Pamela's pearl farm.  Things did not go well. The pearl oysters they brought from Ahe suffered in the move and did not produce as hoped. The expense of paying to have them moved was a burden.  Pamala broke up with Auguste, her boyfriend, who was the diver and mechanic.  She did not become pregnant, but soon lapsed into poor health.  She is now  married and lives in Mururoa with her adopted parents.  Valentine straightened us out our memory; it was Pamela who was from Mururoa and Valentine who was from Fakarava.  During our visit to the pearl farm in 2000, Pamela had been generous by giving us some very nice black pearls.  In appreciation, we ordered a number of expensive items from West Marine that they wanted.  Lynne's father and Noelle brought them when they visited soon after, but nobody met them at the airport in Papeete to receive the package.  We later mailed it to Pamela at the Fakarava Post Office and had always wondered if they had received the package.  Valentine said that they did receive the package.  Knowing that was a relief to us.  We exchanged gifts.  Valentine gave us some black pearls which are beautiful but imperfect so worthless in the pearl market. Also, bananas, coconuts and fish.  We gave them 10 rolls of toilet paper, dish soap, shampoo, conditioner, peanut butter (for Gaston who has not an ounce of fat on him) and garlic powder - all of which they asked for.  Gaston was thrilled with the shark hooks and fishing pliers and batteries we brought for him and Valentine liked the bathing soaps and creams and sprays that we brought for her.  However, what she really wanted were Lynne's binoculars and sunglasses! No on the binoculars but I finally gave her my sunglasses.  In the afternoon we left to go snorkeling and it was the best snorkeling that we have seen so far.  The water was clear, the coral heads were big and healthy and there were lots of fish and one large octopus.  After our snorkel, it was time to prepare the boat for sea.  By sundown, we were leaving Toau for Rangiroa with good wind promising a quick trip.  Update midnight: ¾ of the way to Rangiroa and the wind is howling again at 22 knots but we are sailing downwind so the ride is smooth and pleasant - and very fast!  We are threading our way through atolls using radar and chart plotters and GPS with waypoints.  We just passed the closest point to an atoll so only Rangiroa lies ahead.  (Written by both Barry and Lynne.)

July 18-19, 2012

This morning, I (Barry) went ashore in the dinghy to explorer part of the motu we are anchored behind.  There was a shallow lagoon extending into the motu with clear water, a few fish and one 3 foot long black-tip shark on patrol.  This lagoon was Moray City.  I saw these fish 22 different times with multiple sighting of some, I am sure.  The four smallest  ones were about one foot long with the largest 3 feet long.  Most were a very pale gray or beige with sandy speckles.  The largest was a darker gray, but also speckled.  Some were slithering around looking for food under chunks of coral rubble.  Occasionally, they would push in hard and I would see a small fish zip out to the side fleeing for its life.  Some were basically out of the water, slithering across the wet coral and its tiny puddles.  Others were trying to hide next to a piece of coral rubble.  One of the smaller ones was hiding with its head protruding out of a ¾" diameter hole in ½ inch deep water.  When I moved a piece of rubble under which a moray was hiding, I also saw a clam-like mollusk called a file shell.  It had a white shell about 1 1/2 inches long with a fringe of about 50 long bright reddish orange-striped fingers on its mantle waving around.  The "clam" was propelling itself through the water by opening and closing its shell.

I walked into a small coconut tree grove looking for a fresh coconut.  There were many old coconuts on the ground, but no fresh ones.  Eventually, I saw a likely coconut still hanging from the top of a relatively short tree.  It was out of reach, but I flailed away at it with the base of a frond for several minutes until the coconut fell.  To my disappointment, something had been gnawing away at the husk in several places.  Probably a rat.  Although the shell was intact, there was no indication of juice inside anymore.  So no coconut to eat.  The other direction down the motu, there are several houses or shelters and we have seen two boats and at least four men come and go.  We suspect that they are harvesting coconuts, as the copra trade is flourishing here.  Copra is subsidized to keep people on their home islands.  Otherwise, many would move to Papeete looking for work.

JJ on Ocean Echo turned out to be an interesting person.  He came over to share some tide and google earth info and told us he defected from Czechoslovakia 20 years ago when he was a young man.  He was a coach of the Czech ski team that was competing in the Alps when he went for a walk and just kept on going.  He has been in Canada for 20 years and was full of sailing information about British Columbia.  Being a European (dual citizenship), he can stay in French Polynesia longer than Americans so he will be here for years after we leave.  The next morning Cobia 3, the supply boat, showed up a few hundred yards from us.  Toau has changed.  We're out of here.

July 19, 2012  Leaving Toau atoll this morning was the first exciting ride through a pass that we have had.  There were big swells rolling straight into the pass and there was no avoiding them getting out.  This was caused by the wind blowing over 20 knots for several days. (La mer was agitee and even a bit grosse.) Add to that the higher tides caused by the new moon (the moon and the sun both on the same side of the earth pulling together on the oceans). We were well prepared for the bucking and splashing except for forgetting to close the door of the cupboard that holds the dishes.  Fortunately, the spigots on the sink stopped their flying onto the floor. After the boisterous exit we had a lovely downwind sail to Anse Amyot. Anse (anchorage) Amyot is a place we did not visit on Sunrise in 2000 although we did come via their skiff.  It's the place where Pamela screamed, "Dangereux" at the stone fish, where we ate with them and where Barry had so much fun shark fishing with Gaston and where Valentine showed us mementos and photos of her one-time home on  Mururoa.  Being Polynesian and evacuated from her home, Valentine has a bad feeling about France and the nuclear testing.  In 1963 Mururoa and other Tuamotu atolls were chosen by France to be the site of their atmospheric tests.  Between 1966 and 1974,  French made 41 above ground nuclear tests and between 1975 and 1991 they conducted 134 underground tests.  In 1995, the President, Jacques Chirac, announced another series of 8 tests.  The first of the series caused rioting in Papeete and by the last test in 1996 France was suffering worldwide outrage.  We felt this in New Zealand where France invaded Auckland Harbor and blew up the Greenpeace boat.  Greenpeace had been in Mururoa protesting.

July 13-16, 2012

July 13  In order to use the internet one goes to the Post Office and buys a Manaspot card which has username and password under scratch off silvery stuff.  Or ditto from a hotel.  So we left bright and early for a very short dinghy ride to the city wharf and the nearby PO.  Tiny little thing. You take a number and wait your turn.  No problem as there were only 2 people ahead of us and they had country music in English.  We were amused by the little 3-4 year old girl waiting with us.  When we sat down she moved as far away as she could get.  When we stood up she walked around and around us checking us out.  It reminded us of the last time we were in Polynesia and the babies would cry when they saw us and the parents would say, "Don't cry. It's only a palangi" (white person).  Apparently, the Post Office is like a bank/safe deposit and the two people ahead of us had wads of 10000 French Polynesian francs to deposit.  40 minutes! later it was our turn only to find that they are out of Manaspot cards.  I know enough French to understand "ne. . .pas" and a show of empty palms plus the pointing to the empty hole in the drawer.

July 14  The wind is howling up to 35 knots and we are just hunkered down doing chores.  We got our internet card at a local pension.  We are glad we moved the boat closer to town. Two huge motor yachts anchored where we used to be. They are all lit up like miniature Carnival cruise ships.  Not the neighbors you want.

July 15  Went to church (Catholic) and were totally inspired by the beauty created from local shells, flowers and wood and the many hues of turquoise of the lagoon seen outside.  All those beautiful people smiling and singing their awe inspiring music reminded us of what's important in life.  Fortunately, the priest talked with his hands so I did fairly well understanding the sermon.  Had lunch in a real French restaurant including dessert. Oh, my.    In the evening we deposited trash and took a stroll through the village, church, cemetery and ocean side of the motu with its outer reef - our last  Fakarava evening .  We leave in the morning on the outgoing tide for Toau.

Etienne with a pearl
on their previous visit

July 16, 2012  On our last trip in 2000,  Toau was one of our favorite places and one of the places we stayed longest.  Pamela's pearl farm,  Rarahu (one of Marlon Brando's many Tahitian children),Tamateo and Etienne, Barry helping with the pearl oyster setting, Valentine and Gaston and shark fishing and the many shared meals.  Turning down the offer to kill a turtle to eat and saying please take us to see living turtles instead (which they did!).  Learning all about pearl farming, how to fish and get other edible critters off the reef.  We'll see what this trip brings.  So far we have a distant neighbor.  He kayaked over to say howdy just as (again) we were bathing naked in the cockpit after our  snorkeling.  We darted below to get some clothes, came back and said Sorry. We were naked and had to go get  clothes.  "I noticed", he said. Cruisers are a race apart.  Single hander from Vancouver anxious to chit chat

Pamelia seeding a pearl on their
previous visit

July 11  Rotoava, Fakarava has street lights!  Aack. However, you can still see a million stars and . . . they have gazole!  Our entrance to the pass was perfectly timed, we got across the lagoon while the sun was still high enough to see the bombies (coral heads) and we have no neighbors.  Early this morning we dinghied to the village to search for a baguette, produce and gazole.  We were not expecting to find gazole because the supply boat doesn't arrive until Thurs or Friday, but we thought it was a good time to reconnoiter.  What should be there but the Cobia 3 - the supply boat. It was here on a Wednesday by a fluke and was almost ready to leave. Lots of people helped us translate and we were able to get our quarante litres straight from the ship's nozzle very easily.  We also bought tangerines! Potatoes, lychees and a frozen head of broccoli - we'll see how that is.  It is a terrible thing to freeze a beautiful head of broccoli but it IS better than no broccoli at all. Civilization has its perks.

July 12 I was so sad to leave our five remoras in Tahanea but we have new friends hanging out around the boat - two Green Sea Turtles. We have moved the boat to the big city (pop 400) so that we have a shorter dinghy ride in these howling winds and choppy waters. Today we found a trash barrel and a fruit and vegetable stand. Now we have a detrashed boat and  6 tomatoes, 6 little pineapples (ananas), 10 little bananas, many more tangerines, 2 pamplemousse, & 8 New Zealand apples. 60 hard earned dollars but worth every penny. We ate out for both lunch and dinner. Lunch, poisson cru and fish, at a pension (a cross between a bed & breakfast and motel) having a delightful conversation with other diners from La Rochelle, France. We spoke English and they spoke French and, with a little sign language, we communicated amazingly well.  Dinner outside at La Roulotte (like a roach coach) watching the children jumping rope, even double dutch, and riding bikes and playing ball of some sort. Remember how children used to do such things? People outside walking and talking and going to church (Catholic). They say they have church every night.  I think that must be so that they have an excuse to sing.  You've got to hear it to believe their heavenly singing. As we walked along, people would not look at us or say a thing but if we cheerily said "bon soir" they would enthusiastically respond with a lyrical bonsoir and big smiles. We walked past clean, tidy and pretty homes and gardens. They must have that same philosophy here about how a well tended garden shows a well ordered life.


Position :  16 03.60' S, 145 37.20' W
Speed : 0.4 knots,  Course : 221 degree

July 9 & 10, 2012

July 9 Twenty Bottlenose Dolphin accompanied us out Tahanea's pass. It happens at almost every pass, but it is thrilling every time and we both run to the bow of the boat to hear them breathe and see their blow hole open and close and see every muscle move so gracefully. So far our program, Nobeltec's Tides and Currents, has been right on money in its timing. Another boat followed us across the lagoon but when we got to the pass we put down the anchor and took a nap while the other boat sailed back and forth, back and forth, looking at the pass and waiting for the right moment to go out. We woke up, went out at precisely the right time while the other boat waited. It didn't leave until over an hour after we did which meant they had to buck an incoming current.



July 10 We are headed for Fakarava which has magazins (stores). I am starting to fantasize about vegetables and fruits - blackberries, artichokes and silverbeets, avocados and tomatoes. Deprivation makes us grateful for what we Americans have available to us on a daily basis. Diesel everywhere with pumps and hoses, not, "OK, here's your 200 L (about 50 gal) barrel of diesel. Get the barrel back to us before noon".

July 8, 2012

Lesser Frigate Bird

0630 off in the dinghy to the third motu which likely has the Atoll Fruit-Dove. We begin walking around the entire periphery of the island searching for . . . Eureka! Got it! Bingo!! The dove flies by, lands in a nearby short tree and poses beautifully in the early morning sun. Do birds fluff up their feathers to let the sun hit their skin? That's what it looked like this one was doing . Then another. We got lots of pictures. We are getting jaded; for the entire walk around, Fairy Terns , Black Noddies, Brown Noddies, Lesser Frigate Birds and Red-footed Boobies were flying overhead, landing in front of us and staring at us and we hardly noticed. We did photograph an especially nice spider web. Most of the rest of the day was spent checking the Tides & Currents Pro computer program in order to calculate high and low tides here at Tahanea and at Fakarava our next destination, what time to leave our anchorage here, what time to leave pass, how long is passage, how many knots of wind are forecast, how fast can we go in those winds, when will we arrive at Fakarava, how does that work with the tide coming in or going out or slack? Should we go in the N or the S Fakarava pass, where to anchor, when does the supply boat deliver fuel and will we be there, which motu offers the best protection from the expected brisk SE wind and what needs doing before we leave tomorrow morning? Today we had to get the grib file (graphic representation of the wind and rain) using the Iridium phone because the SSB propagation was so poor. The phone is cool but it took us about an hour to remember that out of the 4 USB connections on the computer it only likes one particular one and that is the same one the Inmarsat likes. Once we plug it in to its preferred port, it connects fast and easily. Then we checked the Streamline Analysis from Honolulu which we obtain using the weatherfax computer program. Just think of all the things that you land dwellers don't have to worry about. We don't mind though; it's better than crashing on a reef.

July 6 and 7, 2012

6 July in the afternoon, we went snorkeling over a nearby patch of coral. On the way back, we came across "Conch City" in the sandy bottom. There must have been at least a dozen of these large mollusks in close proximity. Usually, they are widely spaced, although you can see the lines they make traveling across the bottom everywhere.



7 July 2012 The Atoll Fruit-Dove, according to the book, is tame and a weak flyer. At dawn we dinghied over to another motu, crept around the perimeter listening and watching for a dove, crake or sandpiper. When we were nearly all the way round I heard a coo coo coo. I pointed to the source of the sound and Barry walked into the bush. Next thing I hear is, "Got it! Got it! BINGO!" I followed just in time to see the tail end of a dove flying away. That's it! That's all I saw. Tame, my foot! Weak flyer, my foot! (I told him next time just coo quietly to indicate he has seen a dove.) But Barry got photos - backlit, but good enough to tell it's an Atoll Fruit-Dove. I will say that what the motu lacked in dove, crake and sandpiper it made up for in nesting Brown Boobies and Red-footed Boobies. Wait until you see the photos! When a booby flies over you, it really stares at you staying totally focused. The head is therefore stationary while the body pivots around it.


Coconut husking



From Barry: Late morning, I went ashore to burn trash. Next to the spot I picked was a coconut husking station. Wanting some coconut juice and meat, I started looking for a suitable coconut. There were hundreds lying on the ground, but they were all really old and dried out. And it takes a really long time for a coconut to dry out, assuming it does not sprout first. It took me 15 minutes of picking up one likely coconut after another to find one that still had juice in it. The necessary implement is usually a sharpened stick with the other end buried in the ground. This one was a sharpened piece of ¾" rebar 10 feet long resting on a branch with the other end lying on top of the coral rubble. The husk is impaled on the stick and the coconut twisted to pry the husk off. The locals can totally husk a coconut in 30 seconds with three hits of the coconut on the stick. It took me 20 minutes with a wobbly piece of rebar. I obviously need some training on the fine points of coconut husking. After using a corkscrew to make a hole in one of the three "eyes", I drained the juice out. It was still good. The next task is cracking it open. I hold it crosswise and hit it with the back side of a machete. If you know the orientation, it only takes one hit. Since I do not know the orientation, I hit, rotate, hit, rotate, hit and BINGO! We have a cracked open coconut to nibble on for dessert tonight.

Midday, I deal with the fluorescent light fixture in the head. It started blinking last night, then quit for good by this morning. Of the eight that we have, this one is sealed up with silicone RTV for use in a wet environment. I take it down, scrape off all the silicone and put in a new bulb. It works! I reassemble it, seal it up with silicone again, connect up the wires and screw to the ceiling. It still works. By evening, the silicone has hardened and it has stopped working. DANG!



Clam



Mid-afternoon, we dinghy over to snorkel a nearby coral head with lots of giant clams. Giant here means up to 10 inches, although so far they have maxed out at 6 inches, and lots at that size. Where the two shell halves meet, the shell has a sine wave pattern. (The shells meet in a zigzag pattern in a different variety that we have seen in Fiji.) The lips of the clams come in a variety of colors - turquoise, tan, violet, brown, purple and several shades of blue. The color is due to other organisms that live within the lips and special lenses which concentrate the color. Amazing! Of note here was that many had black lips, which we usually do not see. In addition to the color, the lips are speckled and absolutely gorgeous. These clams can see, because they pull their lips in if you get too near them, and will not extend their lips again until you leave. You can be very still, but they know! They bury themselves inside the coral with just the edge of their shells protruding. Some how, they get the hole they are in to grow in size as they grow. How they dissolve out the hard coral is a mystery to me. We also saw some delicate oysters about two inches in size buried inside the coral formation. They had vivid violet lips. There were bright orange Christmas Tree worms. When extended, their gills are about 1 ½ inches long and look like a Christmas tree. We have seen them everywhere in tropical waters. The 5 remoras are still hanging out under the boat. Also, under and next to Sunrise are these groups of tiny fish that form themselves into various fishy shapes. They are like the nanoparticles in that Michael Creighton (wrong spelling but the guy who wrote Jurassic Park) book called Swarm or something like that.

Christmas Tree Worm

July 6, 2012

Red-footed boobie

We left at the "crake of dawn" as Barry says now to search for the rare Tuamotu Sandpiper on a nearby small motu where it is known to be. It doesn't pipe in the sand but lives in bushes where it eats insects. We didn't really search either. We just got out of the dinghy, went ashore, stood there and two came to us loudly announcing their arrival. One was banded. They posed for us and chit chatted with us. "Confiding" as they would say in New Zealand. We searched for the Atoll Fruit-dove, which we didn't find, but found many nesting Red-footed Boobies, noddies and Fairyterns. We visited the "neighbors" on the way back to the boat. Neville and wife from England and Ireland, then New York where they became US citizens and now cruising on Dream Time and kite surfing. Just vaguely interested in birds. They went through the Panama Canal and did the Coconut Milk Run like everyone else through French Polynesia and then to Opua, NZ. They did NZ to Fiji to NZ then left Opua and are going round again through Ravaivai, the Australs, Gambiers and now here in the Tuamotus where they have been 6 weeks. Lady from South Africa on Tereme with a young cat. Her husband was out sailing their inflatable dinghy (like ours) which is outfitted with sails and even a spinnaker. (I have a new project for Barry.) She has seen the Atoll Fruit-dove near our boat. The kitty has fallen over 3 times but they have a wire mesh ladder off the swim step and two long blue braids dangling from the deck into water which the kitty uses to climb back aboard. The cat fishes from the swim step. When we got back to Sunrise there were the mother, father and daughter from the third boat visiting "our" motu while we were visiting theirs. That's it for the neighborhood gossip. Back aboard out of the sun doing boat chores. Results of evening outing to the motu: no crake, no dove but much peace & beauty. I wore shoes and socks!! (I always wear Tevas in the water because I can still hear Pamela screaming, "Dangereux!" as I almost stepped on a Stone Fish.)



Coconut Milk Run



Stone Fish



July 2 cont, July 3 and July 4

From Barry: Next was burning the trash. Along with our trash was some polypropylene rope used by the pearl farmers. It does burn, but first it melts into a gooey blob that wants to slide off the fire into the sand where it can cool down. Then we upped anchor to motor across the lagoon to the village. It takes a long time and a few tries for us to find and get the anchor down in a barely passable spot. Fortunately, there is practically no wind. I take the dinghy ashore to walk around town. One way through town to the pearl farm, where the days activities are over, then back the other way to the airport. A notice to passengers states that they may not take pies or decorated cakes on the airplane. I surmise that there have been "incidents" in the past that have led them to apply this new regulation. Of note is the prevalence of identical banks of solar panels with battery box below and TV dish at almost every house. Oh, and a number of the locals have a cell phone glued to their ear. In the middle of the night, the wind picks up and we worry about the boat backing into a coral head. Then the rain starts and I have to get up and close the hatches, only to get up again a little later to reopen them so we keep cool.

Atoll Fruit Dove

3 July 2012 We don't even wait for dawn to get up and begin preparing the boat for sea. Three hours later, we have pulled the anchor up without getting it or the chain tangled up with the numerous coral heads. We head into the morning sun toward the pass, trusting in the chart, our chart plotter and markers to keep us safe. We can not see anything that might lurk just below the surface. An hour later, we are at the pass and the water is rushing out into a maelstrom of standing waves and eddies. We line the boat up with the range markers, two poles that indicate the best course through the pass, and go for it. Man, it is gnarly out there. The current is six knots where we are, and we are not in the fastest part. It is like the base of Niagara Falls without the spray. Boy, are we glad that we are going out and not trying to push our way in. Lynne takes some pictures, but they don't do justice to the spectacle. Since the pass is on the west side of the atoll, the swell is negligible once past the outgoing current. We are going dead downwind. The mainsail is out on the starboard side, and we get the headsail held out on the port side with the whisker pole. This configuration is called "wing and wing". We are headed for Tahanea to look for the Tuamotu Sandpiper and the Atoll Fruit-dove. There are only a couple hundred of these sandpipers and they are supposed to be there. The plan is to sail overnight with our arrival timed for just past low tide mid-morning. But will the ebb be slowing down or will it be a maelstrom? In the meantime, we have to thread our way between 4 other atolls. These atolls used to be called the "Dangerous Archipeligo" because of the many atolls and strong and uncertain currents between them. If the motus, low sandy islands on the fringing reef, have coconut palm trees, they can be seen about 8 miles away in the daytime. The low-lying reef on the windward side can not be seen until about a mile away in the daytime. Tonight, with a full moon, we are sliding past the coconut palm covered motus of Makemo just three miles away, and I cannot see anything. We are thankful for GPS, good charts and a radar that can see the motus. In the old days, using just a sextant, inaccurate charts and dead reckoning, this would be a suicide run. You would hear the surf crashing on the reef just before your boat hit. Just twenty miles ahead of us is Katiu. As soon as we clear Makemo, we need to turn left to thread our way between Katiu, Tuanake, and Tepoto.

Tahanea

4 July 2012 In the morning, as we close on our next atoll, Tahanea, the wind dies down a bit. Lynne fires up the engine to boost our boat speed. Several minutes later, it sputters to a halt. Dang! After a very short night of sleeping, the race is on for me to get the engine working again. The vacuum gauge on the Racor fuel filters is showing an abnormally high vacuum reading. Time to change the fuel filters. When I refueled in NukaHiva, I had neglected to put the fill pipe cap on. It was two weeks later that I had noticed it being off. Had we gotten water in the tank? Well, it just so happens that that is the tank that I had put a small sump and drain hose on 14 years ago. After replacing the filters, I go to drain some fuel from the bottom of the tank to top up the filter bowl before putting the cap on. No fuel comes out. There was water in the bottom of the tank. Ten gallons of salt water! That also meant that we had ten less gallons of fuel than we thought we had. Eventually, I get the small amount of fuel that I need. Next was the task of bleeding the primary fuel filter, injector pump and injectors. An hour and a half after the motor died, it is running again. And we are just a few minutes from arriving at the pass. We are grateful that the engine problem occurred well before going through the pass and not while we were in it. (From Lynne: And I am grateful I am married to that genius, Barry. XXXXXOOOO)

We roll up the headsail, retract the whisker pole and store it on the mast, and centerline the mainsail. Time to motor in the pass. Out timing is perfect. The current is manageable, there are no standing waves and our entry is a piece of cake. I stand on the rat lines looking into the water ahead of us for coral as we spend two hours motoring across the lagoon to our anchorage. Why here? Well, on these few motus at the eastern end of the atoll lives the rare Tuamotu Sandpiper and Atoll Fruit Dove. We will look for them in the morning. For now, time to rest, de-rig the boat, put the covers on the dodger and mainsail, put up the small rain awning and start on the new list of maintenance chores.

Tuamotu Sandpiper

Photos of our Trip

Our friends who came to say goodbye

Gene, Patti, Leo and Angie
6am May 5 as we are leaving the harbor

Sierra Guardian

Squall to the left; but our path ahead going across
the Intertropical Convergence Zone is clear

Inmarsat as we are nearing the equator

Froggy looking at inmarsat. Froggy sailed with us in 200 also.
He puts up with a lot, does a few chores on the boat and cheers
us up with his funny antics. The chores?  He holds toothpicks and
letter openers for people, he keeps the handheld VHF from tipping over,
he searches for lost things.

Approaching our first landfall, Hiva Oa on day 23

My cute hair cut, courtesy of Barry

Army guys practicing for pirogue races in Atuona, Hiva Oa

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Masked Booby

Laysan Albatross

Barry checking sail trim

Life on board, checking Sailmail

Helo, I think the other side says Turner

Sir Monitor. Notice move up in status.

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Rigging: why sailing suits Barry.
He can keep all these lines straight,
(or lazy, if need be)

In the middle of the Pacific Ocean with
Barry OUTSIDE the boat on the Monitor
to tighten the bolts

Squid

Sailing wing and wing

I posted some of these in their respective posts, but included here at this point. Captions to follow.