July 2, 2012 Raroia Atoll

Raroia Atoll, but not out boat

In 1947 Thor Heyerdahl tried to prove that the Polynesians were descendents of the Inca/South American peoples by building a balsa raft and letting it drift from Peru to .  .  . Raroia!  It crashed.  We set out to find the site, find the Spotless Crake and explore.  A short dinghy ride 2 miles north took us to an islet with a  monument near the reef where the raft came to a grinding grounding on the sharp coral.  When it became obvious to the raft's crew that they were approaching the atoll, they tried to take evasive action.  They then found out that square-rigged balsa rafts not only do not sail back upwind but will not reach across the wind.  Heyerdahl's theory is interesting because there are many similarities between the two peoples, cultures and building techniques, but his theory has been disproven by DNA testing and archeological findings.  The latest thinking is that the Polynesian people came from Taiwan to Southeast Asia to the Marquesas  and then filled the "Polynesian Triangle" marked by Easter Island, New Zealand and Hawaii.  Richard, our guide on Nuku Hiva, believes that the Southeast Asia theory is correct but that later there came travel between Polynesia and South America especially Peru.  Based upon what we've seen we would go along with his theory.  The Polynesians were better sailors than the Europeans and Europeans had a hard time understanding how "savages" could sail "upwind" (against the prevailing winds).  Speaking of sailing upwind, on our last passage we sailed upwind into 20+ knots and the bathroom overhead hatch leaked a bit.  Barry said it was because Sunrise was built to be a sailboat and she was being forced into being a submarine.  That's what sailing upwind is - being a submarine and seeing water pour over the hatches and down the side portlights (windows) and hearing it sloshing back and forth over your head.  Free advice: don't sail upwind in other than light wind.

We tried to pay attention to the monument but we were in Fairy Tern Megaopolis!  We were amid hundreds of these beautiful white birds on this tiny isle.  We saw tern eggs, tern chicks, fishing terns and parents taking tiny fish to feed chicks. We took hundreds of photos which we whittled down to about 10.  Wait until you see the photos!  One snowy fluff ball with black eyes & black beak never blinked or twitched all the time we observed it.  We could tell that its mother said, "I'm going fishing. You stay right there and don't move a muscle!"  The one egg sits in the crook of bare tree branches - no nest.

We dinghied out ¼ mile and anchored by a huge coral head that rises out of the lagoon from about 150' to the surface.  At low tide the head breaks the surface.  We snorkeled with hundreds of beautiful tropical fish, coral, those amazingly colorful giant clams and schools of tuna shaped fish.  The clams, Tridacna maxima, have extremely colorful shining mantles of brown, blue, turquoise or purple.  Google it if you want to read another wonderful story of nature.

We awoke at our usual 0430 to find the lagoon near our boat a piece of glass.  You could "dry snorkel" by just looking down from the boat into the perfectly clear water and seeing the fish milling around us.  A perfect day to explore in the dinghy.  We went south this time and photographed sharks and exceptionally pretty fish from the dinghy.  We waded through the shallow passes where the surf pours over the reef and drains into the lagoon in shallow "rivers".  There we saw many small harmless Black-tipped Reef Sharks and the usual critters, Beche de Mer, crabs, morays and reef herons, Wandering Tattlers, Bristle-Thighed Curlews, Tuamotu Reed-warbler, noddies and terns.  We got a distant look at two Blue Lorikeets.  Our cruising guides say that this atoll is full of sharks and apparently that scares most boats away.  We saw the one and only sailboat here yesterday way off in the distance.  (You needed strong binoculars to see it.)  We came to another bird island, this time with Black Noddy and their chicks, eggs and nests in addition to the white Fairy Terns.  We photographed a hilarious sequence of mother, father and teenage Great Crested Terns with the teenager pretending he was a chick so that the parents would feed him.  The parents would look away, walk away and look at each other and say, "He must be YOUR kid." Eventually they flew away with the perfectly capable youth following, still begging pitifully.  We continued our dinghy ride and I almost fell out of the boat when I saw a skiff speeding along in the distance.  We followed them to a pretty motu (one of the islets making up the ring of the atoll).  They got out and visited a shrine to Mary.  They spoke a bit of English, we showed them the bird book pictures and they gave us the low-down on where to find the birds.  (They never heard of the Spotless Crake.  Boo hoo.) They said they were just out for a Sunday drive, a little fishing, visiting the shrine and having a picnic. They were 2 couples with a 2 year old and a baby buggy in the boat.  Too funny!  The only word we had in common with the 2 year old was "Crocs".  We talked about sable (sand) and she got some to show us.  I guess she was thinking we must be deficient in our language skills and she should help us.  It was fun to talk with other human beings after 2 weeks of deprivation.

Another glassy morning and Barry is back up the mast to tend to the spreader lights, tang, and the various do dads which make the boat go and make our life easier.  No tromping around in sand and water today because I have a tropical staph lesion on my heel and I don't want anymore doctors yelling at me, "You could have died!"  But that last time, with Dr. Soeprono so upset, scared me into lancing this one, betadine, antibiotic ointment and Keflex.  Don't worry, it was a brand new Xacto knife blade.