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.)
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