Things have really calmed down, so much so that there is no wind for the next couple of days, so we have decided to stay until Monday so we can hopefully sail to Rangiroa when the Trade winds start blowing again. It is stiflingly hot with no wind, so a relief to get into the water, although I’m not so keen going out to where all the big sharks are lurking. We had some great snorkelling inside the atoll at slack tide, so many fish and big ones too, huge big groupers all keeping watch over their particular coral head. Big parrot fish too, which is so nice to see. We’ve decided it is our best snorkelling since being in the Tuamotus.
In the afternoon we went in to see Gaston and Valerie, owners of the mooring balls. We congratulated him on his strong moorings, which were so fundamental to our safety in the big storm. Valerie has some black pearls to sell, loads in fact, she has her own little pearl farm, not that we saw any sign of it. I had a great time sifting through them, it is very hard when you see a lot together, but the darker black and deep lustre are what you are looking for apparently. I put a few aside which Gaston will put a hole through and we can pick up tomorrow. We bought some very expensive pamplemousse, although she did say she would exchange them for beer!
We went for a walk as far as we could along the coral beach and passed the Tiki memorial we can see from the boat. It is in memory of a well known and very accomplished Swiss sailor, Laurent Bourgnon. I googled him later and discovered he has won many of the big ocean races. He designed a big Catamaran called Jambo and came to French Polynesia with his family where he sailed regularly. In 2015 he did a dive with a company, in the pass into Tuao and never surfaced. The navy searched for 4 days and his brother even longer but they never found a body. They think he must have got swept away in the big currents that rush through the pass. Very tragic.
We Cooked a big chunky piece of meat on the the little BBQ at the back of the boat which was very tasty, eaten with the last of our potatoes, all the way from the Galapagos!
The parrot fish are so colourful and big schools of them
Rowan’s great video of the parrot fish
Remoras loving out water melon skin
Buying black pearls off Valerie, she also sold us 2 pamplemousse, £5 each! Desperate times!
The tiki in memory of Laurent Bourgnon a famous Swiss Sailor
Afternoon stroll on the coral beach, pretty hard work
Dramatic sunset and clouds
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