Tuamotu – A Year and a Day

Sharks!

We see amazing things on every passage–on our way to Fakarava, we spotted these noddies herding and eating bait fish.

–by Alma

After leaving Tahiti, we went to the beautiful atolls of Apataki and Toau, and now we are in Fakarava.

Halloween costumer preparations in the cockpit.

We arrived in South Fakarava on Halloween where some friends – a British boat and a Canadian boat – were already there. South Pacific Halloween is tons of fun. It was the first time and probably the only time we will trick-or-treat by dingy.

That afternoon, we went over to one of the boats and made Halloween decorations. Then we all got into our last minute homemade costumes. Arlo was a mahi mahi fish and I was the Greek goddess Artemis. The kids trick or treated among our three boats, plus a French boat that was in the harbor. When we told them it was Halloween they gave us candy too. The anchorage was full of sharks, and when we accidentally hit one with an oar, it splashed us. Once we were done, we went back to one of the boats and had a potluck dinner.

That’s me and my friend, checking out some coral.

While we were in South Fakarava, the parents on the Canadian boat taught Arlo and I how to SCUBA dive. I just went with their daughter Zoe in ten feet of water, but the rest of my family dove the length of the famous South Pass of Fakarava where they saw hundreds of five to ten foot sharks.

We also snorkeled the pass twice and saw a good number of six foot sharks as well as some cool fish like the humphead wrasse (often up to five and a half feet long), the Achilles Tang (one of my favorites), and many, many more.

When we first swam with sharks in the Tuamotu, I was somewhat scared. Now if a shark isn’t looking at us, or if it is less than two feet long, then I am Okay with it. But I have to admit that if it is looking at us and is more than two feet long, then I will get an uneasy feeling. After multiple dives, my dad said that he wasn’t scared of the sharks when he was diving because they seemed so uninterested in him

I have loved what we have seen in Fakarava. Next we will be heading back to the Marquesas and then to Hawai’i. I have included some additional photos from the last week or so, but first, here is a note from Arlo . . .

Hello, Arlo here, and I have a couple of updates. First, if you can recall the “Off the Grid on the Water” blog post, you will remember that we had no functional solar panels. After a visit from an electrician, we now have solar power, and I must tell you, the ice is nice.

But more to the point, I got the chance to go scuba diving thanks to our good friends on ALONDRA, and it was incredible. My second dive ever was in the south pass in Fakarava, and we were 73 feet down while we watched the hundreds of sharks swim by as we got swept along with the current. It blew my mind. Although it was hard to keep track of fish and shark species, while I was still figuring out my equipment, I know we saw at least five species of sharks: blacktip reef shark, blacktip shark, gray reef shark, silvertip sharks, white tip reef sharks. I’m totally hooked on it and I hope to get certified when we return to the States.

Arlo caught this barracuda–first fish after a dry spell.

Thanks to our good friends on ITCHY FOOT for shooting this picture of the four of us.

Tuamotu Photo Round Up

We arrived at the beautiful Island of Hauhine two days ago after a mild 2.5 day passage from the Tuamotuan atoll of Toau. I’m sitting in the town hall in the village of Haapu where we have found wifi. Here are a few more photos from the Tuamotu.

We continue to feel ridiculously lucky to be here and to be in touch with you.

Arlo became an enthusiastic and then accomplished spear fisherman in the the Tuamotu. Here he hunts reef fish from the side of the boat.

The leeward side of an atoll (here, Tahanea) often has very little land visible above the water. You can just barely see a little surf hitting the reef top in this photo.

The windward side of every Pacific Island we’ve been on is strewn with plastic washed ashore. Toothbrushes, shoes, polypropylene rope, and endless bottles and bottle caps .

So much beauty underwater. This is the top of a “bommie” that rises up from 70′ of water, a column of life in the middle of an atoll lagoon.

Taking underwater photos is tricky, but the swimming is great. Both Arlo and Alma easily free dive to 25′ to see fish and coral. Neither is worried when sharks swim nearby. We’re not in Alameda anymore, Toto.

Typical boat lift, Rotoava Village, Fakarava

Even the five dollar bills are beautiful.

Arlo, always happy to be able to run again.

On the shelf in the magasin, Kauehi Village

So many roofs are woven palm fronds. This is looking up inside a house.

Picking coconuts, opening coconuts. With friends.

The upright sticks are pieces of rebar that encircle the chambers of a fish weir. Arlo and Jason helped build a new chamber. Not sure if the coral enjoyed it.

Life on the boat. Alma touches the radio antenna to the backstay for better reception.

Polynesian francs and the operculum (opercula?) that cover the opening of snail shells.

Sunset at sea, on the way to the Society Islands.

What the Heck Do You Do on a Tuamotuan Atoll Anyway?

–By ARLO

Whoa. As we first turned on the engine and steamed through the turbid pass of Tahanea atoll we were astounded by the change of water color, from the rich royal blue outside the lagoon to the breathtaking aqua blue inside. Lying midway in the Tuamotus, Tahanea is about 25 NM wide and 10 NM long (one nautical mile is equal to one minute of latitude and is slightly longer than a statute mile). Like the rest of the Tuamotus, Tahanea is a low doughnut of coral sand with palm trees and some scrubby bushes on it. Millions and millions of years ago, each Tuamotu was a tall, volcanic island. Over the years, a coral reef grew up around the island. As the mountain began to subside and sink, the coral reef continued to grow. Eventually, the mountain sank completely, and all that is left is a low ring of broken down coral, not 10 feet off the water.

Today Tahanea supports only two or three families who come for a couple months of the year to make copra to be processed in Tahiti. Otherwise it’s uninhabited. We met up with two other boats at our first anchorage in Tahanea, and two days after our arrival we celebrated my 15^th birthday with a bonfire on the beach, cake, bread dough on a stick to be roasted on the fire, and other assorted activities.

Since then, we went to an anchorage protected only by underwater coral. When the sun was low in the sky, the reflection of the sunlight kept you from seeing into the clear water; without seeing the coral, it looked like we were anchored in the middle of the lagoon, kind of the middle of nowhere. There we visited an island, which was remote and had lots of seabirds nesting on it. Then we moved to an anchorage near the pass into the atoll. There we went on an incredible snorkeling expedition from our dinghy in the pass, and saw all sorts of fish, large and small, in addition to coral and cowries. Snorkeling is one of the most amazing experiences you can have, free diving down, and getting to within feet of large fish before they swim away. Back at the boat we saw a large number of blacktip reef sharks circling the boat, one of which startled me by swimming rapidly towards me after I leaped off the dinghy.

Our time in the Tuamotan archipelago has been incredible. When you shut off the engine in a new beautiful anchorage, your first instinct is to put on your swimsuit, mask snorkel, and fins, and then swim as fast as you can to the nearest coral head to see if there is a tasty looking grouper that you might be able to spear for dinner. Even on these little expeditions near the boat—not out in the pass or on a mid-lagoon coral bommie (a chunk of coral that rises from 80+ feet deep to within two feet of the surface)–we have seen some crazy things like a moray eel, a four foot long bumphead parrotfish, and lots of smaller fish and invertebrates, like octopus. I made a type of speargun called a “Hawaiian sling” so now I can go shooting fish–sharks and ciguatera allowing (ciguatera is a dinoflagellate-born disease that can occur in fish, especially those high in the food chain).

We are now in our second and most populated atoll, Kauehi (pop. 350). Like the Marquesans, the people of Kauehi are overwhelmingly friendly, generous, and welcoming to the point of inviting you to their wedding even though they just met you. The locals here speak three entirely different languages: French, Tahitian, and Puamotuan, the native language of the Tuamotu. The primary work in Kauehi, besides subsistence fishing, seems to be copra production, but on a much larger scale than in Tahanea or the Marquesas; today men were shucking the dried meat out of thousands of coconuts to prepare for the supply ship tomorrow. As if this place isn’t different enough from Alameda already, we met a 350 pound pet wild boar, who is tied up to a tree, who will let you scratch him behind the ears and feed him your food scraps.

Tomorrow we will head to the southern anchorage to do more swimming, sailing, snorkeling, fishing, and exploring. Sorry no pictures now, but when we get to internet in a few weeks we’ll post tons of pictures. We can’t wait to here from you guys!