16º 27.041s 145º 22.039w
Sun Jun 30 2019
Tuesday
the 25th we didn’t make the kite boarding training schedule. It turns out that
a bunch of other folks also want to learn to kite board – good for Adrien and
Aline, bad for us. The wind forecast for Wednesday and Thursday was looking
really light, so Monday evening we started thinking that while there was a good
Southeast wind perhaps we ought to sail on up to the village. For starters the
supply ship was due Wednesday and no telling what goodies we might find to buy.
We were needing to do a bit of internet business and hit the ATM to get more
cash to pay for our lessons. To top it off, Monday evening Adrien had a mishap
with his dinghy; the outboard fell off and sank in 60 feet of water! It
happened just before dark so the best he could do was to mark it with a float,
then look for someone to SCUBA on down and recover it Tuesday morning. The good
people on SV Namaste were able to happily oblige, but with the expectation that
it might be several days before any more kite boarding lessons might be on the
menu, we made the snap decision Tuesday morning to enjoy the nice Southeast
breeze and sail up to the village of Rotoava at the Northeast corner of the
atoll.
It
turned out to be a great sail, and along the way we recognized our Kiwi pals on
SV Gabian, a big Lagoon cat, sailing along in front of us. Race on! It took us
a couple of hours, but we absolutely smoked by them just before arriving at the
anchorage. Their two young boys were firing seeds at us with their slingshots,
but we were undeterred. We all met up at Fakarava Yacht Services (FYS) after
anchoring and did a bit of chest thumping, then got on with the business of
communicating with the outside world. There is actually fiber optic laid to
Fakarava, but it ends about two houses from FYS, so the internet isn’t terribly
fast. Nevertheless it put the 2G cell data to shame so we were eternally
grateful to have the access. We delivered a couple of large bags of laundy when
we arrived, then learned from Andy on Gabian that we could also get our empty
propane cylinder filled. They use butane here and apparently it doesn’t burn as
hot as propane, but them’s the breaks.
The
ship arrived on schedule Wednesday morning and we scored a bunch of fresh
veggies, some cheese and a few other bits. The French Baker was in high gear
each morning so my job was to pop out of bed like a piece of toast and dinghy
ashore around 0600 to collect some pain au chocolate, pain au raisin and
croissants to increase Mrs. Hardesty’s cruising pleasure. Worth the price of
admission! Wednesday was internet and shopping day, so strenuous that we had to
visit Rotoava Grill for a steak frites at lunch time. By the end of the day we
had clean laundry, a full tank of butane, and had taken care of most internet
stuff. After checking the weather we figured we could linger another day before
taking shelter, so we arranged to rent bicycles for Thursday.
That
worked out great! We pedaled South a few kilometers to a local farm – raised
planting beds that these guys had built and then filled with composted soil
they had made. We were able to purchase a whole bunch of beautiful leaf lettuce
for about $4.50, and with that in hand we pedaled on further down the paved
road to a pearl farm and jewelry operation about 10 kilometers South of the
village. The place is run by an older German gentleman who married a French
Polynesian lady about a zillion years ago – and together they run the place; he
manages the retail shop and oversees the pearl farming operation, she makes the
jewelry. We got to tour the whole place, and good for us Isabel speaks fluent
French as the foreman out at the pearl manufacturing building didn’t speak
English. Altogether it was a fascinating thing to learn about, and what was
really cool is that the pearls are seeded by a guy who is kind of doing
surgery, implanting a new little sphere in each oyster after removing a
finished pearl. Turns out the various sizes of these “seed spheres” are made from
shells found in Mississippi! Who’d a thunk that?!?
In
any case, Isabel did “a little shopping” and is now sporting some unique pearl
ear rings along with a lovely necklace made by the better half of the couple.
It’s great to support local artists and now that we know how the pearls were
actually cultivated and grown, her jewelry will forever remind us of our
experience here.
All
that pedaling and learning (and jewelry shopping) made us hungry, so we pedaled
a bit more back towards the village and stopped at “Snack Elda” for a killer
lunch of various fish preparations. Poisson Cru is the local way of preparing
raw fish in coconut milk, and it featured on each of our plates. Also featured
was a nice bottle of Chardonnay to celebrate the fact that we were having a
long lazy lunch in the Tuamotus on a Thursday while our pal Kal Geiler had to
go to work. Kal really needs to get over that work thing. . .
We
ended up pedaling all the way to the airport at the Northeast end of the atoll,
so I reckon we’ve seen most of the populated parts either from the water or
from bicycles. Returning to FYS we caught up with John, Becca and Simon from SV
Halcyon and agreed to hike down the street for dinner at a food truck, but only
after we had all returned to our vessels to stock up on adult beverages. The
food truck doesn’t appear to have run in years, and is parked under a shed, but
the folks doing the cooking turn out a great cheeseburger and a better steak
than Rotoava Grill. Wish we had known sooner!
Friday
after a bit more internet time at FKS during which a big squall blew through it
was time to up anchor and motor the 29 nautical miles back to the Southeast
anchorage. It was quite the slog, but we got here, and now armed with cash and
plenty of provisions we’re back on the kite boarding schedule. It’s going to
blow like stink for about a week, and this is the most secure anchorage on the
atoll for the coming weather, so here we’ll be for a while. There’s about 25
other boats down here, ready to hunker down when necessary or to snorkel and
kite surf when able, and apparently a bunch of them are ashore at the local
restaurant tonight. The proprietor was cooking a pig over the fire this
afternoon, and we saw another large pig wandering down the beach just before
dark, perhaps looking for his brother or whatnot. Whatever; we seared some tuna
on the grill, along with some grilled broccoli and Costco instant mashed
potatoes, it was a stellar meal.
We
dropped the anchor when we arrived yesterday late afternoon. There were a lot of
weird noises in the night, and this morning with decent light I dove the anchor
only to discover it was hooked on sunken a palm tree trunk. We pulled it up and
reset in 25 feet of water using 3 sets of bommie floats, and now have a scope
of at least 6:1. We think we’re ready – we have rum!
Oh
yeah, they call these big blows a “mara’amu”!
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