Gezellig samenzijn met iedereen van Anse Amyot. Ik heb mijn gitaar hier achtergelaten, tot grote vreugde van Valentine en Gaston.
Een heel klein schelpje voor een heel klein krabbetjeHa, daar is de hermiet krab. Het krioelt hier van zijn soortgenoten, en ’s avonds in het donker hoort men rondom het geluid van schelpen die over stenen worden versleurd. Wie is daar?
We nemen 5 kadetten van papegaaivissen mee van Valentine voor haar familie in Apataki waar we de volgende dag zullen aankomen. Alhoewel ze gekuist waren, beweegden ze nog een beetje: Levende Vers!
Apataki pas. We lagen aan de enige boei in het dorp, voor het rode generatorgebouw, en met weinig plaats tussen ons en het koraal. Maar wel met internet op de boot!
Het is niet simpel, met een dwarsstroming van 3 knopen tussen de twee pilaren varen naar de meerboei in kalm water.
Zicht vanuit de top van de mast op de Anse Amyot pas. Foto genomen vanuit de ankerplaats, de oceaan ligt op de achtergrond. De koraalrand van de pas wordt aangeduid met de twee staken.
Terug Anse Amyot vanuit de masttop
koraal riffen komen in alle soorten. Hier als lagen versteende rots…
… hier als grove brokken afgebroken koraal, door de golven bijeen gehoopt waardoor de planten erachter een kans krijgen.
Broedend op ideeën voor de blog
Men vindt veel van deze ‘vlotten’ op de windkant van een atol. Geen idee waarvoor deze gebruikt worden, om visnetten aan te hangen?
prisoner in paradise
Verder deze keer niet veel nieuws. De tijd vliegt, en we houden ons onledig met wat lezen, wat snorkelen, wat eten, wat Rummi Cuppen (Ilse heeft me vernederd, maar ik ben aan een come back aan het werken), wat filmpje kijken, wat wandelen, wat onderhoud, wat kuisen.
Slechts één incident te melden qua onderhoud: bij het ankeren is de kettinghouder die op onze dwarsbalk is vastgeklinknageld losgeschoten. Dit alu stuk krijgt veel krachten te verwerken bij het ankeren om de 15 ton zware boot op zijn plaats te houden. Eens geankerd wordt de ketting met twee touwen aan de boegen vastgemaakt en is er geen druk meer op het alu profiel. Maar nu besloot onze vriend dus dat hij er genoeg van had. De rivetten gaven het op en met een mooie boog vloog het overboord, in 6 m diep water. Dit gaf me meteen kans om mijn duikrecord wat scherper te zetten, en ik heb het kunnen opvissen uit het kristal heldere water. We liggen hier bij Apataki Carenage (plaats waar je de boot uit het water kan halen en herstellingen kan uitvoeren), en we hebben maandag nieuwe revetten besteld in Tahiti. De boot komt dinsdagavond, dus we zouden ze woensdag moeten kunnen (laten) installeren. Tony is hier de technische man en zaakleider, en ik heb er alle vertrouwen in. We maken van de gedwongen wachttijd ook gebruik om onze stuurstoel te verstevigen (vezelplaat houdt het na 5 jaar voor bekeken), een indeling in onze ex-ijsmaker kast te maken, en als het kan om twee rollers bovenaan de mast te vervangen. Deze hardplastieken rollers zijn ingesleten en zorgen ervoor dat de grootzeillijn en de kraanlijn op dezelfde plaats verslijten. Dit belooft een moeilijk karwei te worden (op 21 m hoogte!) In afwachting van de vervanging heb ik de twee lijnen ingekort, waardoor de slijtagepunten weg zijn. Ik zou niet graag de giek of het grootzeil zien naar beneden komen terwijl we onderweg zijn.
On August 8th we sailed from Tahanea to Fakarava during the night. The distance was 86NM and that is too far to cover during daylight hours. As you need to arrive during daylight at the pass there is no other option than to sail at night. We had 25KTS winds and were going too fast so we had to drop the main sail and only used our genoa which made for uncomfortable sailing since the boat is not as steady. I was happy when it was 6 AM and we were ready to go through the pass. We moored, had breakfast and went to bed :-). We anchored the next day in a more sheltered part of the lagoon. Fakarava is an atoll protected as an UNESCO biosphere since 2006.
An outrigger sailboat with Sanuk anchored to the left.The Tahitian pearl is French Polynesia’s largest export, making up over 55 percent of the country’s annual exports. We visited a small one in Fakarava where we received a brief explanation on how the pearls were cultivated. Definitely a difficult and lengthy process. No wonder they are expensive!:-(The cultured Tahitian pearl comes in various shapes, sizes, and colors from black to white with shades of green, pink, blue, silver and yellow in between. We will definitely visit a bigger farm to see the whole range of colors.The black lip oysters need to be mature for 2-3 years to produce pearls. Most of the pearl farms are located in the lagoons of the Tuamotu-Gambier archipelago.A pearl cut in half. In the center is the bead, made of shell, that was placed in the reproductive system of the oyster. The oyster then forms nacre around the bead. It takes about 16-18 months to have a layer of .8mm around the bead. The .8mm is the required minimum by Tahitian law for export. In Japan and China there are pearls with only a .4mm and .6mm nacre layer. This makes the Tahitian pearl more expensive and difficult to compete against China and Japan, but their quality is higher! They can use the same oyster up to three times and each time the size of the bead is increased to get a bigger pearl. So perfectly round pearls from the 3rd graft will be more expensive, since bigger, than those of the first graft. A grafter is an expert who enters the bead into the oyster. The whole procedure takes about 2 minutes. I will try to get pictures of this process on a next visit.A lemon shark in the clear water of Apataki. They are no threat to humans.Lunch at the waterfront with our New Zealand friends from the boat Aislado.
We left Fakarava on August 13 early in the morning (7AM) to sail to Anse Amyot on the atoll of Toau. The distance was only 39NM and easily covered during daylight hours. We arrived 7 hours later at yet another beautiful anchor spot!
Stefan took this picture while he was hanging at the top of the mast. You can see the solar panels at the back of the boat and Flipper behind,all on crystal clear water!Picture taken at the top of the mast. On the left, the restaurant of Gaston and Valentine. On the right the two beacons which guide you into the pass when they are in line.
We planned to have dinner at the restaurant together with Aislado since they would be leaving for Tahiti on monday. Unfortunately Valentine was sick and dinner was cancelled so we organised a barbecue on Aislado together with Apparition (other NZ boat).
Surrounded by Kiwi’s 🙂 on Aislado. Hopefully we will see them back in Auckland in January 2017 !
We stayed a couple more days for snorkeling and relaxing and spent one evening at shore with Valentine and Gaston for “aperitive”. They prepared a coconut crab they caught the day before. It tasted a lot like lobster, very yummy. We brought beers and the last bit of rhum, amaretto and wine we had. We emptied everything. Valentine took her Ukulele and Stefan went to get the guitar we had. What a great evening with singing, drinking and eating our first coconut crab. Great memories….
The coconut crab is a hermit crab also known as robber crab or palm thief. They are the largest land living anthropod in the world.They can open coconuts with their claws but their diet is not limited to coconuts! They will eat fruits, seeds and also meat.Valentine, still a little sick. We left our Belgian flag and guitar there….We will be visiting again end of October before leaving the boat at Apataki.
Monday, August 22nd a grey day in the Tuamotus and thus time to further update the blog. We are currently in Apataki. We will come back here in November to take Sanuk out of the water for the cyclone season till the end of May 2017. In the meantime we will visit family and friends in Belgium (yeahhh) and go on a roadtrip through New-Zealand. But now we are very much looking forward to the arrival of our youngest daughter (Emma) and boyfriend (Sebastien) coming to Papeete on September 8th and our friends (Katie and Karel) joining us for 3 weeks in October !!!
Map of Apataki atoll. We entered through the Passe Haniuru (SW) and moored there for one day. Then we motored to the carenage on the SE side of the atoll to Totoro where we are anchored now. We will leave the atoll through the NW pass, Passe Almonu. Captain Cook was here in 1774. I really admire these adventurers, sailing here without GPS, motor, depth sounder, etc it must have been scary!
Apataki when the sun was shining. View from the boat. The dark spots are the “bommies”.We motored in between the 2 white poles and took a the only mooring (on the left). We had 2 meter water under the boat…I do not think we would have dared to do this a year ago! The dark blue and light blue is safe water, grey-brown is danger!Looking from our mooring to the southern pass (Haniuru) at Apataki. We are just in front of the post office which was unfortunatly next to the village’s noisy generator! We were lucky since the supply boat had just arrived the day before and so there were carrots (4USD per kilo), potatoes, onions and even celery at the store. We have not had a real choice in fresh vegetables since we left mainland Ecuador at the end of April. Potatoes and onions are usually not a problem but to find carrots or tomatoes you have to be lucky! I got the last piece of Emmenthal cheese and did not look at the price! 🙂 A visit to the Carrefour or Delhaize will never be the same!:-))A walk around the motu just next to where we will leave our boat in November till end of May 2017.Stefan standing on the reef of coarse dead coral,behind him is the Pacific Ocean. A yacht stranded here on the reef in May of this year at night. A helicopter came to rescue the captain and his wife. The boat is at the carenage for repairs.
