We have forged ahead to the Tuamoto Islands now having left the wet humid Marquesas behind in rain and cloud.

Final Bay in the Marquesas - Brookie walked to find the third highest waterfall in the World - in full spate from the huge amounts of rain we have had here. Nearly as wet as Dorset but hot hot hot too and we are all ready to go.

Sadly Nick Row has left the crew sick with kidney stones poor chap but now we hear safely back in England. We hope you recover soon!

We have now completed a very successful three day/night crossing to the Tuamotos - much better - a series of wonderful desert Islands on coral reefs formed post volcanic eruption from the Ocean floor. Quite dramatic as the Ocean depth is variously up to 4000 meters deep and seemingly within a few yards one is on a coral reef with yellow sand and palm trees fringed around a lagoon which can be 40 miles long by 9 miles wide or very small like the San Blas islands. These atolls have narrow entrances between the coral through one has to negotiate an entry. the gaps are about 100 or so yards wide and at each change of tide discharge a humungous amount of water creating a ‘standing wave’ which from our experience can be to say the least alarming. One has to judge the time of entry to slack water or near slack and there are no anchorages to hang around in waiting to timing as in all of life is vital for survival.

 The general Chart of the Tuamotos archipelago

 The entrance to Makemo - very strong currents and wind over tide lost inevitable one way or the other.

 Noni fruit - antisceptic, anti mosquito, contraceptive do it all fruit for Polynesians. This remarkable fruit when ripe drops to the ground and  is then ready to be squashed and can act as anisceptic and mosquito repellant - it smells awful but is a good local fruit to know about.

There are so many pictures that I would like to send and so many feelings I would like to record. We were tired but very satisfied by the ‘small’ 502 mile passage to get here and we slept then settled down to explore these islands and their people. It is all very Polynesian and slow and hot but with the added French dimension; but ‘French’ in their own way. They have their own patois but when one listens it is punctuated by French words which have no Polynesian equivalent in much the same way as we poach from  French and they from English. The houses are not wood and palm fronds like San Blas but concrete - many houses are ‘projects’ over many years so they are half or quarter built. There are schools which look very modern and smart - one island Makemo has big school (circa 300 children about 9 - 16 years old) and they ship in children to make up numbers from close by other islands. There are French ‘fonctionaires’ to administrate the islands and man medical facilities and teach at schools. There is a mayor. There are written ordinances on  notice boards by the Mairie.

This is an interesting and unusual archipelago - we are now anchored overnight at an unoccupied island - we landed and found sand beaches and jungle of fallen palms fronds and branches making the land impenetrable. Tomorrow we depart early for the next island where we will collect Vicky -  Horray !!!