Arrival in Tuomoto Islands
Safiya
Harvey & Sue Death
Sat 20 May 2017 00:37
great French Polynesian birthday. My present to him was some fishing lures
and hooks (well, there aren't a lot of shops here!), he appreciated them
anyway!
We went out for lunch with our American friends and the six of us enjoyed
champagne and birthday cake so his birthday was celebrated in style.
The Oyster welcome party on Saturday started in the afternoon with a display
of traditional dancing, bare back horse riding and traditional skills like
bone and wood carving. In the evening there was more traditional dancing and
singing. Both the men and women here are heavily tattooed, it is considered
an art form. They are also very large which is a sign of wealth! The food
for the evening was pork and goat, both cooked underground in a pit on hot
coals covered with banana leaves.
After a day of recovery on Sunday we set off on our 500 nautical mile sail
to the next archipelago in French Polynesia - the Tuamoto islands. We hadn't
even left the bay when we hooked a very large yellow fin tuna (caught on his
birthday lure!), we diverted into another bay to deal with the fish and had
very nice tuna sashimi for lunch and pan fried tuna steaks for dinner and
filled the freezer.
The sail to the Tuomotos took two and a half days and we had good winds to
blow us along most of the way.
In complete contrast to the Marquesas which are very high and volcanic, the
Tuomotos are completely flat atolls, with clear blue seas and white sandy
beaches. There are over 70 islands but only a few are navigable and we have
anchored inside the beautiful island / atoll of Ahe. The islands are famous
for the cultivation of black pearls so we may have to do a little
shopping....
