Anse Amyot on Toau                      15:48S, 146:06W

After a fast overnight sail between the reefs, constantly plotting our position to ensure the west setting current did not take us too close to the nasty coral edges, we arrived at Anse Amyot to see our friend Frank on Another Adventure waiting in his dinghy holding up the mooring buoy we were to use, so our broken windlass did not need to raise an anchor that could be stuck in coral.

The water here is as clear as crystal, the palm trees and the beaches straight out of the picture book, blue skies and bright sunshine, and all that was missing was the music, the beautiful girls and the leis for the neck!

             The anchorage

Ashore we met the local family, Gaston and Valentine, who made us welcome, sold us some fish and organised for us all to BBQ the following night. We assisted them with the cleanup of the area, collected firewood ate local lychees and watched the fish and reef sharks play in the shallows. Suzie preferred to cuddle the two puppies in the family and dreamed of taking one with her.

        I would like to take the puppy home

Frank, who had been here before took us snorkelling on some reefs inside the lagoon. These reefs are truly coral gardens. Zillions of brightly coloured fish, large and small simply ignored us as we spent many happy hours both on the reefs in the lagoon and on the outer reef near the entrance. So much time was spent in the water that our skin became constantly white and wrinkly.

The BBQ was a “family affair”. Garston went out to his fish traps and bought in three large eating fish, which his brother Philippe cooked with our parrot fish fillets. Valentine made up some” Poisson Crux”, with the balance of our raw fish in lime juice, coconut cream and some chopped onion, and also treated us to a fruit dessert. Frank provided the drinks and a great night was held by all. Perhaps the only downside was the lobster season did not start for a few days so that was not on the menu...

  Robin waiting for lunch under the lychee tree

 Fish traps were cleaned of sharks daily and the eating fish removed for us!

Initially we thought we could only stay a couple of days as we had a marina booking in Tahiti which we could not afford to lose as our new windlass was waiting and Suzie needed to get to see her mother recovering from a radical mastectomy. However there was no wind forecast and an email to the marina allayed our fears and we could arrive a few days later than originally planned, so back to the snorkelling and the socializing!

Leaving here will be difficult, but we keep reminding ourselves that there are many more atolls to come.