2 May 2011 Takaroa, Tuamotus
The EJ's Voyage
Mike Everton-Jones
Mon 2 May 2011 19:22
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What a fantastic day we had yesterday! As agreed,
we went ashore at 11am for our lunch rendez-vous at the pearl farm. It was a
real feast. So much food! They cooked fish 4 different ways to show us how
Polynesian eat fish. There was a parrot fish boiled in salt water and served
with coconut milk, another BBq in Black Soy sauce and oyster sauce, two raw fish
dishes, one was the flesh of the pearl oyster marinated in coconut milk and the
other some reef fish also marinated in coconut milk. They also had prepared
rice, a root found in the Austral islands and boiled, BBQ chicken and a salad.
There was so much we couldn't taste everything! Then they took us in their car
and showed us the island. Being an atoll, there isn't much land of course, sand
and loads of coconut trees. One of the main activity of the island is the copra,
they dry the coconuts and when the inside is dried to specific point, it is sent
to a mill that then process it into oil to make monoi. We went to see a
boat wreck, giant carcass thrown on the beach many years ago during a storm.
They gave us a coconut with the leaf growing so we now have a coconut tree on
our aft deck. Not too sure how we are going to deal with this! They also gave us
eggs, coconut milk, a big bag of different reef fishes and even came back
later to see us onboard with a big box containing all sorts of food: pasta,
chicken noodles, oyster sauce, black soy sauce, ketchup, vegetable oil, pates de
foie, crackers, salt! I think they believe we have nothing to eat because we are
not as "round" as they are! They are so generous. We are very lucky to have met
them.
We have decided to stay here for another day. We
have a few chores to do. Repairing the main sail bag which has suffered a bit
during the 3000nm crossing and has a big hole, the yankee furler which has been
mysteriously furled to far with both yankee sheets secured around their
respective winches almost pulling the furler to breaking point. We heard the big
bang in the middle of the night. However, nobody wants to own to the accident...
It must have blown something in the electric box and Mike is trying to locate
the problem. The watermaker is still giving us grief but we have managed to make
water for just under 2 hours last night and again for about 1 hour this morning
so we now have some water in our tanks. Not out of the woods yet
though!
We will move on to Rangiroa tomorrow. 160nm from
here.
Blue sky, turquoise water, good snorkelling nearby.
Not a bad spot!
Love
Mike and Catherine
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