The Society Islands

My how the time flies.  We had a great time in Anse Amyot.  Gaston and Valentine run a small pearl farm on Toau and are fantastic hosts.  When a new batch of cruisers come in they will prepare a dinner for us and we have a wonderful time getting to know each other better.  The day after the dinner Valentine brought out her pearls for us to look at and explained the process - we didn't get to see the actual process.  She basically spoke French so I just caught bits and pieces.  French Polynesia is known for their black pearls - but that is not for the color.  It is because they use the black lipped oyster to grow the pearls.  The pearls actually come in many different colors from cream to black.  The color is determined by where the 'nucleus' is planted inside the oyster, along the lip or down in the middle.  We were lucky enough to do some trading for our pearls - we traded toilet paper, suntan lotion, chapstick, sunglasses, and hats - things they can't get on their little island.  John surprised me by having some of the pearls made into a beautiful necklace and earrings when we got to Tahiti.

We left for Tahiti the end of May and spent about a week in Marina Taina provisioning, washing the boat, doing laundry, and a bit of maintenance.  It was so nice to have unlimited water for a change.  We went to the Papeete market which reminded us alot of the market in Manzanillo, Mexico.  But after 2 wonderful months in quiet tropical anchorages Papeete seemed too busy.  So we left for Moorea which is only about 20 miles away.  We anchored in Oponou Bay and I was in awe of the majestic scenery.  We really got a sense of the volcanic action that created this island.  Unfortunately the reef around Moorea is basically dead so there wasn't much interesting snorkeling to be done.  There was an infestation of crown-of-thorns sea stars which destroy the reef and then a hurricane in 2010 and the reef was too weak to survive.  There are signs of recovery, but it takes decades for reefs to recover.

But there was something special - sting rays.  Sting rays are common here, especially in sandy areas.  There is a large sandy area where the tour operators have started feeding the sting rays and they've become quite social.  They've learned that when the boats come - they get fed.  So we got in our dingy and went to the site before the tours got there and had an experience.  They come right up to you, actually rub up against you almost begging to be fed.  There were a couple who would come vertically out of the water flapping their wings to bring their mouths up to you.  They look so cute.  There isn't much danger of getting stung since they are acclimated to this and don't feel threatened.  And not to be left out - the black tip reef sharks come in looking for any left over food.  Luckily we had done our shark dives in Fakarava so the sharks didn't freak me out because they are close.

We, well actually I, decided to spend the rest of our time in Moorea and not go to any other of the Society Islands.  So no Bora Bora for us, but I thoroughly enjoyed our time in Moorea.  We participated in the Tahiti Moorea Rendezvous - an event sponsored by the Tahiti Tourism Board.  About 40 boats participated.  We didn't do the sail to Moorea from Tahiti since we were already there, but they had a big polynesian lunch, traditional games, music and dancing.  Great fun and we got to reconnect with alot of folks we haven't seen since Mexico.

 Since we didn't get our extended visas for French Polynesia we were limited to 90 days and our time was growing very short.  John's friends Steve Jacobsen and John Knepper met us back in Tahiti to help bring Music to Hawaii.  They were able to spend a few days relaxing at Moorea and Tikihau back in the Tuamotus before starting the big push north.  They left Tikihau on July 7 and it should take them about 2 1/2 to 3 weeks to get to Hawaii - 900 miles to the equator and then another 1900 miles to Oahu.  I'll be posting the reports as John sends them.