Kauehi Atoll, Tuamotos, August 15, 2004.
So quickly the days tick tock on by. We decided to haul anchor and bust a move for another atoll. Estrela, who keeps a fairly open eye on the weather--glad someone is!, noticed some possible lows coming our way on the weather fax and we wanted to get out of here before we got stuck having to replay the drama of a couple of days prior. We have had the whole atoll to ourselves for the last week along with Estrela and the Whatever. Sometimes, friends are made so easily. It has been a real treat to get to know Estrela, Doug and Kyle and the two sea goddess fairies, Eliza and Abigail, from Woodstock, Connecticut. Doug is an environmental lawyer/lobbyist with the Environmental Defence fund, of all places. Kyle is a singer/actress/cocktail waitress by trade. They have taken the next 3-4 years off to circumnavigate this orb of globe and give the kids a chance to see something other than Brittney Spears and Pepsi-cola. We have had too much fun, swimming, snorkeling, fishing, eating, dressing up as polynesian princesses, and doing circus jumps off their bow which sticks out over the water 6 feet or so. They took the lumpy route across the Pacific, via Pitcairn, the Gambiers and a couple of other less-visited atolls. They are on a Westsail 32, a tank of a boat, and almost two of ours, despite the same length. We have a 10,000 pound displacement, and they have 20,000 pounds. A slow old burro, but one to keep the fam safe.
Doug came through here on another sailboat some 15 years ago. He has rekindled a connection with a family he met back then, Tanya and Taverio, two beautiful people with whom we also had the pleasure of getting to know briefly. They even have a log book of visiting yachts over the years that Doug signed way back when. How amazing to return with your family. They are like the village elders here in this small town of 250, which is quite large actually for these motus, this one being a whopping 10 miles by 400 yards. Copra is the mainstay of the island. At one point there were 52 pearl farms along with a whole pile of Tahitian workers to work them, but nowadays there are only 3. From what I gather, the market was flooded once every atoll jumped on the pearl deal and the price plummeted. We made church the first morning we were here and that is always a great introduction to these small communities. Mostly Catholic out here, and they have a prayer session every day. That's a lot of praying, I suppose. And singing. Lots of singing during the services. The priest visits these remote outposts only 3 times a year, so selected men in the community are trained by the church to lead the services and hand out communion. Hey, I didn't know the Catholic church bent the rules like that. Maybe one day they'll bend the rules on birth control and help out these communities that pump out handfuls of children. Although I have to admit that French Polynesia is definitely first world money. People seem to live very well, have new cars to drive the 10 miles from end to end, and have subsidized prices on basic food stuffs. From what we hear, it certainly costs the French taxpayers a pretty penny to keep up the territory. The church was beautifully laden with shells and homemade cloth banners. No shortage of shells out here! Lots of images of the Virgin goddess, Mary, and a couple of images of Jesus in a pareao and a lay of flowers outstretched in one hand--Polynesian Jesus! You know its a laid-back service when the man leading the service in his ceremonious-white robe strolls past the pews in flip flops and the man leading the choir has a loud-flowered shirt and sunglasses on. Taverio, who was the "chief" or mayor when Doug came here the first time, no longer gives the Eucharist but does do the sermon. Its done in Puamotoan, the language of the Tuamotos. Tanya and Taverio totally took us in, draping necklaces of shells, flowers, or palm leaves whenever we visited. John received the nickname, Johnnie-Paw-NaNa, which we never were able to discern the meaning, but perhaps had something to do with the bucket of fish that he showed up with one day. Ciguatera struck Kauehi 3-4 years ago and the primary fish diet has given way to one of frozen chicken and canned meat. Along with refined sugar, rice and white flour. Most of the fish in the lagoon are dangerous to eat but there a couple that are safe. It just so happens that we had a farm's worth of these unicorn fish, which were tangs with 2-inch horns sticking out of their foreheads. John got some quick thrills luring them to the surface with cracker crumbs and stickin' 'em with the Hawaiian sling. After a couple of days of that, they either caught on or we depleted the population enough because they failed to surface so quickly. They loved Johnnie-Pau-NaNa after that. Fish taken from outside the reef are safe, but these 70-year olds aren't doing too much fishing boat travel. The Whatever has some recording equipment they have use for "peace journalism" and Allison and I went in one day and interviewed Taverio, as best we could with our shaky French, about the ciguatera outbreak and how it has affected the community. He blames the building of the quai and airport along with all the 12-volt batteries that were tossed aside once the island went from solar panels to a diesel generator. Ciguatera is a fish toxin that the fish consume but don't get affected by, but can cause some serious illness in humans, occasionally death. Ahh, thorns in paradise. Taverio wants the community to clean up because he says people have no regard and just throw plastic and other trash wherever. But John had a ball catching and terrorizing new kinds of fish. On the passage from the Marquesas, we caught a short-billed spearfish, a long, skinny marlin with a short bill. Inside the lagoon, there were grouper galore, along with emperor fish and some different snappers. I caught a magnificent emperor fish but I must admit, its not as much fun if you can't eat them. Not for Johnnie-Pau-NaNa. The diving is amazing. The coral near the town looks pretty worn out actually, and there is loads of trash left over from old pearl farms. We went out to a nearby coral motu and snorkeled with Estrela. The motu was probably 100 yards wide, 2 feet deep and then dropped quickly on all sides. We saw 3 different kinds of sharks, white-tip, reef black-tip, and gray reef-sharks. Hello food chain. No monsters and all 3 are fairly docile as long as there is no spearfishing going on. They were all over us as we were trying to terrorize the grazing unicorn fish, we luckily we didn't score or else we may have been feeding a shark! They real threats are the tiger and lemon sharks. Sharks are just a reality out here, and for the most part, are harmless.
The Tuamotos are like those pictures you see of tropical paradises with white-sand beaches, palm trees and turquoise water. Like something out of the travel brochures, wild and unspoiled. But the weather can come up fast and wicked. We woke up one morning to northeast wind and clouds on the horizons. The anchorage is protected from east and southeast, but as the day progressed we started to get some blustery west wind that put all three of us on a lee shore. We were foolish enough not to take advantage of the morning and move the 3 miles to the northern perimeter of the atoll. A couple of days of glassy conditions tricked us. Things really started to buck by late afternoon. Estrela and Whatever snapped anchor snubbers, bow lines going down to the chain that absorb the bounce instead of the chain. Things got real bouncy since the chop picked up from the 20 knots of wind. The anchor rode, the line that connects to the chain to give us longer anchoring scope, chafed through the bow roller,but luckily didn't chafe the line too much, and then our bow started to dig down. Obviously we had wrapped around coral heads when the weather shifted and we were worried about damaging our bow because we had such a short leash of chain since it was stuck in some coral. We tried diving down to pick the chain off the coral heads but fat chance. Doug came over to assist and we ended up picking up the anchor from the anchor side along with the chain from the dingy. We figured the chain was wrapped and the boat wouldn't go anywhere. How stupid to have all of us in the water, cus sho' enough, the boat started to drag. Without hesitation, I swam as fast as my panic-stricken self would go. When I got to the boat we were in 11.7 feet of water. We anchored in 25 and we draw 6 feet. SHIT! After that, we were able to reanchor and ride out the 25 knots of wind along with cold stinging rain that plagued us until about 3 a.m. without incident. We woke up the next day, light winds out of the southwest, clocking around to the southeast, as if nothing had happened. Another pertinent lesson regarding the Tuamotos, the wind shifts so quickly, you gotta keep an eye on the weather and be ready to move to another spot on a moment's notice. We're not in Panama anymore! We caught the edge of a low further south of us. Doug thought some more lows moving our way may be a problem, so we figured we needed to get out or else we would be weathered in for a couple of more days. All three of us charged the pass late morning, somehow we ended up first! Estrela was in front of us but pulled out just before the pass. They reported the incoming current was strong enough that they wanted to put up some sail to help them through. We had just missed slack water, which we were tentatively shooting for, and had to punch throw a bubbling incoming current of 4+ knots. Since we are lucky to squeeze 6 out of our engine, we must have just hit it just right 'cus we were motoring about 5 knots and dropped down to 0.5. It was so beautiful going through. The water was a clear rich sapphire blue and much clearer than it was by the village. So we are off to Toau. We called Don on the radio, the weather wizard, and he said that there aren't any lows that should cause us problems, and he predicted light northeasterlies. And sho' enuf, we have had light northeasterlies all night. The trip is only 60 miles, so we have accepted our snail's pace. It's dawn and we are less than 3 miles away!
August 7, 2004: The Heart attack sail, Our Introduction to Coral Atolls.
We left the Marquesas on August 3, 2004, bound for our next island group, the Tuamotos. It was hard to pull ourselves away from the mysterious blazing green humps of rock rising straight from the ocean, but it was also time to continue exploring. There is a particular sadness in saying good-bye to people, places when you know that you will probably never return to such shores. The Marquesains were great warriors once, and the last of the polynesians to give up cannibalism. When the Europeans first arrived there were 60,000-100,000 inhabitants. The whitefolks didn't have to stick around long to subdue the heathen natives because the invisible bombshells called germs and diseases did a more effective job than humans could have ever done. Syphillus, elephantiasis, tuberculosis, influenza brought the numbers down to a few thousand. Today the real diseases are the discotheques and cell phones of Tahiti that entrap most of the youth. Roots are severed at an early age since all 12-year old children leave their homes to attend high school on the islands of Hiva Oa or Nuka Hiva (that goes for most of French Polynesia; imagine everyone from 12-18 are away at school most of the year--must be quiet!). Those interested in higher learning have to go to Tahiti, and from there it's harder to return to their childhood villages. Elephantitous is still an issue in some places and visitors staying longer than 4 months in Fatu Hiva, our first land fall, are recommended to stop by the clinic and pick up free medicine. A few of the old folks still have tree trunks legs. The dependence on heavily refined sugar and flour and processed canned meats and cheese are another problem. "Let them eat cake." At least the baguettes are subsidized and cheap at 40 cents a loaf. But the lush green jungle falling down from rugged peaks into dark damp valleys still holds much magic and mystery embraced by the proud, tattooed people. There are tons of artists making some living off of carving the alien-like tikis into wood, stone and bone. We visited one spot called "Valley of the Artistians" and everyone but one person supplemented their income with carvings. Imagine living in a beautiful place overgrown with flowers and fruit trees and making art for a living. There is tons and tons of evidence of the fierce warriors of yesteryears. Short walks into the valleys reveal numerous stone pae-paes, residential platforms comprised of piling small boulders atop one another, and me'ae, ceremonial platforms often adorned with stone tikis. On Nuka Hiva, we walked "the royal road" past thousands of platforms and other artifacts to the second highest waterfall in the world. Covered in moss and shade, the platforms and the strange bug-eyed stone tikis runs the imagination wild. Especially since not much is known of these civilizations. When you consider all the wild artifacts strewn across the pacific, the 20+ ton statues of remote Easter Island to the mega lithic pillars and arches of Micronesia, you can't help but think there must have been some serious contacts with other islands, continents, planets???? There is some wild stuff out here. The people have been so generous. There is so much food growing in the Marquesas: pompomousse--giant juicy grapefruit, oranges, limes, pineapple, papaya, mangoes, taro, manioc, watercress, mint, basil, 7 different kinds of bananas, guavas, strange apple-type fruits, breadfruit, and of course, coconuts, coconuts, coconuts since most of the folks make a living off of copra harvests, dried coconut meat used for palm oil. Copra is probably the biggest economy for most of the pacific islanders. It was really something to be in a place where good fresh food is not just a commodity for the upper crust. We had no problem switching to a mostly-fruit diet and even figured out how to properly get into the coconut, which btw, happens to be a natural laxative. We did some trading, mostly on Fatu Hiva, for fruit and art. Big sellers were nail polish and perfume. Also, fish hooks, line, watches, reading glasses, hair clips, t-shirts, whatever other stuff that may be of some value around the boat. We picked up a couple of things in Panama, but since we're camping in a sports car, we don't have that much space for stuff. Its also just about gifting. They give you something, we give them something, and since I'm spoiled by the exploits of JohnRand the Fisherman, our fresh fish is always a hit. I hunted out many a' mothers in the Marquesas. FOOD! I picked some watercress--wow, green leafy food--with Felicity on Fatu Hiva and so I made her some yogurt. She was so grateful that we couldn't walk by her house without some sort of food shoved down our throats. Fatu Hiva really was beyond words. Its the only Marquesian island without an airstrip so its a little more off the beaten track for visitors. Mainly just sailboats and cargoships. And of course, cruise ships a couple of times a year. Puke, but then again that's who buys most of the art at exorbitant prices. Americans have a reputation for paying high dollar for anything. The joke is they will even pay top dollar for rocks if you tell them they have great archeological value. Ahhhh, well, at least the Americans are taking some of the dollars out of the hands of the greedy elite ruining our country.
So onwards to the Tuamotos. We had some stiff easterlies leaving Marquesas, but they pushed our ping-pong pony along even with two reefs in the main, and we made excellent time southwards to our next anchorage. The winds finally quit on us as the roller coaster ride slowed to a mere 2 knots. Right about the time we were changing the guard at about 4 in the morn, the entire southern sky turned black and ugly. Its wild to be at the interface of weather changes. Within moments, the wind clocked around to our nose, the rain poured down and we took off to windward with the gunwales down and hatches battened. (Okay, switch theme songs from the ethereal south pacific ukulele to iron maiden sea shanties and hold on!) I managed to scratch some sleep from the bumpy ride and awoke to a gray ugly dawn and blustery winds--coming from the direction we wanted to go of course! We were shooting for the atoll of Kauehi. John spotted the low-lying island some 7-9 miles off to starboard. What a change from the tall peaks of the Marquesas. Infamously known as the Dangerous Archipelago, the islands have been revered, feared, and mostly avoided by sailors over the years. Captain Cook managed to weave his way around two or three times, but then again, that guy sailed almost every stretch of sea from Cape Horn to the Chukchi Sea north of Russia. But many o' boats have found their graves amongst the coral reefs that rise quickly from 100 feet to less than a foot below the surface. Thanks to GPS and more accurate charts, the Tuamotos are opening up to the sailing world. Over time, volcanic bulges bubblinng up from great depths and charging up out of the water, like the Marquesas, erode away to nil. But since we are talking glacial pace here, the prolific coral polyps of tropic oceans that build their limestone structures on the periphery of the land create enough structure over time to support themselves from great depths as the land gives way to sand and dust. The atoll, nothing more than a band of reef encircling a lagoon, is the final stage of the island volcanic life cycle. Sometimes continuous, but most often broken into a series of motus or islets varying in length from a couple hundred yards to ten miles long and usually no wider than 300-400 yards wide. "From the air, the motus appear as sparkling beads of a necklace." Boats enter via passes between the coral reefs or motus and once inside boats have to carefully navigate around coral pinnacles charted and uncharted. The rules of the road: 1-enter during slack tides. Water squeezing through the passes can cause huge breakers, overfalls which are like miniwaterfalls, and currents up to 10 knots. Not fun for our old atomic-four beast. Shit, I think the only direction we would move would be backwards. 2-navigate under clear skies and polarized sunglasses with the sun behind you; avoid early morning and late afternoon. Coral pinnacles can rise up from depths of even 100 feet to just below the surface. Water color is the best indication of where these hull crunchers are and the glare off the water can kill your visibility if you are facing the sun or it is low in the horizon. 3-navigate when the water is smooth or else the chop can hide the dangers. 4-screw the charts, they probably date back to Captain Cook's soundings, keep your eyes on the water, and for the love of god, know your navigation basics and what the navigation markers mean; we're not in 'Merica anymore. With that said, I think we broke just about every rule coming in here. We did manage to hit the pass near a slack tide so we were able to make some headway despite water still spilling out and wind up our nose. The pass, in fact, was the easiest part even though we were scared senseless. There is not much room for error shooting down the throat of these things with little maneuvering space and breakers on either side. The water was still coming out a bit and parts of the channel did look like #5 white water rapids, but we trusted the coastal pilot and cruising guides and steered a course through the pass which took us safely to the other side even though we did drop down to 1.5 knots full-throttled--it sounded as if our beast was going to motor right off the engine mounts. The roller coaster ride lasted less than 5 minutes. Our problem was that it was late afternoon, overcast skies, choppy seas, we had very basic charts for the lagoon, and 8 miles of doughnut hole to navigate through to get to the anchorage on the other side of the atoll. We were about to break all the major rules because we did not want to hove to off the island for a night to wait for the next slack water mark. The sailing directions, a coastal pilot prepared by the National Imagery and Mapping Agency providing indispensable information on harbors, coasts and other details that cannot be shown on a chart, gave very explicit directions for navigating the lagoon and we felt safe relying on them in lieu of visibility of coral heads. But out of my delirium and anxiety and stupidity, I failed to double check my bearings and I had us going into no man's land. We ended up miles from the main channel with little light to spare before nightfall. The bearing was given in true degrees and us smart humans have to correct for magnetic deviation. The magnetic deviation for any given area is included on the compass rose of each chart, a number and a direction, although most charts have two compass roses, one for true and one for magnetic so there is no calculating the difference. We had the smart-kids chart and I was on the short bus, so to speak. I could have pulled my hair out once I realized the mistake and the reality that we could be in the middle of coral heads and that I was responsible for endangering the boat. John did an amazing job piloting the pass and holding a steady course despite the chop and headwinds and lack of visibility. Too bad it was the wrong course! We were in radio contact with our friends on the Whatever who were still en route to Kauehi and were going to hove to for the night. I kept calling them for chart information since they had fancy computer charts. Come to find out there wasn't much to hit out there but we were just as scared. We finally dropped hook off the big church-small village, as is the trend out here, next to one other sailboat, Estrella, an American family with two daughters, Abigail 6, Eliza 11. We had met them in Galapagos before they took off to Pitcairn. Tough boat! Kyle and Doug brought us over hot cocoa and shared a compulsory stiffie with us. Later on talking to Allison on the Whatever, she asked me, "ahh, yeah, you didn't know that east is least and west is best?" I know now! So much to learn out here, frustrating when its learned under such tight conditions. You better believe we high-tailed our little butts to church the next morning, which just happened to be Sunday, thanking whatever heavens hover over this patch of ocean. Estrella has turned out to be our new favorite friends, and I'm convinced that Abigail and Eliza are sea-goddess fairies.
"Heave, ho, heave, ho, a little more yet to go,
Keep the belly atop the waves,
Tis a sad fate of many sailors and mates
Who have met their watery graves"
August 11, 2004: Hello John here, the other one on the boat!
We are ENJOYING our first atoll here in the Tuamotus! The pass was a bit hairy as we entered through a squeeze in the surrounding reef with water pouring out of the atoll! That aside, the water is so clear here! Colors fill the lagoon from white sand,turquoise water, and red coral all outlined by the green of coconut palms! Man I wish I had a watercolor kit and some talent! Fishing is almost unfair. I am taking a day off because my fingers are torn up from the teeth of all the fish I had released after playing up to the dink on light tackle! The snorkeling reveals the secrets under the surface! That is where the colors really begin. We saw three different kinds of sharks yesterday! The black tip reef shark, grey reef shark and the whitetip reef shark! No spear fishing!
So this place is suffering some real changes that I feel should be made public and this is the best I have at the moment. I am looking for feed back and Info concerning this subject!
Ciguatera is a fish poison that is accumulated in highest concentration in predator fishes around the reef. The toxin of the poison comes from a dinoflagellate Gambierdiscus toxicus that accumulates on the surface of rocks piers ship wrecks and algae blades. There it is consumed and accumulated by the herbivores which are eaten by predictors. Over time the preditors begin to accumulate enough of this toxin to kill a human if consumed. Ok with that basic background behindus this is what is happening in Kauehe!
Three years they built an airstrip. There was a fair amount of construction and land filling. A Cargo ship sank here in the lagoon near the village leaving a large amount of cement in the lagoon. Other construction and waste has increases in the reascent past as well. Large buildings, waste water and more run off from the village have been entering the bay. So in three years a ciquatoxic free atoll has become contaminated. In other words a place with nothing but coconuts no longer has the fish of the lagoon to eat. This is not uncommon. Many of the atolls have Ciguatera as well as the Marquesis. The south pacific has had hot spots for sometime as well as the Caribbean. The strange part is that this has happened in three years. So fast the locals here could not figure out which fish were off limits therefore regular evacuations form medical care in Tahiti are the new norm!
Now on the other end of the atoll less than 10 miles away from the village the Copra workers regularly eat Parrot fish! The Parrot fish has a beak that it used to feed directly from the coral on the reef. They are usually considered off limits to humans if there is any treat of fish poisoning. Odd that one end of the Atoll is completely unaffected and one is a nightmare! There is talk of moving the 200 person village but that is unlikely.
Well on a lighter note! The general plan is to head back the 2000 miles to windward for Hawaii for some work in the Long line swordfish fishery as Observers! We work everyday but never get paid so this should be a pleasant change! Scheduling is still up in the air. Until then we will proceed to explore the atolls of the Tuamotu Archipelago that was once considered the drift net for Yachts! Now with GPS these hidden places are beginning to be explored by cruisers and their treasures revealed.
We went to a church service Sunday and the singing and Polynesian music was uplifting and positive! This is another wonderful place that will be difficult to leave! Sorry for the lack of updating the blog. We have tons of wonderful photos for the web once the Internet is cheap enough for us to afford! We will be better about writing and be well out there! Question establishment! John Rand