Just this
once, this blog is being written far far away from Arctic Loon. I’m currently somewhere in the middle of the
Pacific, just like Arctic Loon was a few weeks ago, but this time I’m 10,000
feet above sea level and flying in the opposite direction. There is something
very surreal about flying over an ocean in 8 hours that took a month of hard
labor, sea sickness, and sleep deprivation to cross. The distance that I’m
flying feels more significant and I have a deep respect for all that ocean and
the adventure it creates. Above all, this flight solidifies in my mind our choice
to cross that beautiful monster below by small sailboat, rather than cruise
ship or plane. I never could have
appreciated exactly where I was in the way I did, if I had had the luxury of
arriving via a couple connecting flights from Seattle. When I looked east from
the island of Fatu Hiva, I could actually picture the distance until the water
hit land. What a gift that was. It helped me get a sense of the scope of our
whole planet.
Anyway,
I’ll ease up on the philosophical talk. This will be the last post written by
yours truly (Emma), as I’m off the boat to start my life in Denver. But
something tells me I’ll be back on Arctic Loon one day. Before I left, I
collected as many photos as I could to bring to the land of wifi, and here I
am… so good news! This is the photo post!
But first,
I’ll tell you about the two islands I was fortunate enough to visit in the
Tuomoto Archipelago before I left. I should first explain that virtually every
island in the Tuomotos is actually an “atoll.” An atoll is essentially a
volcanic crater covered almost entirely in water, so that just the highest edge
of the rim is sticking out of the ocean, making land. On a map, they’d look
like a thin green rubber band of land sitting in the middle of the ocean. All
of them have at least a few parts of the land where water spills out from the
lagoon within into the ocean, and vice versa. And most, have passages where
this spill over is deep enough for a sail boat to pass through. This coupled
with crystal clear turquoise water, as you can imagine, creates some
spectacular anchorages within the lagoon. It also creates fun thin islands to
explore, in which one could walk from the beach on one end to the beach on the
other in 30 seconds.
Ahe:
Due to the
fact that we arrived in the dark, we almost didn’t stop there. And oh what a
shame that would have been. There wasn’t much information in our guide books
about Ahe. But they did say, if you want authenticity in the Tuomotos, this was
your place. We anchored just off of their village of 200 people, next to some
beautiful stilted houses built over the water. We took the dinghy in, and
discovered just a few low key shops, a church, many friendly people, and a
jewelry shop that sold cheaper pearls that had been farmed right there in the
atoll. (I’ll talk more about the incredible pearl industry in a bit.) We bought
a few things (pearl jewelry, as well as some homemade honey), and before we
left, we ventured to ask if there was anywhere we could buy some coconuts. This
was a funny question because coconuts were just everywhere here. Their abundance ironically puts boaters who desire
them in a tough spot, because the locals could just grab one in their back yard
whenever they want. So they never thought to sell them. Of course, some boaters
have been known to take them (another other fruits) without asking, which is
quite impolite, and has given boaters a bad reputation in some places. So we
wanted to do it the right way.
The shop’s
owner Celestine had her niece Fanaiti take us to her house, where her husband
Edward knocked some fresh ones off of his tree for us. Not only that, but he
also gave us a full explanation of all of the plants in his garden, and showed
us how to properly crack the coconuts with a
machete – a much needed exercise after Captain Diana battle?d our first
one with our drill back on the boat. We were in awe of their kindess. But it
didn’t/ stop there. Fanaiiti also invited us to a flower decorating event she
was hosting at the church that afternoon. We weren’t sure exactly what that
meant, but anything with these friendly locals was our cup of tea.
We showed
up at 3:00, met some wonderful women, and learned how to braid giant banana
leaves into beautiful canvases to be displaced on the church walls. It took us
some time, but we got the hang of it eventually. Our favorite part was
socializing with the women though. At the end, everyone went around in a circle
and talked about what they had learned. All of them thanked us for coming,
which was touching because all we wanted to do was thank them for welcoming us.
The next
morning, we went to another beautiful church service, similar to the one we
attended on Easter. Once again, we were welcomed with open arms, and the music
was astounding.
But because
I had a flight to catch, we took off after that for a 24 hour passage to the
atoll Rangiroa.
Rangiroa:
Rangiroa is
the second largest atoll in the word, which essentially means to the naked eye,
it just looks like a long skinny island. You can look straight across to the
other side of the enclosed circle, but it looks like it’s just an endless
ocean. When I flew out however, I was lucky enough to get a spectacular view of
the entire thing. Check out the photos below.
With
several flights in and out a day, this atoll is more “touristy” than most in
the Tuomotos, but to your average traveler, it wouldn’t be considered touristy
at all. It’s one of the more remote places you can get to by plane. Still,
there are several hotels including a few beautiful luxury ones that line the
water. Many people travel here from around the world for the diving and
snorkeling. The Tuomotos are known to have some of the best diving spots in the
world, particularly because…..drumroll please…… there is LIVE CORAL. Throughout
this entire journey, Anne has proclaimed that she is “chasing coral” just like
the film (watch it if you haven’t – it’ll make you cry). Because of climate
change, nearly all of the world’s once vibrant and colorful coral is dead or
dying. We’ve searched and searched but had yet to find any still alive on this
trip until Rangiroa. And even here, it wasn’t nearly as vibrant as it once was.
Nevertheless,
the coral we did see provided a perfect habitat for masses and masses of
bright, colorful, funky looking, and huge fish. On top of that, sharks
(friendly ones) were aplenty here. We didn’t see any while snorkeling, but got
to watch several big ones swim casually through the crystal clear lagoon from
the deck at one of the resorts.
Besides
watching the wildlife, we spent our couple days on Rangi renting bikes,
exploring the town, splurging on a couple nice resort meals, and visiting the
local police to file the paperwork that would allow me off the official crew
list and to fly back home without paying a huge fee. We visited a pearl farm one day, where we got to learn about the looong complicated process of growing pearls (a major industry in the tuomotos). We also played a lot of Settlers of Catan, which I’m
proud to say I’ve gotten Anne and Diana hooked on. Be warned future crew
members: Learn this game well before you arrive, or you will be defeated.
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