can we help
+44(0)1983 296060
+1 757-788-8872
tell me moreJoin a rally

Menu

Sapphire II - 10 April, End of Rain



Takaroa, The Tuamotus.

According to a local fisherman here, the 5 days in a row of torrential rains that we have suffered through is without precedent in his lifetime. Fortunately it now seems to be at an end. Blue skies and warm breezes do change ones outlook.

The local fisherman, Fredo, took us in his dory to the interior reef to show us a construction, left by the "ancestors", which traps fish on the reef on the falling tide. The fish swarm, and the water, about 9 inches deep, boils with their attempts to escape. Fredo had a wire net basket which fitted the small opening in the reef structure. I walked in the pool and herded the fish towards his basket. He took about 15 and then, still on the reef, showed us how to clean and prep the fish. As he tossed the fish heads into the water a Moray eel emerged to feed on the scraps. After eating each piece, the eel would reemerge from his hidey hole and sit, like a dog begging, with open mouth, looking up at us waiting to be fed the next morsel.

Sapphire will leave here today and head to Fakarava, some 100 miles distant. After that the itinerary will take us to Apataki to visit some pearl farms and then to Rangiroa, the largest of the Tuamotus before heading for Tahiti on the 19th.


Previous | Next