We arrived this morning at the island of Manihi after slowing down so that we could arrive in daylight. Slack tide was at 0800 and we wanted to enter the lagoon with little current. Unfortunately the depth detail on the charts is somewhat incomplete in these remote islands and our electronic chart showed a tricky/shallow channel immediately inside the lagoon entrance. We gave it a try but chickened-out at the last minute and turned around to wait for better light to see the coral heads. As we passed the concrete ships' dock a local resident offered to be our pilot and we gladly took him on board. He spoke very good English because he spent a year in Kansas City studying at university! He guided us to an anchorage where another World ARC boat, JUBA was anchored and afterwards gave us a shoreside tour of the village. We tried to give him some cash for his valuable help, but he refused and said that his help was meant as a gift from his heart. Today is a holiday so things are quiet but everyone we met during our walk said Bonjour and gave us a smile.
One of the nice things about being in this independent-but-still-French country is that baguettes are price controlled and available fresh each day. We swung by the bakery (open in spite of the holiday) and replenished our supply. Corinne used the last of our Marquesas baguettes for bread pudding desert last night which was very well received after a wonderful beef bourguinon Easter Dinner at sea.
The girls have been happy to find a much larger variety of sea life near shore and have spent much of the day marveling at the clear water. We are planning on snorkeling later today and tomorrow. We also plan to take a tour of the black oyster farm here in Manihi, one of the items for which French Polynesia is famous.
BRIZO Crew