This morning we at last got the boat pet we have been yearning for; no, Jonathan hasn't succeeded in adopting another cat or dog - but a turtle named Tilly. Don't believe us? We have the video to prove it. Check out here
Yesterday evening we ended up at the Hibiscus restaurant, bar, boat moorings, and rather oddly, turtle sanctuary. After tying up we went in for a meal and got talking to the owner about his 8 green turtles in a holding pen. This elderly French gentlemen has been buying turtles from local fishermen, usually from the Tuomotos, for some years. This saves them from the pot and he then brings them back to health (if needed), tags them and sends them back into the wild. They are usually older juveniles (under 9 years old) as they are the ones that get stuck in the nets (it doesn't happen to the larger or smaller ones because of the size). So far he has saved around 1500 of them. For a donation, you can adopt one and if you are up to it (ie have a boat and can handle a turtle) you can take one that is ready and release anywhere on the surrounding reef. How could we resist? This morning we were up bright and early to collect our turtle.
It turned out to be a healthy chap or chappette (difficult to tell until they are mature apparently, although if they are anything like tortoises, I would be pretty confident this one was male) we named Tilly, who was seriously pissed off at being captured and handled with so little dignity, and a bit sore from the tagging. We managed to get Tilly in the dinghy and into the cockpit of our boat and off we went to a part of the barrier reef that had moorings on the North East Corner of the island. It was an uneventful journey, and provided we were sailing, Tilly was OK with it and seemed to genuinely like being tickled under the chin, but strangely enough not splashed with sea water (Tilly also hated the engine and kept trying to swim across the cockpit floor when it was on).
Once we got to the mooring we decided to use the outboard to take Tilly to a swim platform near a luxury hotel to release. It was a shallow sandy area with the odd coral bommie but close to deeper waters with lots of coral and weed gardens - in other words pretty much turtle heaven. We have a video showing the release that we will attempt to post on YouTube. The minute Tilly realised we were going to put him back in the sea he got so excited, flippers flapping so he could hit the water surfing and, once in, took off at an impressive turn of speed but sadly without a backward glance. We now miss the little guy but so pleased we could play a small part in what we hope will be his long and happy turtle life.
What else to report? Yesterday we also visited a vanilla farm run by another former French foreign legionnaire (what is it with these guys and South Pacific islands). This time he was Danish and a bit of a legend in Denmark, they have even done a TV documentary on him. He now runs a vanilla farm and was kind enough to pick us up from the dock and show us around. It is a fascinating but slow, labour-intensive process producing organic vanilla, but the smell and the produce was sensational. However a word of warning for would-be vanilla farmers out there - apparently after a while you stop smelling the wonderful stuff, what a bummer.
Tonight we are staying at the reef moorings, hoping to catch a glance of Tilly, but so far only seeing a few large manta rays. Tomorrow we intend to head over to the western part of the reefs for a snorkel drift on one of the motos, stock up with water and anchor in a nearby bay ready for our sail over to Bora Bora on Wednesday.