Moorea, 7-29-2017--Scooter tour

By David

Yesterday we rented a scooter and had a great time touring the main roads of Moorea, including the whole perimeter.

Once again, we have Christine Curtis's generous travel gift to thank for making possible this and a variety of other extras, like the pearl farm tour back in Manihi.  Thank you Christine!

Just FYI, we're thinking of sailing on to Raiatea in the next day or two, if the forecast continues to look favorable.  Raiatea is about 100 miles west northwest of Moorea.

As noted in our post "Ruminations on Plans," our current thinking is to sell Minimus in Raiatea before our visa expires the end of August.  We have our work cut out for us over the next month.

We're off!  The scooter was a great way to see the island, even though the 25mph speed was way too fast to absorb it the way we're used to walking or on bicycles.

Cooks Bay, Moorea

Another view of Cooks Bay, Moorea

The 4 masted motor sailing cruise ship Wind Spirit lies anchored in Opunohu Bay

We took a side trip up to Belvedere Lookout.  This is looking north towards Cooks Bay.
Belvedere Lookout is a park-like area with dramatic views, archeological sites and an experimental farm.  

Opunohu Bay from Belvedere Lookout. The movie Mutiny on the Bounty was filmed in Opunohu Bay

Again, from Belvedere Lookout, with Cooks Bay on right and Opunohu Bay on left.

The remains of a marae, where human sacrifice was practiced in the 1700's.  

At the experimental farm, we stopped for ice-filled glasses of local fruit juice.

Pearl rests on a palm trunk on the west side of Opunohu Bay.

We were surprised to find a bike lane nearly all the way around Moorea.

As we rounded the island, we saw many traditional outrigger canoes.  This was the only sailing version we saw.  Ironically, it was moored in front of the Intercontinental Hotel, a luxury establishment.
Surf can be seen along the barrier reef in the distance.

These outrigger canoes are used for inshore fishing, between the barrier reef and the island.

A view along the south side of Moorea.

Another outrigger canoe used for fishing.  These are all paddle powered.

Fish for sale along the road.

Looking across to Tahiti about 10 miles away.

A luxury hotel with individual cottages on pilings out over the water.  Apparently, these are especially popular on Bora Bora.
Tahiti can be seen on the left.

Manihi, 7-21-2017--Final thoughts

By David and Pearl

We have thoroughly enjoyed our 10 days at Manihi atoll.  Throughout our stay though, there's been an elephant in the room that leaves us sobered.  Namely, what will become of this and all the other Tuamotu atolls with the predicted sea level rise due to climate change.

The latest NOAA forecasts range from 8 inches to more than 8 feet of sea level rise by the end of this century.  The highest confidence is around the mid-range.  Regardless of what it turns out to be, the forecast trend has been continually upward as more data and better modeling become available.  

Poignantly, a friend sent us an article just after we arrived here, reporting that the largest ice shelf yet recorded had just broken off of Antarctica.  

We measured the height from sea level at mid-tide to the top of the sea wall at 2 feet.  Most of the village is at about that level.  A sea level rise of just 2 feet would likely inundate and eliminate all the villages in the Tuamotus during a storm.

As we set sail tomorrow, it's heartbreaking to have experienced the people's sense of place here and know that the time left for villages like this is probably very limited.  

Manihi, 7-21-2017--Motu hike

By David

We finally found time to do a hike to the motu southeast of the village.  A fun hike about 1/2 mile across the hoa.

Looking across the coral hoa toward the distant motu.

After half an hour of mostly wading, we approach the motu.

And are greeted by a pig

All the land is coral-based

Bits of dead coral washed in from the sea form a sort of gravel surface

Palms on the lagoon side of the motu

David on the seaward side of the motu

Manihi, 7-18-2017--Coconut races and duets

By David

Coconut races during the day and and duets in the evening were the popular activities of the day.

Coconut race competitors get ready. Each racer makes up their own coconut weighted pole. They are required to race in bare feet and wear a pareo around the waist.

But first the coconuts and carrying pole are weighed.

At 30+ kilos apiece, this is no small load.

As David attests.

They're off.

20 minutes later, the racers come struggling in.

This fellow came in second, but was almost sick afterward.

The racer's bodies glisten with sweat after the race.

Two of the favorites in the duo chant competition.

Ukeleles are favorites in these parts.

Though they're often used along with guitars.

Manini, 7-18-2017--Ruminations on plans

By David and Pearl

Since David's medical issues during May and June prevented our sailing for almost two months, we've been periodically discussing how that would affect our sailing plans. Since many of you who have been following the voyage are no doubt interested in our thoughts on this, we want to share them with you.

Since our very first conversations about doing this voyage, some 27 years ago, it has been about sailing to the South Pacific. As we focussed more closely on the details during the past couple years, we thought of it as beginning in California and ending somewhere between Tahiti and Australia. Wherever we ended the trip, we would sell the boat.

In terms of weather, cyclone season is the limiting factor for sailing in the South Pacific. The safe season is considered to begin in March and end in late October. At this point, we have 3-1/2 months left in the sailing season.

Our permit for French Polynesia ends August 31, which gives us another 5-1/2 weeks to explore these islands. If we were to try to sail on to Australia, it would involve sailing through the Society Island group of French Polynesia (Tahiti, Moorea, Raiatea, Bora Bora), then on to Tonga, then Fiji, then New Caledonia and finally to Australia. The total distance is just under 4000 nautical miles. Given our average daily mileage, it would leave only about a week or two at most in each of these island groups.

Racing through paradise, with long ocean passages followed by short island visits, doesn't really appeal to us. Instead, we're leaning toward making the most of our permitted stay in French Polynesia.

The island of Raiatea, which is near the western edge of French Polynesia, is reputed to be a good place to sell a boat, so our current inclination is to make it our eventual destination.

There's a lot more detail we can go into, but the general drift of our thinking is above. Below are more of those details in case they're of interest.

If we were to sail on west from French Polynesia, we'd be more or less committed to sailing all the way to Australia, since our options for selling the boat between French Polynesia and Australia are much more limited. Tonga appears to be a very unlikely place to sell a boat. Fiji might have more possibilities, and New Caledonia even more, but if we got that far, we'd probably just push on and sail for Australia.

Having spoken with one seasoned Australian sailor from Brisbane, we know they do sometimes with very careful attention to the weather forecast, sail from New Caledonia to Australia through November. Not sure that we'd want to push that window, though, because Minimus being a slower boat than most, would need 10-14 days to make the passage, which is outside the forecast range.

If we were to spend all of our permitted time in French Polynesia, then continue sailing west in late August, we'd have just two months to cover the remaining 3500 nautical miles to Australia. Based on our daily average distances so far, that would require about 45 to 50 days of sailing. That would leave us with only 5 days to explore each of the three island groups along the way.

The alternative would be to cut short our stay in French Polynesia. If we were to continue sailing west within the week, we would still only have about 10 days in each island group. Given that some of those groups have many dozens of islands, we couldn't do more than a cursory exploration of each group. That's just not our preferred way of travel.

So, that's our conclusion at this point. It's possible we're overlooking other possibilities, so if any of you have additional thoughts, we'd enjoy hearing them.

And, assuming we continue along this line of thought, we're still pondering what we might do after the sailing.   

Manihi, 7-17-2017--Pearl farm

By David

We had a great pearl farm tour on Monday. Our hosts Angele and Kahutia were very hospitable and even fed us lunch.

If there was one thing we learned in the course of the day, it was that pearl farming is far more complex than we'd realized and is incredibly detail oriented. It's also global, in that the nuclei (more about that below), are grown in Mississippi and the primary markets for black pearls are China and Japan.

Our tour began at 6am when a boat picked us up, along with two of the employees, on the village side of the pass. It's all a family run business, so the two employees were also family members. They dropped us off across the pass, then took the boat across the lagoon to the pearl farm where they picked up the oysters that would be grafted later in the day.

Those of us who were dropped off piled into an old Land Rover for the 3 mile trip up the motu to the pearl farm.

Manihi was the first atoll in which pearls were farmed. It then spread quickly throughout the Tuamotus. The high profit margin caused the business to grow rapidly until the market was saturated, at which point prices fell and many of the pearl farmers went out of business. Pearl farming is now more stable. The lagoon ecosystem here at Manihi, which was failing under the nutrient consumption of all the oysters, is now recovering.

The farm we visited is considered small. They lease 40 hectares (90 acres) of the lagoon for about $5000 per year.

As usual, we'll let the pictures and captions tell the story.

Looking seaward from the road on the motu to the pearl farm.  There's very little surf because this is on the leeward side of the atoll.

This is the processing center for the pearl farm.  It's purposely shack-like so it can be rebuilt in case storms destroy it.

Angele holds a collector which is a desirable habitat for baby oysters that occur naturally in the lagoon. 

The employees return to the processing station with ropes on which oysters have grown for the past 18 months. Each rope is about 5' long and is inside a mesh bag for protection from predators.  Each rope has about 100 oysters growing on it.  18 months ago, these oysters were taken from the collectors and attached to the rope with a piece of thin nylon cord.
The bags are suspended from buoys at about 15 meters below the surface where the water is colder and more nutrient rich.  

During the grafting season, 15 mesh tubes are gathered per day from the lagoon.  Of the 1500 oysters, about 1000 are large enough to receive a graft.  There are two grafters, each doing about 500 grafts per day.    

Rope of oysters after removal from a mesh tube.  

One person cuts the oysters off the rope and grades them according to size.  The other person cleans marine growth off each oyster.
Oysters that are too small are put back on a nursery rope to continue growing.

The cleaned oysters are then pried open and a wedge is inserted to hold the oyster open for grafting.  The opening process must be done carefully or the oyster will die.  

A tray of oysters ready for grafting.

Several oysters are selected from each batch and inspected for the color of the shell inside.  More colorful shells will produce more valuable pearls.  The instrument in Angele's right hand is a mirror that allows her to check the shell coloration.

The most colorful shells are cut in half to cut out the greffon, which is the part of the oyster that will produce a pearl.

A closeup of an oyster with desirable color.

The greffon is cut from the oyster.

The greffon is then placed on a damp cloth where an unnecessary part is cut off...

...and laid on a cutting board for the next step.

The lighter colored part is carefully cut off to make the final greffon.

The strips of greffon are then cut up into tiny pieces about 2-3 millimeters across.

The grafting table.  At the top are bags of nuclei of various sizes.  The nuclei are made of shell and produced in Mississippi. Each nucleus is coated with a yellow antibiotic.   

Angele puts an oyster in a clamp, then carefully opens the "pocket" inside the oyster. 

She then selects a nucleus appropriately sized for the pocket of that oyster.

She then picks up a tiny piece of greffon...

...and with surgical precision places it in the correct orientation on the side of the nucleus. The greffon will stimulate the oyster to lay down layers shell on the nucleus to form the pearl.  Any mistake at this stage won't be detected for 18 months, so the utmost care and skill are needed to ensure a high rate of success.  Even so, only about 50% of the oysters will produce viable pearls.
Each of the two grafters keeps records of how many grafts they do each day and of what size.   

Angele at her grafting station.  A window is strategically placed right behind her on the north side of the building so she has the best possible lighting.

After grafting, the wedge is removed and each oyster is drilled to allow a thin nylon cord to pass through it.  Two oysters are attached to each cord.

The pairs of oysters are then tied to a knotted rope.  Each grafter has their own cord color to further keep track of their success rate, though this won't be known for another 18 months.

If all goes well, this will be the final result.

We take a break and walk across the moonscape of the hoa toward the sea.  The how is covered with pieces of coral that wash ashore during storms.

Pearl finds a hermit crab.

We also take a walk to the next motu where a "luxury hotel" lies in disuse.  This is one of many upscale hotels that have closed since the economic downturn of 2008.  We're told  that tourism has been on the decline in French Polynesia for the past decade.