s/v Field Trip

Toau, Tuomotus Toau was our final stop in the Tuomotu Atolls and was a place I'll never forget.  Have you ever met those types of people who make you feel like they’ve known you forever?  They smile at you like they are welcoming you back, having missed you while you’ve been away? We tied up to a mooring ball in Anse Amyote in a false channel.   From the sea, it looks as if you can enter into the lagoon between shallow coral reefs, but as you get through the cut, you realize that you are encircled by a horseshoe-shaped ‘cul de sac’ of even more reef.   The diving here is good along the outer steep wall, but the people here are what captivated me.   I have wondered what local folks think of the sailing nomads that drift in and out of their villages, pillaging the grocery stores for any fresh eggs, produce, or baguettes we can find and then buzzing in swarms at the internet cafes, jabbering endlessly about the wind and weather.   I honestly thin...

After our eventful sail to the atolls of the Tuomotus, we were ready for some fun in the sun.  That’s exactly what we got as we traveled throughout three of the atolls.   In the Marquesas, tall mountains drop straight down into the sea along the coast, making anchorages very deep.  The scenery there was beautiful, but we found that we didn’t do much swimming in the deep, dark waters.  (If we can’t see the sharks clearly, then that means they can’t see us clearly and might mistake us for dinner!)  But inside the atolls, we found beaches with crystal clear, shallow anchorages, reminiscent of the Bahamas.  Our shallow draft catamaran could nestle close to the palm tree-lined shore, offering shelter from the winds.  Calm water inside the atoll, and crashing waves from the open ocean right on the other side. The kids LOVED the shallow, clear water! Tahanea was our first stop.   The entrance was fairly wide and deep, bu...