Pacific Odyssey - Leg 3

We´ve had an amazing day and as I type, nearly everyone is asleep or nearly asleep, mostly on deck. We have had strong winds blowing steadily for the past 2 or 3 days.  Because of this we haven´t been able to put up the tarps during the night.  Last night, the wind strengthened and some trainees were woken up by it.  This was fortunate because it allowed them to see a partial eclipse of the moon, with a red glow shining behind it.  Tonight is supposed to be the total lunar eclipse.  Later in the night, a few raindrops started falling, followed very quickly by a torrential rain squall which sent everyone scampering faster than fast, down the companionway and into their bunks.  I must tell you something; last night when I was making my way through the boat, I noticed that even though most trainees were sleeping on deck, their bunks looked ready
to be slept in, and the mighty duffle bags and knapsacks, which live on the bunks during the day, were stacked neatly, two high, around the table, on the seat lockers.  I subconsciously took note of this.  With the rain squall, it occurred to me that the trainees are fast learners and were now prepared. They had lived through some initial mayhem during the first few days of sleeping on deck and midnight rainsqualls, where bunks were not ready and bags were still stacked on them.  We spent the morning on an idyllic motu; a very small island of sand and coconut trees, which forms part of the reef around the larger island of Tahaa.  Antony brought us in the zodiac as the wind was strong and the Grace had to anchor quite a distance away because of the coral.  We spent several hours snorkeling, wandering the island, lying in the sun, reading, building sandcastles, collecting and tossing coconuts, and trying to open a drinking one.  Skipper showed us later how to open a drinking nut, something he learned on Pitcairn.  The snorkeling was great, many coral heads covered in small and medium, colourful fish.  There was a pen for catching fish nearby that we could squeeze ourselves into and in it was a white-tipped reef shark along with some other very interesting fish that had trapped themselves in.  We saw huge trumpet fish, a lion fish, and a puffer fish. The reef sharks are not dangerous, this one swam around its pen and was about 140cm long.  For us it was a perfect chance to get a good look at a shark.  After lunch we raised anchor and moved into Baie de Faaaha, just south of our motu (yes, there are 3 a´s in the name).  Skipper made a contact at motu Tuahine that sent us to motu Mahaea this morning, and Jose met a fellow there, that sent us to the bay to visit a pearl farm and vanilla bean farm, both run by the same extended family, a wonderful family.  As I´ve written before, people are very friendly and generous in the Polynesian islands and it doesn´t take more than a smile, a ´bonjour,´ and a small exchange in broken french to make a good friend who is eager to help you and teach you about his island, is ready to spend some time with you.  We have experienced this time and time again. And it seems, that those we visit and spend time with in this way, are equally happy and ´filled,´ to spend several hours or a day with us.  It´s a win-win situation every time.  We sent Antony in the zodiac with a group of trainees looking for a gap in the coral that would allow us to reach the shore.  At the same time, the pearl farm came out to the Grace in their ´panga,´ a big, canopied power boat used to transport people from larger ships to their farm for tours.  They had seen us and guessed we were going to be making many trips back and forth and offered to bring us all in one load to the farm, free of charge, for a tour, also free of charge. This was a wonderful introduction to the nature of the family members who ran both the vanilla and pearl farms.  We were welcomed at the dock by other family members, men dressed in floral green short-sleeved shirts and white shorts, women in floral green long skirts and sun tops, with beautiful green-leafed crowns on their heads, framing their pretty faces and long dark hair. One of the women, Sabrina, has an 18-month old little boy who was with his dad while his mom spent at least 2 hours with us.  He also wore a crown of greenery with flowers; we have pictures of them both.  Sabrina had a wonderful countenance about her; she was very unassuming and wonderfully confident about her knowledge of their pearl industry.  She was so enjoyable to be around and she spoke English well, with a lovely French accent and ´voila´ thrown in regularly.  She gathered us together in one of the thatch-roofed dwellings and told us how the pearl is made, from when they purchase the ´un-nucleus-ed´ oyster shells (the spats that have been growing for 2 years) from Apataki in the Tuamotus, to when they put the pearl for sale in their boutique, on site.  She had an open shell with the animal, the pearl sac, the mantle, the muscle, all visible for us to see and touch.  She had some of their opening and inserting tools as well.  She gave an excellent explanation and passed all the materials around, and answered questions.  Some of us had already learned about the pearl process from Coco in Apataki and this gave us an opportunity to remember what we´d learned and to build upon it.  For the new trainees I was happy they had the chance to learn about this very important part of French Polynesia.  There was a small boutique where we could look and buy.  They do not sell their pearls anywhere else, the farm and the boutique is all together.  They harvest only what they can sell.  There was a wonderful sense of family amongst the workers and the people that helped and taught us.  After the pearl explanation they took us 200m up a quiet and very picturesque little road (a normal road for them) to one of their homes where the vanilla bean was being grown and harvested.  We had another very informative talk from a different woman, very passionate about her vanilla plants and also very humorous, an excellent teacher.  Tahaa is known as the vanilla island and many families have vanilla bean orchards.  There is no such thing as a vanilla factory or mass production.  It´s all small scale and very labor intensive.  They produce and sell their product to people for use in the islands.  They call it ´black gold (the beans are black when they are ready).´  Restaurants, hotels and merchants from Papeete come to get their vanilla, but it is not exported abroad.  There´s something about that, which feels right.  Conversation and laughing flowed throughout our time with these two beautiful women; it was memorable.  We returned to the pearl farm where the zodiac was waiting, looked through the pearls and vanilla beans being sold once more, and said our good-byes.  It was getting late, the sun was nearly behind the majestic Tahaa mountains. Another superlatively memorable day.   After supper, people were tired and sleeping spots were staked out quite early.  The moon is phenomenal; full, orange-yellow, very big, and the amount of light it sheds is incredible.  We can see all the way up to the bow of the ship, it´s very beautiful.  Jaimie´s father turned 50 years old today and she would like to wish him the most amazing of days. Happy Birthday dad, from Jaimie.  This is it, until tomorrow, good night,
Bonice.