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GETTING AWAY FROM IT ALL
Some times it is nice to leave the crowds behind and find a little island all to yourself. In the Gambier islands that is not too hard. There are a multitude of anchorages through out the archipelago to choose from depending on the wind direction and sea swell. Pretty little villages to visit or isolated motus on the fringe of the barrier reef. Your choice when the weather is fair. Just watch out for the pearl farms!
The cool clean tropical waters of the Gambiers produce the most colourful prized pearls in French Polynesia. Everyone is trying to ‘cash in’ on this crop and new pearl farms are going up regularly. The pearl industry is subject to government taxation, so almost all the pearls go to the main island of Tahiti to be sold. The floating buoys, to which strings of oyster cages are suspended are usually easy to pick out from a sailing vessel. It just means you have to be prepared to plan a new route when the old one gets blocked.
My humans decided to visit a motu recommended by friends in the east. Motu Tauna was only 5 nm from our previous anchorage, at Totegegie (near the airport), but there was a long shallow sand bar, pearl farms and ‘just a few’ coral outcrops to maneuver around. Thankfully we had good light to see the lagoon bottom and friends shared the last track they used (see:www.pitufa.com). As we were coming in to anchor we were surprised by a ‘giant’ green turtle surfacing in front of us. When he raised his mammoth head above the surface for a breath, he looked as surprised as us and quickly dove down.
We found a nice sandy shoal at 4m on the northern end of the motu and dropped the anchor here. 23 08.828 S 143 51.181 W. The barrier reef in front, and a shallow reef stretching into the lagoon to our south, gave us protection from the ocean swell.
MOTU TAUNA
The motu and surrounding turquoise waters are straight out of a picture postcard of the South Pacific. All the elements you come to expect. Palm trees, white sandy beaches and colourful corals in crystal clear waters. First order of business is always to take me ashore for an explore. Here we met the islands inhabitants. Nesting fairy and sooty terns and hundreds and hundreds of hermit crabs. I am not joking, hundreds! Different shapes and sizes further exaggerated by their diverse choice of shell for a home. These guys were ‘crawling all over each other’ anywhere ripe yucca fruit had fallen.
SHELL HUNTING
I felt sorry for the humans. They usually have a ‘no kill’ policy but they struggled here to find a shell not already occupied. The beaches here are literally alive with wonderful shells, but they are all on a ‘walk about’. Finally they discovered an uninhabited sandbank full of shells that only appeared at low tide. Problem solved and the boat is getting weighted down with their finds.
SNORKELING
Straight off the boat you have stretches of reef and a multitude of bommies to discover. The clear waters and fresh nutrients coming over the barrier reef support a large diversity of healthy coral. In turn this supports a large diversity of sea life. Majestic blue trigger fish, gentle green turtles, curious little black tip reef sharks and flaming butterfly fish are just a few of the inhabitants.
THE CHERRY ON THE TOP
In taking me for regular walks on the beach the humans did more than increase their shell collection. They noticed that the swell was not breaking on a short section of the barrier reef just east of the motu. They suspected the water might be deep enough for them to cross over to the ocean side of the reef. On a day with lighter swell they decided to paddle their kayaks over and investigate.
The water was deeper here, but not by much. About 50cm at high tide. But the reef was very narrow here, only about 10m wide. Two sand bottomed canyons were visible as light blue streaks from the surface radiating out to sea. When they jumped in with their snorkeling gear they were in for a surprise!
Grey reef sharks. Not cheeky little white tip or curious little black tip sharks. Proper grey reef sharks. And not just one, two or even five. A group of between 20-30 individuals! Not since the famous ‘shark alley’ of the south pass of Fakarava have I seen so many sharks grouped together in one spot. But these guys are not ‘resting’ on the bottom, they are swimming back and forth and, instead of being safely 40m down, these sharks are 10m below you, hemmed into a tight formation by the coral sides of the gully. The humans went back several times, and every time the sharks were there doing the same odd behaviour of swimming in unison up and down the two gullies. Over and over.
The coral and other sea life in the gullies was also amazing, but you just could not stop watching this herd of sharks swimming up, swirling around and swimming back again. Just incredible and worth a visit here just to witness that. Video footage to come when ever we get hook up to the world wide web again.
Not much I can say after that. So I will leave you there, until next time.
