Tahanea West Pass

The closer we got to the island, the more inviting it looked.

Close enough to enter the pass, we see what looks to be sandy beaches with palm forests.

Anchor set inside the main pass behind a motu at Tahanea. A boobie bird is flying past our bow, and the paint job is getting worse (oh well, just looks bad, but still safe).

Our friends Steve and Lili from “Liward”, come get us to go for a snorkel in the West pass.

While drift snorkeling the pass, Mike hangs on to the dingy line as it trails behind us.

The live coral here is quite amazing and these brilliant blue fish love having a home to dart into when danger comes.

This Camouflage Grouper hides in a rock crevasse waiting for some unsuspecting little fish to swim by and become lunch.

The Spotted Grouper has blue and pink scales under florescent blue dots all over his body.

One of the bigger fish we have seen is this Humphead Wrasse (also called the Napoleon fish).

Napoleon Wrass from above.

Here he was heading for some rocks.

Swimming along quickly, but you can really see his markings on this shot. Note the stripes on his back and the maze on his nose.

There is really nothing to give you any perspective on how big he is, but he is about 3 to 4 feet long and about 2 feet vertical. Big boy!

One of the many species of Parrot Fish eating the coral.

I had to search my Reef Fish book for this guy! He is a Scrawled Filefish with iridescent blue and black spots. Over a foot long!

The Silver Tip Shark can be recognized to Not be just a white tip, because he has white tips on all of his fins and tails. The white tip only has a white tip on his dorsal fin.

We watched this Dog Tooth Tuna zoom through a school of fish trying to catch his lunch. Also about 2 to 3 feet long.

To celebrate our awesome day and final arrival in the Tuamotus, we had a beach party at sunset. That is Christian and Birgit of “Patufa” and a surprise for us, a French guy named Eric and his wife, that we had met a year ago in the Marquesas! And of course Lili and Steve.

Mike and the boys got our bon fire going before sunset.

While Steve is burning some plastic trash he found, Eric is pouring fresh coconut water into Mike's rum and mango drink.

The hermit crabs are like giant ants here.

They heard we were having a party and smelled the food, so out they came in droves.

We decided to have hermit crab races. So someone drew a big circle in the sand and we all picked a crab and set them in the middle. The winner was whoever's crab exited the circle first. This kept us entertained for quite a while.

The sun is getting lower.

The last bit of sun as it dips below the horizon. Bummer, I did not get the green flash to show in the photo! But there was one!!!

The blood red sky turned the water into a Bermejo sunset. It was an awesome welcome to the Tuamotus.

Tahiti to Tuamotus

Our home for far too many months now, the sun is setting on our time here in Marina Taina. This boat in the sunset was from Bermuda and they were celebrating Bermuda Day, and having the America's Cup, with all their flags a flyin. And more tourists arrive to Tahiti by plane.

I have to admit, the sunsets from here have been truly spectacular!!

Oh those purple colors!

On the North side of Papeete city is the Tahiti Yacht Club. The dolphins welcome us there.

There are quite a few boats both anchored and at the dock, while the kids learn on Optimist sailboats. One of the kids from this club represented France in the last Olympics, so they do take sailboat racing seriously here!!

This side of the island gets more rain and the mountains are a bit more dramatic. The rainbow entering the giant cauldron behind the houses on the hill.

The other end of the rainbow is in the direction of Point Venus, our favorite black sand beach anchorage.

Very intense colors in this rainbow!

We moved to this side of the city because it is closer to take the dingy to town and do last minute shopping to buy heavy things. On the way, we pass this amazing valley, where the mountain at the top is giving us the Shaka (hang loose) symbol. Poke out your thumb and little finger, then roll up your middle three fingers and there you have it!

After almost a week of going to the city every day by dingy, we were finally underway to the Tuamotu Island group 250 miles East of us. We had been waiting for quite a while for the wind to stop blowing from the East, so it would not be right on the nose, which makes for uncomfortable sailing. Wind came from the NNE and we set out for the 3 day voyage. Last time we were in the Tuamotus it was June of last year! We are excited to be under sail again.

We have Fritz, our windvane, back steering the boat and our brand new Yamaha 15 hp OB, one of our purchases while in town.

We are sailing close to the wind, but a beautiful day none the less!

The moon had just passed full and came up in front of us to light our way!

On the second day out, we had a lot of birds flying around. Some Frigit birds, several kinds of Boobies, including Red Footed ones, Noddies and Terns.

Normally when you see lots of birds flying over the ocean, it means fish! And sure enough one nice tuna decided to bite our line and give his life for us to have 4 dinners! He was delicious!

The sun was setting, and if you don't know the saying: “red sky at night, sailor's delight!”

Land Ho! Low lying atolls ahead! We had left Tahiti on Saturday night just before sunset, June 10. By Tuesday morning we had spotted Tahanea and Faate. We went between the two atolls and then on Tahanea we entered the main pass through the reef on the East side where our friends were waiting for us.

Tahitian Dancing

The first weekend in June we went to see our friends dance in their show. Our beautiful Polynesian friend,Tehani, has been dancing since she was 8, and she is tall and slender, so you know she is good! Our other Jess from the Silent Sun had been practicing with the dance school for 2 months. She was very dedicated at memorizing the routine and did a great job. The dance school puts on it's pre heiva dance recital in the local cultural theater downtown.

These girls have been practicing swinging their hips for months or years.

Each group had their own costumes and dance routine. Some groups were ladies (Vahines)

And others were just kids (kikis) (pronounced kee kee)

The teen girls danced to a sensuala song.

This little girl is going to be a hammer later in life!

These two boys were the only ones in their school and they did great with the male (Tane) style dances.

These little girls were giving it their all and having a good time!

The beautiful lady in red is the dance school instructor and choreographer and that is Tehani in the back behind her.

This group of ladies had beautiful flower crowns.

That is Jess front and center.

You go girl!!

After the show, this is Tehani's mom, me, Tehani, Jess and Kim (friend from yacht NorthStar).

Congratulation ladies on a job well done!!

Of course it is hard to see in these still photos how well the gals can shaker their booties, I mean hips. Someday I hope to get them on my Youtube page to see the videos (they are easier to watch from their than on this blog).