June 10 - Fakarava Atoll, Tuamotus

We really enjoyed our time in Toau. Our friends on Soggy Paws were very helpful in getting Jon and Sue out diving a few times. It's been 9 years since Jon last dove; so the refresher course and gear check from Dave & Sherry were much appreciated. What adventures...the amount and variety of schools of fish and coral...the wall and drop off into the abyss was very dramatic. We also went on a few dinghy expeditions into the lagoon with friends...and found a beach/reef area to beach comb; we came across a few small black tip sharks, a few crabs, one flounder, and a couple eels (man, are they fast!). We returned with many cowry shells, augers, pencil urchin spines and lots of shells we don't know the name of. We really need to buy a good shell book! Fortunately, our friend Gerald, aboard sv Whiskers from South Africa, is a shell expert, and was able to help us identify many of our finds.
One afternoon we had a Seven Seas Cruising Association (SSCA) gam, with four boats represented (Infini, Whoosh, Nakia and Soggy Paws), along with 'guests' from two other boats (Tutatis and Whiskers). The main topic of discussion was, what else, weather, and we shared information and opinions about this most important subject. Learning the idiosyncracies of the weather here in French Polynesia is challenging, and just when you think you understand the patterns, something comes along to add uncertainty and crazy conditions to your day!
Valentine and Gaston had 17 of us for dinner last night. We had gone in early to play bocce ball. There were three teams of two competing in a round robin. We also gave Gaston a new beach volleyball, and he and Jon immediately got into a game. For supper we had rice, fried fish, seared ahi tuna, poisson cru, and grilled lobster, topped off by chocolate covered coconut cake. We all rolled into the dinghy and got back to Infini at 1100....
The boats in Anse Amyot are going in several directions. We motor sailed back in 6-8 knots of wind to Fakarava, as the SE trades are supposed to fill in a few days, making the trip back here that much more of a chore (strong trade winds right on the nose). Many of the other boats were waiting for just that kind of wind to go to Papeete. And, as always, a few new boats showed up every day; it's the season! Back anchored near the village of Rotoava in Fakarava, we saw our friends on Stray Kitty who we hadn't seen since the Galapagos, as well as our new friends aboard Trim, Tutatis, and Anthem, the latter sailed by a guy named Jack from St. Petersburg, Fl. It's a small world out there...

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