SIMMER'S BLUE WATER VOYAGE

6-6-99   After a 12 day stay in wonderful Kauehi, it was difficult to weigh anchor.  The Kauehi people are the friendliest we have come across so far, sharing their island home with us.  We were given shucked giant clams and cleaned coconuts by some of the locals before we left.  Yesterday we sailed 60 miles to another atoll in the Tuamotus - Tahanea, pronounced TAH-HAH-NAY-AH.  Position:  Lat 16 °52'S/Lon 144° 41'W.  We read that the waters in the lagoon are crystal clear and an aquarium, full of fish.  And they are.   The most fish we've ever seen when snorkeling and the water clarity is superb.   We've been snorkeling with lots of pretty tropical fish and edible ones too, such as Pacific groupers. We've had great success spearfishing grouper, they are everywhere .  We had so many, we shared them with other boats in the anchorage with us. This atoll is a little different from Kauehi, it has smaller motus around the perimeter that create the lagoon inside.  That's why the water is so crystal clear, even in 50 ft of water, you can see the bottom.  We had our first major boat failure here in Tahanea, the engine shift cable broke while we were anchoring and we were stuck in forward.  Luckily we had one anchor down and could still maneuver the boat to drop another anchor to keep us free of the coral heads.    Only problem, we didn't have a spare shift cable.  So we put our mechanical engineering heads together and jury-rigged the cable with lots of epoxy and a crimped copper sleeve.  It works for now and we're hoping it will get us to Tahiti where we can get a new cable in Papeete.  Actually SIMMER has been doing very well, with very few problems, we're happy to report.  (Knock on wood.)

6-12-99  Still in Tahanea, enjoying the excellent fishing and shelling.  There are 3 navigable passes into the lagoon and we've snorkeled all 3 of them now, drifting with the current along side our inflatable dinghy.   The coral is very impressive, supposedly there are thousands of species of coral in the Pacific, while the Atlantic only has a couple hundred species.  We believe all of the thousands of Pacific coral may be here! There are isolated coral heads within the lagoon, where we are anchored, but the passes have thicker, beautiful coral gardens.   The thicker, healthier coral is a result of nutrient rich currents to feed the coral.  The passes also have the larger fish, and therefore sharks.  We've been very careful to snorkel hanging onto the dinghy and with other people (dinghies) and the sharks haven't bothered us. We've seen mostly small,  4 to 5 ft. black tip reef sharks.   A couple of them did excite Colleen and she torpedoed out of the water and into the dinghy,  and not very gracefully, either.  She needed a little coaxing to get back in, but eventually did.  But don't worry, we are being extremely careful.

6-17-99  These Tuamotus atolls are difficult to leave (there are so many more to see, but not enough time).  We're still in Tahanea and enjoying the serenity, natural beauty, and camaraderie of our boating neighbors in the anchorage (currently there are 4 other boats here).  We've made new friends with two couples from California who cruised the western coast of Mexico and crossed to French Polynesia (FP) - boat names LAUGHING BUDDHA and BLUE BANANA.  Yesterday Pat caught 8 grouper and we had a Mexican feast onboard LAUGHING BUDDHA, complete with grouper tortillas (homemade tortillas), nachos, beans, hot salsa, Mexican peppers and of course Tequila Sunrises.   It was alot of fun and we finished the meal with a coconut pie Colleen made with nuts from a tree, barely 100 yds away, right in our "backyard".  Most boats in the anchorage are waiting favorable winds to head to Tahiti - about 250 miles away.   We plan to sail to Papeete, Tahiti and look forward to a little civilization again to stock up on supplies and get mail from home.  We heard good news yesterday, through Pat's Dad on SSB radio, that Colleen's Dad is recovering nicely from surgery to replace a bad artery in his leg.  We'll call him from Papeete and hopefully catch him at home the day he's released from the hospital.  Keeping in touch with family and friends is very important to us, but very difficult from this remote area of the world.  We understand Papeete has internet cafes  and we'll also attempt to update our webpage.

6-24-99  Hello from the Papeete, Tahiti - we are now in the Society Islands in French Polynesia,  Lat 17°32'S/Lon 149°34'W, arrived 6/20.  The Society group contains 12 major islands, mostly high volcanic types and Tahiti is the largest and best known.  Tahiti has a beautiful landscape with 7,000 ft high volcanic peaks which we saw from over 50 miles away!   This island has provided the locale for so many novels and adventure stories that it is associated with the typical South Seas paradise.  It was also a favorite subject of artist Paul Gauguin, whose painting of island life, especially the beautiful women, made him famous.  Papeete is the largest city in French Polynesia (FP) and the distribution center for supplies to all of FP.  Out of the 200,000 inhabitants of FP, 70% of them live in Tahiti.  Papeete is a bustling, vibrant, noisy city and we are having a bit of culture shock getting acclimated to all the activity after spending a month in the serene Tuamotus.  Downtown Papeete is a neat mixture of black pearl jewelry shops, local artisan shops, fruit and vegetable markets, tattoo parlors, clothing stores, Chinese markets, perfume shops, churches, salons, restaurants, bars and discotheques.  Colleen had her hair cut at a French salon by a young male hairdresser from Paris - Jean Marie.  (Très chic).  The public transportation, "le truck", is a truck cab with the chassis replaced by a wooden bus structure accommodating 15-20 passengers.  It is very convenient and $1.00-2.00 to ride most anywhere.  The grocery stores are very well stocked with many French,  New Zealand and American products, but quite expensive.  For example celery $10, beer $40/case, orange juice $8/gal,  there is even a McDonald's - hamburgers are $6.00!  Papeete is busy preparing for their Bastille Day (July 14th) holiday.  They celebrate from June 29th to July 14th with parades, outrigger canoes races, Polynesian dancing, arts and craft shows, etc.   We'll see some of the celebration here, but hope to be in Bora Bora for the 14th and the actual party day.  Yesterday we watched some of the young girls practicing their Polynesian dance downtown in the stadium.  Their swaying hips are hypnotizing and we noticed many young boys entranced!  We hope to see some Polynesian dancing either here or Bora Bora and capture it for the webpage. We're in the midst of a very welcome downpour right now, we haven't seen rain like this for a couple months.  It's a nice, stay-on-the-boat-reading-kinda-day, while the rainwater rinses away layers of salt off SIMMER.