Eleven glorious sun-filled days at sea; now French Polynesia and the weather gets cranky…

We have been cruising for eleven days since we left Lima, Peru. We were unable to land at either Rapa Nui or Pitcairn Island. Although we did stop for a view of each and did have an opportunity to meet some of the locals, we could not disembark. Today we made landfall at Fakarava (fah-kah-rah-vah) in the Tuamotu (too-ah-mo-too) group of the French Polynesian archipeligo. Read on for a report on the glorious weather that greeted us.

On the left is an idea of just where French Polynesia is with respect to the rest of the world. On the right is a closer view of the major island groups that make up the French Polynesian archipeligo. You may be familiar with the better known groups: the Marquesas and the Society Islands. The lesser known are also quite beautiful and are mostly undeveloped except for a few of the larger ones.

On the left is a highlight showing the location of the Fakarava atoll. I use the term “atoll” as opposed to island because, as you can see from the right-hand picture, Favaraka is mostly lagoon surrounded by a slim reef structure containing a number of small coral islands, locally called “motus (mo-too).”The littel red star is the rough location of where we have anchored. The small red circle is the “town” containing the tender pier. The red arrow indicates the break in the atoll exterior reef that permits ships and boats to enter and exit the lagoon. There is a small break at the south end as well, but it is too small for our ship.

After eleven days at sea the term “cabin fever” begins to take on a new meaning. Fortunately, Bonnie and I really enjoy our sea days and we really did not give it much of a thought. Some of our fellow passengers did not, however, share that enlightened view. There were a number of folks who were waiting by the tender embarkation doors evenn before the Captain called the clearance. I chose not to be part of that stampede.

I waited until the initial rush was over and then I went ashore for a short visit. Bonnie was not feeling well. She has a blistering cold and just wants to veg out for a couple of days. Fortunately, she will not be missing anything important.

I went ashore to the local port, Rotoava (ro-to-ava) and began walking to “town” which was a short distance from the tender pier. I walked for about ten minutes and saw nothing that I had not already seen on the way out from the pier, so I reversed and went back.

After about three weeks of simply fabulous weather, we woke up this morning to clouds, drizzle, fog, ansd a generally bum day. Well, we thought positively: the fog will left; the drizzle will stop; the coulds will disappear. NOT!! It styayed that way all day, that is until it was time to pull the anchor and leave lovely Fakarava in mid-afternoon. By then it was merely overcast with occasional drizzle.

On the left is what greeted me from our veranda and on the right is what it looked like from shore. Those crystal-clear turquoise blue waters were sort of icky gray and tan and the normally super visibility was down to only a few feet. 

The most exciting thing I did manage to come across was a parade of school children moving from their school house on one side of the road to their “Cantine” or lunch room on the other side of the road. I don’t know about chickens, but I do now know why children cross the road…

After all that excitement with the kids, I felt obligated to spend a few minutes grazing the craft tent by the dock, then back on the tender and reboard the Silver Whisper for lunch.

Tomorrow we get to Moorea, French Polynesia. We were there last year and did our touring at that time. This year we plan to walk about, visit the market, and just relax – if Bonnie’s cold has subsided enough. If not, oh well, another “sea” day….

Stay tuned…