"The great affair is to move", Robert Louis Stevenson
The weather is cloudy and very windy and looking out at sea there are a lot of white caps. Luckily, Amy got us some anti seasick patches and we should be fine.
Our taxi dropped us off at the Aranui bright and early at 7am. We were the first passengers to arrive, but we were told to check in and go ahead to our room. A nice, young Marquesan man showed us to our room and how lucky we are. We are on the next to the top deck, a nice big room with a balcony on the starboard side. There is plenty of room to put our clothes and other stuff away. There is a nice bathroom, with a bath and shower.
The first day is spent at sea and you have a safety lesson and life boat drill. Everyone puts on their life jackets and then herded to the lifeboat to practice what would happen in case of a major emergency and you had to abandon ship. I was regretting having watched that show on TV a few days ago, called "Why Ships Sink". Probably should have waited until I got home to watch that one.
Anyway, after the drill it was time for lunch. We were seated with our new friends from Montreal, Helen and Christine and four people from France. Two bottles of French wine, a white from Bordeaux and a red from the Pays d'Oc, were on the table. Lunch was served to all 200 passengers at once and was a marvel of efficient waitering. We started off with a delicious tuna tartare, then had a scrumptious magret de canard (duck breast) and we topped it off with a puff pastry with creme and chocolate. Ooh la la, as our table mates would say.
But here is the only problem at lunch and dinner. Since this is a French ship, with 50% or more of the passengers being French, there is an unlimited amount of wine available for consumption. A table of 8 has, when you arrive, a bottle of red and a bottle of white. These are often drunk rather quickly and another bottle of red or white arrives. So after a good 2 hour meal you try to stand up and you quickly realize that the simple act of walking isn't so simple. With a combination of wine consumption and the rocking of the ship, one tends to not walk in a straight line. Luckily, the staircases (our room is 4 flights up from the restaurant) have steel bars that you can hang on to.
Sunday, Sept. 21st...We are 24 hours out from Papeete and today we reach the Tuamotus, in particular, the atoll of Fakarava. Yes, let's say it again; Fakarava. This is one of the largest atolls in the world. What is an atoll you say? Imagine a big island like Maui or O'ahu or Tahiti. They rise up out of the ocean thousands of feet. Now just imagine millions of years of rain, water and wind scouring the island and eventually leaving a giant hole, surrounded by a coral/sand strip of land. Just imagine a beautiful white sand beach,with turquoise water and beautiful coral and lots of fish. Now walk a few hundred yards to the other side of this strip of land and you have heavy seas caused by a constant high wind where no one would dare to swim. Of course coconut trees grow here along with all sorts of other plants. People live here but get all their water from catchment.
The Aranui arrived at Fakarava at 7am, after a night of rocking and rolling through the high waves. A few locals were ready for us with tables full of shell necklaces, black pearls and pareaus. A little bamd consisting of an auntie and a her daughter were singing Fakarava songs. We headed down a street to good snorkel spot. The snorkeling wasn't all that great, mostly because it was cloudy. But we saw lots of fish and some beautiful coral.
From there we went to the Catholic church, where they had a nice chorus singing local hymns. It was crowded, just the locals and a few Aranui passengers.
Now it's back on the high seas for the 40 hour journey to Nuku Hiva .
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