Spending three months in French Polynesia was a dream. There are not many people who are able to travel as freely as we have in some of the most beautiful and remote places on earth. We know how lucky we have been to have the time to enjoy and explore over ten islands and numerous atolls in our time here, but that doesn’t take away from the feeling that we have only scratched the surface and, in hindsight, I wish we had decided to apply for the longterm visa while in Panama as having that extra time would have made all the difference, exploring more, visiting more atolls and really getting to know each place we visited. French Polynesia covers such a vast area, it is impossible to do it justice in three months! One lasting impression was how wonderful it is to see a region that has not allowed major development to detract from the natural beauty of the place. Big hotel groups are limited to single level chalets – usually built over the water, offering exclusive accommodation to those able to pay US$3000 per night, but we also saw a number of failed operations with chalets being left to decay over the crystal clear waters that once attracted wealthy guests. Towns are kept very traditional with no big stores or multi-national fast food places dominating the landscape. I think the only place we saw a MacDonalds was on Moorea and that was a sad sight to see!
It felt like The Society Islands were not ready to see us go as we made very slow progress in light winds, taking almost all day for Bora Bora to fade out of sight. The wind picked up as the sun sank below low cloud on the horizon in front of us, as we picked up speed and headed west. It turned out to be a lovely sail with flat seas and a beam reach in about 10-15knots of wind – the perfect conditions for Cerulean and us! We were headed to a small atoll, still just in French Polynesia, called Maupiha’a where eight people live, farming copra (coconut). They are completely cut off from civilization, apart from visiting yachts who bring supplies and help where possible. A supply ship comes once a year to ship the cobra to Tahiti for processing, but will only come when there is 14.5 tons to collect. Eight adults work six days a week to cut, collect and dry the cobra and have a satellite phone to call the main administration centre on Maupiti, a small island 100nm east, to request the ship comes to collect. (We later discovered there had been a fallout and one family had been ostracized by the other three couples, meaning only six adults were collecting coconuts and processing them). In the meantime, the eight residents live off fish, coconut crabs, coconuts and fruit and vegetables grown on the island. We had been told they would welcome certain items so had stocked up on flour, sugar, mayonnaise, instant coffee, rice and onions to give to Norma, the Mayor of the island.
The low lying atoll is hard to see and we didn’t get a sight of it until we were about five miles from the most eastern point. As we approached the narrow pass into the atoll, it started to rain, making visibility hard, so we waited for the cloud to clear before attempting the narrow, challenging pass.
With Steve on the bow and talking to me in the headphones, we started our approach, keeping in the middle of two visible white sticks which mark the edge of the reef. Waves broke on either side as we motored through the channel with large eddies trying to pull us to one side of the channel. We increased the revs on the engine as the outgoing current increased at the same intensity as my stress levels! We crawled through the pass at about 3knots, weighing up going faster to have more grip in the water v’s being cautious incase we hit the reef! We made it through and Steve was able to see obstacles below us to guide us into deeper water – a huge relief to be in the calm blue waters of the atoll.
We headed to the north where we could see one other boat anchored and a few houses hidden in the trees. Along the way terns screamed their welcome and brown boobies attempted to land on our pole which we had left out, seemingly believing it would be a perfect perch for them to view unsuspecting fish we disturbed in the water below. It was very amusing watching them attempting to land and, when they won that battle, trying to stay on the slippery pole as they had to continue to fly to stay still – obviously not what they were expecting so soon disappeared with a disgruntled squawk!
The other boat in the bay belonged to Elaine and Crawford from the UK and later, on board their boat, we met Mayor Norma and Harry who were using starlink to call their daughter in Maupiti. It was lovely seeing the delight on their faces to have a rare conversation with family and then receive photographs of grandchildren they have not seen for some time.
The next day was Saturday and, as Seventh Day Adventists, it was their day of rest when they stop harvesting coconuts and preparing copra, so they invited us to visit their home. It felt like they were real life Robinson Crusoe’s as we approached the small tin shack they call home, with internal walls of mesh hung from rafters, decorated with shells. The kitchen is outside with the sink and workbench facing the blue clear water of the lagoon – a view that would be hard to beat anywhere!
Harry guided us through the coconut trees to the other side of the narrow stretch of land they live on, to the wild windward side where the deep ocean crashes on a small reef and coral beaches. The sound of the sea moving washed up coral was only drowned out by the screech of hundreds of Sooty Terns that had been disturbed by our appearance. The Terns spend most of their lives at sea, returning to land only to breed and lay their eggs on the ground, sometimes not bothering to attempt to make a nest while others had gone to great efforts. Eggs and chicks were scattered everywhere so we picked our path carefully as we followed Harry along the beach. It felt like we were in a scene from a horror movie as birds filled the sky above us, screaming at us as we moved through their nesting area. I was relieved when we left them in peace to raise their chicks, chicks that when full grown would return to land in a few years – it was an unforgettable experience. One Harry does most days as he collects their unfertilized eggs as part of their regular diet – if placed in water, fertilized eggs will sink. They explained that a dog killed all their chickens so now Tern eggs are the only kind they eat. I mentally added eggs to the list of provisions I would give them!
Returning to the house, Norma showed us a huge coconut crab they have been fattening up for the last three weeks. The underbelly was blue with a sac Norma excitedly called Froie Gras so must be a huge delicacy. Later we returned to Norma and Harry’s for dinner with fellow cruisers, Elaine and Crawford. Norma had decorated the table in her house with beautiful flowers and proudly welcomed us into her home as we sat down at a table ladened with food – some we had brought, but most included ingredients foraged from the environment we were in. The coconut crab we had met earlier took pride of place on the table as it easily fed six of us, cooked in coconut milk and spices which was delicious. After clearing the remains of the crab off the table, Norma took the lid off a large pan with a flourish and proudly presented us with a whole lobster each. It was delicious and we felt very honoured to have been invited, not only to share the wonderful food, but to be in such a stunning location as we watched the sun go down over the lagoon.
There is a tenuous link to my home town of Lyttelton on this small atoll. There is a wreck on the outside of the reef of notorious German first WW warship Seeadler that ran aground in 1917, captained by the colourful Count Felix von Lucknor, who was later imprisoned on Ripapa Island in Lyttelton Harbour. He has an amazing story which is too long and unbelievable to write about here, but worth reading about – why has no movie been made about this man? He was the real German equivalent of Hornblower!
We decided to extend our stay for a few days as our friends on SY Freya were arriving and the winds looked quite light – it was not a hard decision to make! On our last full day a humpback whale came into the lagoon and entertained us for a while. As night fell we heard the now familiar sound of a whale surfacing close by and the black shape of a large mammal in the calm water behind the boat. It was a wonderful final gift from this magical atoll!
A full moon sank in the clear morning sky and, as we watched the sun rise, we pulled up anchor before heading towards the pass with SY Freya. We waved to Harry and Norma as they stood on the beach watching the last two boats in the anchorage leave. Now they would be on their own again until the next adventurous cruisers arrived, hopefully bringing more supplies and speaking better French than any of us! This was a perfect farewell to The Societies as we headed out to our next destination, an even more remote uninhabited atoll 600nm NW in the middle of the Pacific!