Tuamotus

Tuamotus Archipelago
French Polynesia, May '07

**Volcanic Remains!**
The Tuamotus are so different from the tall, mountainous Marquesas Islands. The Archipelago is a chain of island groupings southwest of the Marquesas and east of Tahiti. They are "atolls" and that means they are small islets in a circular shape. The islands are called motus. These circles are all that remains of ancient...I mean really ancient volcanos that have completely dropped away into the sea and/or eroded over millions of years. The small motus have formed on top of the old coral reefs that once grew around the volcanos, also growing for millions of years. The motus are flat with mostly just coconut trees due to the very shallow soil layer.	Between the motus there are water passages to the sea from the lagoon in the interior and only in a few places is it deep enough to sail a vessel. These are navigation passes and it takes some figuring of the tide and current to know when to go through the passes safely. The rush of sea water going in and out is quite impressive and can be dangerous. Once inside we were in protected water from the sea and the number of coral reefs were astounding. Care must be taken to avoid them and we accidently pulled up a large coral head with an anchor trip line...see below photo. It was an ecological world of it's own with fish, tiny lobster and crab still holding on.

**Rangaroa**
Coral Head	Up with anchor	Anchored off Kia Ora hotel	Flat Motu islet	Rolling water in pass
Black Pearl Oyster	Ready to harvest	Fresh pearls	Assorted shapes & sizes	Under Geniker sail Chuck in dinghy

**Supreme Snorkeling and Diving**
Chuck went for a scuba dive in the big pass during the incoming tide and watched a parade of sharks, baracuda, tuna, dolphin, turtles and numerous tropical fish at an 80 foot depth. Both of us went snorkeling in several locations near the anchorage. We also visited a black pearl farm where we learned about the unique process when the dark oyster forms these luminous pearls. We had traded some $9 worth of "liquid refreshment" left over from the Caribbean for 2 nice sized black pearls from a couple of local guys.	We were fortunate to have a 4 day period of mild weather so we took CYAN to the far side of the Rangaroa Atoll where we were completely alone. We pretended we were in the movie "Blue Lagoon" exploring and diving like kids. The snorkeling adventures were supurb.....swimming with many sharks up to 7'. Lynn still can't believe she is so used to them now but she isn't ready to feed them by hand!!! Then, taking the dinghy on adventure trips down connecting oas [canals to the sea] was like a jungle cruise at Disneyworld!!!

Anchored privately	Sharp Coral Reef	Oa between Motus	Typical Motu with Oa
Basalt formations in tide pool	Diver with fish	Finding coconuts	At Days End

This Page Background Photo:
Is taken from the trunk of a fan palm tree in the Gauguin Museum in Tahiti

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