A Few Hours in Fakarava

Since my last blog entry, we made the big turn at Bora Bora and started sailing east.  Over 36 hours we had traveled about 400 nautical miles and this morning we anchored off Fakarava, French Polynesia.

Fakarava differs from the other islands that we have seen so far on this trip. Tahiti, Hauhine and Bora Bora have very obvious volcanic building blocks. In the case of Fakarava, the volcanic core of the island has subsided and all that is left is the coral that now forms the basis of the fringing islets. Fakarava is actually a rectangular atoll. It has a very large lagoon that is surrounded by almost continuous reef, with multiple islands on the outer edges of the rectangle. The atoll is 60 kilometers long and 20 kilometers wide. There are two big cuts or passes in the atoll where the lagoon opens to the sea and our ship came through the biggest pass in the northwestern part of the atoll. It is interesting to note that some of the beaches here are pink because the sand is partially made up of powdered pink coral that has eroded off the reef.

Rotoava from the ship, with the lagoon in the foreground and open
ocean in the background. The building in the picture is the school.
Note the narrow strip of land the village sits on.

Main street in Rotoava

Rotoava again and you can not really see it but we are cycling down a dedicated bike lane

This is the beach facing open Ocean. It is rough surf on this side.

This is a beacon tower by the airport that also doubles as a lighthouse

A foreign boat in French Polynesia

Our stop here was only scheduled for about 8 hours in total and we wanted to get to a beach but decided to rent some bikes and explore a little bit of the island first. We ended up riding about 10 kilometers in the 33-degree heat and high humidity and just ran out of gas before we ever got to the beach. However, we did take a dip in the lagoon and were able to explore much of the area around the village of Rotoava which is the main village on the atoll.

Before dinner tonight we will leave Fakarava and make our way out of French Polynesia. Our next stop will be in the Pitcairn Islands, some 1000 nautical miles west. 

I hope the snows have melted my amigos.

Catching Some Rays in French Polynesia

Catching Rays in French Polynesia

All joking aside, it really hasn’t been that sunny here in French Polynesia since we got here. So the only rays I was going to catch were the fish kind. Unfortunately, they are kind of slippery and just a little better swimmers than I am, so I didn’t actually catch one.  Since boarding the Marina and leaving the capital in Papeete, we have had a chance to explore two islands of the Leeward Group and of course have also become familiar with the ship.

We have spent three nights at sea and two full days on the cruise. We boarded the MS Marina late on  the 17^th of April and have already had three sleeps on it. It is currently Sunday, April 20, 2013 as I spit out this post. I am writing from the desk in our stateroom. Our accommodations are the nicest that we have ever enjoyed on any ship.  Oceania got it right with this ship. It is basically brand new. Mary Hart  christened it in 2011, about the same time she was retiring from her job as host of Entertainment Tonight. There is a lounge onboard dedicated to the longtime co-anchor and a big color picture of her graces the wall. There are also many other beautiful public spaces onboard and as I said, our room is great. The room we have is spacious and well designed. The bathroom is especially nice with marble throughout, a stand-up shower and a nice big bathtub.  And surprise of surprises our Steward, Kristina is same steward we had an the MS Nautica in 2011 when we sailed out of Hong Kong. It is such a small world.

Hauhine

Since touching base with you in Tahiti, the ship cruised westward from the Windward Group of islands to the Leeward Group of islands and as we woke up that first morning we were coming into Huahine about 100 nautical miles from Papeete.

Hauhine is actually not one island but two main islands and a number of smaller islets that are situated inside a beautiful protective outer reef. The dark blue of the deep water crashes over the outer reef and behind it are the protected shallow waters which are bright, azure blue. The shallow water behind the reef runs back beyond smaller islands to the main islands that rise out of the sea in jagged spires of rock, covered with tropical vegetation. Hauhine’s tropical forests are very lush and include a large number of  Acacia trees. Acacia trees are a hardwood species that grows up and then out in grand horizontal layers of green canopies. Everything grows easily in the lush red volcanic soil that erodes from the mountain peaks.

There is a big hole in the outer reef that leads into a bay between the two main islands and our ship was small enough to slide into the mouth of the inlet and then anchor in this protected cove. Once inside the bay, it was like we had taken the ship and sailed it into some freshwater lake in western Canada, with mountains on either side, that you could practically reach out and touch from the balcony of the ship. From there we began our amphibious assault of Huahine. Everyone landed via the ship's tenders and spread out to explore the sights. We chose a guided tour because it is always best to let the locals show you around. This is where I am going to tell you the sad news. Mrs. Gym bought a brand new 16-GB memory disk for this trip and although we took 50 or so great pictures of this island we could not recover them from the disk. It is unfortunate but we did have a back-up disk so we should be OK at future venues and if we ever recover the photos from Huahine I will add them to the blog.

The highpoints of the stop at Huahine for me, were a visit to the sacred eel canal and the view from the lookout point at the top of the road overlooking the bay (pictures would be great here). The sacred eels are 4 to 6 foot long black eels that have blue eyes. These eels live in a canal next to a small village, on one of the two main islands. When our group was there a gang of small children were swimming in the canal with the eels. The eels themselves probably weighed 50 pounds each and became quite visible when our guide started chumming the water with some herring. Then the eels proceeded to slither around her feet and the feet of a small girl that was hanging around the area. Their blue eyes were readily visible and if it weren’t for those eyes the locals would have eaten them. The blue-eyed eels are sacred. Following the eel visit we climbed up the mountain to that lookout spot and viewed the ship through the acacia, sitting quietly on the bay below. It was a spectacular viewpoint.

Bora Bora (and we obviously have pictures)

MS Marina in front of the main island of Bora Bora

another good shot of Bora Bora from the outer reef

Yesterday morning as we woke, we slipped in next to Bora Bora and dropped anchor for a 36-hour stopover in this paradise. It is about 60 miles from Hauhine. Shortly after dropping anchor, we were on a tender in to shore to transfer to a pontoon boat that would take us out to the reef and a couple of good snorkeling spots. The first spot was an area about chest deep where boatload after boatload of perfectly sane people stopped to jump in the water with a mess of large stingrays and black-tipped sharks that frequent the area.

Our local guide getting kissed by rays

Black tips 12 feet away

We then went to a slightly more protected cove and snorkeled with the smaller fish. Following the swim, our guide called us in to shore, for a very important lesson on coconuts. If Tom Hank’s character in Castaway had had our lesson before he became stranded on that island, the movie would not have been as funny as it was because he would have had no problems with coconuts. Upa our guide showed us the easy way to open these tasty nuts and he did it in record time. He is a nationally ranked coconut husker and coconut tree climber. And I am not kidding these are real sports down here.

snorkeling spot

hermit crab carrying his house

proper way to husk a coconut

cracking the nut

these ones that have sprouted have a marshmellow interior and it is very tasty

volcanic rocks carved on the main island and brought out to the outer islands by canoe

Today we have no tours but will tender in to the main island wharf and walk around town a bit. We have decided to definitely come back to Bora Bora some day and stay here for a week or two. Not only is it indescribably beautiful, it also just feels like a place that you can take yourself off the grid for a while and be a part of paradise. 

Tonight we turn around into a new heading that will eventually take us to South America. 

Popping up in Papeete

Popping up in Papeete

The intrepid travelers have successfully endured the 8-hour flight from Los Angeles and as I write this installment we are sitting in our room at the Intercontinental Tahiti Resort, not far from the airport in Papeete. It was a seamless transition from the airport to the hotel last night but it was dark and we checked-in and passed out without being able to see the nice grounds of this hotel. The InterContinental is set up nicely on the beach facing the island of Moorea. Moorea sounds like an island that we should be visiting but it will have to wait for another trip.

Moorea from the InterContinental

Linda and I got up quite early this morning and went for a swim in the pool. It was very refreshing and there was nobody there except for a few of the local birds.

early riser

After showering and grabbing breakfast in the main restaurant which is poolside, we strolled around the property and toured the protected lagoon situated right next to the pool. The lagoon is really a giant aquarium that you can snorkel in beside some pretty big tropical fish that enjoy a natural setting swimming amongst various corals that have been transplanted here by the hotel. The lagoon is refreshed continuously by sea water and is located near the bungalows that have been built on stilts fringing the green space adjacent to the main complex.

example of the captive fish in the Intercontinental lagoon

looking out over the pool, lagoon and bungalows to Moorea

waterfall at the pool

island in the lagoon

waterfall at the front lobby

We took a picture of the biggest bungalow and wondered to ourselves what fat-cats had rented that choice accommodation and not minutes later found ourselves making small talk on one of the ornamental bridges with the Jackson’s from Jacksonville (no kidding). This couple ended up inviting us in to see the inside of the property’s premier room. It ends up that they are on the same cruise so we should be seeing a lot of them in the days ahead.

Jackson's from Jacksonville

I’ll end this bit with an observation about the culture here. Everyone speaks French and French comes before English on all of the signage and menus. This is not unusual in itself for a Canadian to experience but what is different is the type of French that is spoken. They speak a French that I understand better than the French I struggle with in Quebec. There are many vacationers from France here and apparently there is a large French armed forces base nearby. I believe that the locals speak French that is closer to what the European French speak and that is what we listened to in those Monsieur Thibaut tapes.

We will board the Marina this afternoon.

ChilLAXing in LAX

ChilLAXing

After a bumpy start this morning (I will explain later), my dear wife and I started our first international adventure of 2013. We have completed the first leg of the journey and I am submitting this blog entry from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).

This chapter in our series of adventures takes us back to the South Pacific, where we will begin this trip in Tahiti. We are not crossing the International Dateline this time but the Los Angeles to Papeete leg is still a lengthy trans-ocean flight. We will arrive in the Tahitian capital at about 9:30 p.m. tonight. The sun will have set by then. We will check in to the inter-Continental Hotel tonight and then leave the capital tomorrow to paddle around French Polynesia for a few days.

Now most people would think, “Wow, Tahiti, nice beaches, great reefs and a welcoming Polynesian culture…”. But most people aren’t us. Most people that fly here would check in to a nice resort on one of the many pristine islands, plunk themselves down and have a few cocktails, whilst gazing over their toes at the azure tropical waters stretching out from the warm sandy beaches, to the horizon. Is that what we are going to do? No! As usual, we have an ambitious plan to visit all of Tahiti in a giant amphibious loop and then chart a course due east to visit some of the most isolated, inhabited islands in the world.

Our seaborne adventure will have us experience parts of four different protectorates or countries, on an epic voyage that has us sailing from Tahiti to Peru.  Yes, amazing as it sounds, we only had one-way plane tickets to Tahiti and will sail almost 5000 miles east, at about 12 degree latitude, to Lima, Peru. On the way we stop at the Pitcairn Islands and Easter Island. I will have plenty to write about as we ply the mighty Pacific in what Mrs. Gym hopes will be a mostly flat sea. More on the itinerary in future posts.

The bumpy start I referred to earlier, is one of my typical bone-headed incidents. Our beautiful daughter Nicole, had graciously agreed to drive us to the airport this morning and after dropping us off at the departure level, we breezed through the check-in counter and made our way through to U.S. customs. We had at least 2 hours until boarding. As I stood in the slow-moving line thinking that I would very shortly be able to have a coffee in the airport lounge, I heard a cell-phone ring behind me. It was then that I realized that my Blackberry was sitting on the bedside table in my bedroom at home.

A cold sweat came over me as I realized the significance of this screw-up. I needed the phone. I had to stay connected to the office. So, as the blood drained out of my face and I accepted the fact that I had to face the wrath of Mrs. Gym, I turned to her and admitted my mistake. I was in full panic mode and did not know what to do. Ironically, my dear wife calmly suggested that I should return home in a taxi and retrieve the device. Normally, I am the calm one and here in my time of crises I was at a loss as I followed her back out to the airport entrance. The most surprising thing about the incident was that there was no wrath. We exited the customs hall and I left Linda by the front entrance with all of the luggage and 1.5 hours left to board the plane.

I then snapped out of the fog I was in and sprinted after a Yellow cab that had just dropped some tourist off and jumped in to the front seat. I then calmly told the driver what I needed him to do. At this point, I would like to thank the mayor and city council of Calgary, circa 1970. These fine, forward-thinking civic govenore approved the construction of the Deerfoot Trail. My yellow cabbie did the return trip in 50 minutes and I returned to re-join Mrs. Gym and the luggage, phone-in-hand, with less than 30 minutes to go before departure time. It was still stressful because we had less than 20 minutes to get through customs and security but we made it. We ran up to the gate with minutes to spare and joined the dwindling lineup. 

Amazingly, I had completed three Deerfoot Trail commutes,  two with rush hour traffic and one against it.

We are laughing about it now and chillaxing in LAX. I will send more from French Polynesia.