Windy Day at Anchor

Its blowing fifty knots outside the pass today...

Jon and I sit on deck, drinking coffee and watching the sunrise light up the whitecaps as they streak past the outer reef.

It looks like exciting sailing out there but we're content to be watching it from our cozy vantage point. Tucked up inside Anse Amyot, we are sheltered from the fetch but these low lying islets don't provide much wind protection. The instruments tell us its blowing 35 here inside the anchorage. The reinforced trade winds are expected to blow for another week (at least) which is exactly what it was doing the last time we were here. For the time being, we will content ourselves with baking, reading and playing with the kids.

They were champs over the past few weeks of grinding boat tasks, so now it's time to reward everyone with relaxing and mini-adventures, until it calms down enough to get the dinghy outside the pass for some serious diving.

Casting our perishables overboard, brings a plethora of crazy-looking remoras out to inspect our offerings. Kai and Jon put on their masks and jump overboard to inspect this prehistoric-looking fish.
Hunter and I lean over the side, watching them.


(Video of remora in Toau, taken aboard the SV Estrellita 5.10b)
Jon pops his head up; "There's a shark right under me"...

"Cool" we say, amazed that this is normal to us now.

"See that shark?" he shouts to Kai.
Kai doesn't bother answering, he just gives a 'thumbs up' and keeps swimming, clearly watching the shark. It's so good to be back.

The winds have stirred up the visibility, so we choose to snorkel in the shallow coral garden near the boat. The variety of fish and coral here is unbelievable.After all the bleached coral we saw in the Societies, the endless colors surrounding us are a thrilling sight. We know over the next few weeks here, we will continue to find species we've never seen before.

Lovely scorpionfish photo from SV Soggypaws

Kai spots a huge Scorpion Fish lurking in a crevice. His camouflage is so extraordinary, he is almost impossible to see, even after Kai has pointed him out. If you stop looking at it's glaring, malevolent eye, you lose him entirely.

A Sling Jaw Wrasse, the first that we have seen here, swims past and Kai and I tail him, marvelling at his spectacular coloring.

Later, Kai and Jon brave the wind chop and take the dingy to a nearby motu to hunt for lobster and crab on the outside reef. Baby Blacktip reef tip sharks play around their calves as they stalk in the shallows. Schools of Bullet Head parrot fish cluster together under rocks, wary of the hunters eyeing them from above.Kai tries to spear them but he finds the shaft on the Hawaiian sling is too short and misses on all his attempts.Our boys come home empty handed from the hunt but filled with plans for tomorrow's venture. Kai spends the rest of the afternoon designing a new and longer spear.

Back on the boat, Hunter and I watch Gaston and some of the other men from the atoll through binoculars.They have waded far out on the reef and are casting hand nets. We can't even begin to guess what they are after, there are so many meal options out there. Unfortunately, the weather holds us back from going to investigate.

Next week, when the winds calm down, we hope to learn from these experts, how to catch dinner here.
In the meantime, we are still well-stocked from our time in Tahiti. There are steaks and potatoes, fresh cucumbers and tomatoes--a king's feast for us.

The wind howls outside, we make dinner and take turns singing and playing on the guitar. Hunter has learned a Nora Jones song and vamps it up, for her captive audience, dressed in one of my old, slinky Hollywood numbers that she found stashed between the foul weather gear and rubber boots.

As the stars come out, the kids crawl into their bunks with their books.
Jon and I lay in our berth and talk about sailing.

We learned some newbie things on our short windward passage here...
Like, when  planning a route to windward, don't forget to take into account, True verses Apparent wind angles! A mistake we won't be making again, on our way to Hawaii :)...

Hunter's fun facts:
Atolls are ring shaped islands with coral reefs.
There are exactly seventy five atoll's in the Tuamotu islands and only 475 atolls in the whole world.

Kai's fun facts:
Coral reefs support over two million species of marine life, that's 25% of all aquatic life on Earth!