The warmly cool, clear, ringing, perfumed, overflowing, redundant days, were as crystal goblets of Persian sherbet, heaped up – flaked up, with rose-water snow. — Herman Melville
“This time is hard to find heaped under a mountain of machines and motivations all founded on hours and minutes.” ~Wyatt Stevens
The decision for Shannon, Josh and Wilder (3, almost 4) to visit came down fast, and within a week and a half we were picking them up at the little motu off the eastern side of the Gambier Archipelago. They dove in, they played, they pushed themselves. We laughed, we learned, we loved. It was a 3 week plan, which, in hindsight, should have been simply spent in the lagoon, but Josh was keen to take an ocean passage, so we gave it a shot. Shannon was facing some real demons by even considering the feat. There’s a superstition in the sailing world about not undertaking a passage departure on a Friday. Well … not only was it a Friday, but guess what the date was?! Yep, the 13th!! Needless to say – we ended up shifting gears; they flew instead and we met them with Allora in Fakarava, 5 days later. Plan B worked out great! The memories from this adventure have been distilled into flashes of Wilder being wonderfully true to her name, snippets of her remarkable imagination with words (notably ‘Shit Bullet’) and scores of her laughter as she’d commune with the fishes. We were struck by a force from which we will never recover. Oh, and yeah, her parents are sensational, too!
“To see the world as it awoke in its own defenseless candor.” ~WS
We’ve fallen in love with the Tuamotus, as most people do, so getting to share this utopia with Maddi over her winter break was really special. We’d promised a much needed rest, but ended up playing pretty hard, so hopefully her soul was recharged and enriched by the warm, turquoise waters brimming with life and the sun kissed days filled with simple, yet active goals. We ended up hanging out in Fakarava and Tahanea, two atolls with abundant wildlife/wilderness, (always appreciated by Maddi) and we just may have spent as many hours in the sea as out of it! We’d been renting diving gear from a local provider in the south of Fakarava, but once we met up with our cruising friends, m/v Starlet, they ‘hooked us up’ with tanks and together, with s/v Makara, we dove daily. Pics of these shared adventures will be on the next post, but here we focus on our middle daughter, the shark whisperer.~DS
Fakarava, famous for sharks
rows of teeth, sinister, graceful
ominous patience at the top of the food chain
keen senses for a slip-up, a moment of inattention
fish hide in the coral after dark
unaware of a tail poking out
sharks imprinted with curiosity
follow every lead, investigate every anomaly de facto enforcers of the status quo stick to the rhythm
you’ll be alright, maybe
it takes attitude to be a grouper
shining in the light
defending your rock
even more attitude to be a grouper at night,
You should try living among swarms of predators
try to sleep or procreate, try to enjoy a little leisure
not surprising that groupers get a little touchy about their neighborhood
food funnels with teeth in their gills,
they present themselves to the world mouth first
Prettier tropical specimens keep a wary eye
slip between branches of coral as though sipped by a straw
everybody seems to know
that the sharks know
they’ve traded decent eyesight and speed
for jaws and uncanny 3D senses for smelling fear and panic
traded chewing teeth for biting teeth
Six Gill sharks eat as little as once a year
(you don’t want to be reincarnated as a Six Gill shark)
Triggerfish, with beaver-like teeth
flopping, rooting, peering under rocks
Bluefin Trevally terrorize the shallows, manifesting classic symptoms of ADD.
Parrotfish seem to know that they’ve been named after birds
fluttering over the reef
crunching coral, shitting and spitting sand
along with their groupies, Maddi and I call “friends of parrotfish”
Moray eels scowl from their caves
Moorish Idols parade along the branching staghorn
huge green Napoleon Wrasse contemplate a sex change
an octopus camouflaged in the rocks
how much brain power it must take to run eight arms
and change color and texture instantly?
I can barely pat my head and rub my stomach at the same time
those unblinking eyes
that gambler’s mouth breathing tube
shoals of shimmering, blue, wide-eyed baitfish
birds above, predators below, strength and peril in numbers
bobbits with scissor-like jaws lurk in the sand
800 species of deadly cone snails
Everything that can be eaten
is
iridescent ink glows in perpetual darkness
volcanic vents in ocean trenches are planning for the future
human concentration suffers from lack of predators
evolution is happy to start over
when our moment of inattention
gets the better of us
~MS
We threw off the dock lines and found an anchorage not far – where you can look across the reef of Raiatea to Bora Bora at the sunset we searched the starry sky for the southern cross and our neighboring galaxies, the Magellanic clouds A quiet sail in the lagoon to the “Coral Garden” off Tahaa a bit of shallow coral in a gap between Motu’s brimming with fish no sharks the current flows gently in toward the lagoon the Mom’s donned their wetsuits, fins and masks a few gear adjustments were made they fell in love with drifting through that magical world we tried to stick together, but Camille drifted off at one point, mesmerized by the show by the time Diana caught up with her she was half-way down the channel the days were easy quiet mornings chatting in the cockpit routinely late starts we tried to stick to the plan of no plan Baie Hurepiti, a tour of Tahaa with Noah, his French parents came here in a sailboat and stayed put in a mooring and made a business a traditional compound of Tahitian style open houses with thatched roofs and a garden He studied space engineering in France, but tired of the rat race and returned to share his island with visitors Diana wants to marry him off to one of the girls We learned about purple flowers that taste like mushrooms and ferns that leave a pretty white print on your skin We sailed back around the corner for ice cream at Pte Tomoaro then to Raiatea for drive around the island a trip to town for some shopping, and a dinghy up the river at the head of Baie Faaroa Finally a sail across the open Pacific to Bora Bora started with a nice wind that slowly dropped but the seas were calm, the white puffy clouds over the famous island turquoise green from the reflection off the lagoon a group of pilot whales greeted us along the southern reef then a Humpback as we made turn around the point across the shallow lagoon our depth finder kept creeping up 10 feet, 8 feet, 7 feet, 6.3 feet (we draw 6.5) but we found our way to the gorgeous anchoroage without hitting the sand (note to work on our bow to stern communication skills) At least we didn’t get stuck more snorkeling by the Motu the Moms’ favorite activity We dinghied in the pouring rain, thankful for wetsuits Camille slept out under the stars We all sang and played guitar Mom and her Polynesian ukulele On next to the last day we flew the drone for an unforgettable sunset in perfect harmony with the feeling of this visit ~MS
Our Moms have now been to visit three times; in Baja, Costa Rica and French Polynesia. It would be hard to say which has been the best, but when I chance upon the pics, I’m reminded of the pure joy it’s been each time, to have them here, sharing in our crazy life. We are building a ‘library’ of memories. These two are agreeable to do just about anything, easy going and relaxed and chock full of love – we are wildly fortunate. Can’t wait till the next sojourn.~DS
" data-envira-height="428" data-envira-width="570" />
