Note: I wrote this from home in San Diego on Sept24, 2023 but it is about events more than a year earlier, June 10 – 25, 2022.
As mentioned on the last posting, we went from 4 people on Calista to just me! I had tons of maintenance work to keep me busy and a lagoon full of great snorkeling and diving options. In addition there were many good friends on boats nearby for me to hang out with.
Activities over the next two weeks:
– Cleaning the bottom (needs to be done at least every month)
– Snorkeling numerous times and scuba a couple times
– Dinner at Hirinaki Lounge several times
– Provisioning in town
– Touring the island on rented bicycles with Bill Edwards (Flite Deck) and Ian (single-hander on Jasmine)
– Enjoying baguettes with butter and jam or cheese. Being in French Polynesia, you get good bread. 🙂
– Lots of boat maintenance
– Helping Bill Edwards work on the transmission on his stbd engine
– Getting beaten playing Rummicub by Bill. The most annoying part is that he had never played before and by the second evening of playing he was beating me consistently! 🙁
Here are some of the pics:
Calista anchored near TopDive, Rotoava
Our favorite boulangerie
A great place to get sandwiches for a bike ride down the motu.
A section of the atoll. The box in the lower left is the doc in front of the petrol station and a large magasin. The jetty lower right is TopDive, very near where Calista is anchored. The top is ocean-side and the bottom is lagoon-side.
The gas station is right at the main dock, with a magasin (small grocery store) on the left. Calista is among the boats on the right.
The ‘Paul Gauguin’ cruise ship has come in. Pretty much overwhelms the town with tourists.
A nice coral head. Beautiful to look at but it can sink your boat if you hit it!
A couple lovely Butterfly Fish
A white-tipped reef shark on patrol. This guy was about 5 ft long.
A Hump Headed Wrasse, about 5 ft long and definitely out-weighed me!
Parrot Fish come in many brilliant colors
Parrot Fish dumping a load of sand. They eat the coral and sand comes out the other end.
A big Elk Horn Coral Head
Clams come in a range of blues, greens and reds.
A Bicolor Cleaner Wrasse eats parasites off bigger fish. The smaller black and white is a Dascyllus.
Many different types of coral.