Author Archives: Tawn

One of the things the Tuamotos are famous for are their black pearls. Way back in the day they used to grow white pearls naturally. Many years of harvesting, however, and the white pearls were gone. The Chinese realized that it was a perfect environment for pearl production and brought in pearl farming. These pearls would be black pearls and were manmade by artificially implanting a small plastic bead into the muscle of the oyster. It is still a lengthy process, as a good size pearl would have to be replanted into a larger oyster year after year to produce the perfect pearl. It could take up to 8 years to produce a high rated black pearl! But with thousands of farms most of the worlds supply of black pearls come from the Tuamotos. Farming is not as prevalent as it used to be, but there are still some massive oyster farm fields floating out in the atolls. Some friends and us got to visit one of these farms and see the process behind the scenes.

This particular farm was owned by a German and his wife who was local.

Pulling up a oyster basket to show how the implantation process works.

Instruments used to pry open the oyster to implant the graff that holds the implant. The pearlescent comes from inside the shell

The German guy who ran the place gave a very extensive, but interesting explanation of the process. He opened up an oyster and dissected it to showed all the parts involved in the implantation. By the end the poor oyster was just bits and pieces…then this happened…

This is our friend Darren of s/v Gratatouille, he likes to eat….anything. He seemed to be concerned about the oyster bits going to waste and asked the owner if it was okay to eat it. The owner was sort of slack jawed, but recovered and replied “well, I guess so, no one has ever asked before”. So, he showed Darren the edible part and down the hatch it went. While we all stood by in horror/amusement, Darren was declaring it “deeeelicious”. Hmmmm…

After that we all went up the the pearl shop where you could buy loose pearls or those turned into jewelry by the owner and his wife. Our friends bought loose pearls as gifts for family and to make jewelry. I found a really cool necklace for my mom.

Owning a pearl farm is a pretty lucrative business, and you can’t beat the view while you are working.

Maybe my next venture should be to become a pearl farmer?

In the case you do not know us, we have been back in the states for about a month. CB got an opportunity to do a quick job out in Montana and I had to travel as well or my visa would have run out before he returned. So on July 10th CB flew out to Seattle and on the 11th I flew out to Hawaii to visit friends I had not seen for 5 years…thanks for the hospitality Dave & Jen. I stayed in Hawaii about a week then headed to Seattle on some travel passes a friend gave me…thanks again! A quick trip to Chicago was also managed to see family and my cousins new baby…u are a cutie Clay😄 After I returned to Seattle both CB and I were able to catch up with friends and spend time on more boats. We do miss the PNW, but are ready to return home to the boat for more adventures.

One change in plans is that we are not going to New Zeland this year. Instead we are going to haul the boat out in the Vava’u group in Tonga. The boat will spend the cyclone season hanging out in a custom cradle with 8 tie down points to cement. It is also stored in a quarry with 3 high sides. Feeling pretty secure about that and our insurance is happy. We will be looking for a place to stay locally near the boat…maybe some housesitting! We plan on just hanging out in Tonga and doing a lot of kite surfing during the cyclone season. Then in April or May we will head off for another season of cruising in Tonga and Fiji. This area is too amazing to cover in one cruising season. We are lucky enough to be able to spend one more season out there before heading back to work hopefully in NZ.

In the meantime, here are some rage inducing photos of what we have been seeing and doing in the past few months.

This is at a mother’s day feast we were invited to. These guys are professional Marquesian dancers who compete yearly in Papeete. They are bad asses and really get into it. Probably one of my most favorite photos.

This is supposedly one of the largest waterfalls in the world, dropping 900 feet into the valley. Trail access through Daniel’s Bay on Nuka Hiva island.

We hiked about an hour and then had to swim up through these caves to get to the actual waterfall. Since it had been raining for a week, the falls were raging and it was so windy from the water rushing down that we could barely open our eyes and didn’t get any photos of the actual falls.

Beautiful Catholic Church on Tahuata Island.

Daniel’s Bay on Nuka Hiva. A local lady living near this beach invited us in for kai kai (a meal). She served wild goat in coconut milk, rice and a bunch of delicious veggies and fruit.

The awe inspiring spires above Ua Pou, our last stop in the Marquesas. This was probably our favorite spot in the Marquesian islands.

Palarran anchored outside the village in Makemo Atoll.

Beach fire with the crew of Peregrine on an unmarked spot on Makemo Atoll.

South Fakarava paradise…favorite place EVER!

I DECLARE THIS ISLAND MINE!

The shades of blue here are amazing. The water is so clear you can’t tell the difference between 60 feet and 6 feet.

Everyone has been asking what we do all day…well there is a lot of this…

I’m gonna let this be a photo blog solamente.

I had the early morning watch as we came into the Galapagos Islands. This is Kicker Rock. We would later do my favorite dive of the trip there.

Isla San Cristobal is thick with Sea Lions. They make themselves at home on any dock, beach, swim step or dinghy.

There are tons of weird looking lizards here…the black lava lizards actually surf! I name this little guy Eddie….Eddie Lizzard.

Boobies!! Haha made u look….it is a blue footed booby…the bird people😲

Darwin is all over this place….fun fact….Charles Darwin…the living legend of evolution….only spent 5 weeks in the Galapagos islands!

There are crystal clear bays all over this place. We swam here and young sea lions came up and played with us.

I swam with these guys near the boat. The one is playing with an egg that got chucked overboard….never broke it, just held it gently in it’s mouth tossing it to his buddies.

We went to a turtle reserve and nursery on Isla San Cristobal. They bred the turtles and hatched the eggs. Turtles from new borns on to 100 years are found here. They start in a nursery and are kept in protective cages until they are old enough to not be eaten by predators. We may have gotten to close to this guy, but the guide kept telling us to get closer! I love these guys, look at the cute little guys tongue in the close up….but as you can clearly see, CB is wary….he’s thinking “that is not a dog”

CB and Robbie holding up the bar on Isla San Crystobal….the beers here are huge!

Apparently there is a version of volleyball played in Equador that exists nowhere else in the world. When they play they catch the ball and then toss it back over the net…only briefly….but there is definitely a catch. And they are very serious about this game. Maybe the fact that they are playing with a soccerball has something to do with it….ouch!

The whole town showed up to watch these bozos yell and scream at each other….their own team mates. I am not sure what was being said….but even when they won the point arguing took place.

This guy was the angriest and started all the shit talking…he is abbout 4 1/2 feet tall…always the little guys😊

Everyone got into it….even this little girl. She stole the ball, maybe she got sick of all the arguing and wanted to end the game😄

In Santa Cruz, the biggest town, there is a eating street. At night the road is lined with food vendors. They all basically sell the same thing, so there is a mad rush to get your business as you walk by each place. The center of the road is full of tables and chairs and everyone eats family style. It was the cheapest and best place to eat. CB and I each got a lobster and big beers for 12$ each!

Santa Cruz had a fresh fish market where you could buy fish straight off the boat. The market is right on the wharf and the women cleaning and selling fish spend most their time shooing off the Pelicans and the sea lions….who are slippin’ and slidin’ around under their feet.

We also visited Isla Isabella which was our favorite island. Less people and tour boats and the town still had that undeveloped feel. Dirt roads were still the norm. Isabella is worth a post of it’s own and once we get the videos edited we will put up the goods.

I have wanted a tattoo for a long time…but I wanted it to mean something. Nothing ever felt right to permanently affix to my body. I made it through college without any poor decision tattoos. I knew someday the time and place would be right. When we started seriously talking about cruising and crossing the Pacific ocean, I decided a Marquesian tattoo would be a great badge of courage. Well, we made it across the ocean and it was time to start searching for a tattoo artist. The larger towns had tattoo parlors and numerous cruisers were getting their own badge of courage….but none of it felt right. I wanted a more traditional feel. One of the cruising guides we had talked about a guy named Fati who lived on Tahuata island in the village of Vaitahu… The book mentioned that Fati was thought of as one of the best tattooist in the Marquesian Islands. So we went to Vaitahu bay and started our search for Fati. The little map of the village was not accurate, so in horrible French we started asking around about Fati. Apparently Fati is a popular Marquesian name meaning big or large. The first Fati we found offered to trade for fruit, but said he was not tattoo Fati. He did know where he lived though and told us enthusiastically how high up in the mountains tattoo Fati lived. Fruity Fati thought it was a good 2 km straight up😯 It was high noon and hot as hell. We almost gave up, but in the end started the hot ass trek to find tattoo Fati. A quarter of a mile up we ran into a local kid and asked him where Fati’s house was. He said not far, I’ll show ya. Total distance was maybe a 1/2 mile walk…maybe we shouldn’t asked for distances from men named Fati. Anywho, tattoo Fati is a super nice man. He spoke no English and us no french…but it all worked out. We would come to his house tomorrow to talk about tattoos. As we were heading out we heard a whistle and saw Fati flagging us down. Turns out he didn’t know that “tomorrow” was the Lord’s day (Sunday for all you heathens😉). His wife very adamantly told him so and that he had agreed to cook for the island children who had just had their communion. He asked us to come and that we could do the tattoos the next day. C’est Bon! Meanwhile, while walking around town we saw some other cruiser’s who looked like they had new tattoos. We went to their boat and talked with them. They did indeed get their tattoos from Fati and they were amazing. The boats name was s/v Letitgo, they were French and had also been invited to a kaikai (meal) at Fati’s house. The next day we met up with Letitgo and headed up the mountain. The meal was great and was served out on the lenai. Thank goodness Letitgo was their to translate and help us with explaining what we wanted for tattoos. Fati is an original Marquesian tattooist. He wants to hear your story and then creates a tattoo for you in his mind. He needs a night to think it over, and when you show up the next day he sketches it out for you on your chosen body part. For me it was my ankle (one of the most painful places). I wanted an inch wide band that represented our crossing and a few other personal things. The next day we went to Fati’s and his lenai had been  transformed from eatery to tattoo parlor. As I laid out on the same table that I had ate at last night looking out at the mountains and lush valley, I realized that we had found the special experience we were looking for. Even more amazing was that we found out that Fati had tattooed friends who went cruising 2 years before us on s/v Estrelita 5.0. As I cringed and took the pain (these things aren’t licked on by kittens people), my badge of courage transformed into a beautiful piece of art that I would have with me for the rest of my life. Thank you Fati and the crew of Letitgo! I love my tattoo.

This is the Marquesian symbol for boat and the waves underneath represent our passage. The next symbol is man (CB).

This is the symbol for woman (me) and the Marquesian flower.

This represents courage, but also is similar to the design of our rings (the turkshead knot).

Finally, the Marquesian cross representing the land and people of the Marquesas.