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| Starting into the pass, note the calm water on the other side! |
Fakarava is one of the largest atolls in the entire Tuamotos
and has two entrances into the lagoon – the north pass and the south pass. Being fairly new at traveling these passes
(and having heard of a few harrowing experiences from cruising friends) we
opted for the larger and downwind option, the north pass. Arriving at what we thought was slack tide
(based on two different sources) we took a look and decided it
seemed…um….passable, so started to make our way through.
At first, things seemed fine – we only had about 1 knot of
current against us, so not too bad. As
we got farther in however, the current against us began to climb and soon we
were fighting a 3.5 knot current! Yes –
3.5 minus what was currently our 5 knot boat speed (due to a little furry
growth on the bottom) now meant that we were only moving forward at 1.5
knots. I CAN WALK FASTER THAN THAT!
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| The view from within the pass - not as nice! |
Needless to say, we did make it through without any mishaps,
but now having a total distrust of all sources of tidal information, we just try
to watch the ups and downs over the course of each day and do some estimating
on our own. With our EYES! Of course, that will only get you so far
since if the winds are high (which happens OFTEN) extra water is likely filling
the lagoon, potentially creating a continually out-flowing current in the pass
– so then who knows when it might be slack (um…never?). Have I mentioned how frustrating this tide/pass
conundrum is here? It is a FAVORITE topic
among cruisers.
But enough of tides and passes! Let’s move on to the fascinating process of
pearl farming. Many of the atolls in the
Tuamotos are renowned for their pearls – just like the ones women everywhere
wore in the 50s, only these are dark grey instead of pearly white. They are quite beautiful, so we wanted to
visit a farm and hopefully purchase a few quality samples at a good price.
Through our friends on Cassiopée (thanks AGAIN guys!) we soon had a
reservation to visit the Hinano Pearl Farm (ironically the same name of the
only beer you’ll find in this area).
What a great experience! We were thoroughly educated on the process of
pearl formation. For someone like me who
had zero idea of what it takes to cultivate a black pearl, I was amazed at the
long and fairly complex process that needs to be followed before one single pearl
is created. Now I understand why they
are so expensive!
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| Where the pearl surgery is performed... |
One might THINK that you simply find a qualified oyster and
throw it out in the salt water for a couple of months (years?) hoping for the
best – but of course it much more complex than that. First the “farm” will purchase oyster shells
of a certain quality, taking particular note of the colors of the inside of the
shell – which will often determine the color of the pearl the oyster will
create.
Next, they place a precisely formed “fake” pearl – usually a
bead made of shell and approximately 3 millimeters in diameter – in a small
pouch within the oyster. This is a very
important step as they must take out what was already growing within the oyster
and carefully replace it with the perfectly round replica without doing any
harm. The goal here is to implant the
fake without the oyster realizing anything has changed. If it does, it’s highly likely the oyster
will reject the surrogate and stop producing altogether – which of course they
won’t discover until many months have passed.
So it’s rather a fine surgery of sorts, all done without opening the
oyster more than about ½ an inch!
After they have successfully implanted the “fake” pearl the
oysters are “put out to pasture” (if you will) in just the right depth and sea conditions
for 6 months to start cultivating the lovely dark grey layers that make these fakes
into the real beauties they become. After
6 months the oysters are collected and carefully opened to see if the process
was successful. If it was, the new pearl
(consisting of the original fake now covered with many layers of “real” pearl
growth) is removed from the oyster (using that same careful technique) and a new
“fake” of the exact same size is inserted in its place.
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| Our guide showing where the growth pocket is. |
WHAT??? You mean you
don’t just leave it in there to get bigger and more beautiful with each passing
month?!? Apparently not! We learned that a pearl left for a long time
hardly EVER turns into the big beautiful pearl some lucky duck just “discovers”
in the movies. In real life that pearl
would be lumpy and misshapen – plus the layers would not be as strong and so
the pearl could be easily broken – making the customer who paid big bucks for
it VERY upset! Because of this, it’s
highly important to regularly introduce a new, perfectly round fake for the
oyster to keep covering up. Sounds strangely similar to our government….but
I digress.
So! This is how they
get different sizes of pearls – by replacing the newly grown pearl every 6-12
months with a new like-sized fake. Then
the new (larger) fake is covered with beautiful layers until its a few
millimeters larger yet….and so on and so forth.
It turns out those really large black pearls that are so incredible
valuable if they are perfectly round and without blemishes cost that much
because they can take up to 6 YEARS TO GROW!!!
Yep – that’s some serious time invested!
These are obviously very patient people.
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| "A" grade pearls on display. |
Just like diamonds, black pearls are graded by size, shape
and blemishes (or rather a lack thereof).
Top grade is an “A” and just like school – the lower you go the less
quality you get. “B” pearls are still of
very nice quality and to the untrained eye a “C” quality pearl might also be
acceptable. But after that things start
to go downhill pretty quickly. We
actually liked some of the “lower quality”, misshaped pearls as they were often
pretty interesting to look at. These
pearls are often relegated to a quick leather necklace or bracelet for not very
much money (now owned and proudly worn by yours truly). While I love my “imperfect” cheap pearl, we
also decided to purchase a couple nicer samples as this chance is unlikely to
ever present itself again, especially at these prices. Overall, our visit to the pearl farm was a fascinating
and educational experience.
One of the best (non-environmental) aspects of French
Polynesia is the access to quality baked goods – which one soon becomes
addicted to. Prior to leaving North
Fakarava, we made an early morning run to get a few (much sought after)
baguettes at the local bakery/market. This
is one of those cases where the early bird will get the worm and the late bird
will get……..nothing! The residents here,
being governed by the French, have developed a fine affinity for perfectly
baked baguettes (crunchy on the outside but soft and airy on the inside) and
they are baked fresh every day. When
they are gone, they are gone for the day – so get them while you can as they
are a real treat and one of the few items in French Polynesia that do not cost
an arm and a leg. If you are REALLY
lucky, you might also find chocolate croissants (pan chocolate) that are
absolutely delicious!
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| The moon mid atoll - beautiful! |
Baguettes on board, off we went to the south end of
Fakarava. Fakarava is approximately 30
miles long (north to south) and 10 miles wide – so it can take a while to make
it to the opposite end. There are many lovely
(non-charted) spots to stop along the way – so you don’t have to travel the
whole way if you get a late start. We
chose to stop half way down in an uncharted spot for a night and had the place
completely to ourselves – which is much rarer than you might think. After moving to the SE corner – called Hirifa
– for a few days, we proceeded over to the popular anchorage on the west side
of the south pass.
The south pass of Fakarava is almost legendary in diving
circles, with folks arriving from all over the world to pay for a chance to
dive these shark infested waters. How
cool is it that we were able to drift snorkel them for FREE! Yes, yours truly, proud member of the JAWS
generation, actually got knowingly in the water with SHARKS! Thankfully most of the sharks here are of the
black or grey tip variety, which are only about 3-4 feet long and not very
interested in humans. The ones that swam
near me did take an inquisitive look, but when I showed them my menacing fist
(HA!) they quickly darted away. Take
that long anticipated fears!!! Of course
if you dive here you actually get down to a level where you would be surrounded
by 100’s of sharks – some that are fairly large. Definitely not something this girl was ready
for, so we just stuck to the drift snorkel – thank you very much.
And what an amazing experience it was!!! Basically you take your dinghy over to the
beginning of the south pass just after the turn of the outgoing tide. We’ve learned that you want to give it maybe
20 minutes after the turn as the clear water from the outside of the lagoon
translates to much better visibility in the water. Than you tie the dingy to you and let the
incoming tide carry you (and your dinghy) past a wonderland of exotic and beautifully
colored fish – FANTASTIC!
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| South Fakarava after one of the frequent squalls. |
We did the drift twice as there was so many fish to see,
from tiny little clown fish to huge brightly colored parrotfish, that you just
couldn’t see everything in one pass. The
drift takes about 20 minutes and the farther in the faster you go. At one point I actually tried to slow my
progress by swimming against the tide but soon discovered it was completely
hopeless. You just have to let the
water carry you along and see what you can as you go. Next item on the Christmas wish list???? An underwater camera! I was dying to post some pictures of all the
amazing fish we saw, but alas – no ability to shoot underwater at this
time. Sorry folks!
Other than the snorkeling there is not a lot to do in south
Fakarava other than enjoy the beauty of the area, so that’s what we did.......for
5 heavenly days! We did accomplish
several boating projects (which never end), such as repairing a tear in the
mainsail and a major cleaning of the bottom of the boat – but we also got in a
fair amount of relaxing and enjoying our surroundings. South Fakarava is a little slice of heaven and
we were happy to spend a good amount of time there.
Stay tuned for our further adventures in the Tuamotos when
we travel to the river that is Anse Amyot and explore the wonders of Apataki…
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