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Polynesia covers an area of the shape of a triangle from New Zealand to Hawai'i to Rapa Nui (sørøstligste point in the Tuamotu). |
Tuamotu form the world's largest chain of atolls. Archipel is included in the French part of Polynesia. The production of beads that are Tuamotus leading industrial sector, but this industry is suffering greatly during both the waning interest in "Tahiti-Pearl" and a general recession. Despite the enormous extent Tuamotu have is the land area well under 1,000 square kilometers. |
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Over sail from the Marquesas to the Tuamotu is approx. 500 nautical mil. The first døgnte we have wonderful relationship, and we sail with 7 knots on average. So the wind collapsed, as we have experienced before. Then there are motor sailing and motor that counts. But the arrival of the atolls is dangerous. They do not appear on the radar until we are 5-6 nautical mil away, and arriving at night is completely unacceptable. Tidal flows in and out of the atolls can reach 8 knots and the tide therefore play a significant role when we can go in and out.
We arrive at the Manihi atoll in the early morning. Actually a little too early. The sun is still low, but we put the bow on the opening of the atoll, and let it rip. The timing is good, for it is almost still water. We have barely one knot current against us, so it's perfect. |
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| On Manihi, there are two things to do: Diving and pearls! | ||
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The Manihi Pearl Farm, we find "Corrion". This is French Polynesia first pearl farm, and one of the few that are still active. Fluctuating trends and verdensresesjon has made the demand for costly Polynesian pearls have fallen dramatically. Time for bargains, but unfortunately also many abandoned pearl farms. |
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The Blue Lagoon is a large lagoon in the lagoon. There is only so far as the water flowing over coral rim and into the lagoon, which is hardly any deeper than you can stand over. Incredible colors, and a paradise for swimming and snorkeling. There is a lot of sharks here. The reason we find out soon. All trips here ends with shark feeding. |
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