We had a productive morning and moved the boat to the north end of Taha’a and anchored in 45 feet of sand in front of a shallow sand bank. Taha’as lagoon averages 110 to 130 feet deep in the center and we are circling it slowly but are challenged finding anchorages. Using the Dream Yacht Charter company guide we’ve found this little oasis in front of beautiful motus that are all private. Our snorkeling and exploring is limited to the lagoon in front of the boat and the motus.
There is one little village called Patio on the north end of Taha’a and everyone we met was so sweet. We must have been a bit entertaining because everywhere we went people stared. We didn’t find any restaurants, but we found two food trucks, also called roulottes, and chose the food truck that had tables under a large mango tree. Poke, the roulotte owner, was from Taha’a but her dad was from Hawaii. Her sandwiches were half a baguette with hamburger steak, French fries on top of the meat, and a drizzle of a sauce similar to teriyaki, super yummy. She was so wonderful and saw Wade eyeing the fresh mangoes so she picked some of the biggest and took us to the market to show us the ingredients to her wonderful sandwiches.
Relaxing back on the boat, Wade searched the massive song recommendations from Anthony and Jeff as Sara flew Kalo and captured puffs of smokes coming from shore, which we understand is burning the local garbage, so she has decided to title the picture garbage, haha. Sara replanted five plants that are having a hard time sprouting. Right now King Neptune’s garden has Bora Bora mint, two kale, three tomatoes, three baby bell peppers, jalapeno, brussel sprouts, broccoli, and egg plant. Poseidon’s garden has Italian basil, dill, lavender, marjoram, chamomile, and oregano. We’re having a hard time sprouting the watermelon, cantaloupe, two zucchini, sweet banana pepper, thyme, rosemary, cilantro, and Thai basil. In the past we had no troubles sprouting any of our seeds but this is our second time planting the same seeds. Hopefully the new seedlings will be happy and by Christmas we’ll have plenty of veggies and fruits.
After relaxing we went snorkeling and Sara found the largest black oyster and Wade dove to get it from the sea. It is bizarre from the other oysters we have found because the entire inside of the shell is black with a bit of mother of pearl along where the meat was cut out; which, Wade believes is not really a black oyster as we saw in Penrhyn. Wade cleaned it and we’ll taste it tomorrow as a lunch snack before Sara prepares her first duck.
Cheers,
Wade and Sara
Position at noon: 16 degrees 34.131 minutes South and 151 degrees 28.645 minutes West
