What happened?

It has been over a year since this blog was updated. So what has been going on? We spent about 3 weeks in Marquesas, then we made our way down to Tuamotus. This has to be one of the most spectacular places on earth. To my mind, this is partly because it is so remote and therefore, very few people ever get here. Crystal-clear, sparkling blue water, palm fringed white sand beaches, and some of the most amazing diving anywhere in the world. We vistited a pearl farm in Ahê Atoll, they showed us how they are trying to cultivate vegetables in very harsh conditions, keep chickens and cultivate pearls sustainably. Visit Kamoka Pearls on instagram to learn more about this, it is very interesting. We dinghy drifted through the pass and watched how the sharks behave in the strong currents. Next we visited Manihi Atoll where a French couple have built a dive resort from scratch, just the two of them and again, conditions are brutal if you are not on holiday. They had to clear the motu, import everything from nails to light bulbs, built a septic system, installed solar, built a home and dive centre and dug a small swimming area on the shore. And they were running a dive operation while doing all this. The diving was great, we witnessed the grouper spawning. Truly inspirational. Oh, and they serve a lovely Maitai. Next we went to Fakarava North. Diving in the pass was out of this world. Next we went to Fakarava South. Once again, the area was beautiful and the diving was also out of this world. Quite different to North pass diving because they have the famed Wall Of Sharks which definitely got my heart pumping. Finally we went to Rangiroa. Here we were able to get some boat parts delivered and once again, did a few dives in the pass. We failed to see the famous dolphins so the dives were average compared to Fakarava. But by most standards, pretty darn excellent.

Finally we headed South to Tahiti. We had a berth at Marina Taina, and had to stern tie to the dock. This old girl does not have a stern thruster and the surge against the dock was quite brutal so it took quite a few attempts before we eventually got all the lines in place and could rest… or so we thought. This old girl also does not have a passarelle so we had no way of getting ashore. Never mind, the marina lent us a plank so we literally had to walk the plank in very bouncy conditions to get a shore. Scary enough when you are empty handed. The captain was not happy.

As the days went by, Franks problems with his back were not getting any better, getting on and off the boat was a real challenge, and we could not get an extension to stay longer in French Polynesia and so Frank made the very difficult decision to leave the boat and fly back to USA to get his back seen to.

And so, SD captains collected the boat and it took 30 days to get her back to the west coast where she went on the market and eventually got sold.

A few months later, after some treatment on his back, Frank was feeling much better and decided to buy another boat. We now move on to the next chapter.