Author: richwest3

May – July, 2012

We are officially taking the South Pacific Pizza Tour.  We’ve now had it in Hiva Oa, twice in Nuku Hiva, Ua Pou and Fakarava.

June 27, 2012

There isn’t even a town at the south end of Fakarava yet we managed to go out for pizza.  Fish pizza no less cooked in a wood fired oven and hand made.  A wonderful man named Manihi invites all the cruisers to his house a few times a week and cooks for everyone.

This is his house with the open air, covered dining room.  The only way to get there is by boat.

On the night we went, he had about twelve cruisers over.  The company was great.

At an hour or two old, the fish on this pizza couldn’t have been much fresher.

After dinner, the fish scraps go in the water for the other guests – black tipped reef sharks. These were about three feet from the dining table. -Rich

June 27, 2012

People come from all over the world to dive with the sharks in the south pass (the cut through the atoll where you can enter the huge lagoon).  You ride the incoming tide and drift over coral, fish and lots of sharks.  Our pictures of the sharks are a little lacking as these are screen shots of videos we took.  For some reason, we were a little preoccupied with the sharks and forgot to take some still pictures.  I can’t imagine why?

Those aren’t coi.  Those are about five foot long black tip reef sharks.  There were often thirty to fifty in view at a time.

While Cyndi didn’t panic, she was noticeably happier when the sharks weren’t around (which was seldom here).

June 26 – 29, 2012

We are calling this the Charlie’s Charts anchorage because it is the one that a very popular cruising guide book talks about.  It’s a very beautiful bay – not as breathtaking as the west anchorage, but there’s a lot to do as you’ll see in some of the next posts.

Sunrises are beautiful here.  I never thought I’d enjoy being up early this much!

And so you’ll get a lot of sunrise pictures…

And one of these days, we’ll try to get you a sunset picture or two as well.

June 26, 2012

I’ve had very little to do with my hair so far.  I leave it alone, it leaves me alone.  I haven’t used a comb or a brush even once since we left California (thanks Nikki for the great haircut).  The beard got to be a problem though as I was getting quite a bit of mustache with my pizza and no diving mask would seal to that hairy face.  It must be trimmed!

But how do I trim it without covering the boat in hair?  Answer: go to a little private motu (tiny island) in the south end of Fakarava, take my beard trimmer and a mirror, and hack away.  The problem was that the battery seems to have gone bad in my trimmer and it only made it half way through the job.  That wasn’t a pretty site.  I finished the job after a quick recharge back at the boat, sitting in the dingy.  The most mundane things can become quite a challenge out here.  I know, I know, you wish you had my problems! -Rich