We have come to treasure making new friends with local people. For example, several new friends (French cruisers) told us to go to Apataki atoll, and to go to a certain spot on the far side of the lagoon and anchor by"Assam's pearl farm". We have no chart of this atoll, but the pass was in the guidebook. We arrived early in the morning, and waited for slack tide while Dylan scouted the pass in the dinghy. Once inside, and with excellent light, we made our way to the designated waypoint.

After we anchored and got settled, we went ashore with gifts of fresh bread and limes. Assam (real name Ah Samg) and his wife Mami greeted us warmly and suddenly we were part of the family! We received a tour of their property, including the chicken coops (they supply the local village of 200 people with eggs), the vanilla crops (prices are up due to bad weather in Madagascar), the pigpens, and a visit to see their pet nurse sharks. They have two, which swim freely in the lagoon but come up to shore to be hand fed. We were actually able to pet them on the head! Then we were their guests for lunch (stewed duck with orange sauce, rice, and poisson cru made with freshly caught trigger fish, coconut milk and the recently arrived limes!). Then we were invited for dinner (coconut crab, the sweetest meat we've ever tasted, roasted mahi-mahi, salad, and coconut bread made from the spongy interior of a coconut that has just put down roots and sprouted). And then the next night too (chicken roasted over smoldering coconut husks, delicious homemade barbecue sauce, more roasted fish, and pommes frites). One night we were surprised by a lunar eclipse!

Over the next few days, they dined with us several times, we repaired a pump for them, we went fishing with them (hand lines with land crab meat on the hooks - caught 30 fish in less than an hour). We also visited their pearl farm, including a stop at their 'shell hotel' where they grow the young oysters. Once the shells are three years old, they are implanted with a nucleus, what looks like a marble (varying sizes) but is actually a piece of polished shell from a river mussel found only in the Mississippi River. Only 30% produce a pearl, and only 2% of all the pearls harvested are perfect. Our few days with them were like a competition in generosity. We told them that we wanted to move in with them and stay forever - they said No Problem! They became true friends and family.

It was sad to leave our new friends, but we finally picked up the anchor and carried on with our journey.