Mopelia

The sun rose in the East after an overnight leg from Bora Bora and we very soon came upon the ONLY atoll within the Society Islands of French Polynesia. We arrived at the pass of the lagoon, which is world renowned amongst the sailing fraternity as being 'way to small'. With a large following sea and a racing outgoing current we managed to end up safely within the confines of the secure and blissful atoll of MOPELIA. And what a pleasant choice it turned out to be!

This is the log from Vickis entry:

"We arrived in Maupihaa(Mopelia) on Tuesday morning, August 26. This is the only 'atoll' in the 'Society Islands'. In other words, it is similar to the Tuamotus, since it is a lagoon surrounded by reef and motus (narrow islands), but no big island in the center. It used to be rarely visited by cruisers, but this year it seems to be very popular! Three things make it special here. The first is the pass into the lagoon. The scariest pass we have ever encountered! It is only about 45 - 60 feet wide (though the cruising books claim it is 90', our new local Tahitian friend says no- only 20 meters). The current flowing out was very strong, about seven knots when we came in and there were 'standing waves' right at the entrance. Definitely very dangerous if you make a mistake or have an engine failure, but we carefully made it in without any problems.
The second special thing is that there are only ten people living here. We have met the friendliest family - Kalami and Sophie and their adopted son Tetianui. They are planning a big feast for us this weekend. Kalami gave us five lobsters yesterday and a dozen fresh tern eggs, which we have been eating for breakfast. He also took the guys spearfishing outside the pass by a wreck of a German gunboat from 1915. Dylan got a large trevaly. The strange thing is that we are communicating with Kalami and Sophie in French! It is a second language for them as well, but they do much better than we do!"

As you can see we were welcomed immediately, like family, by Kalami and Sophie who spoilt us throughout our stay within there wonderful world. We shared so many good times with them including, spear fishing at the only pass the atoll possesses, eating freshly caught turtle steaks, sharing in their collection of tern eggs (which were absolutely fabulous) and spending an evening or two eating lobsters under the warm starry evenings with an accompaniement of guitar and Ukelele!

The atoll is home to the wreck of the pirating See Adler (1916), which careened and then sank when bad weather arrived later, on the outskirts of the pass! Still today some remains are visible in the shallow clear waters of the passing Pacific! Many reef sharks abound and as they are so plentiful it was naturaly accepted that we eat some. Mike on board NIN caught a blacktip and we, together with the rest of the yachties there, enjoyed a night on the beach with a bonfire and reef shark as mains!

Our time in Mopelia was whisked away from us whilst we lapsed up the sunny days and the warm nights. The blue waters always ready and inviting, willing to host you anytime of the day or night! Beautiful sand beaches with thousands of terns and plenty of parrotfish and blue jack too! Dylan went with Kalami on one occasion and shot a nice size jack which was grilled to perfection on the BBQ at the beach! It was good fun!

We have had some wonderful new experiences. We finally learned how to harvest our own 'hearts of palm'. It is a lot of work, but the stuff is sooooo yummy! The kind that you buy in cans is from a different type of palm. What we did (learned how to do) was locate a coconut palm that is still young, just starting to develop a trunk, and one that is in an overcrowded area, thus it's demise will benefit the growth of the other trees in that spot. Then you basically cut the tree down, chop it up, and take the 'heart' from the growing core section. Depending on the tree, the heart can weight 10 to 20 pounds. It is so sweet and crunchy!

Last weekend, there were 12 boats here, by far a record for this atoll. (Kalami has lived here for over twenty years). So he invited everyone, almost 40 people!, for a feast of fresh lobster, which he harvested himself (over 60!) in one night. Everyone brought some food to contribute, and we had music and singing. It was marvelous!