Maupiha mission
After an awesome week in Bora-Bora, we decided to clear immigration for departure from French Polynesia as it was the last harbour with officials. We knew there was not going to be many more places to buy food before the longer crossings, so we decided to buy more provisions and fuel. We then pulled anchor and sailed 150 miles to Maupiha atoll, the furthest island west from French Polynesia.
There was about 20 people living on the atoll and it was incredible how unexplored this place was compared with the other islands of French Polynesia. It was really inaccessible even by sail boats, as the pass to enter the atoll is extremely narrow and the current very strong, reaching sometimes over 7 knots depending on the swell size. It was very tense for us to enter the pass as our boat was 10 metres wide and the channel only 18 meters wide, so not much room for mistakes, especially with the strong current. Once inside the lagoon, it was like travelling back in time, we met a local family living there and their younger son, Hio, showed us how they lived self sufficiently for so long without having to depend on supplies that come by boat once a month or the bigger boat that shows up every 8 months to collect the copra (sundried coconut to make oil), one of their unique options of work. He showed us how they collect rainwater, garden, farm chickens and fishing techniques. What impressed us the most but was the amount of coconut trees that we saw underwater, hundreds of metres from land and a result of the cyclone 10 years ago. Many islanders moved from the atoll after losing all. Now they keep planting new coconut trees to recover the island and supply them with water and food. But we also discovered that there was another animal that was happy about the new coconut trees being planted, the famous coconut crab. It was Nana’s dream to see the biggest terrestrial crustacean of the world and to her surprise, Hio captured a coconut crab so we could see it up close, as they are difficult to find during day light being nocturnal creatures.