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Friday, June 11, 2010

Greetings from Paumotu

Friday, June 10. 2010
 Paumotu are the people of the Tuamotus. After an uneventful 515mi sail from Nuku Hiva to Makemo, we spent an uneventful week in the Makemo atoll. There's several hundred people there in a well kept village. However, there is a huge overpopulation of dogs, and it's a tragic situation.
 It was overcast and showery up to today, so we didn't do much snorkelling. However, exiting through the little known NW pass in bright midday sun, we could see the dazzling coral garden below.
We spent the last two days slowly and painstakingly slow motoring from one end of the atoll to the other. There are many coral heads and pearl farm strings, so great care, low speed and constant bow watch is required. We made it without incident. We didn't see another soul for days, and very few structures. We really felt far away from everything. However, once you get out on the sea and can see several other atolls around, even though we haven't seen any other boats, we get the sense there are people around, somewhere. The sun set tonight at 5pm.
We're en route motoring to Fakarava in the calmest seas since Puget Sound. We expect to arrive early tomorrow morning. This last week, we saw the most rain since Puget Sound. It was great, though. We collected lots of rainwater to use lavishly for washing.
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