February 2008 2008

Hello everyone,

Here are a few snapshots of this month of January :
- A short visit to Bird Islet, to watch the fairy tern hatching their egg : they do not bother building a nest, they just lay their lone egg on a branch (or, at best, at the fork of a small tree), and they hatch it there.. I wonder how they manage not to make it fall to the ground before it hatches...
-Impossible to get tired of photographing two of the most beautiful views I have ever seen , both on Akamaru island, where I spend most of my time : the northern bay, seen from Mekiro, with its astounding coral heads, so clearly visible on the white sand bottom; and the bay of Tokani, made practically inaccessible by an immense extent of corals.. But once we are inside, what a spectacular anchorage!

A surprise visit, in Rikitea, capital of the Gambier, by famous French sailor Olivier de Kersauson. He has stopped racing around the world to travel on a large power trimaran, Ocean Alchemist, on which he follows the route of French explorer La Pérouse, for French TV channel Planète Thalassa. Together we have mourned the passing of a common friend, French singer Carlos, who must now be singing his joyful songs in Paradise.

- a few days In the small, very shallow lagoon of Taravai; I had entered it 20 years ago onboard my small sloop Voyage, and feared my catamaran's width would not let me negotiate the narrow pass.. I managed to enter, and I took the opportunity to install two more solar panels bought from a sailing friend who has settled on the island. I have also loaded the boat with all sorts of fruit, bananas, papaya, lemon, pumpkin, avocadoes, grapefruit, mint, all growing in the wild. On Akamaru, in the jungle, behind the ruins of a few houses that have been abandoned for more than a century, we have even found a few mango trees.
-and then a lot of work to do, as we work on the editing and authoring of our next three HD documentaries, about New Caledonia, Austral Africa and Polynesia; plus reshaping entirely our website, and proofreading again and again the second volume of my autobiography... Not much time left for hanging inside a hammock!
I wish you all a wonderful February