July 2016

Hello everyone,

Hello everybody,
So many times during the past two years we've imagined our return to the Tuamotu archipelago, and here we are at last ! It's true that in Australia, New Zealand and other islands in the western Pacific, notwitstanding the numerous wonders we find in them, it was impossible not to think about the crystal clear waters, the anchorages as flat as lakes, the incredibly intense blue of the sky over the motu, the low islets of the Tuamotus; so we have returned to our favorite achipelago, tying up to the quay of Fakarava just long enough to say hello to our friends, to show Vaimiti and Stephane another corner of Paradise, the gamous "Green Lagoon", a labyrinth of shallow basins that one can visit only on the rare occurences when the wind veers to northwest; a quick visit to Raraka and Kauehi, then I moored Banana Split in front of Rotoava village, my crew has taken the small plane to Tahiti, and me too, a few days later, for a short stay, and the shooting of a cameo in a film adapted from a novel by famous French writer Patrice Guirao, where I play the part of... a guy who dreams of living my life !

Then Francette arrived from Paris, and we stocked up in large quantities, loaded about 500 pounds of stores on the Air Tahiti Flight that took us back to Fakarava, carried all this stuff onto the boat, and without waiting any more, we headed for our favorite anchoring spots, with a quick salute on our way to famous French diver and biologist Laurent Ballesta, who had come one more time to study the mating season (20 minutes in all !) of the 18000 groupers that gather in Fakarava's pass Tetamanu; one of his photographs, superb, will be featured in the photo album Gallimard will publish in october.

A day's sail, and we've reached at sundown the pass we now know very well; the morning after, we've headed for our "anchoring spot number one" , where we are presently moored to two coconut trees. Periods of bad weather had ran havoc on the beach, but it didn't take us long to clear the spot where we enjoy our sunny "pastis" drink every noontime, and it is from this blessed place that we send you our wishes for a great summer holiday, and we give you rendez-vous on september 1st !