August 2002

Hello everyone,

Imagine a basin filled with about four inches of turquoise blue water ; it's the Pacific Ocean, and these four inches represent the 2 to 5 miles of the marine depths common throughout the ocean. Imagine you rest at the bottom of the basin a few cylindrical glasses, theirs rims being level with the water surface : glasses with a crystal-thin wall, but with a very thick bottom, like those often used to serve whisky ; each one of these glasses, filled to the rim with the same crystal clear water, represents an atoll, and the thinness of the glass's rim, the narrowness of the emerging strip, are faithful representations of the thin coral rim of an atoll, sometimes topped with a few islets.
Imagine that these glasses have such a thick bottom that there is room inside them for only a quarter inch of water (in reality, about 100 ft). Then picture yourself sailing outside of an atoll, with your small sailboat shaken by the ocean waves. When you look over the barrier reef, you see that the atoll's interior is perfectly, ideally calm, all wave motion stopped by the reefs... and you yearn so badly for the inaccessible peace of this calm lagoon.

Fortunately, in some atolls, the glass's rim is slightly notched in one or several places. The notches are passes, which you cross with precaution, to enter one of those so well protected places.

When I reluctantly left the Gambier islands, I did not remember the Tuamotu were so perfect. My first atoll, Amanu, has given me a few days of absolute peace and smoothness, anchored in the lee of an islet bordered with improbably shaped coral heads, as round as birthday cakes, and that seemed to float on the lagoon's blue water; The natives of Amanu, how strange, spoke Italian.. because they regularly watched on television a Brazilian series supposed to take place in Italy, and the young girls would call to me "Amore mio ".

In Makemo atoll, to drink the fresh water of green coconuts, I used again the old trick a clever sailing friend has taught me fifteen years ago : instead of tiringly slashing through the nut's thick husk, who could imagine simpler than...an electric drill, preferably a rechargeable one, and a drinking straw !
In Fakarava, on a beautiful deserted beach, I had the surprise - it's a small world indeed - to stumble upon a long time lady friend, Catherine Domain, a well-known Paris' librarian : her bookstore "Ulysse", very famous among travellers, is located in wonderful Île Saint Louis, a History-rich island on the river Seine, in the heart of Paris.

In Tahanea and Toau, each anchorage was more scenic than the previous one; I could easily have stayed a few months there as well.. But it's almost time I fly back to France, in September, so it was time to get closer to Tahiti, which I have done, straddling a strong southerly swell that exploded thundering waves on the coral barrier. For this long awaited meeting with Tahiti, (it's my fourth sailing visit here in 25 years), I chose to make my first stops at the east end of the "Presqu'île", the Tahiti's Peninsula, the island's wildest part, which no road reaches. And that was very wise, for the vision of the verdant mountains and the tall waterfalls falling from the cliffs have certainly not changed much since the first visits of Cook and Bougainville.

It's from one of these quiet anchorages, in front of the Botanical Garden and Gauguin Museum that I send you this letter, with some of the island's sun (in this season, you probably have as much sun as I have, or more, do enjoy it !), and with a friendly salute.
Bye for now.