Flyin' High

Hi everyone. Sorry that I haven't written in so long, but we arrived in the
Tuamotus a few days ago, making our passage 2 days long. The first Tuamotu
that we went to was called Makemo. It was one of the bigger atolls, with a
width of 40 miles. Oh, so if you are wondering, an atoll is basically a reef
that surrounds a big lagoon. A long time ago, there was a big, mountainous
island where the lagoon is now, but slowly, the island sank into the water.
Anyways, we stayed there for a while and met some new people on a boat named
Migration. They were a really nice couple, and the guy, Bruce Balan, is the
writer of one of my favorite books, Buoy! It was so cool to be able to talk
with a children's book writer! Well, they have been in the Tuamotus for a
few seasons now and were heading backwards to the Marquises. A day after
they left, our friends on the boat Tigre, who we met in Grenada, arrived
from the Galapagos. We hung out with the girls for a few days before leaving
yesterday. Now we are motoring to the main atoll called Fakarava. I'm not
sure how big it is, but I know that it is the main port for ships and other
big cargo boats to go. Fakarava is also known for its amazing diving, so
Daddy and I plan to dive there in a few days. Anyways, we left the main
anchorage in Makemo yesterday and motored up the lagoon to an anchorage
closer to the pass. While sailing through the lagoon, though, you have to be
very careful. There are little reefs that will pop up out of nowhere if you
aren't careful. So I got the idea of going up the mast to look for the
'coral heads'. It was really fun. I got out the bosons chair and Daddy
lifted me up just below the spreaders (spreaders are poles that come out of
the mast). Cole wanted to come up too, so he got out the air chair and Daddy
pulled him up right next to me. We had lots of fun looking for coral heads
and swinging around the mast. It felt like flying. So soon we arrived in the
anchorage and decided to stay the night there and then leave the next day at
2 PM. So today at 2 we picked up anchor and headed for the pass. This time I
went up the mast again, but using the air chair which is more comfortable.
Since the sun was directly in our face it was hard to see the coral heads,
but luckily we made it to open water without hitting anything. When we got
to the pass the water was at high slack, meaning it was just hitting the
highest of high tides and there wasn't much of a current. Although there
wasn't big waves, I was moving around more than I was comfortable with up so
high and was glad when Daddy brought me down. The pass was very easy and
followed what the charts said to the inch. What a relief! Well, I'm going to
go to bed so that I can be up early tomorrow morning. Bye!

PS. I heard that it was 90 degrees in RI....that's an easy 10 degrees hotter
than it is here!