1/70: Some tacking was necessary to reach Tahanea, 300 miles east of Tahiti.
2/70: Crossing the lagoon means eyeball navigation.
3/70: Fortunately the coral heads gleam from afar on sunny days.
4/70: An islet in the middle of the lagoon.
10/70: We use fenders to float our chain above the coral heads.
11/70: Using the shade of a hut fishermen use from time to time for a small paint job.
13/70: No sandy beaches on the motus in the north, just coral chunks and gravel.
15/70: Strawberry Hermit crabs
16/70: Preparing bait for hunting ...
17/70: ... Coconut Crabs. This one is too small for the pot.
18/70: Our French neighbours got lobsters from visiting local fishermen and invited us over.
19/70: The outer reef in the North is high enough to withstand the forces of the ocean, but it is relatively narrow (about 300m including the motu), ...
20/70: ...whereas Tahanea's southern reef is lower (mostly awash) and much wider (more than a kilometer).
29/70: The weather can change quickly.
32/70: Leeloo had to get used to funny cat litter (once we accidentally included small hermit crabs).
33/70: Cocktail ingredient.
37/70: Going for a walk ;-)
43/70: A nurse shark. The next day we watched a nurse shark couple at its mating ritual here.
46/70: Octopus in the shallow water of the outer reef. It needed 25 pictures to get one before he camouflaged. He was lucky we're not French, so he didn't end up as dinner.
47/70: Humpback whale mom with her baby.
48/70: What a fluffy ball. Baby Booby.
49/70: Brown Booby (white-belly variant)
51/70: Nesting Red-Footed Booby.
52/70: Bristle-thighed Curlew. Migrating bird who flies to Alaska for nesting.
53/70: A Masked Booby nesting on the ground.
54/70: Tuamotu Sandpiper. The rings on his legs indicate a recent study.
69/70: Waiting for perfect passage conditions we delayed our departure and we were rewarded with a few more magic days in the South.
