February 11 – Jeudi – Tiputa, Rangiroa

Reflections on spear fishing.

For us from the higher latitudes and areas with really productive coastal waters, it seems implausible that fishing with spears could be a significant or effective means to collect fish. And I suppose if you take an industrial trawler with a crew of six and compare the amount of fish caught per person per unit time, the spear fishing effort looks modest at best. But then again, a coral reef is a very different kind of place to fish. The nature of the corals themselves make using a piece of gear contacting the bottom a hazardous enterprise at best – nets will snag and tear unless set by hand. Another large difference is the fish. Their diversity is tremendous, and while some species are pretty easy to catch by hook, others can be all but impossible. And they all taste different, so if you really want to eat, say, Oiri (Triggerfish), the most effective way to go get it actually is by spear.

And the quantities caught are not necessarily that modest either. I interviewed one professional fisherman in Rangiroa who reported catching around 90 Parai (a species of surgeonfish) per week for the local hotel. Given that these fish can reach two or more kg (5 pounds) in weight, the weekly catch can easily exceed 400 pounds and the monthly catch is likely well over half a ton of this one fish. By one fisherman. Multiply this by some tens of people in Tiputa and Avatoru, and the amounts start to become pretty significant.

So the pluses are these: you get to select exactly what you want to catch and your equipment investment is very small (spear gun, mask, snorkel, fins, plastic tote, a knife). The downside is you better like being in the water. And you better start early, because the kind of skill I see these people exhibit comes only with childhood conditioning and training.

Is spear fishing a traditional technique of fishing, though? I’ve been trying to get some answers about how long the current form with the rubber strap powered guns (pupuhi) has been around here, and how much it differed from the preceding method. The answers I’ve been getting from people in their 60’s and 70’s is pretty consistent among the islands. The preceding technique employed a spear called patia, some 2.5 meters long over all. The first two meters was a wooden handle constructed from Puru or Aito trees, and the last 50 cm was the barbed steel spear. The reach of this weapon would have been about two meters plus the length of the arm thrust used to deliver it to the target. The transition between the two occurred sometime between 1965 and 1970, almost simultaneously on all the islands I have visited.

It is useful to think about the advantages of the modern pupuhi over patia. The velocity of the spear (auri) delivered from pupuhi is faster than the fish escape response, and the reach of the weapon is much higher – up to 5 meters or so. To put it in practical terms, even I can catch a fish with pupuhi. Toss in the outboard motor and the ability to range further faster, the game has changed dramatically since the late 60’s on the spear fishing front. To a person, the current generation of spear fishermen does not think it possible to catch fish with patia today. This is an interesting measure of the number of possible changes.

Perhaps fish behavior has changed. I’m not an expert in this field and so don’t know how likely this is. Certainly fish learn, but often their curiosity brings them to within range of the pupuhi so any change certainly hasn’t been universal. Then again it seems from my casual observations that places with the most fishing effort also has the most easily spooked fish. Why would patia fishing not have had the same effect on fish? The sound of the spear?

Maybe the current generation of fishermen are just softer, slower or less talented than the people of old. This seems unlikely. Certainly they are trained in and used to the modern technique, but it seems really unlikely to me that they could have much success with the patia however skilled they were in its use in the environment they are fishing. What much success means here is completely open to question; perhaps in the days of old you went fishing and didn’t expect to catch anything necessarily, whereas today the expectation is to come home with a whole pile of fish. It would be really interesting to put a patia in the hands of a good spear fisherman for a month and see what happens!

What all the fishermen seem to agree on is that there is less fish. Some blame scuba divers and the resulting bubbles, some blame global warming, some blame themselves. My working hypothesis is that there is just less fish and the ones that are there are smaller, so the nature of the problem is likely the lack of suitable targets to hit with a patia.

And finally, how traditional a way of fishing is the use of the patia? Without a mask, hitting a fish underwater seems impossible, so this method is likely no older than pearl diving, introduced sometime in the mid 1800’s (I’ll check this date – a bit unsure of it) with the use of glass-faced underwater goggles. We do know that spears have been in use for much longer, used for fish in the shallow back reefs where you can hit them from the surface. There are many written accounts of this fishing technique in the post European contact period, and there is a long archaeological record of spear tips from all around the Polynesian islands.

That is probably enough on this topic. Just a sample of the kinds of things I’ve been thinking about.

February 10 – Mardi – Tiputa, Rangiroa

It has been a busy and productive three days! Hérvé and I are getting along famously, his house is a very comfortable place and I’m rather smitten with the village of Tiputa. There is a school in the village that serves the northern Tuamotu region, which means there are a lot of young people around. Right around the corner from the Mairie (municipal offices) and next to the school is the sports center, a roofed structure used for volleyball and footsal. For the uninitiated, footsal is a variant of soccer adapted for indoor play on smaller fields and with five players, popular enough around the world to have its own world cup. The local league is busy and I go watch a couple of highly entertaining games. There are stands, and these games are definitely events in Tiputa, complete with outdoor concession offerings and vocal audience participation.

I am getting the hang of spear fishing - we’ve been going out every day since I got here. Or so I though before today, before Hérvé announced we were going to fish the incoming current right at the mouth of the pass. Now, he didn’t mean the peak current but the period of slack water between the tides and the hour immediately following it – this gives me some comfort and indicates he is not totally crazy, as the lagoon of Rangiroa is huge and not a place I want to get swept out to either. Ok, so I’m willing to try, as this is something that is completely normal to these folks (ie. return from fishing is expected as a matter of course), and I don’t want to appear a complete wuss.




We go to the entry spot well ahead of time, as he wants to introduce me to his uncle and a friend, both by his description fishermen and artisans. I am curious, and get even more so as we approach a low thatched hut overlooking the mouth of the pass. Emanating from within is the sound of a duet between a didgeridoo and a nose flute, and as we duck in to the hut my eyes take in the sight of this magnificent rasta guy sitting on a low stool by a pile of woodchips blowing into his didgeridoo. The sound of the nose flute comes from another corner where another sagely looking man is totally engrossed in producing the notes. Eventually they notice us and a round of welcomes ensues. My few words of Tahitian create a favorable impression, and with Hérvé’s help I tell them about myself. They respond with an invitation to join them the next day for some fishing with a net right in front of the hut. It appears that the lunar cycle is right for fishing for a certain kind of parrotfish on the shallow reef and that these gentlemen are the only ones using a net on the shallow reef in Tiputa at the present. I am grateful for the opportunity.

At this point I should probably explain a bit about the terrain. The crest of the reef on the seaward side rings the island some 50-100 meters distant. Between the shallow crest (out of the water during low tide) and the island is a very shallow back reef environment that is a distinct habitat from the steep slope of the fore reef. Only about a meter or so deep, the back reef receives a continuous and massive flow of water from the swell that breaks over the reef crest and spills landward. This water must go someplace, and those places are mostly the shallow breaks between the motus. At the pass, the reef crest rounds the corners of the islands forming the pass and runs for a bit toward the center of the atoll, parallel to the pass. At about a third of the way in the reef closes in with the island, and at this point all the water piling in due to the surf up front spills into the pass. It is this back reef environment as it curves into the pass that we’ll fish tomorrow. Today Hérvé and I are going to fish the outer edge of the reef.


Ok, so I’m a bit nervous as we enter the water. Hérvé guides our progress across the back reef to the edge where several things are happening. Though we are a bit inside the pass, some of the surf still gets in and you don’t really want to be surprised by it. Another thing is that the back reef water is starting to spill into the pass. And then there is the fact that we are standing at the edge of the vertical fore reef slope. Hérvé pauses here in the waist-deep water, observes the current for some 5 minutes while I hang on as the occasional swell breaks around us. He pronounces things to be OK, we quickly pull on our fins and masks and fall forward into the blue.





If you have ever observed a front loading washing machine in action and wondered how it would feel to be inside – well I’ve got some insight. The water pouring into the pass from the back reef makes it necessary to keep swimming toward the reef crest. Get too close, and the occasional swell picks you up for a frothy ride right to the top of the reef crest. There are a lot of small air bubbles continually churned in at the top limiting visibility, so I keep losing sight of Hérvé. Eventually I figure it out, and just try to stay below the surface where the incoming ocean water is completely clear and the visibility is great. I am towing the tub, and since this is the sharkiest of the places in the pass, try to stick as close as I can to Hérvé to minimize his need to swim around with bleeding, speared fish.



He does his usual – with minimum fuss glides gracefully down the steep edge, peeks around the ledges, lies on top of them in wait. And, needless to say, brings home the bacon. Paihere, Tapatai, Naenae and Honae (different species of Jacks) start piling into the box, and eventually I manage to relax and get busy with my camera. The visibility is phenomenal, and I follow Hérvé as far down as I can. There are fish aplenty here. I’m attracted to large schools of Manini and Aupapa that seem rather indifferent to my presence. It is not a great place for photography, though, as keeping station without a lot of swimming is impossible, and swimming makes the camera move a lot. So eventually I just observe, observe Hérvé spear and the almost magical appearance of the sharks in the immediate aftermath. Today the only loss is to a very aggressive and large Oiri (Triggerfish) that manages to take three big bites out of the back of a large Tapatai as Hérvé surfaces towing it behind him at a shark-safe distance.


After an hour or so we head back toward our launching spot. However, conditions have changed with the speeding current and we have to let it carry us some 300 meters further down the pass to get out of the water. Not a problem, as Hérvé guides to his sister’s house on the water where we clean the fish and ourselves. He also demonstrates an interesting technique in fish cleaning on couple of small Naenae: first you gut the fish, then pull the skin off. After skinning, make a number of cuts (to the bone) both laterally and vertically on both sides. What is created is a fish ready for some lime juice, a bit of salt and perhaps some miti ha’arii (coconut milk) for a quick poisson cru on the run. Good stuff, too! At this point the afternoon has progressed to around 4:00 and we walk (ok, I stagger…) back to Hérvé’s house. All the young guys I see around are remarkably fit, and I am developing a keen understanding of exactly why this is. I’m looking forward to tomorrow and perhaps a bit more passive perch from which to observe the proceedings.

February 7 – Samedi – Tiputa, Rangiroa

Rangiroa is not all that far from Tahiti, only some 200 miles and a quick 40-minute flight away. The speed of the flight does not seem to allow for sufficient time to adjust to the change in my circumstances, and I feel a bit apprehensive as I scan the small crowd of people waiting in the open hall of Rangiroa airfield for Hérvé. I have no clue how to recognize him, but I hope the brand new white Service de la Peche hat Estellio gave me as a parting gift will cue him in. The crowd thins quickly and, just as quickly, there is an inkling of recognition as I approach a tall guy who seems to be in his early thirties or so. An exchange of names follows and Hérvé leads me to a white minibus with “Commune de Rangiroa” written on it.

During the brief 5 minute van ride I gaze at the blazing white coral, the intensely green palm trees and the equally absurdly blue ocean. I don’t really know what is going on, but after some conversation I understand that there is a Rangiroa municipal government meeting in progress, and that Hérvé needs to go back to it – seeing as he's an elected member from his village of Tiputa. We reach a modern-looking building compound, and I timidly follow him into an air-conditioned meeting room with some twenty representatives and the commune mayor, or Tavana, present. I take a seat along a wall and listen to a measured debate taking place around the large quadrangle of tables in the middle of the room. I do like the sound of Tahitian, I get the sense that words are selected carefully and spoken forcefully – a sense that oratory is cherished both by the speaker and the audience.

After some twenty minutes the meeting wraps up and I briefly shake hands with the Tavana as Hérvé introduces me to him - then off we go to the same minibus. The bus, you see, is the official transportation for representatives, and will take us all the way to the village of Tiputa. The single road leading eastward takes us to the Tiputa Pass that divides the village from the island, or motu, we are currently on. This is the fact of life on Rangiroa (and most other Tuamotu atolls as well). Though some 70km in length, the narrow rim of the coral reef that extends above surface and supports terrestrial life is broken up into many, many, dare I say many motus of varying sizes. Between the motus are passes, ranging in depth from a foot or two to 60 feet like that of the major Tiputa pass. More about these passes later – they are important in many ways.

At the pass we are met by a small utility ferry, the van drives on board, and we get door-to-door service to Hérvé’s house in the village. And a lovely house it is - a modern, airy, two bedroom abode Hérvé finished building just two years ago as he (very justly) proudly tells me while giving the welcome tour. The house is situated near the pass in the middle of a large coconut grove. In the late afternoon light the trees are a magnificent sight and, together with the distant surf beating on the outside beach of the island, give this place an instantly comfortable feel. I settle in as Hérvé sets the table for dinner - uncharacteristically not fish, but franks and beans. I soon find out that the pace of life in Tiputa follows a very natural rhythm of the sun. You get up with it (the approximately one million roosters in the village help should light cues not be enough), and the absence of it drives you to bed. We talk a bit into the evening, but at eight o’clock it seems perfectly natural to crawl into bed.

So the next morning it’s up at about 6:00. I follow Hérvé out of the house to go to his parents' house from which he is to take me on the very first fishing outing. The walk would be a short five minutes, or about as far as you can walk in Tiputa without running into water. Would be, but isn’t. Everyone knows everyone else (as you would expect in a village of 600 people), and Hérvé is someone to know. So, we stop numerous times to say hellos as he greets this uncle or that cousin. The atmosphere, the sights, the people, all this make me think that this is one seriously pleasant and charming place. Oh yes, and the stop at the magazin where we pick up the daily baguettes.

Eventually we make it to our destination, which is right on the water. Under a permanent awning is the year-round dining table/hangout spot where I meet Hérvé’s father and mother, his younger brother Mamia and his kid sister. Back to a fish and bread diet, we eat quickly as Hérvé and Mamia start gathering their spear fishing kit. I pick up a sharpening stone and sharpen a spear while they set up. Then we wait for the current in the pass to turn. You see, the current is everything. Why? Because there is such a humongous amount of it, that’s why. Well over six knots in speed at the peak, the outbound current is a seriously bad thing to enter as a swimmer. The outbound trip to the great blue yonder would be swift, the return leg uncertain at best. With a little sea running against the current, there are some incredibly large standing waves at the mouth of the pass through which a bunch of dolphins are leaping in a great display of marine mammal athleticism. Yes, to wait is good!

So we wait for about an hour, chatting about this and that. I learn some new Tahitian – opope is current, the lagoon is roto and tua is the ocean. Hence opope roto is the incoming current and opope tua is the outflowing current. We enter the water around 1:00 as the tide is turning and the current starts flowing back in. Heading toward the pass we move through two clearly different waters, with filaments of the warmer, more turbid lagoon water folding in and mixing with the incoming clear and cooler ocean water. The lagoon water is sticking closer to shore, while the ocean water is starting to pour in faster mid channel; it is the interface between the two where Hérvé and Mamia concentrate their efforts. The bottom is anywhere from 30 to 60 feet in depth, and in places barely visible from the surface.

One crucial difference between spear fishing in Tahiti and here is that here everyone is towing a floating plastic tote behind them, and I see five other buckets bobbing at the surface some ways from us. I volunteer to tow ours, and the utility of the bucket becomes abundantly clear very quickly. There are sharks. Lots of sharks. They are mostly the familiar reef Black-Tipped and White-Tipped variety with an occasional Grey mixed in. These are not big sharks, ranging from 4 to 6 feet in length and not at all interested in human size prey. But boy are they interested in the speared fish! They are just as adept at finding an injured fish as advertised, and the technique of not losing a) your fish and b) accidentally some body appendage to them involves surfacing while towing the spear - and the speared fish - at the end of the spear gun and the 10’ stout nylon line. The sharks stick to the bottom, and as soon as the prey is mid-water, the conflict is pretty much over.

The expedition takes about two hours, and the brothers pile about a dozen fish into the tote. They are far more active in their technique than Jean or Baby in Teahupoo. Because the water is deeper, they scan the bottom on descent for targets other than the ledge or group of fish they saw from the surface. Not so much creeping and lying in ambush here, this is more like a search. Sometimes they will wait for a particular group of fish to approach within range while lying on the bottom, but because of the depth they have less time at their disposal. And clearly they have a shopping list, a shopping list that overlooks a lot of what passes as desirable in Tahiti. The fish are bigger and more numerous, of this there is no doubt.

This catch is only for the family to eat, and they are content with the dozen in the tote. We head back toward the house some quarter mile distant. When we arrive, we set to cleaning the fish at the water's edge. I dutifully record the species and sizes of the fish, and, after the cleaning of fish, gear and selves, Hérvé puts an opened coconut in my hands for drinking. We sit around chatting, Hérvé and his family talking away in Tahitian, and I’m very content to sit back and listen in in a blissful post-long-swim stupor.

February 5 – Jeudi – Papeete

As quickly as it started, my stay in Teahupoo is now over. Back in Papeete and on the ship for just a day, the past week seems positively surreal contemplating it now with the ship as a very familiar backdrop. The last two days consisted of another spearfishing outing, a trip to the Taravao fish market and a farewell soiree at the parish house.

The spearfishing trip incluldes myself, Jean, Estelio and Baby Maoni, a many-time French and Pacific spearfishing champion now in his seventies. He is incredibly spry, though, and has absolutely no trouble keeping up with his protégé Jean on the fishing front. He has these friendly twinkling eyes, and though, again, there is no shared language, we hit it off very well. We take off on his boat, a small outboard-equipped Potimarara at around six in the morning, heading south inside the reef. The itinerary has a little sightseeing and more fishing in it, and we begin by following the reef further around the island than I’ve been before. The weather is indifferent with some squalls and occasional rain around, but this, with the early morning light just seems to intensify the greens and black of the steep mountain sides to our left.



There is a portion of the southernmost Tahitit Iti where the reef actually stops for a while, where there is no reef crest to offer protection from the swell and the waves served by the Southeasterly trades. Before we get to this rough batch, though, the reef turns into the island, and we must cross a very shallow, coral boulder-strewn bit of the waters, and Baby slows the boat down amidst the surf that is now breaking everywhere. These are his home waters and, given that no prayers have been uttered yet, I try to relax and enjoy the show. He picks one particularly large swell, guns the engine and we leap over some boulders that seem much too close to the surface in the clear water. I clutch the camera and eye the distance to the shore to scope for a feasible bailout plan, but soon regret my timidity as we are, predictably, safely through.



After inspecting the sheer cliff faces, a cave opening to the sea, and a small steep-sided and incredibly lush bay, we turn around and head back North toward the reef. Running the same roiling gauntlet we stop just beyond, anchor the boat with what seems a purely symbolic small hook, and enter the water. I follow Baby as he fishes the edge of the reef, but soon start losing sight of him as he effortlessly glides down past 30, 40 feet. Eventually I give up trying to follow him and, sticking closer to the reef crest, content myself with inspecting the shallower reef instead. We get back around midday and clean the fish and the gear. Afterwards I take a small walk around Teahupoo as this is really my last day here.

The last evening turns into another party, thrown in my honor! More dancing and eating is followed by some farewell words and a dozen shell and flower necklaces are hung around my neck. Leaving seems like a cruel form of punishment.

The next day Estellio drives me to Keitapu’s house where I spend a delightful day with him, his wife Hillary and their two young sons. Keitapu takes me spearfishing on the reef in front of his house, and we enter the water via stairs leading down the six-foot drop from his patio to the water. I have a Pupuhi (speargun), a search image for Parai (a species of surgeonfish we’re after), some quick instruction as what not to do with the spear and we’re off. With a speargun in my hand I realize I must look at the reef very differently than my usual rote. Lots of diving on the reef looking at corals has really trained my eye to take in the fish as these mobile things that flit in and out of one’s field of view. Now I try to follow them, anticipate their moves. We arrive at the sport Keitapu has in mind, a 20’ deep section of the reef shoaling quickly so I can see the underside of the breaking swell to my left. He gets off the first shot just ahead of me and…a hit. Then another. And another. Turns out he is really good at this. It also turns out I am not. After many, many shots I manage to score a hit, but even then the fish seems only perturbed by the event as the spear somehow pushes it out of the way.



The consolation is some encouraging words from Keitapu and a first-hand initiation into the fine points of reef fish tasting. While we clean them, he cuts little morsels off the fish and I start understanding the vast differences both in texture and taste between the different species. Keitapu has shot about a dozen fish - half Parai and the other half a careful selection to illustrate the differences. The dinner is a truly exquisite affair with the Parai served raw as Poisson Cru with some lime juice, jalapeño peppers, garlic and a hint of salt. Needless to say all ingredients save the salt are from their garden. The rest of the fish are gently steamed to preserve the taste and texture differences. This is followed with a copious quantity of fresh fruit as Keitapu and Hillary warn me of the veggieless and fruitless future awaiting me in the Tuamotus. Once again I go to bed feeling like the day contained simply too much to fit in a mere 24 hours.

And now back on the boat. I invited Estellio and everyone else to come and visit the SEA ship in Papeete, and he was able to come together with some of the family and friends. Seven people in all, Estellio’s extended cab pick-up is loaded with three bunches of bananas, breadfruit, a box of avocados, papayas and some limes. Their gift to the ship!

Tomorrow it is off to the airport and to Rangiroa. I am to stay with someone named Hérve in the village of Tiputa, which is about the sum total I know about the immediate future. This has been an amazing week on all fronts, but now it’s off to the Tuamotus!

February 1st – Dimanche – Teahupoo

On Tahitian hospitality.

I am writing this late in the evening of another amazing day. No fishing, no water-based adventures, but cultural immersion instead. Last night was the birthday of Gineta, my hostess here. Her family and friends gathered around to celebrate. Present were some thirty people - sisters, in-laws, friends, all with kids of varying ages. But before I get to that, I should describe the situation here a bit better.

My hosts are Estellio and Gineta, a couple in their late forties/early fifties. They have three kids, and formally live in the town of Taravao about a fifteen minute drive away. Estellio works for the Service de Peche (fisheries service), and has generously promised to both arrange for housing and some contacts with the local fishing community. Gineta does all the cooking and together they take care of the Parish House. Indeed it was Estellio who largely built this house and, because of the small size of the congregation (only some six families), has somewhat the run of it. He prefers this place to his house in Taravao in that it is directly on the water in a setting reminiscent of his home on the atoll of Rangiroa. And after being here a couple of days I can only concur – this is a very nice little corner of paradise. Together they maintain the kitchen, work the orchards around the church, and generally keep the place up.

Since I arrived there has been a steady stream of friends coming and hanging out during the afternoon hours. Jean, the spear fisherman, and his wife Joana are here quite a bit as are cousin Louisa and her husband, the deacon Ernest. You put these six people around a table and what follows is much hilarity. I understand absolutely none of the rapid flow of Frehitian (French and Tahitian mixed evenly), but the peals of laughter are enough to bring a smile to my face. Everyone seems absolutely nonplussed by the presence of this strange person in their circle, and I quickly relax and am content to try to snatch a few words of the conversation here and there.

Right, and I should mention that Jean and Joana are complete Elvis nuts. I mean name-your-son-Elvis kind of Elvis nuts. Jean apparently in earlier life wore his hair Elvis style, and can do a mean Elvis air guitar complete with the moves. Why do I tell you this? Because the substantial boom box in the corner churns out a continuous soundtrack of Elvis. Elvis on infinite repeat. And not the young Elvis either I’m afraid, but the worst excesses of the Fat Elvis during the darkest moments of his Las Vegas career. I hope not to offend anyone by saying this, but a drug overdose seems like the next logical step for what pours out of the speakers. The juxtaposition of this and the life and people around me is something to behold.

Moving on, however, to the birthday soirée. The spread of the table was as lavish as it was broad in scope. The modern Tahitian family is a mélange of Polynesia and Europe, and accordingly on the table is everything from a potato salad to traditional Paumotu-style grilled fish. Potato salad being fairly familiar to us all, let me describe the traditional Tahitian end of the menu. The staples are uru (breadfruit), taro, various fish, coconut milk and, more recent additions, corned beef and baguette. The uru is roasted whole over a fire, peeled and served in chunks from which you break a piece of your liking with your fingers. Taro is boiled, with the coconut milk poured over everything on the plate. By the way, there are various kinds of coconut milk, none of which bear much resemblance to the Thai-style product found canned in American supermarkets. One variety is prepared fresh, tonight by the teenage girls. A fresh coconut is split and grated, the resulting pulp then squeezed through a cheesecloth to yield the product. It is lighter both in consistency and taste from the Thai variety. Another style is fermented for a few days and kept refrigerated, having a slightly tangy taste.

The fish. Where to begin? Prepared every imaginable way from completely raw with a bit of salt and lime juice to being tossed on the fire whole and turned until appropriately charred on both sides. In the case of Oiri, a species of trigger fish, the raw liver is inserted under the charred skin just before cooking is finished, the oily liver melting into the flesh for some extra flavor. Some fish are just tossed into the pot and boiled, others steamed, but in no case are any particular spices inserted into the cooking process.

Perhaps the most peculiar of these dishes is Fafaru. You start with some small fish, even lobster, which you place in a jar with some seawater. You then leave this jar sitting around sealed for four to five days – and did I mention the contents are dead at this time? You then carefully open the container and decant the liquid portion, this being the product (part A) of the process. Only then do you secure a perfectly good parrot fish (Uhu), tuna (Ahe), trevally (Paihere), or any other fish you might have on hand at the time. You then skin the fresh fish, fillet it into bite size morsels and pour part A liberally over the pile of it. Let the two mellow for few hours and…eat. Yes, I have tried it and yes, it does taste just as revolting as it sounds. Mind over matter, however, and if you avoid breathing and concentrate on Elvis crooning Moody Blue in the background you quickly realize that there are worse things in the world. I submit that this dish truly is one of the Kings of the Land of Acquired Tastes.

Overall Tahitian food is uncomplicated with subtle flavors coming wholly from the ingredients themselves rather than added spices or sauces. Provided you like fish it is really very good!

After dinner follows a performance. The young women of the family come out one after another to perform the classic Tahitian hula, complete with wreaths of flowers and colorful, not-too-covering dress. The dance is clearly and deeply part of this culture, yet I still find myself startled by the sensuality of the dance in this setting of family and friends. Clearly this is not Kansas, where a 16-year old girl would probably find herself grounded for a month should her parents see her perform a dance like this! The party goes on in a rather mellow way until about midnight as people drift off, leaving me eventually listening to the surf and the echoes of the mournful voice of Elvis still bouncing inside my head.

Sunday we go to church, where the priest does me the courtesy of saying a few introductory words and a summary of the sermon in English. Once again the generosity and hospitality shines through as after the service I am ushered to the head of the table, taking precedence even over the priest. He sits to my right and speaks very good English. We speak about modern Tahiti and the political troubles brewing in the Polynesian Assembly. After the breakfast preparations commence for an afternoon traditional family lunch/dinner, and I am ushered out the door with Louisa on an errand to do, well, I’m not sure exactly what, but options seem limited so I go along.

See, Louisa and I do not really have a common language. I mean there is a ton of good will and a real desire on my part to learn Tahitian, the intensity of which is only exceeded by Louisa’s determination to have me speaking fluently by the time we get back. Accordingly, she points out every plant on the roadside and loudly repeats the Tahitian name of each twice before moving on to the next plant we flash by in the car. I try to make the most of the opportunity by repeating each name twice, but the situation is utterly hopeless and my head soon swims with a cloud of syllables disconnected from each other; never mind of any particular meaning. My fallback position is the grin-and-nod routine. And grin I do, until it hurts. And eventually all the defenses and the verbal person gives way to a more primal grunting and pointing animal, and we establish some level of communication on this more limited plane.

So I get a tour of Taravao and its environs, the local schools, waterfalls, picnic spots, neighbors and relatives houses until I’m anxiously glancing at my watch as the hour draws past midday. We go to Louisa’s house to get some coconuts and mangoes, then to her daughter’s house to get some Taro and some other places for flowers and eventually I am emphatically pointing at my watch that now points at two o’clock. I get my point across and we get back to Teahupoo where Louisa is met with some reproachful looks from all the gathered family. Everyone has arrived, and much of the food is on the table; people had started worrying. I feel both mollified and indignant.

What follows is an eight-hour eating, drinking (not to excess), hanging out session during which I have time to talk to lots of people about, well, everything and anything. Lots of people want to hear about Obama. Some teenagers want to talk about the environment and their worries about Tahiti. Some people tell me about their relatives in LA and Hawaii. I hear about Jean’s older brother who went to Hollywood with the film crew of the Marlon Brando movie Mutiny on the Bounty some forty years ago as a very young man and had a career there. More dancing and eating until around eight o'clock people start drifting off and by 10:00 the place is silent. I sit up for a while listening to the surf on the reef and watching the lightning from a passing storm. Language may be an issue, but these people can certainly make one feel comfortable and at home.

January 31st – Samedi – Teahupoo

I am hanging on for dear life. My hands squeeze a wooden handle at the back of the very forward cockpit of a Potimarara, a boat built for harpooning Mahi Mahi (dolphin fish). The boat is some 24 feet in length, and equipped with a deep-V bottom and a 200hp Yanmar inboard/outboard diesel. It is leaping off a six foot wave to catch the next one. Water sprays outward in an impressive fan, but the boat has proven remarkably dry inside so far. Driving the boat in the peculiar stand-up steering well at the bow of the boat is Eric, a very deeply tanned muscular fellow looking very much the part of a Mahi-harpooning Tahitian boat captain. I have yet to really understand what Mahi Mahi harpooning really means, in practice, but by the whistle of the turbocharged engine growing more urgent and the boat positively jumping forward in hard acceleration, I have a feeling I’ll soon find out.

Some two hours earlier, around six o’clock, I boarded the boat at the local marina where the fisherman’s co-op has an ice-making plant and fueling station. Eric’s Potimarara is basically an open boat with the engine compartment aft and a large built-in ice box midships. The steering station is all the way forward, with a throttle next to the well and an eight-foot long fiberglass harpoon mounted on brackets on the forward deck. Steering takes place using an athwartships (left-right) lever instead of a wheel. Brilliant orange and yellow in color, the boat is in a good shape and very clean. Billabong surfing stickers adorn the sides and some other surfaces, overall the impression is of a hard used but well cared-for and loved tough piece of sea-going equipment.

After taking in some 60 gallons of diesel and four large sacks of ice stowed in the icebox, we proceeded down the channel inside the reef toward Eric’s house to drop off his wife. They live past Teahupoo in an area of Tahiti Iti with no road access. Some twenty homes dot the shoreline, connected to schools, shopping, etc by boats only. This looks like a very, very nice place to live. The mountains begin pretty much on the back stairs of the houses, the front yard is the lagoon behind the reef and the white picket fence is the surf beating on the reef some 200 meters distant.

We arrive at Eric’s house and dock by the gazebo at the head of his long, narrow dock. His son helps me hold the boat as Eric walks to the house with the shopping bags. The boy is some 8-9 years old, and we entertain ourselves wordlessly by showing each other knots we know; it appears that the bowline knot is pretty universally known. Eventually Eric re-appears and we dash off making well over 20 knots through the channel, coral boulders flashing by on both sides. A bit further we round the reef and stop. It is time for the prayer and over the low purr of the diesel I hear Eric say some quiet words. And then we are out of the pass and head toward the open, brilliant blue South Pacific Ocean.

Eric’s number one asset for fishing, his fish-finder as it were, are the seabirds. He follows the birds closely, occasionally stopping the boat and scanning the horizon with a pair of binoculars. We proceed this way at a leisurely pace for about three quarters of an hour, until he sees something promising. “Mahi Mahi” he exclaims and points at a group of birds maybe a half-mile away – and we’re off!

And so I find myself hanging on as we quickly approach the group of birds. When we get close he slows the boat down some and seems to be intently scanning the water. Apparently he spots something as the throttle opens again and we careen forward amidst the waves, banking hard from left to right and back again. Eventually looking forward I get a glance of the fish he is following with the boat. The bright yellow pectoral fins of the Mahi stand out against the deep blue of the ocean, and the big dorsal fin ripples the surface as the fish gracefully speeds just below the surface. At this point I sense that things are about to get busy, and so move back in the boat to avoid accidentally receiving a mouthful of the back end of the long harpoon. Bracing myself between the icebox and the side of the boat, I manage to get out the camera and proceed to try to get some photos of the chase.

A few more turns, a few more decelerations and rapid take-offs, and Eric’s hand goes to the harpoon. He steers with his left hand; works the throttle with the harpoon in his right hand and then… the throw is so quick I simply miss it. A thick nylon monofilament attached to the harpoon trails over the side, and he stops the boat. It seems so improbable that one could possibly hit a fish so quick with that thing, the boat bouncing in the waves and all, that I don’t immediately comprehend that there indeed is a fish at the pointy end of the harpoon. It is only when Eric leaps from the cockpit, motions toward the gaff at the back of the boat and starts heaving on the line that I get it. I pass the gaff to him and proceed to take in the events through the viewfinder of my camera. The view that unfolds is simply amazing. The fish puts up a fight, but once the gaff is in the fight is over. Eric hoists the fish up and I get a simply astonishing view of the big brilliant yellow fish. Once on deck, the fish goes into the reflexive escape swimming motion that looks more like a very rapid tremor than anything else. Eric reaches down and with a quick motion of his knife severs the artery leading to the gills. The fish stops, relaxes, and it is over.

Eric hoists it over the side and makes one incision in the belly of the fish. Through the gill operculum he reaches two fingers around the gills and twists them out along with some parts of the innards. Holding the fish through the operculum, he then thrusts a hand in the belly and neatly pulls out the rest of the organs and tosses them in to the boat. A couple of rinses and he lifts the fish into the icebox, spreading ice over it. He then sorts through the innards, keeping the liver and the two intact small fish in its stomach. A few buckets of seawater over the deck and the boat is ready for the next one. I am looking on, somewhat stunned at the speed and efficiency of the whole operation. I don’t know why I’m surprised, this is his profession after all, but the consummate skill that went into this performance is very impressive. We pause for a drink, and then it is off to find the next one.

Except there is no next one. The sun rises higher in the sky and Eric is clearly growing a bit frustrated. We cruise, stop, he scans the horizon. An hour, two pass like this, at times he curses “Aita manu”, no birds. And there aren’t any birds. Or there are some, a distant fairy tern, a few brown boobies and shearwaters, but not the flock he is looking for and not in the combination he is looking for. I later quiz him for what exactly does he look, but the language barrier allows me only to understand he’s looking for a combination of a white bird and a black bird.

One o’clock, and we are still at it, when he sees something promising. After the leisurely cruising pace he opens up the throttle and we take off, the turbocharged engine whistling at the back. He points to the horizon, explaining “Bonitiere”. Indeed I see another boat in the distance, our paths converging on a particularly large flock of birds. All stops come off and we bounce through the waves at what must be around 28 knots. The bonitiere beats us by a little; some 32 feet long and resembling a 1960’s east coast cabin cruisers, it still seems pretty fast. With several lines trolling behind, there appear to be about five people on board working the back deck.

We slow down on a parallel track and both follow a very large feeding flock of birds. Boobies, noddies, terns, shearwaters and petrels are all present in the mixed flock, each engaged in their own peculiar feeding behaviors. The boobies dive spectacularly head-long into the water, first gathering altitude, then folding their wings all the way back and plunging into the sea like a sliver of an arrow. The shearwaters plunge in with much less grace, while the terns dip down to pick at the surface while in flight.

Every so often there is a very concentrated spot of bird activity, the water is positively beaten into a froth by them. It is for these spots that both the bonitiere and we race, occasionally in pretty competitive fashion in close quarters. Eventually we end further apart and Eric whips the boat to one of these spots. We scare the birds out of the water, arriving almost on the top of them. Eric slams the boat into reverse and motions in the water. I don’t understand what he is saying, but there is this floating branch about 8 feet in length in the water and it seems like he wants me to grab it. So I do, and lift it in the boat while he leaps out of the cockpit and races to the back of the boat. Now he is peering behind the boat, then turns and, speaking rapidly, motions me to go to the controls and drive the boat slowly forward. At this point I am truly at a loss, but clearly want to help and so hop into the cockpit.

It is at that moment I learn where his muscles come from. The steering lever requires significant effort to move and it takes me a couple of moments to get the hang of the feel of the boat. I do manage, though, all the while looking at what Eric is planning to do with his damn stick. Except he isn’t paying the stick any attention at all, instead he has in his hand one of the six or so bamboo fishing rods from the back of the boat. The rod, about 7 feet in length, has about 6 feet of nylon monofilament line and a lure, and he is making the lure swim side to side behind the boat his gaze intently on the water. And then he jerks the rod back and flying through the air is a two-foot long skipjack tuna that lands in the boat with a resounding thud. He jerks the rod back and the lure flies out of the fish and back into the water. Maybe 15 seconds later another comes flying into the boat. And another. And another! And now I can see them, the fish darting behind the boat silhouetted against the curtain of bubbles thrown by our propeller.

There is a lull in the rain of fish. Eric quickly grabs another rod and proceeds to land a couple more. Then another rod and another couple of fish. On deck the dying skipjack go into the same escape swimming tremor, flapping and vibrating furiously, the deck covering with bloody froth as they bash themselves against the hard fiberglass. Eric pulls on a pair of wetsuit booties to protect his ankles from the beating, convulsing fish. And then, as quickly as it started, it is over. The feeding frenzy on the small fish that were trying to find refuge by our boat is done and the skipjack depart. There are well over a dozen skipjack between 20 and 30 inches in length on the deck, blood spattered everywhere and one by one the fish fall quiet. Eric catches his breath, and the proceeds to clean the fish with the same astonishing speed as the Mahi Mahi; a quick cut to the belly, two fingers around the gills, a twist, another hand in the belly, a pull and the fish is gutted and ready for the ice box. He hands me the fish, I stack them in the box, done. He then proceeds to clean the boat thoroughly, and together we finish the task in some ten minutes.


And with that, the catching is over. We continue tracking a large flock of birds for a while, but the birds themselves are looking. Gliding along the surface, there is an occasional fracas, but nothing much is happening and the birds keep moving further offshore. At around 1530 Eric turns the boat around and proceeds toward Tahiti Iti, now distant in the horizon. An hour and 20 minutes of cruising at about 20 knots gets us close to home. Near the reef we see another group of birds and detour to investigate. We get there, but to Eric’s dismay driving the small fish to the surface is not tuna but dolphins. We see them below us darting back and forth, occasionally breaking the surface for a breath. With this sight he quickly turns the boat toward the pass and home.

We arrive at the dock around five in the afternoon. Estellio is there to greet us with a couple of beers. The next day there is surf in the forecast, and Eric has some surfers chartering him and the boat for a day at the pass. With a good Tahitian handshake I say mauruuru, thanks, and head home my head still spinning from it all.

January 30th - Vendredi – Teahupoo

So here is the scene. I’m writing this from the verandah of the parish house of the Teahupoo’s St. Benoit catholic church, where I will be staying for the next six days. What you have to picture is a building of which 1/3 forms a large open space that opens directly to the sea. And I do mean directly, as there is but a ten-foot strip of gravelly sand between the balustrade and the water. Some half-mile distant is the reef, with the famous Teahupoo surf break about a mile away to the left. Behind the house and less than half a mile away start the deep eroded slopes of the ancient volcano that formed this island, now covered in the exuberant
lush greens of the Tahitian landscape. To say this place is gorgeous seems inadequate.

I just came back from the first outing, this with Jean Sulpis who is a local spear fisherman. Actually he is not making his living from spear fishing, but like many people around town he puts a lot of the food on the table by his spear gun. And did I mention his is good at it?


I had never really seen spear fishing first hand, and the term “fishing” here seems a misnomer. It really is hunting more than anything else, creeping on the bottom, using ledges and coral boulders for camouflage, waiting for the fish to come within reach. While holding your breath, of course… We got up at 0430 (in the dark), had a bite to eat and then paddled the va’a (outrigger canoe) to the reef cut. I ask Jean which way we are headed and he responds by gesturing primarily upward. This is followed by a brief stop during which he prays. I assume this is for a good catch, but combined by the previous gesturing and getting a good look at the surf on the Teahupoo pass, I increasingly dread it is simply for a safe return.


We slip into the water as the rising sun is casting its first rays over the mountains of Tahiti Iti. Jean immediately begins fishing, approaching the reef break from the shallow water to peek over the edge. He lies on the bottom motionless, at times using his hand to creep forward - the spear gun pointing forward and at the ready. I am so focused on him that I completely fail to see the fish his first shot hits – an Uhu, or parrotfish some 30cm in length. He kills the fish at the surface by a quick stab of the tip of the spear just behind the eye to the brain. He then threads the fish on a stout nylon line around his waist, and proceeds to go after the next one. Fish are scarce this morning apparently, and, before long, we have swum some distance from the anchored canoe. Jean motions me to go fetch it and tow it behind, emphasizing the motions with “la pirogue, la pirogue” (the canoe, the canoe). I sprint back, happy to be of some use.

At this point Jean abandons the reef edge and starts fishing almost in the surf. I guess I should mention something about the surf to those who, like me, know next to nothing about surfing. See, this is quite possibly the most famous surfing spot in the world right now. It is hard to appreciate it this early morning when the sea seems pretty placid. There is something about the reef near the pass, gently curving to an almost South-North orientation, that forms an almighty wave when the long swell from the distant Southern Ocean storms roll in. After all, there is naught but water between us and Antarctica (all right, some small islands I’ll be visiting later…) so the swell can travel long distances without disturbance. The Teahupoo wave, at its highest reaches well over 7-8 m I’m told, and is one of the places where the top surfers in the world gather every May to establish the rightful pecking order of surfing stardom.

Back to fishing, however! This monster wave leaves its mark underwater as well, flattening pretty much all growth forms of coral toward the reef crest, and scouring deep drainage channels into the reef matrix, running perpendicular to the reef crest toward deep water. It is these sheer-walled channels some one to two meters in depth that Jean is now fishing. Alas, he is doing it so close to the reef crest that even the present gentle 1 to 2 meter swell occasionally breaks right over him. I remain further seaward in deeper water with the canoe in tow, visions of the canoe catching a wave and being deposited in bits over the reef crest – with yours truly in tow – helping to enforce a respectful distance.


Jean’s fish count is now up to about 7 or 8, and we have swum a good mile down the reef. He comes to the canoe; we pile in and start paddling further south, toward the next pass and into the building wind and waves. I am proud to report that my watery education that commenced at an early age in rowing boats of the Savo-district in Finland comes handy, and I can produce a controlled movement forward in the canoe all by myself as Jean bails. I can only assume this is how he has always done things, but the canoe begins to feel more like those James Bond two-seater micro-subs, albeit man-powered, than a proper Archimedean vessel of conveyance. I paddle, he bails and we inch along the reef finally reaching the next pass and scoot in behind the reef. He makes some noises of relief and, with an international gesture, mops his brow with his forearm. I’m sensing he’s perhaps trying to impress me just a bit and this might not be his average day’s fishing journey.

He fishes the edge of the pass, approaching the very abrupt fall-off of the reef from about 2 meters depth to goodness knows how deep. I’ve never been a particularly good free-diver as a restricted eustachian tube means I can’t equalize the pressure in my ear fast enough to make it very deep. Jean, however, is truly impressive. He gracefully glides down and vanishes into the blue for almost two minutes at a time. He is from Ua Pou in the Marquesas Islands, and says over there they fish even deeper.

Eventually the sun gets high enough to put an end to his efforts – the height of day is not good for fishing. This time we are running with the wind in the protection of the reef and the paddle back to the house is a positive joy. We get back around 11:00 and sit down for a Tahitian breakfast of papaya (with some lime), avocado, baguette, coffee and fried fish. Not a bad start for the day!

January 23

Amidst the cruise preparation onboard and the general shipboard existence that can be all-consuming, I have managed to get a couple of things done for the project. The big one: itinerary is now set, and the main travel tickets purchased. So in broad strokes, this is how my calendar will look:

January 28-Feb 5: 1st stop Teahupoo on the south shore of Tahiti Iti.

February 5: Back on the ship to repair broken gyrocompass.

February 6: Fight to Rangiroa.

February 14: Flight from Rangiroa to Manihi

February 19: Flight from Manihi to Papeete

February 20: Flight from Papeete to Tubuai

February 27: Flight from Tubuai to Papeete

March 28: Flight from Papeete to Nuku Hiva

March 14: Flight from Nuku Hiva to Papeete

Within each stop there will be some forms of boat travel, within the atolls and hopefully in the Marquesas between the islands as well. I must say that holding this piece of paper (the ticket and itinerary from Air Tahiti) has helped to translate the trip from a future plan to impending reality. One short overnight cruise around Moorea ahead and then…