RANGIROA ATOLL in the Tuamotu Archipelago

Sitting at anchor here off Papeete in Tahiti, I eventually rigged up our booster antennae to get sufficient Internet to post another letter with photographs.

So here we are ... Tahiti .... and anchored in the channel just off what is known as Marina Taina in the city of Papeete ... a truly beautiful anchorage with the most gorgeous sunsets ...

We are enjoying our time here in Tahiti, but of course I need to share our news of the Atoll of Rangiroa in the Tuamotos.

Ana and had enjoyed a good sail from the atoll of Toau ... ahhh, Toau ... such a special place ...

Sascha Smith sailing on Catamaran TRIBE shared some photos with me she had taken from the top of their mast of Impi in the anchorage of Anse Amyot in Toau ... so before we go further with our news let me share one or two of these with you ... Again ... a huge thanks to Sascha who is a brilliant photographer ...

I think I will add some of these photos to the letter I wrote previously on Toau ...

Anyway ... side tracked as usual ... here we were sailing along with our fellow friends who were on their 75 foot Privilege catamaran called ‘Cattitude’. 

Of course Gordon and Liz are doing this all in perfect style with ‘Captain Steve, a chef and 2 other crew members.

It is a wonderful experience to spend time onboard Cattitude and the chef is ‘par excellent’ in the meals he prepares.

We had arrived roughly half an hour before Cattitude at PASSE TIPUTA,  the eastern pass into Rangiroa and had found ourselves venturing in on a mirror calm sea.

This was fortunate as we have heard the currents can run pretty hard here and can really churn up the seas into some heavy waves.

You can imagine how surprised we were when at anchor to hear that Cattitude had found its way in on a ‘troubled sea’ with big waves and steadily building … only some 30 minutes later than our time in entering.

It goes to show how critically important it is to get the timing right when entering these atolls although Steve did say that he had entered here before and knew he could keep the boat to the east side of the channel close to a reef where even in rough conditions this part was ‘manageable’.

Entering the pass we were vigilant to observe our surrounds and take note of the ‘split in the channel’ by a small island or Motu known as ‘Motu Fara’ and marked on some charts as Motu Nuhi Nuhi.

I decided to take the shorter route between the main land and Motu Fara being cautious of various coral heads and protruding reefs. I would not have attempted this had the sun not been in the right position and the water calm and clear.

For our sailing friends wanting to enter here, our track saw Impi arriving at a waypoint of 14*58.3901S  147*37.8333W … 14*58.4274S  147*37.9600W … 14*58.4198S  147*38.0275W … 14*58.4134S   147*38.0570W … 14*58.4024S  147*38.0722W  and into deeper waters at 14*58.3866S  147*38.1406W. This route saw us saving about 1.5NM and although there were the odd coral heads spotted we had fair depth under our keels.

Impi lay to anchor at a position of roughly 14*57.98S  147*38.40W off a beautifully appointed hotel (Kia Ora Village Hotel) with lots of little grass roofed rooms set above the water on stilts with ‘glass bottom’ floors.

There is a well-constructed wooden jetty to which sailors can tie their dinghy. The jetty reaches out from the hotel ‘bar and swimming pool’ area and management is extremely welcoming to yachtsmen.

The restaurant here is beautiful and the food is terrific. We had joined Gordon and Liz from Cattitude here on occasion and I must say their rib-eye steak was incredibly tender and tasty.

The swimming pool area is also stunning ...

So here we were back in civilization of sorts … Rangiroa being the largest of the atolls in the Tuamotu archipelago and second largest in the world having a circumference of about 100 miles. The atoll is roughly 40 miles long and 17 miles wide at the widest point.

The ring is formed by 240 little motus (islets) and separated by 130 channels (named ‘hoas’) all of which are very shallow and impassable by yacht.

The two entrances used by yachtsmen to enter the lagoon area are both situated toward the north of the island and are known as Passe de Avatoru and Passe de Tiputa.

On last count the island had roughly 2,000 people living here but the numbers are fast diminishing as youngsters move to the glitz and glamour of city life and ‘the big bucks’ in Tahiti.

Ana and I joined our friends for an interesting tour of the Black Pearl Farm on Rangiroa and had an exceptionally informative guide explain the process of Black Pearl Farming and cultivation here.

We found the process to be fascinating and had not realized how much work actually goes into producing these pearls.

Black Pearls are not as beautiful as I had initially imagined, yet, there seems to be enough of a demand for them in that these farms keep much of the people on the Tuamotus employed.

Due to the farming technique of miles and miles of suspended lines in the water, navigation around the atolls can be quite hazardous for the unaware yachtsman.

The oyster used to produce a black pearl is the ‘Black-Lip Oyster’ known as such for its black pigmentation about the mantle.

The guide explained that diving for pearl oysters in their natural environment is prohibited by law and as a result all oyster supplies for farming purposes are done through a method known as ‘spat collection’.

Spat collection is a technique used in a few atolls to capture larvae by use of shade mesh (polypropolene) attached to thin lines under the surface of the water. Here the ‘trapped’ larvae develop and are harvested.

Since oysters need to be a certain minimum size and can only be seeded once the organs are sufficiently developed to produce black pearls, these oysters are well looked after and their growth is carefully monitored.

The young oysters have holes carefully drilled into the shells and are then suspended on ropes or in some cases placed into mesh baskets.

Of great frustration for these farmers are predatory fish such as spotted eagle rays, trigger fish and many others and little can be done about this problem for the minimum 30 months they lie there and develop to sufficient size for grafting.

Grafting is an interesting technique whereby a nacre bead (nucleus) is inserted into an appendix within the pearl, an appendix known as ‘the pearl pocket’. 

In the photo below one can just see the Nacre bead that has been placed into the 'Pearl Pocket' (under the guides index finger slightly to the left

Along with this nacre bead a piece of mantle (black lip) is inserted as it is the organ which produces the layers of nacre about the bead … layers making up the black pearl as seen. The piece of mantle or graft tissue taken from the donor oyster is chosen very carefully as the quality of the pearl depends hugely on this choice. A donor oyster can produce approximately 50 graft pieces (to be used in 50 oysters for pearl production).


In the photo below the nacre beads ...

Of great interest to me are the other countries involved in this process. For example, the nucleus (nacre beads) are farmed and obtained from shells of fresh water mussels in the Mississippi river in the USA. These are then freighted to Asia for ‘shaping’ and are to be approximately 2.0 to 2.3 mm for Polynesia.

The process of ‘seeding’ the nacre bead and graft piece takes about 15 seconds and grafters seed up to 450 shells per day. The success rate of pearl production following this ‘surgery’ averages at 65% and is dependent on the skill of the grafting staff, the quality of the pearl oyster used and the water temperature.

After the seeding has taken place, the oysters are put into fine mesh baskets (pockets) for the purpose of monitoring the success rate of the graft over a 45 day period. An indication of a ‘failure’ would be the presence of the nacre bead in the basket as this would indicate the oyster has rejected the impregnation.

‘Successful oysters’ are removed from the baskets and drilled after which they are tied with nylon chord to a rope and here they remain as the pearl within begins to develop and grow for at least 18 months and more often than not will not be removed until 24 months have passed.

Finally the oysters are harvested and since it is possible to seed about 30% of these a second time they are not killed. 

About 10% will even make it to a third seeding. The benefit of re-seeding is that the grafting of the mantle piece will not be necessary. This technique of seeding a second and third time allows for the production of very large pearls since the nucleus introduced a second or third time can be bigger.

In the photo below one can see the harvested pearl and the matching sized larger nucleus (bead) that will be replaced for a second season and a larger pearl ...

Now with the pearls harvested, the Jewel process takes place and of course this is a process by which the quality and shape of the pearl is determined for its Jewel value.

Here at Rangiroa one can purchase pearls directly from the factory ...

And there are some beautiful 'pieces' to tempt one ...

Rangiroa is a pleasant and pretty atoll to visit, a great place to ‘hang about’ at the pool bar of the hotel, catch up on some great restaurant meals and simply enjoy the beautiful clear water off the little beach. 

Of course we loved wining and dining with Gordon and Liz and had many a laugh.

In the photo below, the beautiful 75ft 'Cattitude' belonging to Gordon and Liz ...

As beautiful a place as Rangiroa is, I was surprised when I spoke to some tourists at the hotel who felt they were easily bored here. 

I guess these Atolls are terrific ‘visits’ by yacht but then again one needs to keep moving from one spot to the next and most certainly the pleasure in these atolls are those days when the seas are glassy and crystal clear.

 Photo below is of the 'Bar patio' at the hotel ...

A beautiful spot to 'hang out' in the hotel gardens ...