Tales of Taou

We made a move yesterday, a day sail from Fakarava to Taou where we are on a mooring for a change in a 'false inlet' between two motus but not inside the reef. The reef is just in front of the boat, so beautiful snorkelling very close to hand in clear clear water. Position 15 48 209 S and 146 09 092 W Just one (fairly extended) family live on the inlet, lovely friendly people who run a small pearl farm and provide meals to order for sailing boats. We are eating there tonight with 3 German boats (all of whom of course speak fantastic English).
Not having caught any ocean fish for ages, we decided to stock up with meat in Fakarava and bought a frozen chicken and a frozen NZ leg of lamb. Then, of course we caught an 18lb mahi mahi en route - one of our favourite fish. It took at least an hour to get it on board, and we were lucky as it was only hooked with one hook through the lip. We now have an excess of protein on board, so have part exchanged the lamb and a chunk of fish for our meal on shore tonight. The store in F. had very little, and we could only get onions and potatoes in the fresh veg line when we arrived. Then the supply boat came in and they had carrots and apples! We did our usual asking of the locals if anyone had vegetables for sale, and were directed to the house of a man who turned out to be Kenyan/NZ married to a local. He started growing veg for home consumption, but is now trying to do it on a larger scale. Not easy, there is next to no topsoil on these islands, and continuous salty breeze. However he makes his own compost as he has a shredder, and is growing hydroponic cucumber and tomatoes, and also lettuce, peppers and aubergines. He didn't have much available as the local 'pensions' buy from him, but we now have enough tomatoes, lettuce an cucumber for a few days, so delicious after a few weeks of tinned peas. And there was a bakery in town so for the couple of days we were there we had fresh baguette, and have brought several loaves with us to crisp up in the oven.
I spent an evening helping to teach English in the local primary school. Two ladies on a boat that we have been meeting up with since the Galapagos, often do an English course for a couple of weeks in the villages they visit. A lovely way to meet the locals. This time they were rather overwhelmed with children, so were roping in volunteers so that the kids could be divided into smaller groups. All good fun - they were practising for a 'show' for parents and teachers tonight, so had to be up to scratch with 'what's your name, my name is .....' and 'the store is down the street on the right'.
We heard today that there are about 100 boats in the anchorage at Papeete, Tahiti, our next stop. There are big celebrations in July leading up to '14 juillet' with dancing competitions, so many people will be staying for that. With a big Carrefour only 5 mins away it will be such a change from these islands.