The Last of Manihi

After a great breakfast of French toast on baguette, I started cleaning the underwater portion of Tarun. I got about half done when Fernando came around with the bread and 3 guys off a Polish flagged boat from Florida called Macheka. Kaz, Conrad and Mache had expressed interest on Tuesday on going on the pearl farm tour so when we saw Fernando last Tuesday night we mentioned it and he picked them up this morning. After giving us the bread, he asked if I would go and translate for these guys. OK, why not I thought. A good day out and I liked talking to Fernando. We did the while tour and the guys loved it and at the end, Mache, the skipper/owner, wanted to do some business with Fernando and buy some pearls. What Fernando does is sell you a string of 20 oysters for 11,000 CFP and then guarantees you at least 12 pearls. Well Mache bought 7 strings. After a few more hours of busily opening oysters Mache got his pearls and for my efforts helping out all day, Fernando gave me four beautiful pearls for Cathy. Cathy had asked to buy 2 pearls the day before for earrings so Fernando, knowing this, put me to work for the day and I earned them. I had an absolute blast! Cathy got not 1 pair of pearls but two so will eventually get some nice settings made for them. I ended up spending most of the day on the pearl farm and it was fantastic. This was why I came cruising.
Cathy spent the day beachcombing with Ann and Barry and then we spent and great evening with them and Andreas and Karin onboard Cats Paw IV. Fernando gave us a bunch of oysters to cook so I prepared and cooked up enough for all of us, Cajun style. They went down pretty well. Not the same as Canadian oysters but really tasty. Tomorrow we head for Papeete and hopefully we will have no problems raising the anchor.

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