We departed Fakarava and headed to our final atoll in the Tuamotus: Toau. It was a rollie trip, but not too far at less than 20 miles. When we arrived I was thankful to find a free mooring ball, hoping my days of diving to free the anchor were over. After seeing a trimaran washed up onshore, we were sure to check the condition of the mooring before gaining too much confidence in them and heading to shore.
There were a few buildings on one side of the pass and we headed in to have a look around. We were greeted by a woman who seemed to own the property and she welcomed us to explore the motu. Since Toau is mostly uninhabited, the people who do live here have to be pretty self-sufficient and we saw some raised planting beds as well as pens for pigs and coops chickens. She also had three friendly dogs, including one puppy, who followed us around as we explored. Before heading back to the boat, she loaded us up with extra food they had prepared for dinner including a local specialty called poisson cru, raw fish in coconut.
She also asked us for a favor explaining the locals would be heading to Fakarava for a few days to reprovision and asked if we could look after the dogs. In exchange, she wouldn’t charge us the $10 per night for the mooring ball. We happily agreed and asked where the dog food was kept. She shrugged and said to feed the dogs whatever table scraps we had, and that they would eat just about anything. The dogs seemed pretty healthy so I guess the lack of processed dog food wasn’t doing them any harm.
The following day, Eitan and I went for a snorkel and to practice some freediving. The channel between the moorings was about 80 feet deep so it was a great place to practice, being able to dive right from the boat. We took turns watching each other dive down and it was amazing to feel the temperature difference as I passed through the different thermoclines. I was very chilly by the time I turned around to head back up, making the water back at the surface feel quite warm compared to what it felt like just a minute before at depth. Both Eitan and I set new personal records that day of diving to 79 feet. We were limited to this personal best only because that was the maximum depth at the bottom of the channel, otherwise we might have made it deeper.
I still couldn’t believe how deep we could manage to dive on our own without any instruction or much practice. My goal was to hit the 100-foot mark but I seemed to be most limited by my ability to hold my breath. Part of my new interest in freediving was due to a couple of books I had been reading by James Nestor, one called Breath and the other called Deep. Both books touch on the physical and psychological benefits of breathing techniques and breath-holding. Some studies even showed that breath-holding is even more calming than taking deep breaths for those suffering from panic attacks. Deep down, I hoped that learning to free dive may also be the key to unlocking my anxiety and vowed to take more formal lessons once they were available.
Later that day, Eitan and I scrounged together some pasta and whatever processed meat products we could find onboard and headed to shore to feed the dogs. We didn’t see the puppy from the day before but fed the other two big dogs and refilled their water bowls from a rainwater cistern attached to the roof. Then, we headed across the channel to another motu to have some sundowners on the beach. Imagine our surprise when we pulled the dinghy up and were greeted by the puppy.
This motu was a completely separate island and the channel in between has enough current that would make it impossible for a puppy to swim across. We were perplexed as to how he got there and looked around for anyone inhabiting the island. There was a rundown encampment with some old rubbish strewn about but it didn’t look like anyone had been there in quite a while. Why would anyone bring the puppy to a completely different island and leave him there?
We set up a beach blanket and poured ourselves a couple of sundowners as the puppy sat beside us, trying to inch his way onto the blanket. Whenever possible, Eitan and I try to spend the sunset hour at the beach, normally just relaxing and playing with hermit crabs. I’m not sure where our obsession with hermit crabs came from but we jokingly create little personalities and narratives around each one and it becomes quite entertaining when there’s nothing better to do. After playing with one of the “hermies” as we call them, we finally let it wander off of the towel and carry on with its life but couldn’t believe our eyes when it was abducted by another crab! The burrowing crabs had begun coming out after sunset and this one came up, grabbed the small hermit crab by its shell, and started carrying it back to its hole. Eitan intercepted it, and it dropped the hermit crab and he brought it back to the towel for protection. As the hermit crab crawled off the towel once again, the other crab returned to try and grab it. I had no idea that one kind of crab would abduct another. Having grown attached to this one, we moved the small hermie to a different part of the beach in hopes of a more peaceful existence for him..
As it grew dark, we packed up our things and headed to the dinghy. It was heartbreaking to see the puppy realize we were leaving him behind. We looked through the junk on the island and tried to make a bed for him out of an old pillow and leave out plenty of water for him, promising to bring him food the next day. He barked and cried as we pulled away from the beach. That night, I couldn’t stop thinking about the puppy and why/how he had ended up on the separate motu. He looked pretty healthy and cared for and I hoped he wasn’t being abandoned. From our time in French Polynesia, it was apparent that dogs aren’t treated like family members and often left as skinny strays or chained up in someone’s yard. In Katiu, I even saw little boys throwing rocks at dogs and laughing like it was some kind of game as their parents stood by unphased.
We planned to depart to Tahiti the following afternoon, so spent that morning snorkeling, then getting ready for passage. Once again, we collected whatever dog-friendly foodstuffs we could and reserved a couple of cans of food to bring back to the puppy. We headed in to feed the big dogs first and couldn’t believe our eyes when we were greeted by all three dogs, including the puppy! Besides the other cruisers, we seemed to be the only people on the island and had absolutely no clue how the little dog could have returned back to the main motu, but were thankful that it seemed someone was looking after him.
Eitan downloaded the weather once more to check the forecast for the next two days and confirmed it was time to head to Tahiti. Our six weeks in the Tuamotus felt like a true paradise but I was increasingly ready for some of the little luxuries, such as fresh food, and cell service. I wished we had more time to visit a couple of the other famous atolls like Rangiroa and Tikehau but we only had three weeks left on our French Polynesia visas and another whole archipelago of islands to explore. So, we pulled off the mooring lines, exited through the pass, raised the sails and pointed to bow to the west!
