Day 43 Oa Pou

A pleasant last day
Hakahau - We did a little exploring in the town of Hakahau and met some interesting folks including:
Xavier is a retired Frenchman living on the island. He had been an English teacher and I suspect he overheard us talking and sought us out to practice. He also raises rabbits but we declined to buy one (although hassenpfeffer sounded pretty good at the time)
As I was finishing lunch, a well-dressed woman asked if she could sit down with her coffee. She turned out to be a judge from Papeete who was on an assignment to help out in the upcoming elections. Since Isles Marquises are part of the French Republic, they participate in the French national elections which are scheduled for Sunday April 22. Her role was to provide consultation and to answer questions on several of the islands.
Passage - I learned that a voyage is a trip where you return to the starting place whereas a passage is a trip from one place to another. Thus we departed Oa Pou on our next passage to Manihi in the Tuamotu archipelago.
If Isles Marquises are the youngest archipelago of the five that make up French Polynesia, the Tuamotus are geologically the oldest. Here the volcanos have long since eroded and sunken into the sea leaving behind only the coral reef that once encircled them. Some are barely above sea level and may not be visible from more than a few miles away. For this reason, they were called the “dangerous islands” by early explorers. The advances in charts and the invention of GPS has improved this situation but sailors are warned to never approach these islands at night and to maintain a bow lookout when entering the lagoons. Most of the 77 islands are atolls with a coral reef encircling a lagoon. Manihi is 450 nm (nautical miles) southeast of Ua Pou so we expect a trip of about 3 ½ days. The atoll is 28 km long by 8 km wide, has only one entrance and is know for its farms of black pearls.
Sea life - I was in the cabin when the fish took the lure on our static line. This is an imitation squid lure that looks like a hula dancer. It is attached to a short 50 foot 200 pound test fishing line. As soon as the dorado realized he was hooked, he took to the air and with one giant wrenching move, he was free. The report from those who saw him said he was as big as me with a head over a foot in diameter and brightly colored yellow sides. Sorry, no pictures of this one, so it will remain a fish story but from what remained of the lure, the fish must have been large indeed.
I start my watch soon after dark and stay on deck until 10 PM. Usually everyone else is usually sleeping in preparation for their turn.
At about 9 PM, I saw the first glow in the water. Mark and Andy had reported weeks earlier seeing dolphins that left a luminescent trial in the water so at first I thought this is what I was seeing. Before long the one glow had turned to many and I could see these were not following the boat the way a dolphin would but were floating in the water and lighting up as we passed by. The lights all began as circles over a foot in diameter but some lengthened if they remained glowing long enough. Some lit up only once while others lit multiple times. The show lasted for about 40 minutes and I could easily be convinced that these were the aliens from the movie Cocoon but more likely, they were phosphorescent jellyfish that were excited by the turbulence of our passing hull.
The sea is an amazing place.