This is a very remote place with few places to stay.  But if you will be in French Polynesia, make Makemo a place to stop.

The Tuamotus  are a chain of  72 atolls.  An atoll consists of low lying, coral islands that surround a lagoon.  Normally we can see an island in the Marquesas with it’s mountainous range 30-40 miles before reaching it.  With the Tuamotus, on a clear day, the atoll is visible within 8-10 miles.

   

This is a quiet destination made for lovers of the sea.  It’s best asset is crisp-clear blue water to snorkel through the vibrant colors of coral and fish.  We anchored in 40 feet and could see our anchor on the floor bed.

For the more athletic.  There are a few breaking waves to surf and bring your gear for kite-surfing.

In the Village…

There is a restaurants, small store and bakery.  Check out the small church decorated in shell chandeliers with plain wooden benches and bright cloth panels.

You may be able to buy or trade for black pearls, the main industry on this island.

In the evenings the locals play bocce ball and the children play tag in the town square.

A visit here will allow you to slow your pace and relax in one of the most untouched tourist locations in French Polynesia. 

 Plan Your French Polynesia Visit

Click Here for more pictures of Makemo

The Old Hegg Turtle Sanctuary

Riding our bikes through the tropical countryside of Bequia, we had one goal in mind.  To visit a sea-side shelter that houses Hawksbill turtles.  An effort to keep the endangered species alive, Orton King, a retired skin diving fisherman takes care of these creatures until the age of five.

He gathers hatch-lings and provides pools, sheltering them from predators.  He has about 200 turtles to care for and charges a small fee to visit his sanctuary.  He also will accept donations and sells t-shirts to help support his efforts.

Normally we see turtles floating by as we sail past them or watch them swim while snorkeling.  Having the chance to see at them up close, to touch them and look into their large glasslike eyes makes us appreciate the creatures more.

Turtle Photo Gallery

To arrange a visit or make donations, go to  http://turtles.bequia.net/

Just a couple of years ago, we didn’t have a car.  We relied soley on our 35 foot sailboat and 5 foot dinghy to get us around. Once we were on shore, our legs did most of the work.

But no one really told us how much maintenance was needed to keep a boat shipshape.  During our four year voyage, I thought there would be more time  spent drinking margaritas at sunset and taking naps during the heat of the day.  I couldn’t be more wrong.

Around noon, you would find us decked out in our scuba gear.  Once a week the task of scraping the bottom of the hull was mandatory.  Seagrass, barnacles and thumbnail-sized shrimp would attach to our boat’s bottom.  Get a breath of air, dive, scrape and go up for air.  The two of us would repeat this for an hour until the hull was clean.

Once the job was done we would itch all over.  The shrimp would wiggle in our swimsuits and our knuckles bled.  They would be cut up from the sharp barnacle edges.

This wasn’t an easy part of cruising.  Nor is the bi-annual boat painting.

Every two years, we would haul out, Moorea onto land.  She would need a new paint job.  It was expensive and to save money we would do the labor.  This dirty and hard work.

So knowing what I know about the cruising life, would I do it again?  Without hesitation!

Cheers,

Kelly Girl

As we approached Male, the capital and only bustling city of the Maldives, we noticed tall pastel colored buildings stacked side by side like dominos.  We didn’t know what we would find in Male but I had read that most of the Maldives’ population resides here–about 75,000 people.  I knew the city’s citizens were 100% Muslim and to walk the circumference of this small atoll would take a little over an hour.

With its buildings and narrow streets, a satellite image of Male gives it the appearance of a Mini-Manhattan.  There are very little natural resources here.  Most of the items to buy here are imported in.  With the lack of raw materials, the main revenue generated is from its healthy tourism industry.

Most of the visitors to the Maldives escape to one of the atolls where high-end hotels spoil guests with every hedonistic pleasure available to man.  Sadly the resorts attract many tourists that rarely get the chance to interact with the locals in their environment.  An opportunity is lost on many tourists but for the culture seeking traveler go to the heart of the Maldives.  Go to Male to get the true vibe of its people.

Know the List of Don’ts  

This was our first country where the official religion is Islam and practice of any other religion is against the law.  Even bringing religious icons, symbols or books to shore was forbidden.  We were informed of these laws as we checked into the country.  No alcohol, pork products or live pigs (we left ours in Thailand) were allowed on shore.  But keeping these items on our boat was okay.  I was grateful the customs agents didn’t confiscate our wine.

If we wanted to purchase these items from a supplier on shore we could.  But an expensive permit is required.  That is how the resorts are allowed to have these items.  It seems like the resorts on all the other atolls have more freedom and choices than the locals on Male.  After reading these laws, I wasn’t sure what to expect when we ventured on land.  I wondered what the people were like.

Walking Around Male

 We dressed in conservative clothing.  My husband wore kaki pants and a buttoned up short-sleeved shirt.  I wore pants, a short sleeved shirt and brought along a long sleeve linen shirt just in case I needed to cover my arms.  I chose not to bring a head scarf since I do not practice Islam and I did not read in any laws of this land that I required to do so.

When encountering a new culture, we are careful observers.  Getting to know our surroundings and trying to read people.  Maldivians are reserved but respectfully pleasant.

The women vary in their dress.  Some wore the burqa, completely covered with their faces exposed; the younger females either wore a hijab which only covers the head, or nothing to cover their hair.

It was on a Friday that we first walked the streets of Male.  Friday is the equivalent of a Sunday in the States.  Not many shops were open.  As we walked past the mosques, hundreds of shoes lined the entrance.

When we returned the next day, the streets were alive with commerce.

What to Do

The oldest mosque is called the Friday Mosque or Hukur Miskiiy.  It was built in 1656 and is still used on special ceremonies to this day.  The minaret is white with blue Arabic print.  Gray aged headstones within the grounds are protected by a shoulder height wall.  If you want a visit the inside of this mosque, you will need a permit.

To experience the inside of a mosque, visit the Islamic Center.  It can hold up to 5000 worshipers and is open to all visitors, but not photography allowed.

If you like museums, the National Museum of Maldives contains a collection of pre-Islamic artifacts.  The grounds of the museum were known as the Sultan’s Palace which dated back to the 17th century.

A strip of sandy beach for swimming in aqua waters

For the adventurous type, there is a surf break.  If you have a surfboard or prefer body surfing, the local “artificial” beach is for you.  Located just north of the airport ferry pier, you will find fully clothed swimmers and surfers enjoying the aqua blue waves–a perfect place to meet locals.

There are plenty of restaurants and coffee shops for dinning.  My favorite was Jade Bistro, near the ferry piers.  It had wireless available and decent pastries to complement coffee.

The Local Commute

Getting around on the atoll, most people walk or use scooters.  There are cars and trucks here too, but don’t seem to dominate the roads.

There are ferries to get around from atoll to atoll.  The atoll next to Male, about a mile in distance, is Hulhumale which is a twenty minute ferry ride and costs around $1 (USD).  The airport is here along with a new community of sky-high apartment buildings.  There is a restaurant above the ferry terminal and other services are sprouting up so it might be worth a quick visit.

A Pleasant Surprise

After spending a couple of days around Male and Hulhumale, we felt at ease with the people yet kept in mind the restrictions placed on us. The restrictions were to only visit atolls that were approved by the government and adhere to their curfews to be off the atolls (not Male) by 6:00PM.

The pleasant surprise came from the locals.  They were reserved but pleasant people…even generous.  At seeing the price of imported water, we inquired where the locals obtained their drinking water.  Finding out that the Mosques provided desalinated drinking water, we went to the Hulhumale Mosque to check it out.

On the grounds was a white tiled structure with a water spigot.  With our empty jerry cans, we started filling up our containers.  As a local came up with his empty water containers, we were a bit nervous.  What would he think of us taking water from the Mosque?  We stopped filling our jerry container and let him take water.  When he was finished, he took our container and started to fill it up.

There were no words exchanged, just an act of kindness.  Those are the things we travelers leave with when visiting a country.  The local landmarks and national treasures fade overtime, but the one guy that helped us fill our water tanks will always remain in our memories and hearts.

Kelly fixing our outboard

“If you can’t find him cute, at least find him handy.”This is a phrase I  heard from my seventy year old friend, Don.  Every time he’d say this, his smile would be wide and toothy.

When it comes to my husband, I feel I got both.  He’s a cute handyman.  Luckily for me he knows how to fix the many gizmos that would break on our boat.  Sometimes I would be the one doing the damage.  In a single day I broke a few to many items.  I decided not to confess to one of them-stopping up the head (toilet).

So if you want to cruise on a boat, I would recommend having a handy partner go with you.  There will be times the trusty equipment you purchased will fail.  It may be something you can live without or a key role in getting from place to place.

So you may be surprised to find yourselves looking for boat parts and new equipment instead of watching the sunset in a beautiful location.  But even though there may be many repairs needed to keep your vessel going, it is usually done in spectacular locations.

But the kitchen had some good qualities.  It had a large refrigerator, a dishwasher and could hold more than one person in it and it would not lurch unexpectedly.   I know…these points I make aren’t typical attributes for a rundown kitchen.  Yet after six years of cooking in a galley that could barely fit two people and at times I would have to be strapped into (I’ll explain), a stationary kitchen, even one as malfunctioning as mine, was going to be a luxury.

Don’t get me wrong…my galley was great!  I would whip up some tasty meals on our boat.  I would make empanadas, sushi, pressure cook whole chicken, and throw together a home-made apple pie.  My husband would help me make fresh corn tortillas for fish tacos.  I didn’t even miss not having a microwave.

Those were the good times.  However there were times when I wanted a dishwasher.  It seemed like we were constantly washing dishes.  And there was a time I had a complete melt down in my galley.

It was when I was in the final stages of completing a big bowl of potato salad.  We were on a passage that had rough seas.  Usually I strap myself into the to the galley to keep me from flying out of it. But I didn’t.  So after I had spent hours cooking the potatoes and letting them cool before I peeled off the skin then cut the onions and diced the dill pickles it all when to hell.  I was mixing in the mayo.  The boat lurched and my bowl of potato salad flew out of my hands and completely dumped out onto the cabin floor.

I had a complete meltdown, like a two year does with a red face and horrific screams.  My meltdown was worse than a two year old’s since I could swear like a sailor.  Luckily for my husband this only lasted a few excruciating minutes and I came back to my senses.

So having an old stable kitchen even one as dysfunctional as mine was not a problem.  But here is the weird thing…now that we have a new kitchen with a working stove, beautiful cabinets and counter tops, I miss my galley.

I think it is time to get back on the boat.

So we didn’t expect it to be too cold…we were wrong.  Since we both worked full-time and had an hour commute, we were away from our boat all day.  I was the one to come home first.  Many nights it was just below freezing outside and inside the temps were in the mid-thirties.

To warm up the cabin, I would turn on two small space heaters then start the oven to bake bread I had bought at the store.  Then I would curl up under layers of blankets waiting for my husband to return.  When he came through the cabin hatch, he would say it was cold with an interior temperature of 57 degrees.    Eventually the cabin would get up to 62 degrees.

When it was time for bed, our stateroom (bedroom) would be in the mid-forties as we crawled into the sheets.  We brought only one space heater into the stateroom due to the lack of floor space for it to rest upon.  Both of us would be wearing caps to bed and long johns.

These are some of the experiences, but check out the short video below.  It shows the icy docks and boat.  It was very slippery walking from and to our vessel.  Like I said, I will never forget our first winter living on Moorea.

Fair Winds,

Kelly Girl

I will be on BlogTalkRadio December 28th at 5:30PM (Arizona Time).  Tune in to hear about how we (an Average Middle-Class Couple) were able to make our dream of sailing the world come true.

Write up from BlogTalkRadio

Kelly Girl Waterhouse grew up in Minnesota, practically in the middle of a corn field next to one of the 10,000 lakes within the state. Not afraid to get her toes wet, she relocated to Seattle, Washington shortly after graduating from college in the early 90’s. It was there she met a man named Kelly, who became her husband and taught her how to sail in the briny waters of the Puget Sound. That is when their vision to cruise the world began.

During their journey, Kelly Girl kept journals and wrote travel logs that covered over 30 countries. Kelly & Kelly Girl are accomplished world circumnavigators, sailing to 30 countries covering over 35,000 nautical miles. They shared a journey that many people can’t imagine or even know where to begin in order to live it themselves.

Sailing The Waterhouse:Swapping Turf for Surf, reveals the couple’s challenges of transitioning from a land-based life to living on a vessel and their first ocean sailing experience.

Kelly Girl Waterhouse will be talking to us about how she made her dreams come true and you can too for the New Year, 2012.

Stateroom Berth is smaller than a full sized bed - Storage underneath -

In a boat, you have to evaluate everything you put into it.  Why?  Because you can’t put too much stuff on them or they’ll sink, especially a small boat like Moorea.

My Galley - Frig is right of stove & under the white covers

Since we lived in a marina, we had no need for gardening supplies.  I didn’t need a large vacuum to clean carpeted rooms.  In these small living quarters, a handheld vacuum replaced the large one and I used a rag to clean the wood floors.

Instead of a large refrigerator, mine was about the size of a large cooler.  So I would shop for food more often.

I didn’t have a walk-in closet, mine was the size of an oversized suitcase.  We only kept on board the clothes we wore and could store our seasonal clothing under our bunk.

That brings up another point for living on the boat.  Every place that had a seat, there was storage space under it.  We kept tools and spare parts for the boats there.  I had shelves I could store my pantry supplies and other galley items.

In regards to two people sharing this limited space.  We grew closer as a couple.  If we got into an argument, there was no place to hide so we had to deal with it.

Now we are living in a small house, we are careful about having too much unnecessary stuff. I feel that if we own too much, it will start owning us.  So we are keeping a minimalist lifestyle and counting down the days until we get back onto a boat.

Cheers

Kelly Girl

View  More Pictures of  our boat, Moorea 

Moorea - Nav Desk