We have really enjoyed getting back in the water. It is one of the main reasons we came out here, getting away from the town marina. Yesterday we snorkelled at the Aquarium site with the crashed plane and the two small shipwrecks – where Kate did her early dive training. Today we went to a new spot. The corals were not so good, but the fish were plentiful and we had one large visitor.

The anchorage lies just off Faaa airport, between Tahiti and Moorea. The latter acts as a good early warning system for incoming weather – when it disappears, we know there’s rain on its way and in fact we’ve had a fair bit of it, together with thunder, lightning and one big squall. We have been fooled though into thinking there was thunder on the way, only to realise it’s one of the big jets taking off. The majority of the traffic is inter-island planes or private jets, though. There are only seven boats here in total – five cats and two monos – and there’s been practically no activity from dive or sports boats. Calm and quiet; just what we signed up for.

Needless to say there was no turkey cooked yesterday. How to celebrate Christmas in Tahiti? With confit de canard, of course.