We arrived in our first lagoon of our first atoll - Kauei - on Sunday afternoon. Having no idea what the tidal or current state was in the pass, we bravely and ignorantly came through with no problem. We still can't figure out the whole slack tide/moon rise and set relationship and those sailors who swear they time it exactly right seem to have more trouble than we had. We're still working on figuring out the formula but are not convinced it will make a difference! Sunday evening the mayor and his wife arranged a local dinner for the boats at anchor and we were lucky to be included. Tiaihau, the mayor, also manages the pearl farms, has the only store in town and has a "transport company". He seems to have a monopoly of all things here on this atoll. After an unsuccessful day trying to find the perfect pearls, we gave up and sailed across the lagoon and found a place to anchor by ourselves. We've joined the other 5 or 6 boats anchored a little way off for rum, coconuts and bocce ball (Ginny and Andy, yes, we've finally used it!) but are mainly enjoying being reclusive. Today, we had a fabulous couple of hours snorkeling off the boat. The healthy live coral is very close to the beach in very shallow water. The varieties of colorful fish is staggering. At one point David saw a black tipped reef shard about 5 feet from me; I have mixed feelings of being sorry I missed it and maybe glad I did. Sailing around the Tuomotu atolls is as different from the Marquesas as night and day -not a lot of culture or fresh fruit falling off the trees but beautiful, clear turquoise water and that perfect black pearl somewhere out here for me to find.

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