Sailing with YELO

13 January 2024 | La Paz
10 January 2024 | San Evaristo
07 January 2024 | San Evaristo
04 January 2024 | Punta Salinas, Isla San Jose
02 January 2024 | Punta San Telmo
01 January 2024 | Agua Verde
28 December 2023 | Puerto Balandra
19 December 2023 | San Juanico
17 December 2023 | Punta Chivato
16 December 2023 | Punta Chivato
28 November 2023 | Santa Rosalia
18 August 2023 | San Carlos
05 July 2023 | La Paz to San Carlos
05 July 2023 | La Paz to San Carlos
10 June 2023 | La Paz to San Carlos
03 June 2023 | La Paz to San Carlos
02 June 2023 | La Paz to San Carlos
01 June 2023 | La Paz to San Carlos
31 May 2023 | La Paz to San Carlos

Gambier, tragedy at the pearl farm

08 April 2019 | Gambier
Rolf
We got a invitation from Eric to see his pearl farm. He took more than 2 hours going into every detail on how to grow these pretty pearls. Here is what we learned: The easiest part is collecting new baby shells. Long fuzzy ropes are suspended in the lagoon 2 weeks before the shells spawn. This microscopic shell attaches to anything solid and soon those ropes are full of shells. When they are a bid older than a year at about 10 cm in diameter, they are sold to the pearl farmers. The farmer lets them grow a little longer, inserts a 6 mm round white ball made out of a shell from the Mississippi and mounts them on a rigid net. Every 4 months they bring them up to clean the shells from parasites and anything that grows on them. After a year and half they bring the shells ashore and open them with a knife and jam a wedge into the opening. After the strong muscle lets go a bit more, they open them up just enough so they can scoop out the pearl and if the shell has produced an nice round pearl, it gets the pleasure to receive a new ball about the size of the last pearl that has grown now to 8 mm. They close it back up and fix them to that plastic rigid net. Again they get cleaned from all parasites and go back in the water ASAP. Each worker gets "his" cages marked, so the owner knows their success rate. Lousy workers and do it yourself farmers get 5-20% pearls in their shells .At this rate you lose money. Chinese workers get 85 to 95% .The Japanese are too expensive and don't work here anymore. The Chinese get the French minimum salary (SMIG) plus room and board and the flight back home. This is quiet expensive since the Chinese will not eat the junk food the Gambier folks eat. We met locals that grow fruits and veggies and have pigs only for the Chinese. The locals do not eat fruits and vegetables. They eat French fries, steak, chicken or sausages. Every 18 months the shell is pried open and receives a bigger ball. This works up to five times. After that they would produce inferior quality. Eric's record pearl was 17.5 mm selling for way over 1000 $. The Polynesian record is 24 mm. When the shells produce oval shapes or with rings on them or any other imperfection the shell is not used anymore. They cut out the muscle and its delicious to eat. The flat shells are packed in 20kg bags and like the pearls sold to the Chinese. They make jewelry from this mother pearl. Eric started with 30 000 pearls per year. Now after 10 years his farm makes 180 000 pearls per year. He wanted to stop at 100 000 but somehow he became a slave of his own success. He does not work so he can live, but lives so I can work�...he smiles and you believe him, he loves his job. He is interested in my past as a fish farmer and likes it when you ask him questions. He invited us for dinner and soon we got to see the personal side of his life. He showed me the pictures of his 3 sons. The oldest is already working on site and the 2 others still study, one of them in Montreal. We talked about his love for the arctic cold in Quebec. He is lucky to be able to send his kids to fancy universities around the world. He takes the time to travel and speaks many languages. But then I asked about his wife and and it became�...quiet ..and sad. He told me the story: His wife and mother of his 3 sons took off one day in his big open work boat to go to town or something. She was a bid careless and never checked the gas tank. She must have run out of gas in the lagoon and obliviously couldn't contact anybody. She didn't have a VHF radio, a satellite emergency beeper, or a mobile phone with her. They own all those things that you should have with you, but she did not. The weather can turn quickly here and even at a calm day its surprising where the current takes you if you have no power. This lagoon is open in many places and you just drift outside into the open sea. A few weeks later they found the empty boat 300 miles away, she was gone. It was a sad moment. You see what happened to this family and there is nothing you can do or say that makes this pain go away. I could only listen and that is all you can do. It made me sad as well. Sad especially that in this tiny island of rumors and gossip, new versions appeared. All made up, but you and your kids must listen to the rotten gossip �.... That it was Eric that drove her to do this suicide because he had eyes for another women or some kind of bullshit. But when it's your own family and your own village that produces such garbage�...it hurts and it hurts a lot. And if you live in gossip town Rikitea, Gambier and you made your life here, you have no other place to go. So I gave him a big hug when we left and we drove back to Yelo a mile away into the dark night with mixed feelings. But I had recorded my track thru the corals on my phone and followed it back to my Yelo. We also carried our VHF and another boat checked on us to see if we made the journey thru the night. I was traumatized in the Bahamas 30 years ago. On a calm day we went on a dinghy ride for 20 minutes at full speed. Only one hour later a lot of wind came up and we were fighting the big waves in our tiny Zodiac trying to get back home. Soon we ran out of gas and had to pull our dinghy along the shore of a deserted island. We could not row and were lucky to find a person living on the next island and he towed us home. Its quiet amazing how far you can go in flat waters with 10 hp and how fast you are lost if the engine breaks or the weather changes. I prefer short dinghy trips at day light with a lot of boats around me. I came to learn a little more about pearls and learned a lot more about the dangers of open lagoons and the sadness that is with this family for the rest of their lives. Good thing is; we walked again. We walked the windward side and looked for "wash-up" but there is not much only a few soft drink bottles from China and a toilet seat. Watched two hermit Crabs fighting for a shell. Then we did the full length of this airport Motu and found the best road in Gambier. Because nobody drives on it. We even walked half of the runway. Wow that was smooth. I could have used my rollerblades. No plane that day, maybe a few more today because of the approaching festival. They expect a lot of dancers and musicians. The old Rolf starts drooling thinking of the fast hip movements. The local dancers are quiet boring compared to the rest of Polynesia. Not much hip movements here.
Comments
Vessel Name: YELO
Vessel Make/Model: CATANA 431
Hailing Port: LANGKAWI
Crew: ROLF & DANIELA
YELO's Photos - Main
First sunny and hot, then the fog moves in and the boat gets all wet. You feel the light drizzle
16 Photos
Created 20 March 2023