Day 67 - confit de canard
Jamie here, Another day another dive in pristine and clear coral reef. No fish shot today however dinner was greatly redeemed by opening the can of confit duck. Wow I am a fan of eating fat but this duck fat was next level. A special treat for a special crew. Stars out big time tonight. More discussions with the insect man occured at the local bar.
Tristan Day with mum today, we read a lot and scouted out the new kiwi boats. But they were from Auckland, so we kept our distance and our spear guns aimed in their general direction. We rowed and sang sea shanties to the island where we came across the insect man's hive and caught him awkwardly drinking coconut sap, which he explained helps him keep his insectoid abdomen in when public. Came home to possibly the most delicious canned duck anyone has had. Ever.
Q Boats boats boats, so many boats.......Ellen and I went for a kayak, came back and there were more boats, went for a swim and there were more boats, went for a snorkel, and there were even more.... You guessed it....BOATS!!!!! But none the less, seems they have all realized the weather prediction has changed, which is the most reliable Characteristic of the weather prediction. They no longer need to run (sail/motor) and hide, they can come hang with us. Glassy water, loads of sharks. Even sharks that love to try to eat GoPro cams (sorry Alan, about your cam) got some pretty exciting footage though, with only faint shark teeth marks on the cam.... Did you happen to have insurance on that?
Naomi here, today I watched a charter boat spend a long time trying to get their anchor up, there's really no good place to anchor here its tiny patches of sand and bommies everywhere yet a surprising amount of people just drop their chain wherever, the charter boat had to have someone swimming and directing them where to drive the boat to unwrap it, luckily there was no wind so it was do-able but I don't know how these anchored boats sleep at night, wrapping the chain around massive chunks of coral seems like an inevitability? And this is not only a UNESCO world heritage site but also where "700 sharks" was filmed. I saw an octopus today and we played some hide and seek and also saw some kinda gross spaghetti monster hiding in the rocks, a couple of times. And too many hermit crabs yet again stealing the best shells. Very enjoyable after many rounds of sea shanties to come home to the best duck confit this side of the Marseilles. This is the life.
Duck confit? In a can?? For $15, four GIANT duck legs?? Sign us AND the sunset up, the fringe benefits of french colonialism and having to try and learn FRENCH in the middle of the Pacific ocean... Did you know to say "80" you have to say "four twenties"?! And "90" is "four twenties and ten"?! ...but this completely unnecessary mathematical nonsense begins only after you have gotten to "60" in a relatively identifiable fashion? Also not understanding why every vowel has to somehow encompass them all as if it's the last chance... I have now as well watched the disassembly of Olivia, some sort of part of some sort of weather or swell buoy? washed up in the middle of nowhere coral atoll from 2012 to Naomi's beach stroll (like the Japanese toothbrush I found on the Oregon coast a year after the Fukushima tsunami...), ancient eroded undersea mountaintop just below the swell to runagroundonifyoudontlooking - 12V solar panels still fine! despite dead batteries and sand inside but heck that's good stainless steel hardware we'll keep THAT and go SNORKELING AGAIN on the abyss at the edge of paradise, it's clearest where it drops off past the reef fish into the blue-black deep, sharks tracing lazy ovals just at the edge of breath, so clear, the coral gardens, below where we cannot touch...
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