Happy Mother's Day from Rangiroa

Happy Mother’s Day! We’re all thinking of you and are all so thankful to be here, at Rangiroa — thank you for everything! (And yes, we’re all putting on lots of sunscreen and drinking water and getting as much sleep as possible.)

That's a moray...

The highlight of my day was the snorkel trip to the nearby motu, followed by a short walk around the town of Tiputa. Although Doug and I had already snorkeled at the motu, we were eager to return for the breathtaking abundance and diversity of life. I recognized some individuals, such as a moray eel poking its green head out of its nook in the reef. Today, some fish were cleaning its teeth! The aptly named Christmas tree worms decorated the hard corals. Whenever I dove down to get a closer look, they would yank in their bristly appendages. The trip to the motu left me humbled by the intricacy and dynamism of the reef ecosystem.

Christmas tree worms

After a quick soldier’s shower (60 seconds or less of running fresh water), we took the Defender from the S.S.V. Seamans to the nearby Tiputa port. It being Sunday, not many people were around. Doug and I unsuccessfully searched for a baguette, on which he could spend his last Polynesian Francs. The journey ended up, as all good expeditions do, with a walk along the length of the oblong motu, talking about life (naturally, issues in the American education system and the importance of a multi-faceted approach to confronting environmental awareness) and marveling at the local flora and fauna (apparently there are pine trees in the tropics!). We returned to the S.S.V. Seamans at sunset, just in time for journaling on top of the Dog House, accompanied by three ukuleles, a guitar, and singing. No one remembers the lyrics to Vance Joy’s “Riptide.”

In other important news, I had my first ever TimTam Slam today. Vickie set out the New Zealand, chocolate-covered wafer cookies for ‘midrats’ (midnight rations). To properly slam a TimTam, one nibbles off the ends of the rectangular cookie. Then, using the TimTam as a straw, one dips one end of the wafer into a drink of choice and sucks on the other end. Second Mate, Scotty (shout out to B-Watch!) recommends coffee or hot chocolate. Once one has sufficiently saturated the wafer of the TimTam, one pops it in one’s mouth for a mouthful of TimTam Slam. It’s life-changing.