Ep. 19 French Polynesia: The Gambier Islands

After the challenging 12-day sail from Rapa Nui (Easter Island) to the Gambier Islands, we savored our first taste of French Polynesia. The Gambiers are rarely visited by cruisers because they are off the more popular "Coconut Milk Run" route from the Americas, wherein landfall is typically made in the northern island chain of the Marquesas. Despite having to tackle some rather unpleasant boat projects, we had plenty of fun and learned a lot! We hiked the second highest peak on the island of Mangareva, visited a pearl farm, and enjoyed the company of a local family and trio of young sailors who had taken up residence on the out-island of Taravai. Neil successfully speared his first fish, we got out the drone, and we spent a lot of time with our new friends on s/v Romano. If we have our druthers, we'll get back there again?it was worth the long, lonely sail to get there! Read more about our time in the Gambier Islands, including our visit to Michel's pearl farm, at the posts below. All work and no play: https://svtheredthread.com/2016/12/10/all-work-and-no-play/ Once upon a floating mountain: https://svtheredthread.com/2016/12/14/once-upon-a-floating-mountain/ Pearls?the queen of gems and the gem of queens: https://svtheredthread.com/2016/12/17/the-queen-of-gems-and-the-gem-of-queens/ Three sparrows, one family, and a dog with a phantom pregnancy: https://svtheredthread.com/2016/12/21/three-sparrows-one-family-and-a-dog-with-a-phantom-pregnancy/ LINKS Blog: http://svtheredthread.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/svtheredthread/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/svtheredthread FILM BY: Jessie MUSIC: Clean Bandit (feat. Jess Glynne) - "Rather Be" Twin Musicom - "Santo Rico" & "Rauchus"* Ben Harper w/the Blind Boys of Alabama - "Take My Hand" These songs by Twin Musicom are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ & https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).