Out of the Water

This is a sign on the side of a building in Fakarava telling yachties that they are not allowed to bring in genetically mutant giant cats and dogs into French Polynesia. At least not without a veterinary inspection first. (Sorry the photo isn’t better, but we thought it was too hilarious to not post.)
The town at the south end of Fakarava used to be the administrative capital of the Tuamotus. Now it is not much more than a couple of dive shops and some small ‘resort’ cottages for rent to the visiting divers. This is the old jail house.
The old 1874 coral church is still in good shape. It has in-laid oyster shell in its facade.

A couple of the cottages for rent; overhanging the water for a great view of the fish.

The number of pearl farms seems to be going down in the Tuamotus due to economic reasons. The stack of balls on the left side of these pearl farm buildings are the floats that hold up the frames that the black-lip oysters grow on.

Chris’ peacock colored pearl necklace haul.

These hermit crabs are devouring a coconut that they have clawed into. We have a good book that helps identify Pacific island reef creatures. For the crabs, the first thing you need to do is determine if it is a left-handed crab or a right-handed crab. There’s no explanation of this in the book, but it turns out to mean does the crab have a larger left claw or right claw. I’m still not sure on these guys, but I think they are left-handed.
When we were leaving through the north pass at Fakarava this mega-sail-yacht was on its way in. The question I have is it a mega-yacht or is it an aircraft carrier? If you click on the photo to enlarge it you should be able to see the plane that sits on the stern of the yacht M5.
Paul