“Don’t you feel like seeing other places sometimes?” Gary asked me. “I mean you guys could easily sail west to Fiji, Tonga, Micronesia.” Sure, exploration is in our genes..! But now I understand what a guy once told me about good wine: “When you find something you like, stick with it for awhile.”

French Polynesia is the good wine we are enjoying… variety may be the spice of life, but depth is the flavor you don’t forget. So we are going deep into it. (In fairness we are also planning on visiting other islands later this year, on other boats… Aldebaran is sticking around here.)

Back home, we’ve kept things fresh by talking with friends about new things in our hometown: “Ah yes this new restaurant opened up” “Have you gone to this park on the full moon?” I love people who live in a town but act like travelers, always searching for novelty, even if means picking up a Lonely Planet guide of your own hometown 🙂 It’s fun to keep enjoying that feeling of new-ness!

For us here, our feeling of new-ness is about exploring the different corners of these amazing Tuamotu atolls, the different coral bommies, the different people. And thus we headed north with Jonathan and Gary to a corner of Tikehau we’d never been before, called Teavatia.

I had no idea it would be so beautiful. An islet of rock, bushes, and sand protected the anchorage, and we dropped the hook behind it. From the air it looks just like a broccoli ! A little system of reef circles the coast, and a lone house stands on the shore. Who lives here, and what will we find in this interesting nook of coastline? We jump in the dinghy and go explore!