Be careful what you wish for! We were leaving the Marquesas when we decided to check out a teeny uninhabited island called Tikei that showed up on our charts...
Closed Captions (CC):
which gun direction mm-hmm how's it
looking good all right step there we
just don't know where maybe we'll
discover anyway be careful what you wish
for in an effort to slow down and reach
our destination after daybreak we tried
to explore a speck of land marked on our
charts little did we know we would soon
have company
all right so what's going on that's me
so here we are counting time and we sir
found a way to kill time oh thank you
for giving them a lift home
the fisherman cooked us up three giant
lobsters for dinner they had been
surviving on Lobster for a week and had
had their fill what did they want most
coffee and cigarette how French take it
12 hours later the Sun was up and we had
arrived in Tokoroa what would soon be
our first atoll and the Tuamotus but
first we had to navigate its narrow path
yeah this is definitely sketchy I mean
my hands are shaking it's it's scary
we're powering through this and we're
barely moving like we should be going
about 7 knots we're going like
three-point-nine right now
chainsaw he's getting a puff of a
cigarette yeah what started off as a
12-hour active kind faith suddenly
turned it into the most remarkable
experience we could have asked for our
new friends Henry and James took us in
made his family and taught us what life
was really like in Tucker aah
was it possible that we had gotten the
better end of the deal
okay explain a little bit about what or
anything here I have no idea what I mean
about we got two new friends and put us
at the American table and we had before
which was tuna right or some sort of
fish in fermented ocean water which is
very smelly it's checking all the Flies
got all kinds of bananas and plantains
and what kind of bread is that coconut
bread and then that looks like something
sweet over there you got a little bit of
pork here Gina thinks it's banana leaves
and you know you're ever in Polynesia
and they bring you a bottle of something
don't immediately drink it it might be
sauce food like sour cream is delicious
once we were stuffed Henry and James
took us to see the famous ruins of a
1905 shipwreck the four-masted iron ship
met her end on the reefs of Tokoroa
during a heavy cyclone rumor has it one
of the survivors family still resides on
the island today
after 24 hours of sailing celebrating
and socializing we were ready for a calm
night's sleep
turns out we'd need it Henry woke us up
with a surprise spearfishing lesson this
would also be our first time swimming
with sharks
shut what a zero
we went fishing
we went there fishing
you got all these
I've got a lot to learn one thing that
was tricky one
in the super there was the stock right
there
this is our friends home see all the
kids in town come and jump off these
rocks he's got a little bit of pearl
farming out here mainly they're
fishermen the water is just absolutely
transparent big huh hang on it's very
big see look at the size of this thing
Wow
they took us around on a tour of the
island and they explained that once upon
a time there was a small one-room
bed-and-breakfast Ilic but because all
the pearl farms have closed on the
island
now there was there only four of them
that has also closed why have the pearl
farms closed explained to words against
the one son like zero hesitation when we
asked
apparently this atoll used to be one of
the most prosperous for pearl farming
and three years ago because of the
increased temperature of the ocean
waters an algae started to form in the
lagoon that could not nourish the I
don't know how you call them in English
but the shells that they grow the frozen
and because of that they all died and
the one product that they exported and
they're waiting with their fingers
crossed hoping that the algae will go
away and that things will fix themselves
which we know is not gonna happen
because it's an effective global warming
this is the very reason that we decided
to do this trip and the very reason that
we decided to cut on to you know the
South Pacific versus going to a being
the world is changing so fast and we
wanted to make sure that we could get
out here and see everything before it's
not as it once was and everyone shares
and everyone is family everyone takes
care of each other it really does take
the village to read the person and
this day