Sailing De Novo

Dave in Taou Atoll, Tuamotus Ia ora na, family and friends,  Thank you for your patience. Little by little, we're catching up. Our last post was about the Marquesas Islands, and this one is about somewhere just as special: the Tuamotus. A land of turquoise waters and white sand beaches, the Tuamotus are paradise on earth.    If you’re unfamiliar with the Tuamotus, open a satellite map of French Polynesia. Among the deep ocean blues in the area, you’ll find a lighter band, almost like a scattering of stars, stretching from northwest to southeast. This is the Milky Way of Polynesia. As you zoom in, you’ll notice the cyan bursts aren’t stars but craters of fringed reefs. Each smaller reef island, or motu, makes ringed atolls which in turn, make up the Tuamotus ( Paʻumotu   for “distant islands"). The Tuamotus are old, even from a geological standpoint. At the height of their glory, each atoll was a towering volcanic island, much like Marquesas or Tahiti. In fact, volcanic rocks f