Goodbye Paradise, Hello Blue Lagoon! __ Life Off The Grid & On The Sea

It's leaving time. Bug flew up my nose, like literally in a second. Man, it's gonna be hard to go. It's gonna be hard to go. It's like, I don't think we felt this welcomed and invited into people's homes. It's just been amazing here in Raro. It's really hard to leave. We've only been here for two weeks and it feels like home. Mini home, yeah. Obviously, we pulled away from the key. Got untied this morning really early. The portmaster or the harbormaster said we couldn't leave before sunrise. So it's sunrise now and we're about to head out, shove off, pack away all this crap. I don't think our deck has ever been this dirty after such a short stay. It was just so dirty. We're up. Covered in mud. We'll go drag it for a sec. It's beautiful. I'm a little sad to go. You'd think that after almost 10 years of nomadic life, watching landscapes and people fade into the horizon wouldn't be so hard. But it's never easy. And like Winnie the Pooh, I remind myself how lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard. Singha, are you happy? How about you Cleo? Cleo? Cleo, what do you want? We've been doing about nothing this entire time until now. The Paul Gauguin ship is passing us right now. And I don't know why, but I think they're dessert bar. They probably have on that boat right now. I'm not even that hungry per se. It's just kind of like midnight lunchies. So yeah, I'm sitting in the cruise ship and thinking about food. Ice cream, if I may. Almost there. Atuatake has got a lot to live up to after Veratonga. There's the island. This is where we come in. And we have to enter through this little skinny stretch. Sail through here, you've got seven feet of water. Seven, seven, ten. It shows one there. I mean, I know boats have gone in there. I don't know how big they are. So I'm not feeling super confident. And once you're in there, there's no turning around in there. It's too skinny. Nice thing to do first thing in the morning. Yeah, right? Well, hey, at least we've got the whole day to recover. So what's the plan? The plan is to drop the dinghy and go in through the pass so we can kind of get a feel for it. I'm a little nervous. I don't like going into these things by myself. A rushing pass? Good luck. Can you shut my radio? It's waterproof. I've got a GPS. I've got charts. I'll be fine. Have fun! You're so funny. The scoop is... We don't know what the scoop is. What is marked on the chart as the pass is clearly not the pass because the barge went into a different spot. Because, well, the freighter is here and they can't make it through because the pass is too narrow and too shallow. The small barge came out, picks up the containers and then hauls them back in and does that back and forth. Jason's following them around to see, well, where are they going and does it look like we can make it in. I was scoping it out and it doesn't look real promising. That does not look inviting. Ah! Curiosity here. Go ahead. It's tight, but I met with the harbormaster and I think we can do it. Alright! Could get exciting. All pressure will be on you, though, so I'm sorry. Thanks. That doesn't actually help me any. It's slack tide and the water is at its highest, so we have our fingers and our toes crossed. The port captain told me the pass is 5 feet deep in some spots and as narrow as 30 feet. That just leaves 5 inches under the keels and a few feet on each side of our cap. It gets a little shallow up here. We're going to have to get sort of close to those rocks. And there's a white buckle, an anchor by him. There's a lot of dirt, but that's because of the tide. Talk about threading the needle. Okay. Well, it's the saying, do one thing every day that scares you. Good for the day. Since the Marquesas, since we've thrown aft. Just got to keep us in place here until Jason gets the stern anchor ready so that we can run it back because there is definitely not enough room for us to turn around in here. Well, not sweet. Well, my love, we made it. One more wacky spot for the books. We're the only ones here. I asked him, I was like, hey, should I email them? Should I contact them? I asked the harbormaster and Raro. And he's like, oh no, don't worry about it. I'm like, holy crap, if somebody else was here, we'd be screwed. Because there is only room for one. Man. This is going to be a neat place. It's going to be worth it. Definitely. Good job, honey. I know, that was tight. That's what she said. Get a little taste of the island via boat. Any particular plans for your afternoon snorkeling, guys? Particular plans, places that you really want to go to? I'm happy with what we do. And that spot is called the Purple Coral. It used to be purple, but today it's all gone, faded away. It's still there. It used to be pineapple plums and oranges. Oh, how everyone in Rarotonga raved about this lagoon. Atutaki translates to a little paradise. And anyone with half-decent vision can see how they came up with the name. It's stunning. And there's no doubt about it. The island's only 6.5 square miles and the lagoon is more than 3 times the size of the island. In other words, the lagoon is Atutaki. And if you don't get out and explore it, you're missing what this island is known for. But here is the kick in the pants. There's no access to the lagoon unless you're with a licensed operator. Sadly, all the vodka cruises were booked up and a private boat was our only option. And don't you know, a half-day trip is exactly a three hour tour. A three hour tour. Oh, look at the big beautiful lips on this giant clam. Contrary to some tall tales, giant clams are not aggressive or dangerous and no, they won't eat us. Not even close. But that doesn't prevent me from jumping each time the shell snaps. These guys can weigh more than 400 pounds and be up to 4 feet long. And almost as impressive as their size is their age. Giant clams can easily live to be 100 years old. And once it fastens itself to the reef, it sits there for the rest of its life. Which also makes them very easy targets. Populations are declining here and around the world due to over-harvesting and pollution. And sadly, the coral here has been hit drastically hard too by pollution and warming sea temperatures. There used to be vibrant purple coral all through the lagoon. But in 2017 the water temperature stayed between 85 and 90 degrees, bleaching it all away. It's a vivid reminder of how important it is to take care of our oceans and our planet. I can't imagine a world without these big beautiful creatures. What's that called? It's a little chilly. The One Foot Island Post Office. This is One Foot Island. We asked why do they call it One Foot. We were told that the story goes a long time ago there was a father and son. There were warriors coming to invade and the father told his son go run and hide. He climbed up a tree and then the father made sure to clear away the other set of footprints. So there was just one. When the warriors came, they followed those footprints to the father. They murdered him but the son lived and of course because his dad saved him by leaving only one set of footprints and that is why it is called One Foot Island. It's a busy little island. Unlike Captain Jonas and Gilligan, our skipper was keen on keeping us on a schedule. It's too shallow. This is as far as the boat can go so you gotta go the rest of the way on foot. What do you say we have about 10 minutes? Yeah, more or less. 10 minutes or less, ok. It depends on if we want to do more snorkeling. It's a very fast paced tour. Woah, that's weird. I guess he was ok. Yeah, we thought maybe he was injured but he took off so that's good. Wow. Well, got a close up of that bird. Red tailed insert name here. They are terrible at walking. You think they're really hurt. I know. Oh, it looks awful. They're such a pretty color. This is like the worst take off. So weird. It is so weird. Normally you would never get that close to a bird. There's another one deeper in there. They're all in there. These lovely pearlescent and seemingly uncoordinated birds use their feet to dig nests in the ground. A single egg is laid and both sexes share incubation and feeding. They're monogamous in their relationships and if they raise their chicks successfully they're likely to stay together. There's a baby. It's so cute. Don't get too close. I want to touch it so bad but I won't. It is the cutest fuzziest thing I think I've ever seen in my life. It is like a cotton ball. You're so cute. I want one. I'll take you home and lock you in a nice little cage and never never ever let you out except to pet you and love you and hug you and squeeze you all up. Won't that be fun? There are some big dark ugly clouds over there. I'm glad we got here yesterday. We knew a front was coming and I believe it's here. That's crazy looking. The wind is really picking up so all the kite boarders are deflating their kites. Look at that. It's gonna be gnarly. It's gonna rain. The camera is getting wet. We have lunch. Afternoon tea. Our guide has us jump in for one last spectacle. An up close view of the resident giant trevallies and Napoleon wrasse. This has been an odd experience for us versus our typical self-exploration. On one hand it's all felt a bit hurried with no time to really soak it in and on the other it's nice to have a local guide and to have seen so many highlights in one fell swoop. But our three hour tour is over and the clouds are moving in. Time to batten down the hatches.