Ooh I have so much to tell you since my last post!! I’ve had 2 holidays, navigated my way through my first (albeit very short) yard period and Tahiti has opened its borders and we now have over 3000 cases – merde.

But, let’s write about the most exciting bit first. The borders opened on 15th July and most of the foods we’ve been struggling to get came flooding back onto the shelves, thank goodness. It’s still a bit hit and miss with certain products, but that’s how it was before all this virus mess too. So with life a little more normal and the travel restrictions lifted, my boyfriend and I decided to make use of our holiday allowance and head over to the Tuamotos for a couple of weeks of diving…

Oh.

My.

God.

I am still relatively new to scuba diving and I just didn’t realise it could be that good!! Now yes, I know, this is supposed to be a food blog, but indulge me a little please…

Crystal clear water, insanely colourful fish, dolphins, sharks, manta rays, eagle rays, turtles, healthy living coral reefs (unfortunately a rarity these days) really what more could you wish for?! We decided to spend a few days in the north of Fakarava, a few in the south and then fly over to Rangiroa for our final few days.

In the north we stayed in a lovely little guesthouse run by Sidonie – the girlfriend of our dive instructor. Sidonie, it turned out, was a yacht chef for smaller catamaran charters, so when the opportunity to eat her food for dinner arose, we both jumped at it. Tuna carpaccio, poisson cru (the national dish – think tuna ceviche with coconut milk), seared tuna and sushi were all on the menu. Sidonie did everything from scratch – bought the fish whole, filleted it, plucked coconuts from her tree, made the coconut milk, served us pota (a sort of pak choi) from her garden etc etc. It was amazing to watch. And to taste! I learnt a few tips and tricks for ways to serve tuna which I have since used on my boat family and on my real family and they went down very well indeed.

The Tuamotos are an interesting place in regards to food. They have access to an abundance of beautiful fresh fish – tuna, unicorn fish, parrotfish, mahi mahi, the list goes on. But, due to living on a coral atoll, their soil quality is poor and so very few fruits and vegetables can be grown there – meaning the island’s inhabitants rely on canned foods or the fresh produce being shipped in from Tahiti. This can lead to some interesting meal combinations!! One notable one in Rangiroa was the most beautiful tuna carpaccio, some equally lovely seared tuna and then some packet macaroni and cheese with cut up pieces of ham?!

Anyway, enough of all that. I’ll be back to writing about crew cheffing in the next post where I dive head first into my first ever yard period….

Abbi x