A Slow Boat to Somewhere: Exploring French Polynesia

Overview

Ride along on a rustic, and rusting, Polynesian cargo boat as it makes deliveries to 21 of the globe's most isolated coral reef atolls, in the heart of the South Pacific Ocean. Along the 3,000-mile route meet black pearl divers, the man who found the Kon Tiki, Marlon Brando's 'Mutiny' girlfriend, a ship laden with NFL-sized crewman and many more - all set against the backdrop of a fast-and-forever changing Paradise. I jumped on the cargo boat for one of its monthly, 3,000-mile delivery jobs, taking us to ports-of-call that were literally just piles of sand and rock washed up on rims of coral, halfway between Australia and South America, each home to populations ranging from seven to two hundred fifty people. The trip took us through the Tuamotus, a chain of 78 atolls that sailors going back to Magellan dubbed the dangerous archipelago for its low-lying, barely visible, wooden-boat-sinking reefs.