When Frank, Celine, and I arrived in Tahuata after our crossing from Hiva Oa, we anchored the Kaveka in a beautiful, secluded bay.  Frank took Celine and me to shore with the zodiac, landing in front of a tiny little house at the edge of the jungle, where a Marquesan friend of theirs lived off on his own.  This friend, Tei’i, had the entire valley to himself and his two dogs, Bella and Luna, and made his living harvesting copra.  Tei’i appeared to be about 40 years old, and was heavily tattooed.  His house, open on two sides, was about as big as my living room and kitchen in Brooklyn, and had a mattress on the floor under a mosquito net, a stove, and shelves for his four or five items of clothing.  He offered to fill a big sack of fruit for us to take back to the boat, and loaded it with green coconuts, mangoes, pomelos, oranges, and limes, all of which he had picked from the trees around his house.

We brought Tei’i, along with our sack of fruit, back to the boat for dinner.  He made himself comfortable immediately, pulled some weed from his bag that he had grown himself by his house, and rolled a joint.  Then he took his machete and opened up a green coconut for each of us to drink. Finally, he pulled out a coil of fishing line from his bag, baited three hooks, and started fishing off the side of the boat without a pole.  Celine made tuna fish salad (with tuna they had caught) on bread for us to snack on while we waited for dinner.  Tei’i quickly pulled in three large fish a couple of minutes later –  no messing around.  I donated the remainder of my bottle of Jura single malt scotch for the occasion, and we all sat around the table enjoying the whisky and the gentle rocking of the boat.  Tei’i spoke animatedly in French with Frank and Celine, and when we had finished the whisky he picked up the empty bottle.  He looked at it lovingly and said “Beautiful. I keep?”  I told him “Of course,” and he smiled and tucked the bottle quickly into his bag as if he was afraid I might change my mind.  We ate all of his fish for dinner, along with rice and taro, a white root that is one of the staple foods of this part of the world.  After dinner, I tried fishing myself with his line, but the fish ignored me.  When he finally took the line back from me, he caught another fish within a minute or two.