May 20 - Anchored at Fakarava

Lat S16deg30min;W145deg27min: Weather forecast was for very light to no wind over the next 5 days, so we decided to depart Makemo and motor to Fakarava. We had a rough time retrieving our anchor - I'll write more about that in another blog entry, but it finally came up and we had no trouble exiting the NW pass at Makemo. We motored about 65 miles and a light northerly wind finally came up at 0300, allowing us to slowly sail the rest of the way to Fakarava. We entered Tumakohua Pass at 0715, and anchored shortly after. Several other boats are here, including Soggy Paws, Visions of Johanna and Nakia. This atoll is 32 miles long by 15 miles wide, with lots of places to explore, and the pass diving is reputed to be the best in all of the Tuamotus. We'll rest up a bit and look forward to having fun here! Tonight it's dinner ashore at the family run Pension Motu Aito, with our friends and the guests--an Italian and a Japanese couple. Bill from V of J, John from Nakia, and Dave from Soggy Paws went with our host, Manihi, outside of the atoll on a fishing trip, and managed to catch the wahoo that was served. Talk about fresh!

May 17 - Makemo

Lat S16deg27.1mi; W143deg57.8min. Happy birthday Tyson and Sophia! We raised anchor this morning and moved to an anchorage just west of Tapuhiria Pass at the NW corner of Makemo. We're just beside the pass channel, and you can see the current rip thru here (it's 1200 noon local time), by my estimate at 8-10 knots! We've got a good bite with the big Delta in 42' sand, so we'll put on our anchor alarm and relax! Next: exploration by dinghy at slack tide!

May 14 - Anchored in Makemo

We had moved northwest in the atoll to another anchorage two days ago. Unfortunately, the weather hasn't been all that wonderful, so we haven't been able to explore off the boat. We are apparently under the influence of the South Pacific Convergence Zone (SPCZ); if you think ITCZ (Intertropical Convergence Zone), you'll recall rainy weather, squalls, calms and high winds; a real mixed bag, and that's what the SPCZ is like. Our anchor keeps wrapping around coral heads, a very common occurrence in the Tuamotus, so we usually snorkel it and move the boat accordingly if necessary. Our friends at other atolls have had even worse weather; we keep an informal SSB radio net twice daily to say hi and chat. So far, we've had this anchorage all to ourselves (besides the small silver with white stripe ramoras that hang out under the boat); hopefully we'll get to explore the nearby beautiful beaches and coral heads soon.

May 10 - Anchored at Makemo, off the village of Pouheva

Lat S16deg37min/Long W143deg34min. We're safely anchored at Makemo Island, after going thru our first pass in the Tuamotus. (Arikitamiro; all the passes have a name, though we can't pronounce them!). We departed Rikitea May 4th thinking we'd stop at Hao Island, but strong winds and waves prevented us from doing so. A nearby motu, Amanu Island, was tempting, but again, we were stymied by strong weather. So, with little choice, we continued on for another two nights and went thru the pass here at Makemo at 0847 and were anchored in front of the village by 0915. The sight of five large windmills in the village shocked us, as they were probably the last thing we expected to see in the Tuamotus. Timing of your transit thru the passes of all these islands involves more, I think, black magic than art. It's important to time your passage as close to slack water as possible, as tidal outflows at some islands can reach 20 knots! Yikes! But, every guide book quoted a different methodology of calculating slack water, and everyone we met also was confused. So, you've got to figure the time of high tide, low tide, when the meridian passage of the moon is (no,I'm not kidding), and when moonrise and moonset are. Then you try to figure the passes of the motu itself....is it a large atoll like Makemo (40 miles in length and 10 miles wide (at it's widest point!), allowing a constant flux of water in, thereby shutting down all bets as to timing. It just goes on and on. We probably just got lucky, but we found this pass easy to navigate without any appreciable current against us, and had a small handkerchief of jib out in the 18 knots of wind forward of the beam. We had short tacked all night, and we used the computer nav. program (we're using Max Sea) to help calculate set and drift to allow us to be just off the pass at the time we wanted to be there. The weather cooperated, and our big problem was slowing the boat down! We had practiced heaving to, and used various sail combinations up during the afternoon, but I still wasn't happy. We were going just as fast under bare poles than with a small amount of jib out! At the time, winds were 20 knots, seas 4'-6'; not bad for around here! So, we're tired but very happy to be here. We've snorkeled the anchor, (crystal clear water!) and the chain is partially wrapped around a coral head, but that seems to be what it's like around this particular spot. We'll launch the dinghy and explore the town tomorrow, and possibly move to another anchorage in a day or so.
Btw, a short bit of Tuamotus factoids. Before the use of GPS and accurate charts, the islands here used to be called "The Dangerous Archipelago." Many ships sank due to uncharted reefs and unpredictable currents. Numerous coral heads lurk just beneath the surface inside the lagoons of most motus. But, the fishing, diving, and beaches are reputed to be excellent, and it's certainly far enough out of the way to not worry about an over abundance of tourists! There are 76 islands, of which 45 are inhabited and 29 atolls have airstrips. The Tuamotu Island chain runs from the SE to the NW, and lies between Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands, and are under French jurisdiction. Pearl cultivation, as well as copra harvesting, are found throughout the islands.
The picture is of when we were coming in the pass.

Believe me, we're trying...

to find a decent anchorage and a good night's rest. We've diverted to Makemo, about 175 nm up the line. Our night's sail wasn't too bad, but conditions weren't conducive (25 knots of wind and squalls) to making the pass into Amanu.

May 7 Enroute to Amanu

Lat S18deg15min/W140deg34min:
We changed plans again. Amanu is about 10 nm to the NE away from Hao, and we'll be going thru its pass at about 12 noon tomorrow. We'll write more when we're at anchor.

May 5 - Enroute to Hao

It was good to depart Rikitea, after spending one month in the Gambier Islands. Hao will be our first island in the SE Tuamotus. Arrival has to be timed in order to get thru the pass; more explanation to follow.

May 4, 2010

We've really enjoyed the anchorage here at Rikitea. Last night we watched the practice session from the local group that will compete at the big yearly competition that takes place for the two weeks before Bastille Day (July 14) in Pape'ete. Heiva i Tahiti is a major Polynesian festival. There was music and singing, (amazing harmonizing), wonderful drums, and dancing. This after a meal ashore with friends from Attitude, Fellow Traveler and Soggy Paws. We're leaving today for our 4-5day passage to Hao, our first stop in the Tuamotu Group. Some of the motus are off limits to boats, as they were sites for French nuclear bomb testing. Hao was a support center for operations at that time. We expect 24-36hrs. before the wind goes below 20kts...the further north, the milder the winds. We'll be entering our updates as usual. Ciao.
(The picture is of leaving the Gambiers behind))