Tue, 17 Jul 2001
The Tuamotus is an archipelago of coral atolls between the Marquesas and the Society Islands (Tahiti, Bora Bora, etc) in French Polynesia. Typically, these atolls consist of a lagoon surrounded by a ring of coral reef, which was formed by a now sunken volcano; All that remains are “motus” or little islets spaced haphazardly along the reef. The Tuamotus were long known as the “Dangerous Archipelago” because so many ships were lost here. The advent of GPS, where we have a much better idea of where we are than in the old days navigating by sextant, makes it possible to visit them safely.
After we left the Marquesas (from the island of Oa Pou), there was some lengthy discussion about weather on the morning radio net. While our conditions seemed pretty ideal, we had a couple of weather fronts in the vicinity that were causing everyone concern. Unfortunately, for us, we were already out there and had to take the cards we were dealt. It was stressful wondering what was going to happen with the weather, despite the fact that our conditions were pretty good.
We were approaching low-lying islands surrounded by coral reefs hearing about boats inside the protected lagoons experiencing 20-30 knot winds with choppy waves. Several boat in the anchorages indicated they felt as though they were not in the best circumstances but were trapped inside a lagoon, unable to navigate through the coral patches hiding beneath the choppy waves. Sometimes it seems like it might be better not to hear everyone else get uptight.
We were concerned about navigating a narrow reef pass through chop and invisible coral patches. We debated altering course from where we were headed but instead decided to slow the boat down and keep our fingers crossed for calmer conditions upon landfall. We sailed under jib alone then hove to for a number of hours. We needed to wait for dawn and slack tide and also hoped the wind and waves would abate before we needed to make landfall so we could see what we were doing a little better. At daybreak when we were 8 miles from the pass, we experienced a series of driving rainsqualls that were a virtual “white out” and altered course away from the island several times. Then the sun finally broke through and we saw a line of palm trees in the distance and decided to go for it. We put a call out on the VHF for any vessel in the vicinity, thinking we might get some guidance through our first reef pass from someone who had been through recently. A reply came from our friends Milo and Kimberly on Eleftheria from back home! We’ve raced with and against Milo (Chip) during our racing days before both he and we decided to take off cruising.
We found the pass to be relatively straightforward and the current to be navigable a bit early. We then picked our way through coral heads for another 8 miles against the wind and some chop before arriving where Eleftheria was anchored in the afternoon. Once we finished anchoring, we enjoyed a well-deserved “anchor down cocktail” – a can of premixed (Gordon’s) gin and tonic, including the squeeze of lemon. (No worries about having all the right ingredients!) It was sure nice to relax after a few tense days. Then Milo and Kimberly invited us over for fresh homemade pizza. What a treat! It was great to catch up with them after nearly a year since we’d seen them last.
For a couple of days we were the only boats and people within miles. The pristine beauty of the atoll is such stark contrast to the lush high green peaks of the Marquesas. The turquoise waters and white sandy beaches lined with palm trees are just like millions of picture post cards we’ve all seen. The weather is much cooler and drier than the Marquesas, which makes cooking, baking, sleeping, and just being much more pleasant.
We had been hearing about an epidemic of Dengue Fever in Makemo on the net, that we believe also made international news. Dengue Fever is spread from one infected person to another by mosquito and is most prevalent in more populated areas. While we were in Makemo, we were not anchored anywhere near the town where the outbreak was centered, but a couple of cruisers did get it. It is a general malaise and ache that can last for several weeks. Garth had it for six weeks on his previous voyage and would not care to experience it again, so we’ll try to wear bug repellent regularly while we are in Papeete, another epidemic area.
After a few days a number of new boats arrived from across the lagoon on their way out the pass. Along with our friends Nick and Jennifer on Green Ghost, we snorkeled around a long reef. As soon as we got in the water we saw a shark. We froze as we all vividly remembered the movie “Jaws” from the seventies. Yet the tiny tropical reef fish seemed less concerned with this 3-foot long black tip reef shark than we were. We found the most abundant fish visible on the windward side of the reef. The range of colors in the mantles of the giant clams were the most fascinating – purple, turquoise, jade, red, and yellow, imbedded in the coral and looked like exotic flowers on the reef. We even had several types of tropical fish parked under our boat, probably waiting for food scraps – yellow ones that looked a little like angel fish and blue ones that looked like needlefish. I wish I knew all the names of these fascinating sea creatures, but we didn’t think to buy a fish guide before we left.
We enjoyed the company of our friends for a few more days, and then had the anchorage to ourselves for a day, before deciding it was time to go explore another island. The toughest part was figuring out where to go. Several friends invited us via SSB to join them where they were. We had a nice return motor across the Makemo lagoon to the pass, keeping a sharp lookout from a perch up on the mast for improved visibility. Seeing the different shades of water is helpful to determine where the shallow spots lie and where sharp coral heads may be lurking beneath the surface.
After exiting the northwest pass at Makemo, we had a pleasant sail with the wind behind us. We were going 6-7 knots with just the main sail. We wanted to pass the edge of another island (Katiu) before dark, which we did, but unfortunately, we were going much too fast to time our arrival for high slack water in daylight. We were aiming to enter the pass at 7:30 the following morning as the tides indicated for nearby atolls, so spent the next few hours experimenting with various ways to slow the boat down. We took the sails down completely around 9pm, since we had about 11 hours to go 40nm and ran with bare poles, still going 2.5 knots. It seems so weird being in a position where we are trying to slow the boat down, after all our years of racing, when we were trying to push the boat as fast as it could go.
In the morning we had a number of serious obstacles against us, which made transiting the pass stressful. First of all, we were approaching a lee shore; with the wind blowing us towards a low-lying reef that was difficult to see. It is a challenge to spot a single palm tree from a distance of 5 miles in chop. We were a little behind schedule, since we had slowed the boat too early in the night and the wind died down, plus the tides turned out to be earlier than the only available predictions for a nearby island, so we were facing an ebb against us and the current against the wind created a steep chop. A rainsquall hit, shortly before we were getting ready to enter the narrow pass. At the entrance all we could see was a line of breakers at first. We had to keep inside of a couple of markers that just didn’t look far enough from shore. Then we saw a departing boat appear in the pass, which was just about airborne, bucking the waves. This other boat made it much easier for us to see the channel that was partially obscured. Once we made it through the pass against the strong current, we were then looking into the sun to get into the anchorage from the pass, and finding it very difficult to see sharp coral heads under the surface of the water. These atolls really tax our navigating skills on limited sleep!
We had a wonderful week of snorkeling in the reef pass, which is like a Disney park ride, in which you effortlessly float by the most amazing variety of sea life you’ve ever seen. We would take the dinghy out to the edge of the pass during a flood tide and let the current sweep us into the lagoon along the reef and past the fish cages used to capture fish flown regularly into Papeete. While there was a town 25 miles away at the north end of the atoll, where we were there were only a few families and two tiny resorts. We got to know the resort owners. Garth went out fishing a number of times with Manihi, one of the resort owners, outside the pass in a workboat. We enjoyed a bit of fresh fish, one Manihi captured in the fish trap and another he caught on a later fishing trip after Garth had decided he was bringing them bad luck.
Navigating through these atolls often means leaving just before dark to arrive at the prime time. We had wanted to visit an atoll that was little talked about to get off the beaten track, but the winds were light for several days and from the direction we wanted to head. Finally we decided the conditions were acceptable and departed from Fakarava where we had been having so much fun. While the wind was light, we had a pleasant sail and the pass into Kauehi was easy to navigate. We had read with interest about the family black pearl farm operations in Kauehi and how friendly the townspeople were. We were disappointed to discover that there were no pearls available, since the harvest had all been sent to Tahiti the previous day. However, we were able to restock our depleted butter and eggs so we could continue to have fresh baked goods. Anchoring near the town placed the boat near a busy channel and we were not comfortable there, so decided to not to stay long at the village. Across the lagoon near the pass we enjoyed the complete privacy of a deserted anchorage, but it wasn’t well protected either.
Pearl farms are all over the lagoons in the atolls. They consist of tiny shacks built over the water on pilings with buoyed lines beneath providing habitat for millions of oyster shells. Many are part of cooperatives that are required to send all their harvest to Tahiti, but sometimes you can find smaller family operations that will trade, give away pearls, or sell below market prices. Unfortunately we didn’t get lucky there as some have.
We wanted to see another atoll before heading on to Papeete, Tahiti, but it was not in the cards. When we arrived at the atoll we had in mind, there were huge breaking waves across the entire entrance to the pass and for several miles outside. We hovered outside, thinking maybe the tide hadn’t yet turned. We finally gave up after deciding that swell coming over the reef on the south side of the atoll had overcome the normal tides.
Ah well, off to the big city. It’s been a while since we’ve been in a village of any size and Papeete will be a big contrast.
Cheers,
Wendy Hinman and Garth Wilcox
S/V Velella (Wylie 31)