Are we there yet? .....Yes we are! Tuamotos

This appeared overnight

Four years and five months of cruising.  Restoring the boat with backbreaking labour, ultimately rewarding but mostly monotonous and body wearying.  Four years and five months of eking out an existence on the water.  Endless shopping trips to buy whatever provisions are available, searching for hard to find items to replace breakages – both household and yacht parts.  The general drudge of cleaning to keep the salt and mould and general corrosion at bay.  Then we crossed the ocean for four days to arrive at the ‘Dangerous’ Archipelago of the Tuamotus – an area the size of Europe with 80 huge sunken coral atolls. 

 

Perfect picnic spot

 

It had been a boisterous trip across in strong winds and short interval waves which make for a bumpy ride.  We negotiated our first reef pass successfully and after directions from a local pearl farmer, anchored on the far side of the atoll in shocking turquoise water.  The lagoon was totally flat.  The first flat water we had had since leaving Las Perlas Islands in Panama in April five months ago.  The water was dazzling and we were surrounded by tour-brochure perfect palm-fringed islands (motus).  We sat on the deck in disbelief.  Could we really be here? This was what we had had in mind when we set off all those years ago.

 

Pearl farm jetty - only other people for miles around

If you pull up the colour palette on a computer it just doesn’t have the same range of blues and greens we are surrounded by.   Sitting in one of the most remote places on the planet we were overwhelmed by the urge to call people on the sat phone just to describe what we could see.  This was quickly discounted as we could hear the derision at the other end of the phone not to mention how pale our description could only be.  I was reminded of the joke where a guy is stranded on a desert island with Kim Bassinger and to pass the time they role played.  One day he suggested she be a man and that they meet in a bar that evening.  Kim is puzzled but plays along.  When she gets to the bar the guy spends the evening telling her about the fact he’s stranded on the island with her.  It’s in the sharing that the enjoyment is complete.

 

 

Coconut family - mum, dad and the kids

But to be honest, the Tuamotus are paradise, with or without the telling.  We have spent the last two months doing very little but collect coconuts on the islands, fish for our supper and hunt crabs, lobsters and shells.  We haven’t been shopping in over 2 months apart from a tiny store on the atoll of Raroia where we bought some potatoes, carrots, cabbage, sliced ham and a pack of Frosties!  Instead we are using up all our Panama supplies.  Tins of meat and stews - some better than others, fruit and veg - all pretty ordinary, that we try to mix with what’s left of our fresh produce.  I’ve finally cracked making bread.  Even developed my own sourdough last week which produced a surprisingly good loaf. 

 

Paradise apart, we have been thrown the odd curved ball.  As we sat in our first anchorage in the gin clear water, we decided we should practice putting out our hurricane anchors which Mark had bought in Panama.  It’s basically 3 anchors on 3 lengths of chain that attach to the boat’s main chain.  The idea being that whatever direction the wind blows from you are well bedded in.  It takes a bit to set up which involves Mark diving with our scuba tank to set the anchors in place.  We had been to the pearl farm earlier so were a bit late getting started but Mark got two anchors down when dusk started to fall.  We decided the rest could wait until morning.

 

We awoke to strong winds blowing us onto the shore of the nearest island.  The wind had gone around and instead of blowing us off the island was now blowing us on.  Putting us unnervingly close to some coral heads only 1 meter below Zenna.  Mark started the engine to pull us away.  Normally we would have got up the anchor but with two down we couldn’t without Mark diving again.  With the wind at 30kts and the sea in the lagoon now a very choppy one meter swell we decided it would be best to both stay on the boat.  We spent the next 8 hours with the engine on trying to keep off the coral heads behind us.  At one point the rope we have on the bow to stop the chain rolling out broke and we moved even further back towards the coral before Mark had a chance to get a new one on and pull in the chain again.

 

We later heard that we had just experienced a very unusual storm.  Several boats were lost on one atoll and others had dragged or experienced 60kt winds at sea.  So our experience, one of the worst we’ve had on Zenna, wasn’t as bad as some.  We were very glad to get the anchors up again at the first opportunity and spent the next few days swotting up on weather in the South Pacific.  We’ve got a much better handle now, but we’ve still had a few surprises with the wind backing us into a corner and onto shallow, coral strewn reefs on more occasions than we would have wished. 

Off the back of the boat

 

We have also been doing some amazing snorkelling.  The coral in the lagoon passes is awesome.  It goes on forever and attracts hundreds of different fish species.  From the prettiest to the most fearsome.  Sharks are everywhere.  Around the boat, at your feet on the beach, lurking deep in the passes.  We’ve both been pretty circumspect about being in the water with them. 

 

 

The shadow in the water is another shark

But we heard the pass at Fakarava South was world class and we decided we ought to dive it.  I just wanted to get it over and done with.  The dive resort had a restaurant over the water surrounded by sharks which wasn’t exactly calming my nerves.  Until – after lunch the chef appeared and dived into the lagoon with all the sharks.  Closely followed by a small 5 year old boy on holiday who thought it looked like fun.  So after that, being surrounded by hundreds of sharks when we did our dive didn’t seem so bad.  Although you do hold your breath when one comes swimming directly for you!

Mele into which the chef dived

Now our supplies are running low.  Down to 5 beers left – but 12 bottles of wine - so not such a big problem!  But we are out of black pepper and crisps and down to the last of our parmesan (from the nine packs we set off  from Panama with), butter, cheese, onions, milk, yeast and chocolate.  We started with 350 tins and jars of food and 300 packs of pasta/rice/flour/crackers/biscuits/cereal and 350 cans/bottles of juice and soft drink and are down to 50 tins, 30 ambient packs and 50 soft drinks.  Sounds a lot but surprising how quickly you get through them when there is nothing else.  So we will probably head to the north of Fakarava, the atoll we are currently in, where they are meant to have shops stocked by a weekly supply ship.  I suspect the beers will be the deciding factor...

Herb garden - saviour once fresh supplies ran out

Stock take

Tuamotu - 'Fakarava atoll'

6 Nov 13 - Interesting crossing…we left Tahanea on account of the wind forecasted to change, so out the pass we went. The wind may have changed but we would never have known it, the wind died. On account of the crossing only being 10 hours we did an overnighter but if we motored we would have to wait at Fakarava for daylight so…….we set in to drift and hope the wind would pick up. This all sounds fine until we worked out we were drifting towards two islands….motor on and off we go! We got to Fakarava 0300 hours so i turned the engine off and set in to drift. It happened to be in the wrong direction so with the little morning wind I got the sails out and kept our position by sailing against the current. By about 0500 hours however we got 8 – 12 knots of wind and with all our sail up and flat seas had a wonderful dawn sail towards Fakarava south pass.

22 Nov 13 – Well, here we are at the end of our holiday, or that’s how it seems. The Tuamotus has been truly amazing, but before we conclude lets step back to our arrival in Fakarava South.

Fakarava South, we're anchored half way down the picture on the grey trim on the right side, ....nice.

We had read that the pass can be done in settled weather at any time, regardless of the tide…oh yeah? Let me tell you….it was an outgoing tide about half way through, and it had certainly been calm weather for some time. We edged up into the pass and all looked okay, we headed around the bend until we were off the resort, where the pass started to narrow, the current got stronger, and small standing waves were present. I put the revs up a bit on the engine to ensure we kept moving forward at a slow pace while countersteering to the eddies and whirlpools that were starting to occur beneath Zenna. We moved closer to the ‘Y’ junction of the pass where we were to go to port, over a shallow section. My countersteering was becoming more erratic, the boat was jostling one way then the other, it took all my effort after a sleepless night to keep her on course. I was getting tired, and realised that although the water was ripping past us we weren’t actually moving. Instructions from Marion on the bow were to keep going straight, heading for a reef at the junction, so I gave Zenna all revs she had while countersteering like a wild man (I’m not sure what the people at the resort 50m away were thinking about all this). ‘Keep going, keep going’ Marion yelled back, my breath was getting short, my arms were burning, ‘are we there yet, I can’t hold her much longer’ I yelled back to Marion. Zenna was slowly inching forward through the surging current at the shallow section. ‘I can’t do it’ I yelled to Marion, ‘we’re nearly there’ she yelled back, my lungs were bursting, I could taste blood. ‘okay, go to port a bit’ came the instruction from Marion. I turned the wheel, took a few deep breaths, and it was like Zenna went over the crest of a hill and started to move forward, and we found ourselves in the lagoon within 5 minutes and reducing the revs. ‘What was that’ we both enquired to ourselves. What next?... we still had to anchor!

It was a really really special day upon our arrival. As mentioned before the weather had been calm for some time, so much so that the water in the lagoon was like a mirror, I mean glassy like you wouldn’t believe. Now to anchor Marion had to guide us through the coral heads, and in some respects I wish it wasn’t so clear so Marion could not see the coral 8m down with it looking like it was 2m deep. ‘Go this way’, ‘Go that way’, instructions were coming from the bow until we reached our safe anchorage; behind some motus, away from shore, away from any shallow coral heads. Looking out towards the reef it was hard to distinguish the horizon line, until there was a flash of white above it. The flash of white turned out to be waves crashing over the reef and reflecting off the calm and tranquil water on the lagoon side…..it was being mirrored, and that’s why we couldn’t see the horizon. Truly amazing!

resort restaurant, right on the pass

We settled in and decided we had to do a dive with the resort, along with a meal, yippeeee! The dives, we ended up doing two as we couldn’t move the boat on account of the weather blowing consistently for days on end from the south east, totally opposite to Tahanea. It turned out the pass drift dives were not to be missed and are world famous. We had a meal prior to the first dive where we saw so many black tip reef sharks Marions nerves became unsettled. The dive presented so many BIG fish we couldn’t believe it, including Marion getting up close (she had no choice in the matter) with black and white tip along with grey and black finned sharks. I think Marion got over her fear somewhat, but it is still unnerving having a shark come towards you and veer off within 2m distance.

enjoying the dive Marion........



'LOOK OUT!!'



......now below you.....keep your arms close now!

While not diving, and when the wind allowed us, it was more motu exploring, coconuting, and fishing……what else could we do, imagine.

coconut haul, hit the motherload here

this is how the locals do it....




ready for drinking, eating, & pina coladas

The weather finally swung around to the east prompting us to move, we had been there close on two weeks and it was time to explore the east side of Fakarava on the trip north. We settled in at Tonnae for a couple of days, shell collecting and enjoying the crystal clear water, but we had to keep moving before the wind kept swinging which would make Fakarava north uncomfortable, if not untenable.



Marion's hand line caught, and landed, a 'crocodile needlefish'......becoming quite the expert eh!

 

Tonnae, nice spot

shell collecting

 

along crystal clear water. . .  .  .  .   .    .    .    .

 So here we sit at Fakarava north with the weather system stalled. There is no wind so we are waiting for the wind to increase, a little, and allow us to sail to Tahiti. We have been keeping an eye on all our systems and provisions wondering what will keep us from staying in the Tuamotus. Gas! we have just moved onto our last bottle, a small one, so we are keeping our fingers crossed for it lasting to Tahiti. On shore provisions are limited but we can get baguette, brie, and beer, along with limited fruit and veges, so otherwise its all good!

Tuamotu - 'Tahanea atoll'

Yeah!…what a crossing from Raroia, record time with arrival early, average speed 6.8 knots. Basically an overnighter and Marion didn’t even need to have breakfast at sea. I finally worked it out while I was doing my dog watch; when a squall comes, I head downwind and pull in some sail, when Marion is on watch and a squall comes….she holds on tight, on account that she doesn’t have the strength to pull the sail in. So, Marion gets to sail the boat faster than I!

toils of cruising, preparing 8 lobsters

Tahanea sunset, the first yachties we have seen for 3 weeks

Where to put the lobster pot.....

Tahanea…. Not a lot to say really except that the weather kept us on our toes, having to move the boat to the other side of the motu (a 2-3 hour trip) no less than 5 times when the wind changed direction. This did have the plus side of letting us get to snorkel the atoll passes, amazing, at the change of tide. It was jumping in holding onto a line to the dinghy and drifting along with the current just above the coral gardens, fantastic!

 

What is this prehistoric dead thing..........



Marions first caught and LANDED fish, an African Pompano, delicious!

Smalltooth Jobfish (Snapper), caught in lagoon pass

 Other than that is was more snorkelling, swimming, fishing, crabbing (well, a fisherman gave us a coconut crab, absolutely excellent!!), lobstering (okay, so we weren’t going to go out at night and walk the reef…..so a fisherman gave us 8 for 3 beers and a flask of rum), coconut collecting, dinners & sunsets.

wild sand structures on the motu's

 

Camouflage Grouper, 2 caught that afternoon

 

Tahanea sunset, no more yachties around

 

coconut collecting

Tahanea sunset, Mark taking Marion out for a Friday night sundowner

 

Coral Grouper,.......before breakfast, first cast!



Now, THIS is a coconut crab......one a fisherman gave us!



Tuamotu - Raroia atoll




Crystal clear water

Walking under the palms

Watching hermit crabs



Catching (coconut??) crabs

Wow!…you know when you think of a South Pacific island, this is it. Well, they aren’t actually islands but ‘motus’ which form a chain around the ‘atolls’ (remnants of volcanos) and provide the idyllic and perfect safe anchorages within the lagoon, or so we thought. Walking ashore through the crystal clear water, meandering under the palms watching hermit crabs, collecting coconuts and coconut crabs for dinner one cannot imagine anything at all that could possibly be perceived as threatening; falling coconuts, black tip reef sharks, and adverse weather, not to mention ciguatera poisoning.



Fresh coconut is a great snack, we lost a lot of weight!

edge of the reef where it drops off to 300m into the Pacific ocean



Chinese 'grafters' collecting the pearls

Arrghh! the booty me lads!

magnificent pearl

We arrived at Raroia on a Thursday so a long weekend was in order to regain strength after the boisterous crossing so a few walks ashore, a visit to the pearl farm nearby, and a walk out to the edge of the reef was had.



Zenna is equipped with 3 anchors, 10m lengths of chain, swivel, shackles and various other pieces to provide for good protection in a storm. The weather window looked fine, and as we had never put all this gear out to see how easy it was to go together, thought we would give it a go. As soon as we had most of it out (could only hook up 2 anchors as I couldn’t find the third when underwater) the clouds rolled in…..and yes, that’s right, here we go again!

here we go again!

.....the wind certainly 'clocked' around, the shore (orange) is not that far off!!

Now the problem with putting this storm system out is that you cannot move the boat once it is set without diving to unshackle it all. We woke in the morning to 30 knot sustained winds blowing from the west putting us towards the shore with coral heads under the stern. Westerly winds, particularly at that strength, is very unusual so I quickly put the motor on and relieved the pressure off the anchor chain, obviously one of the anchors dragged. We spent the rest of the day motoring around in the torrential rain staying off the coral heads with the chain snubber snapping and us losing the chain hook at one stage. The winds died and clocked around at nightfall so we rested a bit, but kept a watch during the night.

We spent the rest of the week cleaning up the carnage the storm created with Marion having to dive and retrieve the anchors and gear before we moved the boat further offshore. I was suffering from an ear infection.



plenty of fish, ambon emporer within 1/2 hour





Sunday picnic, amazing what you can scrape out of the bilges, rose, brie, beans, bruschetta and cold cuts

The rest of our time on the eastern anchorage was spent enjoying the fruits of Raroia. The fishing was plentiful, bartered scallops and bok choy was obtained from the pearl farm, with plenty of crabs and cococuts on shore. We managed to have one of our picnic lunches on another motu nearby which also saw us find a whale carcass on the reef. A quick visit to the motu where the ‘kon tiki’ landed also saw Marion catch a fish while pulling the line in.

washed up whale

'nice hook up Marion', a yellow spotted trevally

dinners......& sunsets

It was all good, nice dinners and sunsets, and we wanted to stay but the other atolls we are scheduled to stop in sound great as well. A good study of the weather, ascertaining tides, and timing our next crossing to Tahanea let us move over to the unprotected west side of the lagoon where the town was. We were in luck here as a supply boat was due in and our new friends Regis and Tatiana who owned one of the two stores held promises of fresh fruit and veges, and after seeing a photo of the whale Regis was determined to go and retrieve what we could. Immediately after lunch Regis, Tatiana and a couple of other lads took us all across the lagoon to the whale where removal of the teeth and hiding of other bones was carried out. I now have 2 of the teeth as a ‘finders fee’. It was great mixing with the locals for the day and we all had dinner together, thanks Tatiana your poisson cru is the best we have had.

Regis, Tatiana & Co.......whale teeth extraction

Our 3 weeks in Raroia went quickly and we could have stayed longer with all it had to offer…..sad to go, but we must keep moving.