Fakarava Atoll - Tuamotu

Posted 27 June 2010

We spend 4 days getting all the little boat chores done and then made our way to the south of the Atoll. We were quite a few boats at anchor and met a lovely South African family traveling on a catamaran called Malakite. We spend some time having a proper 'braai' on the beach and catching up on news from home.

Fakarava so far was the best place for snorkeling, we saw hundreds of sharks which included black tip, white tip and grey sharks. My highlight was these huge Napoleon fish, gracious swimmers and just absolutely beautiful. We spend lots of time in the water swimming between all these beautiful fishes. We took lots of photos and videos and I will post it as soon as we are back in internet land.

We are running low on everything from propane, petrol for the dinghy, provisioning and fresh produce, so we have to leave this beautiful archipelago tomorrow morning Tuesday 28 June for Tahiti. It is 250 nm from here, so should take us 2 days to arrive.

Arrived in Fakarava Atoll - Tuamotu

Posted 18 June 2011

It is always difficult to say good bye when you are having fun in a fantastic place surrounded by fantastic people. We left early Tuesday morning 14 June from the north pass in Apataki Atoll for an overnight sail to Fakarava Atoll. The winds were light between 7 and 12 knots which was great as we were sailing close haul. Later during the night the wind direction changed and we had to motor the rest of the way as now the wind was on the nose.

We entered the northern pass of Fakarava early Wednesday morning 15 June with about 2 to 2.5 knots of current against us. Luckily the pass is wide and easy to navigate and it took us about 30 minutes to get through. We anchor in another beautiful anchorage. This Atoll is the second biggest Atoll and the village is much bigger than the other 2 Atolls we visited so far.

We were in luck as the supply ship arrived the next day, we had nothing left as far as fresh fruit and vegetables. It is very difficult to get fresh produce in the Tuamotu Atolls. We stock up on what fresh produce we could find that will last us for another 2 weeks until we get to Tahiti where
we should have no problem finding fresh produce.

We are also still out of 'internet land' and hopefully will be much more in luck when we reach Tahiti. We made our way towards the south eastern corner of the Atoll, about halfway and dropped anchor in a beautiful little sandy shore. We will stay a few more days here doing some small boat projects and then move to the southern anchorage which are great for snorkeling.

Apataki Atoll - Tuamotu

Posted 17 June 2011

Tamaro is a motu in Apataki Atoll, it is also the name of a pet nurse shark from Mr. Assan who is the patriarch of the Lau family. They own a pearl farm business and a boat dry storage up to 20 tonne and any width run by his son Alfred and his wife Pauline, with the help of Alfred's son Tony and his fiance Caroline.

The amazing thing about the shark is that at 2 to 3 o'clock in the afternoon he comes into the beach with half his body out of the water while Assam cuts fish on a board on top of his head and feeds him while he stays motionless, then he pats him as if he was a cat or dog.

We had a very short stay week in Apataki and enjoyed very much the hospitality of the Lau family. We also met several cruisers at anchor there and had lots of fun visiting, socializing and snorkeling. There are so many beautiful corals along the shore and close to the anchorage, it was appropriately named 'Coral-City' by our friends Eeva and Tapio (s/v Irene)'s grandchildren that visited them the previous year.

We also had our genoa fixed by Claude which is a sailmaker by trade and I feel a little better now, it was not a huge problem but could have cause problems especially in stronger winds.

Dinis helped another sailor Francois painting the bottom of his catamaran while in the boatyard and afterwards we had a sail with the company of other sailors and friends on his catamaran. The motion is so much different than a mono haul, but much more comfortable. Now Dinis is dreaming with doing another trip but in a catamaran...oh boy...

We had stronger winds for about 3 days, afterwards we made our way to the north eastern corner of the Atoll sailing along with s/v Irene. We met another sailboat in the northern anchorage and had a beautiful beach bbq the next day. We left the following morning early for our overnight sail to Fakarava Atoll.

Arrived in Apataki Atoll - Tuamotu

Posted 2 June 2011

We just drop anchor in an absolutely beautiful bay in Apataki Atoll. We left Manihi Atoll yesterday around 4:45 pm local time for our overnight trip to Apataki Atoll. We had a fantastic sail all the way with calm seas and 10 to 13 knots of wind on the beam. We did well, made the 78 nm within 12 hours. A strong current was against us as we entered the pass to the Atoll, so we moored the boat at the wharf next to the village around 8:00 am this morning. We did some exploring and a small provisioning, not much here as far as groceries. We waited until 1:00 pm for the current to turn and be more in our favour. We motored for another 10 nm in the Atoll to the south eastern corner of the Atoll where they have a small boat yard. The water is so clear, looks like a swimming pool, a person just wants to jump in. Tomorrow we will get the dinghy in the water and do some exploring.