We left you as we were leaving Fakarava to sail to Tahiti but neglected to tell you that we left Henry, one of Tony’s crew from Wolfhound, in a dinghy hanging onto a buoy. This was not his daily exercise but his kind attempt to help us take a mooring buoy in the pass. As we battled with the tide in the pass and observed how close the buoy was to the reef, we abandoned our planned last night with Tony and Henry in Fakarava and set sail to Tahiti.
The Tuamotu Islands are the oldest of the French Polynesian Islands; almost all of them are atolls with lagoons and motus (coral outcrops). Navigation through the passes and into the anchorages are by "eyeball" with the backup of electronics. The atolls are low lying, some are rarely seen until 10 nm (by Radar picking up the coconut palms on the islands), or submerged reefs and around 2 nm, if there is the presence of white water ( breaking waves) - hence they were called the dangerous archipelago.
We are presently 1,500nm from any land and as far as we know, this is as remote as it gets. We’ve had the most fabulous sailing and now in our twelfth day, we’ve only motored for 1 hour since leaving the Galapagos Islands.
Amelie and her crew arrived in the Bay of Taiotiae on Saturday 7 April at 06:30 hrs, to the fragrance of the islands' flowers. We set the bower and kedge anchor to stop any uncomfortable rolling. A boat normally lies on a single anchor with its nose into the wind, if there is a swell from a different direction then you put out a second anchor from the stern to keep the nose into the swell. We lowered the Rib and headed for shore to the village of Taioha'e. The welcome and the beauty of the island was preparing us for a fantastic stay.
The first few days were about catching up on our sleep, laundry, minor boat repairs interspersed with lunches ashore, fresh fruit platters for breakfast and Oyster Happy Hours at various establishments. Menus were similar in all the resaurants/cafes and universally the best option was Poisson Cru (fish marinaded in Lime Juice and Coconut Water) - delicious.
On Tuesday the 9th we went on the Aranui 3 cargo ship and were given a talk on the remoteness of the Marquesas (Te Henua 'Enana - The Land of Men) and certain unique aspects of its' marine environment. For example, apart from the polar regions the Marquesas have the greatest density of plankton creating the opportunity for abundant and varied fish stocks. Scientists keep 'discovering' new fish species which the locals have been naming , fishing and eating for centuries. Their heritage is based on the ocean most vividly told by the Polynesian stories of how the islands were formed and their navigation expertise using the stars.
Since leaving Isla Santa Cruz, Galapagos we have been fortunate to have favourable winds that have quickly blown us down to 9 degrees south on a port tack.
