9 June 2014 Kaukuraroa, Fakarava, Tuamotus
We slept like logs last night - this anchorage is perfect for these north winds. It was a lovely sunny morning, but the weather forecast shows that the trough is still lurking about and we expect to get this unsettled weather for at least another day or two, before the east trade winds kick back in. Our plan is to stay here for another couple of nights and then head back to Rotoava.
Later in the morning, we jumped in the dinghy and went snorkelling off the western side of the reef next to the anchorage. The sea bed drops off fairly steeply, but the coral thins out from about ten metres depth, so it wouldn’t be a good dive. It was a pleasant snorkel though. There are some nice coral heads and some huge groupers around - one of them was a good four feet long and must have weighed over a hundred pounds. We also spotted a small octopus scuttling around on the coral, which we watched for five minutes - I must buy another camera.
To get over Glenys’s fear of the small Blacktip Reef Shark, I gave Glenys our six foot long pole spear, which seemed to give her more confidence. We saw a couple of the small sharks, but she was happy to carry on snorkelling for an hour, knowing that she could poke one if it came too close.
The weather deteriorated in the afternoon, so we chilled out. I had a marathon session on my guitar, playing for four hours. By six o’clock, Glenys had had enough and dug out her MP3 player while making dinner.
10 June 2014 Kaukuraroa, Fakarava, Tuamotus
We had a weather system go through in the small hours of the morning, which gave us strong south winds. This anchorage is unprotected from the south, so by four o’clock in the morning, we had two foot waves crashing onto the coral beach, which was now only 50 metres behind us. We were pitching badly and the anchor was snatching, so I put another snubber rope on the anchor chain and let out a bit more chain.
We didn’t get much sleep after that, but the wind gradually abated and started to veer around to the west, where there’s a reef giving some protection. By eight o’clock in the morning, it was a lovely peaceful anchorage with a light west wind.
I downloaded new NADI and GRIB files, which shows that the trough is slowly moving across us and the winds should be clocking through the north and then the east by the 12th. So, despite our horrible night, we stayed.
It turned into a very nice day; we went for a walk along the rocky shore, looking for shells, then after lunch went for another snorkel on the reef next to the anchorage. In the evening, Trevor and Ruth from “Nakiska” invited us over for sundowners.
11 June 2014 Kaukuraroa to Rotoava, Fakarava, Tuamotus
It was another beautiful day - this weather is so hard to predict. We upped anchor after breakfast and had a fabulous sail north up the inside of the atoll. We were hard on the wind for most of the way, but with flat calm seas it’s a pleasure.
We anchored near the church off Rotoava. and, as before, we were in among the coral heads. The water depth was around 13 metres, so it was a bit of a struggle to dive down and have enough time down there to mess around, but I managed to manhandle our 60lb anchor over a four foot coral head and into a small sandy patch. I also had to move our chain around a couple of coral heads, but then the anchor dug in and I was happy.
There are over fifteen boats in the anchorage and more heading up from the south pass. Everyone has been staying put in the horrible north winds that we’ve had, but most people are now getting ready to move. Our next destination at Toau Atoll is a popular one, so we’re going to leave early in the morning and try to beat the rush.
After lunch, we went ashore and stocked up on basic provisions - we should be in Tahiti in just over a week, so there wasn’t too much to lug back to the boat. “Nuwam” and “Vanupieds” arrived late in the afternoon, so we were invited over to “Vanupieds” for a rum punch or three.
12 June 2014 Rotoava to Anse Amyot, Toau, Tuamotus
We were up at the crack of dawn and set off on the 40 mile passage to Toau. There was still a 3 knot tide going out of the Fakarava pass and, despite the wind being with the current, there were some very large overfalls in the middle of the ¾ mile wide channel. The breaking waves were on the outside of the channel, presumably caused by the massive volume of water rushing out and hitting the static water outside.
We sneaked around the eastern side of the pass staying well within the 10 metre contour. I figured that the current would be weaker and the waves would be smaller on the windward side of the pass. The strategy worked because we only hit the waves for 50 metres or so and they were relatively small.
We watched another yacht coming into the atoll, which went straight through the middle of the pass. They were motoring against the current and hitting big waves, making little progress. We watched them struggle for 10-15 minutes with their mast whipping 40 degrees from side to side and pitching very badly - it looked horrible.
It was another lovely, trade-wind day with blue skies and fluffy white clouds. The wind was a little on the blustery side at 20-25 knots, but we were going downwind and we had a cracking sail down the windward side of the atoll.
The main anchorage on Toau has nine moorings and we’ve heard that anchoring is limited and challenging, so we were keen to get there before the crowd. There’s a classic comedy sketch by Ben Elton called “Gotta Get a Double Seat” in which he talks about standing in a bus queue and then pushing past people to get on the bus, anxious to grab a double seat all to himself. Well, our mantra for the day was “Gotta Get a Mooring”.
We arrived at Anse Amyot at around one o’clock and thankfully there were five moorings still available. It’s a lovely anchorage in a small bay inset into the atoll’s fringing reef - it’s not possible to get into the atoll through this bay because there is a very shallow reef blocking the way. The colours of the water are stunning in the bright sunshine and there are the ever-present coconut palms on the white sand shore.
There is only one couple living on this remote motu - Valentine and Gaston, who have installed the moorings and do evening meals for cruisers occasionally. After lunch, we went ashore and chatted to Valentine - her husband, Gaston had gone to Fakarava for the day. The moorings cost $7 per night and we would get three nights free if we eat ashore. However, tomorrow is her wedding anniversary, so she’s not sure when she’ll being doing a dinner.
We went snorkelling on the reef at the east side of the anchorage which is very good. We saw half a dozen large Blacktip Reef Sharks in the deeper water under our mooring as well as a couple of Spotted Eagle Rays cruising along the sandy sea bed. There were also shoals of Unicornfish which have a weird spike sticking an inch or so out of the front of their heads.
During the afternoon, other cruisers arrived and by the end of the day, there was only one mooring available - we’re glad that we had an early start.
13 June 2014 Anse Amyot, Toau, Tuamotus
First thing in the morning, there was a horrible squall with heavy rain, but then it brightened up and we went scuba diving on the wall that runs for a mile in either direction outside the anchorage. We went in company with “Field Trip” and “Adina”, mostly for the security of having someone nearby if our outboard failed - it’s a long way to drift to Tahiti.
We motored through the 4 foot swell to 15°47.53S 146°08.81W and dropped the anchor in 8 metres of water on the narrow shelf next to the wall. (There is supposed to be a dive mooring at 15°47.46S 146°08.69W, but we couldn’t find it.) There was very little current, so we dropped down the 60° wall to 25 metres and then headed east. The water was very clear and we saw lots of fish and hard coral, but unlike in the Caribbean, there are hardly any soft coral or sponges - I must find out why.
We chilled out in the afternoon, re-filling the dive tanks and topping up our water tanks. “Nuwam” and a couple of other boats arrived in the afternoon and the anchorage is now very full.
14 June 2014 Anse Amyot, Toau, Tuamotus
In the morning, we went for a dive with Robert from “Nuwam”. We took our dinghies to 15°48.8S 146°10.08W and dropped the anchor close to some grottos on the top of the reef.
Before exploring the grottos, we dropped down the reef wall to 20 metres and headed east, but it was very similar to the dive that we did yesterday. The top of the reef was much more interesting with lots more small reef fish. We found some big Humphead Wrasses in the grottos and a large Whitetip Reef Shark was swimming around in a cave in one of them.
We chilled out in the afternoon and went ashore for an evening meal prepared by Valentine and Gaston. There was quite a crowd of us with fourteen people from “Nuwam”, “Full Circle”, “Natisca”, “Adina” and “Andiamo”. Valentine and Gaston prepared a lovely meal of Poisson Cru, suckling pig and barbequed chicken. Given the rough and ready appearance of their buildings, I was very surprised how nicely they had set up a dining table with a beautiful decoration in the middle made from palm leaves, flowers and bowls of loose Black Pearls.
15 June 2014 Anse Amyot, Toau, Tuamotus
In the morning, the water in the anchorage was cloudy due to the tide flowing out of the atoll bringing sediment with it, so we jumped in the dinghy and motored to the outside reef. We only had to go ¼ mile to be back in clear water.
We snorkelled for an hour, at depths from 3 metres to ten metres and saw lots of reef fish, including more large Snappers and Humphead Wrasses. I really miss having an underwater camera - there are endless photo opportunities in this clear water, but I’m just going to have to wait until we get to US Samoa in August - only 60 days and counting.
After lunch, we went snorkelling in the reef on the south-west side of the anchorage which was very good. It’s amazing how many sharks there are out here - every time we get into the water, we see at least one. We saw four or five Blacktip Reef Shark swimming around the boat this morning; on the outside reef at least ten sharks including some Whitetip Reef Sharks and this afternoon there were two very large Grey Reef Sharks swimming around the deeper part of the reef. One looked so fat that we think that it was pregnant (or had just eaten someone). They seemed very interested in us so we moved away to shallower water.