Atoll No. 3: Tahanea - 5.-10.June 2013
Andromeda
Michael
Mon 10 Jun 2013 07:19
Atoll No. 3: Tahanea, Tuamotus, French Polynesia
5.-10. June 2013
Every day is different, it's amazing, as the main parameters are always the same:
Andromeda, islands with palm trees, beautiful clear blue water and the sky.
Well, but that actually is ever so changeable and makes every day very different.
We left Makemo village Tuesday night. It was a pretty dark night, but fortunately, my little ipad has a very detailed and correct chart for this area and Michael could navigate along our track when coming in through the pass a week earlier. A bit exiting, but it worked rather well!
The approx 80nm sail to Tahanea was relatively smooth and event less. We had only set the Genoa, as we didn't want to arrive to early in the morning. When we reached the pass at 11am it was perfect timing to sail with the still incoming tide into the atoll. We had heard the pass is lovely for diving and snorkeling, but the rather choppy seas and strong winds even inside the atolls and the maintaining problems with our anchor winch (again, it's not working!) weren't the best perspective to drop anchor there, so we motored the 10nm against wind and waves to the anchorages in the SE.
Another beautiful spot! Beautiful islands, though the white beaches look nicer from the distances, as they all turn out to be of little more or less spiky corals, clear blue water and some coral heads.
However, it seems a storm had destroyed a lot of them a few years ago. They are slowly growing back and there are some reef fish, but not very abundant.
One day, we had great wind and went kiting as much as possible. Which was good, as another attempted repair of the anchor winch took the entire following day.
The next day was a mixture of swimming, snorkeling, repairs and a nice BBQ on the beach! And we finally saw some Coconut crabs. However, as we heard they are becoming less and less in some islands, we just took one and let the other 2 roam around. They are huge, with amazingly strong pincers - not surprising, as they are made for opening coconuts.
And then the rain came. Where Saturday was a mix of pouring rain and some sunny patches in between, Sunday it rained almost non stop til the afternoon. Slowly, there's some blue again in the sky, and hopefully, the sun will come out so we can dry the cockpit and everything that got wet again.
And give the anchor winch a last attempt.
Tomorrow, we want to set sail again, towards Fakarava, another 90nm approx.
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