Travelling to the Fakarava South Pass. 16 - 19 June 2014

Tashi Delek
Mike & Carol Kefford
Thu 19 Jun 2014 04:46

16:14.05S 145:33.58W

 

40 miles from the northern village of Rotoava to the south pass of the atoll.  Due to all the coral heads there was a route marked either down the centre or down the eastern edge.  We had decided to stay at a couple of anchorages on the way down so took the eastern route keeping a sharp look out in spite of the very clear markers.  It reminded us of travelling through the intra-coastal waterway in the States where we had a very narrow channel to follow but a wide expanse of water, at least in this case to one side.

 

For the second night we stopped at Hirifa in the south east corner with a handful of other yachts and a couple of dwellings ashore.  On the beach we met Lisa who runs a small restaurant which looked delightful but she only serves reef fish which can carry the toxin ciguatera in this part of the world so we prefer not to chance it.  She was very happy to see Mike the next morning along with Claudia and Thierry from Vanu Pieds who had asked if they could watch the England v Uruguay World Cup game.  We have not met Claudia and Thierry before although we have seen their boat but they are familiar from our SSB radio net so it was great to finally say ‘Hello’ when they came over to introduce themselves.

 

This was taken during a walk on the beach at dusk………..

 

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