Tuamotos - Fakarava

Questionable Logic
Ewan Briggs
Fri 19 Jun 2009 08:46
Position: 16 03.5S 145 37.3W
 
This is another stunning atol (we've come to the conclusion that they're all beautiful) much more developed than the last one, and much bigger.
Once through the wide and easy pass, we made for the village in the north east (Rotoava). Here we found Son of the Sun who were our neighbours in Shelter Bay in Panama - small world! We've also since bumped into Celandine, the super yacht that Mairi has been working on.
 
One of the things we've learnt about French Polynesian culture is to be very skeptical about their opening times. Getting to the pizza place when it was actually open and making pizzas was more challenging that it perhaps ought to have been, but the end result was a good one. And further south the resort restaurant does some great burgers - so we've been catching up on our fast food quota (and loosing our castaway skinny bodies to some extent - time for another passage!!).
 
Having cleaned up the waterline it was time to get under the boat and clean off the weed and barnicles. Fortunately there weren't many and they came off pretty easily. The back antifoul is doing a great job of hiding the worst of it I'm sure (turned out to be a much better choice than white!).
 
Jem Duncan (from Sea Topaz) and I dove the pass with a local centre. This dive is just awesome - the visibility, sharks, fish, coral all stunning. And with it being a drift dive you don't really have to do that much work to see it all. Apparently the southern pass is even more stunning to dive and snorkel (Celandine were there this morning and recon they saw about 200 sharks - nice.
 
So life is pretty tough really. The scenery is just awesome, beautiful sunsets, turquoise water, palm trees and beaches everywhere and the hopsitality of our new support boat (Mum and Dad on Sea Topaz)!
 
Next we're planning to head south down the atol to find a quiet spot to anchor for a night or two before heading down to the southern pass where we'll try to do some diving and snorkelling if the weather holds up.