Fakarava
Blue Sky's Voyage
George & Michael
Fri 7 May 2010 03:39
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Hello Friends
"16:06.6S 145:36.5W"
When we decided to have a look at the next
atoll, there was just no wind at all other than a light waft, so unusually, we
motored out of the Kauehi lagoon and across the 30 miles or so to
Fakarava.
Fakarava is a little more developed than
Kauehi, but not much. The village did have a moderate shop with some fresh
produce available and a good supply of chocolate biscuits, even some tonic water
for the G&T's: luxury!
There was also a boulangerie that achieved a
passable attempt at a baguette and croissants etc., just off camera
below, from our anchorage. A pleasant enough short dinghy ride to get the
breakfast, just use a little care with the coral heads and tie up to a
stone off the church.
 After a couple of nights here we headed
across the lagoon 25 miles to the other pass at the SE end. The central part of
the lagoon is surveyed over a mile wide channel and due to the orientation of
Fakarava to the winds, we had a great sail across in the protected flat
water.
We were promised good snorkelling here in
the pass and we were not disappointed. George nobly stayed in the dinghy while
Simon & Michael drift snorkelled in the current in the pass.
This is the best snorkelling so far in 4
years sailing, true the coral was unexceptional, with no soft coral like the
waving green and purple fronds in the Caribbean, but the fish were superb. Every
colour imaginable and a few colours that you'd not imagined. And in great shoals
that you swim through as the fish part a metre away from you.Plenty of parrot
fish, mainly in bright turquoise but also some odd ones in gold and orange.
Napoleon fish, like huge mutant parrot fish, wandering about slowly in small
shoals, though putting on a surprising turn of speed if approached too
enthusiastically.
Dark green moray eels, sliding into their
coral head homes and glaring out at you, looking thoroughly dangerous and evil.
Angel fish in various colours and small 'tropical fish tank' specimens in huge
shoals in golds, purples and turquoises.
And around all this, circling sharks,
cruising around like mob enforcers, not actually doing anything but just
cruising through looking tough. The sharks are black tipped reef sharks and
provided that you don't hassle them too much they leave you alone: handy really.
Michael decided to swim after one and it turned round and gave what I thought
was an incredulous look, as if to say "are you totally stupid? you do know I'm a
shark, OK?".
Sadly our underwater camera is no longer
waterproof so we cannot bring you our own pics of the Passe Tumakohua. We're
trying to get another u/w camera, or a housing for the Lumix, so we could always
come back here.
That evening, as the sun was gently
lowering itself into the azure evening sea, a local pirogue came up and invited
us for drinks ashore. we grabbed a few cans and a bottle and off we went to Motu
Aito. Or to be specific "Motu Aito Paradise" as you can see on www.fakarava.org . This is the view
of Motu Aito from the masthead...
 ...which shows the deep blue sea outside the
reef and the shallow lagoon with dark coral heads inside. Motu Aito is the red
roof and the main buildings are in the trees to the L.
We had a very convivial evening with Manihi,
the proprietor and a couple of friends from the village in the pass. Manihi's
wife was in LA on a short visit to their daughter. As we sat and talked,
tropical fish swam in the shallow dock next to us and sharks flicked by in the
shallows, just to keep the fish on edge. The sharks know that food scraps are
often available, so if the light are on, you get a free show.
The following day George and Simon gave
Manihi a hand with some roof works while Michael re-built his laptop...
again.
Next day, a number of boats arrived and our
solitude was broken by part of the Blue Water Rally fleet and a few other boats
too. Undaunted, Manihi said "invite them all ! just tell them to bring something
to drink". So we organised pretty much the whole fleet to come ashore with
drinks and snacks and a grand evening was enjoyed by all.
This morning, the Rally fleet decided to
head up to Fakarava village where we were planning to go anyway. There was a
good free breeze (not too close to the direction we were going) and, being
sporting, we let the other boats get a half hour head start.
We should have been more generous. With a
great sailing breeze (well it did get up a bit at one point) we were making
great speed and some of the Rally boats were even motoring and wasting the
glorious wind !! We followed our track from the previous sail and cut through
all the other boats and left them half an hour behind us.
But the Blue Skies do love
sailing.
As I write, the election results are coming
in, though of greater significance is the fact that we're celebrating 4 years at
sea. The fridge has been stocked.
We'll leave you with another masthead pic of
the southern anchorage:
 Even the snorkelling amongst these coral
heads was pretty good.
That's all for now.
Best Wishes,
George, Michael and Simon
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