The glorious Tuamotos
Oceanpearl
Wed 20 Apr 2022 11:41
Ocean Pearl departed the Nuku Hiva island in the Marquesas on the morning of Monday 11th April for the Tuamoto Atolls, named as the favourite of all the World Rally destinations by many previous Ralliers.
The Tuamotos are an archipelago of Atolls, a collection of ring-shaped islands formed of coral. Each of these atolls has one or two ‘passes’ or points of access from the Ocean into each lagoon. There are over 40 atolls, some easier to access than others, most with few or no inhabitants, the bigger ones with a shop or two supplied by ships once or twice a week, but little or no fresh fruit or veg as cultivation is not possible .
The recommendations on accessing the lagoons within the atolls is that all passes should be navigated in daylight, the charts, paper or electronic are not reliable, so a look-out on the foredeck is necessary to spot any ‘Bommies’, pillars of coral that have grown but not been charted.
To reach our first destination, Fakarava, we had a passage of 542 nautical miles ahead of us , one night, one full day and we arrived at the pass at 3 am next morning at the change in the tide. It was safe (we knew that!) and straight forward and we dropped anchor in sight of some familiar Oyster boats.
We went straight to bed!
We woke next morning to a most beautiful scene of blue skies turquoise sea, a few yachts surrounded by a low ring of coconut trees.
The lagoon is 20 miles long and 10 miles wide - I had imagined it to be much smaller. The water is turquoise and perfectly calm so no rock’n’rolling all night which we have grown accustomed to .
We made numerous phone calls to try to book some diving.
I have never dived . Roger had, but a long time ago and has lost his certification , Sarah has and Nic did a PADI course in Galápagos
We were anchored at the northern end and ended up booking dives in the South so…..we headed down south the next day . They agreed three ‘refresher’ dives and one introductory dive for me .and we did the same again the next day .
It was amazing but no training whatever , in the water with a dive jacket on and a heavy tank on my back before I knew what was happening ! I was totally out of control. When discussed afterwards was told you have to do a PADI course for that ! I wasn’t sure I wanted to do it again! I did and might even do a PADI course in Tahiti or beyond.
The variety of fish and coral is absolutely incredible. The water is completely clear . It is like being in a 3D snow globe only surrounded by all sorts of sea life only it’s in tropical water instead of snow!
This evening , Judy (from Yacht Intrepid)is having a party to celebrate her 60th. We cam back up north this morning for that . We will leave early in order to make our safe exit at low tide at 11pm this evening in order to arrive at our next stop, Rangiroa, where Sarah, my niece, will leave us on a short flight to Tahiti to catch her flight home to Dublin via San Francisco.
Maybe more Tuamotos after that!
Watch this space!
Mary
Mob: 07778 198338