Fakarava -Tuamotu 14 July 2024

It is my father’s birthday and I did speak briefly to him but anyway Happy Birthday Pad. 92 today -well done and may there be many more.

The night was windy and rolly. The wind was changing direction and I was woken first by the anchor alarm. I had only set it at 40 meters even though we had 80 meters of chain out as any movement I want to know. I got up and turned off the alarm and reset it for another 40meters. I turned on the instruments and made a note of our Latitude and Longitude and watched it change slightly and it would go back and forward as we moved on the wind and swell. The SOG (speed over ground) said we were moving between 0.2 and 0.4 kts. The reality was we were moving about but not dragging. I made some new transits with the lights on the shore and we were not dragging. I therefore went back to bed. However, the alarm went off again. I went through the same process again and we were not dragging and my transits were good. When I reset the alarm I made it 50 meters this time and it did not go off again.

We woke about 7-7.30am and the wind had completely changed from Southeast to Northeast so we were facing a different direction. The wind had calmed down from 20 plus kts to about 14 and it looked a nice day. The closest boat to us was a superyacht called Shinkai (which means Deep Sea in Japanese) and it apparently cost £55m and had a 7-tonne submarine onboard and a Land Cruiser. It looked quite military in its gun metal colour.

We had breakfast and I checked the weather and all looked good to go to the south of the atoll although the wind may be stronger down there. We upped anchor without any issues about 8.45am. We had not caught any bommies luckily. There are two passages marked on the chart plotter to the south. The first to Harifa which is where we wanted to go to. This is a mutu (island) in the most southeast of the atoll and the other to the south passe which is more direct.  

We headed in the direction of Harifa and put up the genoa and were soon coasting along about 5-6 kts in the direction we wanted. We put the engine off and generator on. We therefore charged the batteries and made water as we went for a few hours whilst we filled the port tank. We had to follow the channel which was marked by a series of red and green buoys. These were always placed on bommies or shallow patches and we identified them as we went along and as we passed them. There were also shallow patches and bommies on the chart plotter initially but as we got further south the patches were not on the plotter and we could see from the colour of the water what we needed to avoid so we had to keep a good lookout.

The passage took us about 5 hours and it was lovely, slowly sailing along the eastern part of the atoll with the sandy shores and palm trees and other foliage. Every now and then there was no land and we could see the waves on the outside of the reef crashing on to the coral reef. There was little traffic as we sailed along but we had to watch out for bommies and shallow patches.

We had the radio on and were listening to the Euro finals and were very disappointed that we lost. I say no more. We were just lucky to be in such a lovely environment which meant we could forget the result quickly and enjoy the view. As we continued there were bommies and shallow patches not on the chart plotter so we had to adjust out course accordingly. We then saw after about 25 miles the end of the atoll and the anchorage we were heading for.

There were about 8 yachts in the anchorage which was at the southeastern corner and before we arrived there seemed to be a bit of a village on the left but there were no boats there and little traffic. We arrived arrive about 2.00pm and found a good spot to anchor. We were in about 10 meters of water and were soon settled. The shore was sandy with palm trees on it and at the end was a sandy spit which we could see people on and walking out on it. It was quiet and gentle and a lovely spot The wind continued to fan us about 12-14 kts.

We then rested and read and then I had a swim off the back. There was one of those dogfish that we had seen in the North which was quite inquisitive and came quite close but it was not a shark. We had a drink and watched the sun go down. Andy cooked a Spanish Omelette which we had with coleslaw.

We looked forward to exploring ashore tomorrow.

Crewing Opportunity Year Two

In addition, in year two I will be going from New Zealand in early January 2025 across to Sydney and up the Eastern Australian Coast, Indonesia and probably across the Indian Ocean to Cape Town and I will need some more crew.

If there is any interest do email me at  hine.nick9@gmail.com  

The blog will continue as we move through French Polynesia and beyond.

If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com  I can only upload one picture a day and visit our website www.stormbirdgoesglobal.co.uk