Fakarava -Tuamotu 16 July 2024
We had a good night’s sleep and it was a lovely sunny calm morning. We had banana pancakes for breakfast which was enjoyable (thank you Carolyn for the recipe!).
There was not much more to see where we were and we thought we would move on to the southern passe. We therefore prepared the boat and decided as it was only about 7 nm that we will tow the dinghy. We upped anchor without a problem and headed toward the south passe. There were a few red and green buoys on the way marking bommies. The chart plotter did not have much on it so we needed to keep a good lookout for bommies, reefs and shallow areas. Once out of the anchorage we got out the genoa and coasted along about 4-5 kts which was a nice, pleasant sail.
We could see on our left the outer reef and there were no mutus for some time until near the passe so we could see the waves crashing on to the outside reef. It was very scenic and had a real tropic feel and look We had google earth on my phone and we could see various shallow patches and bommies due to the colour of the water. We coasted along as we got closer we could see various boats at anchor including 2 superyachts Shinkai which we had seen on the North and V6 which we had seen on Rangiroa.
We took the genoa down as we got close and had a look around and anchored at a suitable point. We buoyed the anchor and I went to snorkel to look at it and there were very small coral bommies on the bottom and we should be fine. We relaxed and then had lunch and read and rested. We thought nothing will be open until about 3.00pm so we thought we would explore then.
We were interested as to where the dinghies go and watched them avoid what looked like a coral reef and it looked like they had to go into the passe to get round to the village huts. We noticed a boat near us called Lucky Jonnie and we had given the owners a lift to their boat in the North. When we were ready we headed over to their boat and asked them where we should go. They had dived on the passe that day and said it was amazing. They explained where we should go to get to the village.
The village was destroyed by a cyclone a few years ago and some are trying to recreate the houses again. We headed off in the direction of the village and had to go out to avoid the reef and then we had to cross some waves from the current and passed a hut on stilts. The water was disturbed and you could see upswelling We went round this hut and could clearly see the passe on our right. We then came into a little small inlet between two buoys and put the dinghy on the little beach. We could see a few sharks swimming around. There was not a lot of the village. The hut on stilts was the restaurant for the pensione and apparently they will take guests but are not keen too. We did speak to a lady about snorkelling the passe tomorrow and we therefore booked to do this in the morning. As we went back to the dinghy we saw a man cleaning what looked like a tuna near his boat and he was throwing bits into the water. I saw several sharks swimming about. We therefore eased out and into the current and retraced out route to Stormbird. We had a swim and a bit of a snorkel on the way but the current was quite strong.
We showered and watched the sun go down looking at the lovely shoreline and view. Some had gone ashore on the beach and were planning a barbecue.
Andy cooked a chicken curry which was good followed by banana flambe as we needed to eat them. We look forward to snorkelling the passe 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