Atoll Living

We departed the Marquesas en route to the Tuamotus as planned. The forecast was showing strong wind and seas, and the conditions were sticking around for a week or longer so we decided to go. We’ve done plenty of sailing in 20+ knot wind, so why not go for it? We ended up on one of our most challenging passages yet. We spent 3 days with the wind and waves on the beam which meant fast sailing but also rough bouncing and rolling onboard. Every wave knocked us hard. It was the type of passage where you need to hold on with two hands at all times moving around the boat. This is particularly challenging when trying to get something to eat and when trying to pull up your shorts after using the head. Waves were constantly washing over the deck – the whole deck, not just near the bow – and crashing into the cockpit. Neither one of us spent much time at all actually on the helm. We are thankful for our autopilot that kept on chugging while we stayed under the protection of the dodger. The other challenge was slowing the boat down. The Tuamotus are atolls which means there is a fringe of reef and islands (motus) around a lagoon. Atolls form roughly 30 million years after a volcanic island emerges from the sea. Over time the island erodes away and all that is left is the barrier coral reef which has built up on limestone (essentially calcified/fossil coral). The only place safe to anchor is inside the lagoon, and the tidal flow in the one or two passes deep enough for boats into the lagoons are strong and can be dangerous. We planned our entry through the Raroia pass for slack tide. If we sailed “too fast” from the Marquesas, we would arrive during a strong tidal flow and would need to wait outside the pass for slack tide. Waiting in rough seas is, well, rough. The last 24 hours of our journey we mostly had the headsail furled in, and had 2 reefs in the main. This decrease in sail area allowed us to slow to 6 knots and arrive just about 1 hour before slack. We waited about 20 minutes, watching the pass, and as we saw the standing waves start to die down, we went for it. Once inside the Raroia lagoon, we had the fun challenge of navigating around bommies (coral heads). They are serious hazards, often less than 1 foot below the surface, that are not marked on the chart. We used OpenCPN (open source navigation software for boats) with satellite imagery loaded on the laptop to help us, plus Kris on lookout up near the bow. With bright sun overhead the bommies are relatively easy to see, and the satellite images were pretty accurate.

Life inside the lagoon is paradise. We loved it so much we stayed anchored on the east side of the Raroia lagoon for 12 days. Each day we took our pick of activities from exploring motus, drift snorkeling, and diving bommies. Mark became quite skilled at harvesting coconuts, and we had a nice bonfire with the 3 other boats anchored nearby. One day we visited a shuttered pearl farm. We spoke with the caretaker with a mix of French and pantomimes. He’s a friendly guy who chats with visiting cruisers regularly. We also bought some floats from him to use to float our chain so we don’t drag it over coral heads while at anchor.

Through diving and snorkeling, we learned that there are a lot of sharks in Raroia. I had to modify my thought that “if I don’t see a shark it’s because it is behind me” to “if I don’t see sharks it’s because they are behind me.” The smaller to mid-size sharks were the most curious and would take multiple passes by us, or just follow us around for an entire dive. The bigger sharks apparently did not find us very interesting and they would just keep moving along when they saw us. We also saw very tiny young sharks swimming around the motus in about 1 foot of water, with their adorable little black tipped dorsal fins poking up above the water. In addition to the sharks and coral and wide variety of reef fish, we also had the amazing experience of seeing schools of unicornfish, on every single dive!!! Snorkeling was a lot of fun too. We would go to a motu and walk out towards the crashing sea, then wade into the channel of water flowing between motus and snorkel while being swept along in the current. Sometimes it was so fast we could not swim against it, other times it was the laziest of lazy rivers, depending on how close or far we were from slack tide.

We were anchored near the motu where the Kon Tiki raft crashed ashore in 1947. The Kon Tiki spent 101 days at sea after departing Peru. They proved it is possible to drift across the Pacific from South America to Polynesia. However to start they were towed 50 miles out to sea offshore of Peru and deposited into a helpful current. Once they reached French Polynesia they drifted past two atolls in the Tuamotus but could not make landfall because they could not steer. Locals even paddled out in canoes and tried to help them make landfall but could do nothing without steering ability. The Kon Tiki leader was also completely wrong about his belief that Polynesia had been originally settled by a white race coming from South America, following a red-haired white-skinned god. Nonetheless, it is still quite an interesting adventure and we enjoyed visiting the small memorial on the motu and learning more about their journey through the 1951 documentary made entirely of footage shot during their voyage. If you want to learn more about how Polynesia was settled, and how Europeans were very wrong about it for a long time, I suggest you read Sea People by Christina Thompson. It includes a lot of interesting history, including European written perspectives, Polynesian oral history, archeology, computer modeling, DNA analysis, and radiocarbon dating.

After nearly two weeks, we decided it was time to leave Raroia and head to Fakarava. Our sail to Fakarava was quite different from our sail to Raroia. Winds were light and we were headed dead downwind. We chose to motorsail almost the entire way, primarily to keep up enough speed to arrive at the Fakarava South Pass just after slack tide. It was a calm 30 hour journey, and the pass was pretty easy to navigate with minimal current against us. As we made our approach, 3 radio calls came out to us from cruising friends welcoming us to the atoll. We were also welcomed into the pass by a small pod of large dolphins leaping up fully out of the water around us. We decided to be here in Fakarava right now for the grouper spawning that happens at the full moon of June and/or July each year. More on that next time, once we start diving the South Pass. For now we’re enjoying snorkeling and sundowners with friends.

Next Stops: Fakarava South Pass, then to the northern end of Fakarava, then off to the next atoll, Rangiroa