Logbook: Moving SE in the Tuamotus

(As usual, this blog is behind our actual movements. In this case, more than a month behind because we’ve been out of internet range for 5 weeks so far and are using a cell phone data stick from a friend to post this. Also as usual, you can find our actual position by checking our map located somewhere in the navigation bar on top.)

When we left the haul out facility in Apataki we had a little over a week of light northeasterly wind and we took advantage of that to move quickly (well, at least quickly for cruisers) all of the way to Tahanea.

Why book it to the SE? Well we have kind of a complicated plan for the first part of this season. The yellow line is our current movements and the red dot is our current position roughly.

We have an entire season (roughly until October) in the Tuamotus. Right now we are traveling with two other boats that only have a few months in the Tuamotus and their plan was to get to Tahanea, make a u-turn and work there way back to a few atolls before having to leave. We also have an upcoming reunion with SV Bella Star  and we wanted to be somewhere spectacular when they arrived and show them some great places while they are in the Tuamotus. By moving with our buddy boats we can meet Bella Star in Tahanea and then move back to Fakarava.

The light NE winds made for an in lagoon flat water asymm spinnaker run from the N to S of Fakarava. What a treat.

We did a touch and go, single night anchorage in Fakarava. It was very difficult to leave that place because it is one of our favorites but we knew we were coming back and that moving to Tahanea in the current weather window would be fantastic sailing and it was.

While we were in Fakarava we squeezed in one drift snorkel in the pass. As usual, amazing visibility, great coral, tons of fish and SHARKY! We saw our first lemon shark (requin citron en francais) and it was nearly 8 feet long. No pictures, we were too nervous until it left the scene.