ATOLL RANGIROA - ANCHORING OFF MOTU MAHITU
I know, I know … been quite some time since I last posted any news from our side.
We have not had internet in all this time. Ok … I lie a little … we had internet on one occasion and very briefly on the north side of Fakarava where I managed to get a message out on Facebook that we are not able to post photographs or publish a letter to our blog …
I have kept a dairy of events by way of writing news offline on ‘Word’ as I wanted to be ‘in the moment’ when sharing this with you.
We have just returned to The Society Islands, to be more specific, Raiatea … this after 3 days of sailing from an atoll called TAHANEA … such a magnificent atoll, but news of that one will have to wait. I also look forward to sharing my moments in FAKARAVA on the southern side where I dived with hundreds of Gray Reef Sharks … amazing!
So … I have my time cut out for me and I hope to have sufficient internet to share much news with you!
But first … lets get back to the news of our time on RANGIROA … our travels on the inside of the largest atoll in the Tuamotu Arhipelago …
I guess the atoll of Ragiroa is now ‘older news' so I won’t go into too much detail here, except to say that our sail within that atoll up the east coast back to ‘Kia Ora’ in the north was amazing ... ‘eventually' ...
We had forged our way along the southern shoreline is severe easterly winds which whipped up quite the mix of waves colouring the otherwise brilliant transparent turquoise blue into some sort of ‘froth’ and the conditions made for a miserable time.
Add to 'the mix' a number of ‘cloud bursts’ which sent torrential downpours in such incredible volume and velocity that it totally amazed us ... these incredible forces of nature ...
I have to say that our idea to position the solar panels above the davits (stainless steel arms protruding from the rear of the boat on which one lifts the dinghy) proved to be ‘genius’ in this instance since the dinghy was well sheltered on the underside from the weather. None the less 'rain transported by wind' still managed to find its way into the dinghy and I had to pull the bung (drain plug)for fear of the added weight collapsing the davit structure.
I was quite astounded and totally amazed as a constant stream of water' jetted out' through that opening.
Had there been no sort of cover over the dinghy, it surely would have filled and overflowed even with the bung having been pulled.
Of course, in this scenario, the shear weight of it all could seriously compromise the structural integrity of the davits … I mean … we have all heard the saying ‘rain pouring in buckets’, but in all honesty and until now, I had never thought to take such a phrase as being literally possible.
With incredibly strong winds building, and marching fronts unleashing downpours of rain, it is no wonder that we did not lower the dinghy to venture onto the shore of a pretty little atoll shown on my chart as ‘AVEARAHI’. This is where the isolated bungalows of the 'Kia Ora Savage’ are located and is part of the main hotel group in the Kia Ora Village. The idea of having an extended option to the hotel experience by way of this motu, is to present a spot where visitors are guaranteed luxury and isolation ‘in the wild’. Anyway, we had dropped anchor alongside this motu … In fact and thinking back on that moment, it is a wonder that we had persisted in this weather at all, but kept pressing on since we felt it would be nice to cover the entire atoll!
As mentioned, we had dropped anchor here for the night … Impi raged about the anchor chain (15*13.954S, 147*36.896W) … as if to be throwing a tantrum to be set free! We were also mindful of several coral heads nearby and with the rough weather you can only imagine why we never got any good sleep in that night.
Along this shoreline, the south easterly winds continued to ‘lash out’ with vengeance ... it felt to us we were now ‘at battle’ with the elements … a stubborn determination to explore these shores on our part … a desire ‘to go home’ by Impi … and pure tantalising by the winds, waves and rain …
The following morning we were ‘quite exhausted’, but lifted anchor and continued our battle eastward. Impi, at best, was only getting some 3 knots speed and conditions seemed to be be worsening.
Of course our visibility was seriously hampered by now … and as is known of this region, is the fact that there is much yet ... ‘unknown’.
Charts show sparse information and in many areas there is no charted information at all … so … it was for good reason after clearing a narrow channel between the point of land just past Motu Fara and a partially submerged reef (un-marked) … estimated to be at roughly 15*13.973S 147*34.881W, that we eventually abandoned any further movement eastward.
As Impi passed this point it was as if the weather geared up in such a manner that conditions were reaching the potential to cause equipment failure and that is something we are not willing to compromise.
We take a HUGE amount of care to keep Impi in ‘showroom condition’, so this was our queue to ‘sign out’ of adventuring any further to the east along the southern shore!
We turned Impi and headed for shelter off Kia Ora Villiage ...
At roughly 15*14.345S 147*34.348W, we noticed a slight ‘lull’ in the wind … plans changed again as I now pulled at the helm and set Impi up on a north westerly course which saw us finding some good speed and much sea spray, setting the wind slightly aft of beam. The idea was to get in some more exploration and 'tuck up' alongside the lee of the eastern shore which hopefully would see shelter from ESE wind.
A submerged reef outcrop appeared ahead of us when we reached a point at roughly 15*06.825S 147*36.391W and is one to be careful of. Ana and I pay very special attention to be vigilant when under sail in these atolls … we hear sailors saying 'they take their chances', but in all honesty we will not sail unless we are confident we have sufficient visibility in the water … and sometimes this means one has to adapt the speed of the vessel to match the conditions. A friend of ours, who shall remain ‘nameless’ collided with a reef on his catamaran on one of these atolls … says it had a profound effect on his willingness to take chances sailing in coral head infested waters again.
At a position of 15*04.927S 147*36.971W, we turned to starboard (right) and headed for anchorage 'in the lee’ (opposite side to wind), off a little motu called MAHITU.
Here (15*03.690S 147*32.289W) our trusted Rocna anchor found sand in about 7m of water and despite another spell of raging easterly winds which whistled through the top of our rigging, the water was calm and smooth.
It felt to us, to be a different world all together … I mean, here we were in beautiful calm water … the fish were darting about and all seemed to be calm and orderly … whilst out there … the east wind raged …
After a thorough clean to Impi using our much loved fresh water 'deck wash pump’ to get rid of the salt, we waited for a ‘gap' in the weather, lowered the dinghy and set off to do some exploring. Unfortunately we did not take any photographs of this as the weather did not lend itself to photography.
Ana and I cut some coconuts from a low overhanging palm tree … split them open and removed the delicious white flesh … hmmm … so good!
Later it rained … again …
Back at Impi, Ana decided it was time to take a long hot water shower and settled in for a book whilst I took the dinghy and Go-Pro camera … and set off to adventure in a south easterly direction. Of course the photos are of poor quality since they are taken from movies of the area I made and also in bad weather.
In the pic below, a snapshot from Google Earth of the path by dinghy (marked as a red line) to the outer reef ...
Here I found a ‘HOA’ (passage between the sea and lagoon area) and managed to take the dinghy right to where it ended in the reef system.
Pulling the dinghy carefully onto a sloping rock, I tied it off before familiarising myself with the surrounding nature.
In this pic below ... very bad weather and rain but one gets the idea of dragging the dinghy onto a rock and tying it off. Leaving the dinghy in the water would certainly be asking to 'puncture it' as the rock edges are 'knife sharp'.
Huge boulders lay scattered about as trophies celebrating the power of the sea … a power to the extreme … lifting these colossal monsters and dumping them onto of the reef structure … incredible!
It intrigues me … at how this environment makes me feel ... to be out here … to be at one with nature … to see the signature of these incredible forces … to stand here on a ring of land in the middle of the mighty Pacific ocean … to feel the awe and power of Gods magnificent creation … to stand here … alone … to listen and hear nothing but the wind and the crashing of waves … to know that where I stand, to one side of this narrow band of land, the sea plummets to over 1000m depth … and to the other side, Impi is at anchor in 7 meters … an astonishing realisation of ones spatial awareness in this remote area on our beautiful planet … earth!
And yes, it is raining on and off, but in that there is life … oh man, there is that inner emotion bubbling up … you know … ‘being alive’ … there is a freshness in the air … and whilst caught up in this re-charge of pleasure, it does not stop me from taking a few video clips so I can share these moments with family and friends …
Too soon, it was ... ’that time’ ... to head back to ‘Kia Ora Villiage’ … we have to move on and to see more …
Moving on from one place to the next on these atolls is an interesting feeling for me! One becomes so absorbed in the beauty of natures surrounds here … so at home and so at peace in ones mind. To leave, of course brings to one new adventures to the future, but also a sadness to leave behind a place that brings such pleasure to the eyes, peace to the mind and tranquility to the soul.
we have to move south and east which is when the north winds blow … predicted to set in for a week or so … these north winds … our opportunity to get Impi to the lower atolls before the east winds settle into that steady direction and build for the season.
In my next letter I will share our last moments on this visit to Rangiroa.
Waiting for that ’north wind weather window’, our last days on RANGIROA are spent anchored again off Kia Ora Village ... getting Impi ready to move south and also some fantastic snorkel dives … a snorkel dive off Motu Nuhi Nuhi which lies in the ‘TIPUTA PASS’ … one of the 2 passes by which to enter Rangiroa.
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