Hi everyone,
Back in Internet zone and time to share our news with you!
I am going to share our very special stay in the anchorage of South Fakarava - in particular the one to the west of the south pass (passe Tumakohua) that provides entrance into Fakarava atoll.
A visit to this side of the pass requires great vigilance as there are a great number of coral heads and shallow reef outcrops waiting to acquaint themselves with the bottom of one's hull.
Even if one reads the suggestions of others who have indicated safe waypoints of entry here, our experience is such, that one still needs to be ‘super vigilant’ here, especially in certain areas where it is necessary to manoeuvre around obstacles along that route.
We had a number of ‘uncomfortable’ spots to navigate here, and because we stayed for a length of time and came and went to the north for supplies, we decided to familiarise ourselves with each and every area Impi passed over.
We did this with by use of our dinghy with a depth sounder and also used a ‘glass bottomed bucket’ to carefully look at each area that presented itself as a possible ‘hostile’.
We also did this thinking perhaps we will visit here again … Ana and I are considering another year in French Polynesia … such is its beauty!
This exercise proved to be helpful as a number of heads were found to be 'too close for comfort’ … so to our sailing friends headed this way, please be aware especially if following local yachtsman here … they cruise in these waters at speed, but know exactly where to position their boat from experience.
It is that single turn of the helm that takes one too sharply to the right or left that could possibly see ones dreams of sailing, become one of a marked beacon for use by future navigators.
By way of illustration, we had followed 2 mono-hulls in on a track one day … saw them do a slight jiggle to the left at one spot … prepared ourselves to do the same, but found a patch with sufficient enough corals to allow a monohull to pass … yet narrow enough to prevent a multihull from passing without straddling one coral head between the hulls which is what we did.
You can only imagine Ana’s body language up front looking through crystal clear water as we passed over this spot which took some quick thinking and sufficient movement to keep direction as we cruised over it.
I must say that in Ana I have a spectacular instrument for navigation … she says little to nothing but her body language tells me everything I need to know! This also works for us in general … I know exactly when it is my queue to ... ’say less than more’ ;)
So, fellow friends and sailors headed this way, do not pass up on visiting this area of exceptional beauty, but also beware not to follow suggested waypoint recommendations without having good light and being super vigilant.
During our time at anchor here we observed a yacht as it ran aground (I was sitting with Ana just before it happened and pointed out to her that the yacht was moving too casually for something not to happen … many sailors cruise along oblivious to the dangers and get lucky … but my words were barely cold when it grounded), and a number of yachts abandoned entering all together, which really is sad, because the area is of significant beauty and tranquility ... an area not to be missed.
We used the following waypoints as our guide, but as mentioned … be on the lookout …
16*30.219S 145*28.533W
16*30.282S 145*28.557W (keep a lookout)
16*30.539S 145*28.655W (getting interesting)
16*30.596S 145*28.684W
16*30.833S 145*28.584W
16*30.980S 145*28.517W
16*31.036S 145*28.503W (In this area use eyes to manoeuvre where necessary)
16*31.082S 145*28.461W
16*31.158S 145*28.429W
16*31.235S 145*28.355W and from here we found our way to anchor in different spots, one being at 16*31.327S 145*28.382W - there was a coral head in nearby proximity but with Impi settled on this waypoint it was fine. By the way, if one's boat does not draw too much depth, it is surprising how close you can get to where the water looks to become suddenly very shallow.
The entire area where one anchors is dotted with corals … a number of Black Tip Reef Sharks swim about and visit the boats … they mean no harm and are quite placid … until one cuts oneself in the water …
Oh, that reminds me to share a story …
So here I was on a separate day … joined two friends to go diving with tanks on an ‘outgoing current’ … not a bright thing to do and something I will never do again.
Anyway, I had been convinced that it was safe enough go given the amount of time I have under water and we had a plan to exit on the shore before being swept out into the deep yonder.
So here we were … one friend's wife sat in the dingy to one side in calmer water after she had dropped us off … we were rushing along in a swift current and not too deep at this stage ... Luckily I was wearing gloves but one friend was not on this day. This proved to make things difficult for him as we had to grab hold along the bottom to slow ourselves down.
This all felt very unnatural to me … here we were clutching hold of whatever we could whilst the current did a good job of tearing us free.
At one point we were all clutching rocks or dead coral heads … I was slightly downstream of one friend … looked up to see his legs dangling toward me as he held tight and the next thing I saw was him rushing past me with a dead coral head in his arms … it all just felt to be chaotic … and here I was relying on their ‘experience of this area, they having dived many times on an outgoing current'.
Suddenly the sharks arrived … they are the Gray Reef Sharks which can be dangerous (according to my ‘ Topical Pacific Reef Fish Guide') given the wrong circumstances, and oh boy, were they acting up this time!
These sharks seemed to be darting about and making aggressive moves toward us and it seemed they were pretty excited or irritated by something.
At this point I crawled as low as I could go in between corals and then observed I had cut my arm … this was not a great situation to be in!
Anyway, long story made short, I took out my safety floatation device and set it off to the surface for help. Friends, I cannot explain my jubilation when I looked up above me and saw the bottom of our dinghy overhead us!
Bottom line … I will NEVER dive on an outgoing current here or anywhere else for that matter … and if in fast moving waters will not only wear a thick pair of gloves but also wear a full wetsuit. I am told that were Tiger Sharks are present, which on occasion but to a lesser extent they are here, one should even cover the ankles as they go for exposed areas like that if feeding.
Sadly, looked at my Go-Pro video and there was not much to be seen or heard for the blur of corals and gurgling of bubbles … oh … and some scratches along the casing :(
Oh well … lessons are being learnt! I will post some poor quality photos I managed to retrieve from the Go Pro video which I had left running at the bottom of this letter … should any of you be interested in the chaos of that dive ...
Ok, back to the usual .. where was I … oh yeah, back in between the coral heads where we were anchored ...
Something I learned to do pretty quickly here in the Tuamotu Archipelago, is to set up the chain in a manner that prevents entanglement around coral heads. The trick for us, is to set the anchor with enough chain out, then once hooked, to shorten up on the chain so as not to have too much length out … to use only one fender ball set a little ahead of where the bridle meets the chain so that the chain length from the proximity of the bow clears any nearby heads. Snagging a head in close proximity to the boat could result in damage to the boat or a break in chain. (We are always careful not to have too much chain slack between the bridle hook and boat as this low lying ‘loop’ also has the ability to hook onto a head below, so we set the chain ‘JUST SLACK’ of the bridle hook).
We also found that diving on the anchor made for a good night's rest … sometimes the anchor tip can 'just engage itself' on a piece of rock or coral … as the wind shifts the angle could result in freeing the anchor and the boat!
Every day we would observe wind angle and if there was a shift, would dive onto the anchor again to make sure it was ‘kept’ before heading off to explore.
Some sailors place a number of ‘fender balls’ down the length of the chain to ‘float the chain’ above these heads … personally it is not our favourite method and when we have done it, it always amazes us to see how under water these fenders ‘compress’ by the weight of water surrounding it.
Anyway, anchoring is serious business here … if there is an unpredicted localised storm such as we had one night, there is NO MOVING to another spot for shelter on account of shallow coral heads, so we slept as well as one can in these circumstances, knowing what the anchor was ‘holding onto’.
That night we noticed a lot of VHF radio activity between yachts and a number of people scurrying about with flashlights .. our anchor was set!
Anyway, back to our surrounds here …
Ana and I visited these very pretty sandy spits which are to be found all over here, and although a camera does not pick this up very well, the sands are really pink in colour which is amazing in contrast to the turquoise blues … Our dear friend Jean Beswick who had sailed here before wrote this as a comment on our Facebook page and it truly is so!
It is really a wonderful experience to walk between these sandy spits and onto some small motus … and there are so many of these that we seldom found situation anyone else on the same motu ...
In the photo below one can see where yachts are anchored in the
background … this is a busy day!
Of course as is the case on most atolls, there are those lush green motus covered in tropical palm trees, pinkish white sandy beaches and little rivers called ‘hoa’ between the sea and atoll ‘lagoon’.
In the photo below you will see our dinghy tied to a palm tree. This is such a terrific feeling of exploration … to tie up to a palm tree and disappear along the shoreline to the outer reef ..
As one usually does here, we walked up these hoa to the main reef, and looking back on the anchorage was pretty …
As has become a familiar scene here in the Tuamotu region, we spotted more eels between the rocks …
We noticed some cruisers get together and make fires on the motus in the evening for an ‘island barbecue’ but that is not something we did on account of the mosquitoes that come out at night.
As we moved west in the dinghy we discovered ‘deserted places’ that have the feeling of being windswept, but in this too is such a beauty and a feeling of tranquility …
One can hardly help but feel such an amazing feeling of freedom in this area where sometimes little is to be seen, but in 'less there is more’ …
In the photo below Ana always carries her ‘dry bag’ with camera, vhf radio, high heel shoes and so on ;) She says people back home would laugh if they could see her stylish handbag out here …
And taking the dinghy toward the east i.e. toward the pass and Tetamanu village, one also comes across these very beautiful motus with stunning beaches … no one was to be seen on these motus when we were there … these pretty beaches and ‘swimming pool’ coves …
Ana took a photo of me with my ‘home made contraption’ … our machete, a piece of drift wood found on the shore, some rope …
Oh yeah …
My coconut conquering tool … 'oh, and please' … do not try this at home … it took some wild action but eventually 2 coconuts did satisfy our hunger ...
Here truly lie the future sailing grounds of many … yes, these are shores unspoilt by human beings … we cherish these moments knowing that people will seek out these places on our blue planet, knowing that navigating to these areas will get more and more chart information … gone will be the days where one cruises into an area based on word of mouth, eye sight and so on, but for now, we revel in the solitude of this ‘still quiet place’.
Before I sign off here, let me make a comment about the weather and anchoring in this place … all in all, we spent quite some time in this anchorage and found the boat was ‘settled’ even in a very strong north, north-easterly blow.
I would guess the anchorage is pretty good in all conditions except north westerly winds.
And oh, the dinghy ride to Tetamanu Village is a long one from here. One generally has to skirt around the reef system although we did try out two options which worked for us as short cuts, but these had disadvantages too …
One of the options was to motor across to the shallow reef and lift the motor drifting in the current across the coral tops, however the current needs to be running in the right direction at which point you will be amazed how quickly one is swept along before dropping the engine in the pass. Having the engine start with difficulty here could see you rushing along into ‘troubled waters’ though …
The other was a short cut as the tide moved from high to low … one literally finds a gap in the north most part of the last two motus along the pass edge … the effect is similar to a mini waterfall.
Here we fought the current and of course had to ‘walk the dinghy’ under some tree branches and so on (not sure if we walked the dinghy or the dinghy walked us) before finding ourself between coral heads on the pass edge … pretty interesting stuff even if it is ‘time and distance saving’.
In the photo below - Tetamanu Village as seen from this side of the pass
And of course … the church which is a distinctive land mark here …
This part of the Tuamotus is a terrific visit … and the pass itself of course is a ‘must dive’ and in particular I would suggest a MUST DO ACTIVITY - do yourself a favour and go with the local dive outfit called TETAMANU DIVE as a first dive! This will help one to familiarise oneself with the best positions along the wall, and one gets the best angles to this possible for future dives without local guidance … ask specifically to do the deep dive along the ‘wall of sharks’.
You will recall my dive with sharks here and the video … a few letters ago … at the following link ...
And, as promised in the story of my scary moments with sharks in a strong outgoing current, here are some very poor quality pics taken from the GoPro camera video I had left running ...
Friend skimming along above the corals ... see by the bubbles how strong the current is ...
Pic below shows undulations in coral bed ... one has to be careful not to damage the good corals and so be on the lookout for a bare patch to grab hold of ..
Being swept toward sharks that start acting irritated ... see them in the background ...
One friend 'bellyflops' to the sea floor ... the other is searching for a hold with no gloves and we are being carried toward the sharks ..
See the current rushing hair, bubbles and all ... and my eyes are more alert than ever ...
The sharks are agitated and making strange dashing moves around and toward us ... call me what you want, but I want 'out of here' ...
But hey, snorkelling the pass in calm weather is great and fun to do ... just tow the dinghy along with you ... and here are some of those photos from my Go-Pro video ..
Corals and fish are beautiful in this part of the world ...
These sharks are cool .. they swim about one and are curious but friendly enough ...
Below, a professor from France on a re-breather doing video work for the French TV program called ARTE - they are sponsored this way and get to take the footage to educate their students ... Gotto LOVE France!
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