We're back at sea again, which is ridiculous. Actually, it's ridiculous that we can still see the same island that we went past yesterday. This is because we're not moving. Actually, that's not true. For a while we were going backwards at 0.5 knots, and earlier today we were just spinning slowly around in circles over a glassy sea. It feels like we'll never get to Hao. It's 270 miles from Fakarava, which would ideally take 2 to 3 days. But not for us. It looks like this trip will take at least a week.
We did get to go for a swim yesterday though, which was nice. It was the first time I haven't been scared swimming in 3000m of water, because the boat wasn't going to wander off and leave me if I let go. In fact, I could have swum circles around it if I'd wanted to - it was just sitting there as if it were at anchor. When Garth got in the water he tried to push us along by kicking as hard as he could, but the old girl wouldn't budge.
Sunrise
Sunset
It really is like another world out here in the Tuamotus. There's nowhere to get water from - everybody has a water tank. You collect your own. There's no taps and no communal water. There's no bins to throw rubbish into - you light a fire and burn it in your backyard. So we've been seperating out our rubbish into stuff we can throw overboard, cardboard that we can burn at sea, and plastic. Today we chucked out the bag of stuff for the ocean, which was really exciting. We had tins and glass bottles and other biodegradable stuff which we always throw away at sea but will end up on the beach if we're close to shore. So with no rubbish bins we've had to save them at anchor. Today we filled them all up with water and dropped them in. They reflected the light, so we just watched each shiny thing sink further and further down into the depths. Eventually, after at least a minute of watching them sink, they didn't disappear. The dots just got so far away that they shrunk into something we couldn't see without binoculars. It's crazy how clear the water is.
We spent two more nights at Fakarava before heading out to sea again. We headed towards the southern pass, which was 27 miles away, but we stopped about halfway down the Fakarava lagoon when the sky got cloudy again. We didn't want to navigate through coral heads if we couldn't see them. We found a nice anchorage tucked in next to a cute little sandy beach that was easy enough to get into. The wind howled all night, but we awoke the next morning to a bright blue sky spread out above us and beautiful morning light shining on our bed through the hatch. It was lovely! The turquoise water was so bright it hurt to look at it, and a white beach lined with palm trees was spread out in front of us. We had to wait for some washing to dry, so went to shore for a bit of exploration.
There was a small house hidden in amongst the trees, so we wandered off in the other direction. The islands in the Tuamotus are flat with nothing to break up the skyline other than the palm trees. They land is made up of coral and sand, so I guess not much else will grow here naturally. The beach was covered in washed up coral, which was piled high a bit further back from the water. There were actually quite a few pretty shells in amongst all the bits of broken and sun bleached coral that we're so used to seeing. Perhaps because there's a lot of beach here and not many people to collect the shells for jewelry. There's probably the same amount of people living here as there are on the tiny island of Maupiti, but this atoll is a lot bigger so the houses are a lot more spread out.
We eventually made it to the southern anchorage that afternoon, weaving our way in amongst reefs and coral heads to find a nice spot where we could drop the anchor. We've had a few incidents with the anchor getting stuck and I'm terrified that one day we won't be able to get it back. With no dive gear onboard and no other boats around, we always try to find a spot that's shallow enough for us to swim down and sort it out if we have to. Which can be a lot more difficult to manage around all these motus, which always seem to be surrounded by scattered patches of coral just close enough together that we can't fit in between.
Unfortunately for us, our timing was off yet again. Even though there was very little wind the current in the pass can still get quite strong. For snorkelling purposes we had to time our trip over to the pass on an incoming tide so we wouldn't get swept out to sea. The visibility is only really good at slack tide (when it's dead calm as the tide changes), so we wanted to go snorkelling on the slack tide just as it changed to incoming. But we had to leave the next day and to get through the pass we also wanted to head out on the slack tide. Problem. We ended up going snorkelling just before slack tide and leaving just after, which was safest but not ideal. It meant that the water was cloudy when we were swimming and very clear as we sailed out, but such is life.
Looking back at the reef from inside the pass
Just getting over to the pass was a mission in itself, as there was a huge reef in between our anchorage and where we were heading. I'd read that you couldn't take a shortcut across the reef and had to go all the way round (2 miles). We ignored this information. With our very shallow draft and the outboard lifted almost all the way out of the water, we made a beeline for the reef. Eventually we pulled the motor up completely and rowed until our very shallow draft didn't cut it any more and we became stuck on the reef. Not to worry... we both just shifted our weight onto the same side of the boat so we heeled over and were away again. I love our dinghy. It was a really beautiful day and I couldn't help thinking how lovely it would be to sail around in the shallows. I can't wait until we find a mast to get it sailing!
There are supposed to be countless numbers of sharks swimming around in the pass and we were only slightly disappointed. We couldn't see them very well in the cloudy water but we were definitely swimming in amongst some monsters. They were slightly more threatening than the cuddly chums we made friends with in Moorea, but I was a lot less afraid of them after already being so close to so many. They were all hanging around on the edge of the drop off into the main section of the pass, as they normally do. But there were lots of other interesting things just inside the ledge as well. We swam through huge schools of fish who entertained me immensely. They were a kind I hadn't seen before, with a pointy horn on the front of their faces like a unicorn. We also found the biggest Napoleon Wrasse we'd ever seen as well, just hanging out with the sharks. He must have been way too big to be of any interest to the sharks.
The sharks mostly stayed in the deep water, except for one rogue who followed me into the shallows. Garth had already abandoned me to get the dinghy started and I was left floating in the water with a huge shark circling me. At first he didn't seem that interested, but just as I started to breathe again he turned around and headed straight for me. Garth chose that moment to start the engine and play the 'I'm leaving without you' game. As soon as the engine noise blasted through the water, the shark turned and fled. I'm sure he was just coming over to say hi, but I was grateful for Garth's childish games.
Leaving through the pass was slightly scary. Garth has recently discovered that he needs to give me something to focus on so I can't freak out about scary things. So he was on the bow directing us and I was at the wheel steering. This meant that I couldn't look down at the water until after we were safely in the channel and Garth had the wheel again. This was just as well, because the water was crystal clear. Perfect for snorkelling. But I could vividly see every bit of coral and rock underneath us through 6m of water, which was seriously unsettling.
So here we are again. Sailing seriously slowly towards our destination. I've never been sailing in such little wind for such a long period of time, but here we are. We won't die of starvation because the boat is overloaded with food, but we may be here a while...
Xxx Monique
More pictures!
We did get to go for a swim yesterday though, which was nice. It was the first time I haven't been scared swimming in 3000m of water, because the boat wasn't going to wander off and leave me if I let go. In fact, I could have swum circles around it if I'd wanted to - it was just sitting there as if it were at anchor. When Garth got in the water he tried to push us along by kicking as hard as he could, but the old girl wouldn't budge.
It really is like another world out here in the Tuamotus. There's nowhere to get water from - everybody has a water tank. You collect your own. There's no taps and no communal water. There's no bins to throw rubbish into - you light a fire and burn it in your backyard. So we've been seperating out our rubbish into stuff we can throw overboard, cardboard that we can burn at sea, and plastic. Today we chucked out the bag of stuff for the ocean, which was really exciting. We had tins and glass bottles and other biodegradable stuff which we always throw away at sea but will end up on the beach if we're close to shore. So with no rubbish bins we've had to save them at anchor. Today we filled them all up with water and dropped them in. They reflected the light, so we just watched each shiny thing sink further and further down into the depths. Eventually, after at least a minute of watching them sink, they didn't disappear. The dots just got so far away that they shrunk into something we couldn't see without binoculars. It's crazy how clear the water is.
We spent two more nights at Fakarava before heading out to sea again. We headed towards the southern pass, which was 27 miles away, but we stopped about halfway down the Fakarava lagoon when the sky got cloudy again. We didn't want to navigate through coral heads if we couldn't see them. We found a nice anchorage tucked in next to a cute little sandy beach that was easy enough to get into. The wind howled all night, but we awoke the next morning to a bright blue sky spread out above us and beautiful morning light shining on our bed through the hatch. It was lovely! The turquoise water was so bright it hurt to look at it, and a white beach lined with palm trees was spread out in front of us. We had to wait for some washing to dry, so went to shore for a bit of exploration.
There was a small house hidden in amongst the trees, so we wandered off in the other direction. The islands in the Tuamotus are flat with nothing to break up the skyline other than the palm trees. They land is made up of coral and sand, so I guess not much else will grow here naturally. The beach was covered in washed up coral, which was piled high a bit further back from the water. There were actually quite a few pretty shells in amongst all the bits of broken and sun bleached coral that we're so used to seeing. Perhaps because there's a lot of beach here and not many people to collect the shells for jewelry. There's probably the same amount of people living here as there are on the tiny island of Maupiti, but this atoll is a lot bigger so the houses are a lot more spread out.
We eventually made it to the southern anchorage that afternoon, weaving our way in amongst reefs and coral heads to find a nice spot where we could drop the anchor. We've had a few incidents with the anchor getting stuck and I'm terrified that one day we won't be able to get it back. With no dive gear onboard and no other boats around, we always try to find a spot that's shallow enough for us to swim down and sort it out if we have to. Which can be a lot more difficult to manage around all these motus, which always seem to be surrounded by scattered patches of coral just close enough together that we can't fit in between.
Unfortunately for us, our timing was off yet again. Even though there was very little wind the current in the pass can still get quite strong. For snorkelling purposes we had to time our trip over to the pass on an incoming tide so we wouldn't get swept out to sea. The visibility is only really good at slack tide (when it's dead calm as the tide changes), so we wanted to go snorkelling on the slack tide just as it changed to incoming. But we had to leave the next day and to get through the pass we also wanted to head out on the slack tide. Problem. We ended up going snorkelling just before slack tide and leaving just after, which was safest but not ideal. It meant that the water was cloudy when we were swimming and very clear as we sailed out, but such is life.
Just getting over to the pass was a mission in itself, as there was a huge reef in between our anchorage and where we were heading. I'd read that you couldn't take a shortcut across the reef and had to go all the way round (2 miles). We ignored this information. With our very shallow draft and the outboard lifted almost all the way out of the water, we made a beeline for the reef. Eventually we pulled the motor up completely and rowed until our very shallow draft didn't cut it any more and we became stuck on the reef. Not to worry... we both just shifted our weight onto the same side of the boat so we heeled over and were away again. I love our dinghy. It was a really beautiful day and I couldn't help thinking how lovely it would be to sail around in the shallows. I can't wait until we find a mast to get it sailing!
There are supposed to be countless numbers of sharks swimming around in the pass and we were only slightly disappointed. We couldn't see them very well in the cloudy water but we were definitely swimming in amongst some monsters. They were slightly more threatening than the cuddly chums we made friends with in Moorea, but I was a lot less afraid of them after already being so close to so many. They were all hanging around on the edge of the drop off into the main section of the pass, as they normally do. But there were lots of other interesting things just inside the ledge as well. We swam through huge schools of fish who entertained me immensely. They were a kind I hadn't seen before, with a pointy horn on the front of their faces like a unicorn. We also found the biggest Napoleon Wrasse we'd ever seen as well, just hanging out with the sharks. He must have been way too big to be of any interest to the sharks.
The sharks mostly stayed in the deep water, except for one rogue who followed me into the shallows. Garth had already abandoned me to get the dinghy started and I was left floating in the water with a huge shark circling me. At first he didn't seem that interested, but just as I started to breathe again he turned around and headed straight for me. Garth chose that moment to start the engine and play the 'I'm leaving without you' game. As soon as the engine noise blasted through the water, the shark turned and fled. I'm sure he was just coming over to say hi, but I was grateful for Garth's childish games.
Leaving through the pass was slightly scary. Garth has recently discovered that he needs to give me something to focus on so I can't freak out about scary things. So he was on the bow directing us and I was at the wheel steering. This meant that I couldn't look down at the water until after we were safely in the channel and Garth had the wheel again. This was just as well, because the water was crystal clear. Perfect for snorkelling. But I could vividly see every bit of coral and rock underneath us through 6m of water, which was seriously unsettling.
So here we are again. Sailing seriously slowly towards our destination. I've never been sailing in such little wind for such a long period of time, but here we are. We won't die of starvation because the boat is overloaded with food, but we may be here a while...
Xxx Monique
More pictures!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.