2017 JOURNAL – FRENCH POLYNESIA-Season Two
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2017- PHOTO GALLERY Photos – DIVING Fakarava South Pass
Passage: Tahiti to Toau Atoll
We are continuing to work our way along, hard on the winds of 12-20 kts with a 2m swell coming at us just off our nose, so making progress a challenge. Quite variable with lots of sail changes in the first few hours, but now we’re settled with main and genoa out full and managing 5 kts almost in the right direction for North Fakarava. A few curious Booby Birds, but otherwise no traffic and very quiet (minus the banging of the waves.) We’ll see what the night brings and if we can pinch our way more east toward Tahanea. All is well – hot and sweaty – life on an angle!
Always a challenge the first ocean passage after a long break. Both of us are feeling weary and a bit demoralized with our slow progress eked out with great effort against the winds and seas and still not really on the course we want. Our hopes now are to make it to the north pass of Fakarava by tomorrow evening. With speeds averaging only 4-4.5kts, even with help from the engine, due to the 2.5 meter seas, we may end up with an extra night out. There is a big low pressure system south of us down by NZ which is causing what would otherwise be a lovely day into a pounding day. Sun is out, mostly cloudless, it is lovely watching the sea birds soaring around between the waves. They do love these boisterous conditions.
Progress is still slow and our course is now taking us to Toau. It’s a lovely little atoll that we visited with Jodie and enjoyed lots of great diving and snorkeling in the “false pass” and along the reefs. It’ll be fun to see Valentine and Gaston who live there with their dogs. Not the first island we were hoping to visit and it’ll now be a bit trickier to get to SE to Tahanea. We shall see. If we can, we are hoping to arrive there before sunset tomorrow. Very tough going against currents, seas and winds, although we’ve tried different tacks, none of them work well except turning around and going back toward Tahiti!! After slowing to a frustrating 3kts, even with engine assistance, heeled over and shipping water, just after midnight the swell lessened to about 1.5meters, the wind shifted a bit more to the SE and we at last were powered only under sail and gained speeds of 4-5kts, so we are now only 20nm from Toau! We are both really looking forward to our arrival and happy that it will be early afternoon so we can jump overboard for a good snorkel – that will feel fantastic!
TOAU ATOLL- Anse Amyot
We arrived at Toau yesterday afternoon – pretty exhausted after the passage, but very relieved and happy to at last be here. It’s just as lovely as expected. With 20kt winds blowing across the lagoon, we had a tough time picking up the mooring buoy and I even lost the boat hook on one of the attempts! Patient as ever, Capt John managed the boat for what ended up being 3 attempts at the buoy plus one overboard rescue of the boat hook!! Safely moored, we had lots of sorting and clean up to do before going for a much appreciated snorkel around the lovely coral heads nearby. Jodie will remember this well and the huge number of colorful fish:) With the winds and the outgoing current, we were soon tired and happy to return to the boat, have a wonderful shower, happy hour:) and spicy chicken curry dinner, finally collapsing into bed at 6pm for a long night’s sleep. We’ll go ashore this morning to visit the dogs and Valentine and Gaston, plus more snorkeling. The weather is forecast to settle, so maybe tomorrow we can do some scuba. We are still in Toau at the false pass called Anse Amyot which a beautiful little, peaceful place on the wet side of Toau with some fabulous snorkeling among many scattered coral beds – a stunning array of tropical fish. It’s probably the best snorkeling that we’ve found in French Polynesia. The couple who live here have several fish traps and live mostly a subsistence lifestyle bolstered by some cash received from cruisers like us who pay them to tie up on their buoys. Two other boats are here right now – a Canadian couple from Quebec and a French/Swiss couple from New Caledonia. Another morning waking up surrounded by beauty:) The snorkeling here is lovely – we enjoy it so much just floating around and hovering over all the coral watching the funny fish darting around or trying to look fierce and then relaxing once they get accustomed to us. Have had a couple of scary moray encounters – those guys can be quite aggressive – especially the big ones!! Very few sharks, in fact the biggest one went right past me while I was securing the dingy line and I didn’t even see it, John was amazed having expected me to freak out:) What’s amazing too are the varying colors of the water – turquoise, aquamarine, deep blue varying in their intensity against the coral and white sands. MV/Ultimate Lady just arrived this morning-it’s a big blue and white power catamaran we seemed to keep encountering since our first days up in the Marquesas – it was even moored by us at the marina in Tahiti; they and their guests are out in two inflatable boats flying a very elaborate drone! Not sure what they are hoping to achieve, but it’s interesting to spy and speculate.
I was up early this morning and doing my exercises on the front of the boat where the breeze keeps me cool and was able to witness several incidents of small fish desperately jumping in efforts to flee from the feeding sharks! Funny because we haven’t seen but that one shark while snorkeling, so they must come in for the early morning and then leave again. The fish are really fun and so plentiful, it’s amazing.
Yesterday, I went walking along the coral edge of the shoreline around the atoll accompanied by one of the dogs that lives here – a small dog with markings similar to Nikki – also a herding blend and he was having a blast storming along the tide pools chasing all kinds of fish, eels and even sharks.
One larger black tip was curious and actually swam up within about 2-3 ft of the dog’s back, but when he turned and saw the shark a furious chase ensued all around the reef until finally both the shark and the dog went into the ocean! I worried for the wee dog that he’d get trapped, but he finally pulled himself out and proudly pranced back to me:) Having the dog along made the entire walk fun – of course I had a few kibbles with me to share which he liked too:)
The family here have a “pet” Frigit Bird which is back this season all puffed up with a red color due to mating season; he sits on the balcony and sucks up free fish from Gaston while his mate soars overhead, not interested in human interactions and impatiently waiting for him. He was here last year too and is quite funny about his insistence on getting fed. They’ve had this bird for nearly 8 years – pretty amazing.
Yes, we went diving! Took off about 11am and went up north to around the Yellow Snapper spot, no buoy there to tie to any longer – both that one and the white one at the pass are gone from the heavy NW winds and swells that came through here last December. We anchored and then dove about 30 mins north into the current in and around some valleys then back. It was nice, John picked up one of the succor fish who tormented him for the last half of the dive- it didn’t like me probably because of the body suit:) Saw a big Napolean Wrasse X 2 and lots of other fish and coral – I nearly got to touch a fish again, but it swished off at the last millimeter, pretty cute though.
A neighboring boat gave us some red Big Eye and Jack fish which John fillet for our next few dinner. When I threw the carcasses overboard – three BIG sharks were there!! We’d had fish last night and I’d thrown the scraps over, so maybe they were still lurking there. Pretty spooky, fun, scary – one was easily 6-8ft dark gray reef shark!
The wee female dog has apparently had two new puppies, although we don’t know where they are and Gaston and Valerie have gone over to Apataki today. The dogs were howling at the dock, so we went over earlier and fed them some of my kibbles, now it’s dark.
We’re tidied up and ready to make a day trip over to Fakarava early tomorrow morning. It’s been a lovely evening – we enjoyed happy hour on the forward deck and then dinner under the stars (shade tree is down.) Off to bed.
5/8/2017Passage: Toau to Fakarava North
The winds are nearly non-existent which is why this was a good time to go against the prevailing routes and head SE from Toau to north Fakarava. We had an easy trip, entering the north pass with no trouble at all. Almost flat calm water here, we long for a bit of a breeze. Thank goodness for the shade tree. John dropped me at the dock just after 5pm and I went for a run south along the lagoon road and ran past that quaint beach snack bar and also the classy resort – they ARE perfect sunset spots:) Made it back to the wharf after sunset in the darkening sky, so after John got me back to the boat, we chose to enjoy a lingering sunset happy hour before showers. Now freshly clean, I’ll fix up our steaks and potatoes after writing this message. Such a contrast here to the last time we anchored in order to pick Jodie up from her epic bike ride X 2 (easily 100km of the Fakarava strip,half of which was sand/coral roads! Last time we were here at the north end, the boat was bucking away at the anchor crashing with the waves coming up the long fetch from the SE end of this long lagoon. It’s a totally different place this time. We were really bucking at the anchor chain that time, now it’s absolutely motionless. There are almost no winds and the lagoon is mirror calm, almost spooky.
Sorry not to have better Internet in Fakarava – it was quite disappointing as that was one of our main reasons for coming here. At least we had an hour on the porch at the Yacht Services. Two runs and one bike ride later, I’m happily re-exercised. Now we’ll enjoy lingering among the small motu and re-checking the bird nests.
It’s 3:30pm on Monday and we just picked up the anchor in North Fakarava setting sail overnight for Tahanea (the bird nest atoll:) About 88nm, so we hope to arrive between 6-9:30am carrying a few fresh provisions for our friends Roger and Sasha on Ednabal (Aussie boat.)
6:30 pm – Wow- that was a scary crossing through the North Pass of Fakarava!! My estimates for the tide were a bit off, combined with our slower than expected transit from town to the pass, plus added to that strong winds over the past few days from the NW having created a strong wind against tide event. We had huge standing waves and sucking big holes with water breaking over the entire boat! In hindsight, we should have just turned around and saved it for another day, but Capt. John skillfully worked the motor & steering to keep our boat from broaching and eventually she managed to get through the melee. Still rough passing along the northern fringe, so we’ll no doubt have a quick sail once we head off toward Tahanea.
TAHANEA Atoll
5/9/2017- We’re now anchored just inside the pass of Tahanea. It’s just as beautiful here as we remember, although the weather is brisk and promising some more squalls. The night brought some strong winds, so we made good speed and arrived about 2 hours earlier than expected, a bit dicey in the pass, but no problem for Capt. John and Raynad (nothing even close to the adventure leaving North Fakarava!) After arriving here, we went over to Roger and Sasha’s boat to deliver their fresh produce, had tea and a chat, then went over to a motor yacht called Duet (US boat – he is an anesthetist for the VA and only works 3-4 months a year in Reno!) They live in Tahoe when not cruising. Now I’ll clean up the boat a bit, me a bit, and likely have a nap:)
5/10/2017
John and I went out diving about 10am this morning, going down just outside the pass and then drifting in with the tide. Was lovely, but fast! Several sharks, Dogfish Tuna and schools of various other fish on the outside, some brilliant coral, but the dive was all over within 20mins! So, we went back out to snorkle some of the reefs, including John towing me with the dingy- a bit like being waterboarded at times:) Eventually we tired out and came back to the boat only to just make it before the big black weather hit. Gear is just dumped in the cockpit and now we’re bucking around on the fetch end of 20-25kt winds from the southwest (we’re on the north side). Reports from our friends on s/v Ednbal are that they have now snapped TWO of their snubbers on the bucking chain. Looks like John will be diving to help them retrieve the stainless hooks once this weather settles. We’ve managed to rinse our gear and store things away, but John twice had to engine a bit against the wind when the gusts seemed overwhelming. This is hard on our anchoring gear, especially when the chain grinds on some coral, but we are secure and all is holding well. Nothing like this was in the forecast – Much more excitement than expected. Hopefully this will soon pass over and we’ll be able to relax with popcorn and a movie:)
5/12/2017 -After a leisurely morning exploring the island between the two north passes of Tahanea and talking with a brother and sister who were processing copra, we lifted anchor and motored across the lagoon. Dragging a fishing line along the way – we caught a good sized Job Fish! Good eating tonight:) Now we’re anchored behind the reef next to our favorite three bird islands. The weather is still unsettled with rain/thunder clouds, so we’ll likely wait until tomorrow for much exploring. John is working on lubricating the anchor wench which has been making a horrible squeaking sound, then he’ll do some repairs on our best snubber that took quite a beating during the big squall yesterday. All the boats are hoping these systems pass onward and bring us back our settled weather. Northern Tonga even had a small cyclone, glad we aren’t there! I wonder how many of the boats waiting in NZ for a “weather window” up to the islands are being frustrated by these powerful systems. Also happy not to be making that trip:)
5/13/2017 – John and I enjoyed a walk ashore on two of the islands yesterday afternoon. We only found one booby nest with an egg in it, all of the others were empty and there are not as many bird around. The middle of the three islands had several majestic Masked Booby flying about – which was really lovely to see. I think that the smaller one may have been the grown chicks from last October!?! For dinner we ate fresh “JobFish” (I’d thought it was a jack fish, but Roger corrected us) lightly fried in crumbs with some purple cabbage on the side. We’re not sick, so it must have been safe!?!? We’ll have the other half for dinner tonight. I’ve started making lentil sprouts again, so hopefully we’ll be able to have those for a side salad in a couple of days. Otherwise, we only have a few apples, oranges, carrots and 1/4 cabbage left. 
The winds are settling and light, so even though they are expected to move north (we’re on the south side of the lagoon) they are “forecasted” to be light, so hopefully not a problem. This is such a quintessentially beautiful bit of F.P. paradise, it’s good to be back. John is busy with a electrical wiring project, always things for him to fix, the lists never end. We’re a bit short on propane and shared some of what we had with our friends who ran out, so I won’t do as much baking, although that’s always been one of my projects. Good thing I have lots of books to read!
5/15/2017-We moved the boat about 5 miles east yesterday to join up with a USA motoryacht called Duet so that all of us could enjoy an evening onboard Ednabal with Roger and Sasha who had caught several coconut crabs the night before and were keen to have us all get together for a crab dinner. It was a fun evening, good food, drink and company. Not sure what we’ll decide for today, we may likely move again after noon. Duet will be headed back to Tahiti tomorrow, Roger and Sasha will be heading to the SE corner so they can kite surf.
5/16/2017 – Moved back over to our favorite anchorage in Tahanea – I call it Three Bird Islands. From our previous anchorage, called “Z”, the motor vessel Duet left yesterday for Papeete, while s/v Ednabal went down to the SE corner of this atoll to do some kite surfing, so we now have this anchorage all to ourselves. We went ashore to burn our garbage at low tide (plus a full garbage can of other beach trash I picked up) and then explored around the island finding only one Blue-Footed Booby nest with an egg in it; we bothered a bunch of Ferie Terns, but couldn’t spot any eggs or chicks and unfortunately found lots of old rubbish left by some locals who camped on the larger of the three islands for awhile gathering coconuts for copra, maybe trapping fish and probably eating some of the bird eggs:( Tahanea Atoll has been referred to as a “wildlife refuge” or protected atoll, but it really isn’t. Locals from the neighboring atoll of Faaite come over here and create thatched-hut camps for harvesting. The really small motu are usually left alone, but any reasonably large islands are used. Apparently one of them has been ruined by the pigs that were brought in. We just have to hope that rats don’t make it to the small nesting islands because these birds are very vulnerable nesting on the ground and in low bushes.
TAHANEA ATOLL, Southwest
BIRD ISLAND
Wow- a wonderful morning today! We left just after coffee and took the inflatable about 2-3 miles across the lagoon to an island where the frigate birds are nesting. It was absolutely amazing, as we approached the island hundreds of birds took flight soaring loftily with their prominent forked tails and white markings standing out against the blue sky – at the same time the eerie steep and sharp coral heads or sharply broken reefs around the island started coming up under the dingy!
Hard to keep our focus in any one place, so John just cut the motor. The island is densely forested with various tropical bushes and trees that were full of nesting frigates. Eventually we found a spot we could reasonably approach, tie the dingy to some branches hanging out over the water and wade our way over the coral to shore.
Exploring over the sharp coral and around dense vegetation, we were rewarded with close encounters to many birds: on their nest, eggs in the nest and chicks in various stages of development. It was a magical experience.
We finished off the hot, sticky trekking with some cool snorkeling around the coral accompanied by several reef sharks, one which seemed particularly interested in us. A bit stressful until he/she finally got bored and went elsewhere:) All in all, a super wonderful morning.
The other islands we are anchored near where we found lots of nesting Booby and Tern last October, only have a few nests. The rare Tuomotu Sandpipers seemed to follow us everywhere with lots of chirpy chatter leading me to believe that they may be nesting, but it’s hard to know where. We had some very close encounters with a couple of Nodey (a sort of sooty black tern with prominent white marks)- they seemed curious to make contact and stayed around for a long time. We harvested 5 coconuts for water and John found a large mooring ball he’ll keep, but otherwise, these islands are rather quiet this time of year.
The squalls and winds have lessened so we can once again enjoy the intense colors of this quintessential tropical paradise. Life is good and all is well.
5/18/2017 – Southeast Tahanea
We moved to the east side of Tahanea yesterday (about 14miles) and are now anchored by some sandy shored motu so close to the reef that they have little mini-passes kind of like what we found around Raroia and So Fakarava. We might snorkel one of the sandy ones today, the other is incredibly fun to see from up on the shore because the huge slabs of reef make fascinating underwater overhangs where the incoming water swirl – not safe for kayak or swimmer- but great to look down into. Saw our first rats onshore:( I’d set a trap if I had one…no wonder there are no bird nests here. Harvested some coconuts though that need to be cracked this morning.
John and I moved the boat down to the east end of Tahanea yesterday. Not as lovely as the last spot, but more protected from the strengthening winds. It was kind of cool walking around one of the island over all of the huge slabs of broken coral and watching the tide rushing in over the jutting overhangs. We found the skeleton of a puffer fish with all of the spikes.
5/19/2017- Another day in paradise, this time on the east side of Tahanea with lots of islets and sandy spits divided by small rivers of water passing in and out of the lagoon across the reef and into the crashing sea beyond. The various colors are spectacular and pretty impossible to really capture in a photograph. Yesterday afternoon we managed to collect six coconuts from a couple of trees, so we went ashore this morning to machete them open, collect the water and try to pry out some of the meat on the more mature (brown) ones. It’s a lot of work for John, but he’s got the system now and it works pretty well. Unfortunately, the six produced less than a liter of water and the nuts were pretty small, but we’ll still have some sliced & cooked coconut strips for our happy hour:)
We cooled off with some drift snorkeling in one of the little fake passes and then came back to re-anchor the boat because we were dragging. When John dove in to check the new position, he saw a large spotted ray with two baby rays! I went in afterwards and found them again up further on the sands – it was lovely to watch their grace as they fed along the shallow sands accompanied by the usual sucker fish and a couple of larger fish rushing in for the scraps. Pretty special, we’ve never seen a mother ray with her little ones:) John’s busy messing with our extra outboard engines and other assorted projects. I’ve cooked up a big batch of BBQ beef. I think we’ll try and have our happy hour on the little island since I don’t have to do much about dinner now. TFIG!! Not pasta Friday, BBQ Friday!
5/20/2017-It’s our steak and wine night, plus we have plans to try and enjoy the sunset sitting in our folding chairs out on the sand spit. We did that last night, but were a bit late arriving and there were clouds obscuring much of it. Still nice though, so we’ll repeat that effort tonight. We’ve had some beautiful starry nights and for several of them, we went and laid down on the forward deck just to gaze up ate sky and try to identify a few stars/constellations. With no moon out until later, the stars are pretty magnificent, plus it’s nice a cool out there:)
5/22/2017-We’re still anchored in the same spot at the east end of Tahanea. Yesterday I pumped up the kayak, but it was weirdly twisted at one end, so John deflated it all to try and straighten out the problem, only in the process the center bit for the backbone just disappeared?? Lots of searching later, including 4-5 dingy trips, it is still missing, so sadly the kayak is folded back up in its sack:( Bummer because this is a perfect place for endless kayak adventures now that the winds are down..I was all packed up and ready to go exploring, snorkel,etc….back to my books I guess.
5/23/2017We had a fun evening on shore with Roger and Sasha from Ednbal. They LOVE to build beach fires using only coconuts husks, fibers and fronds. Nice for us that they pretty much set it all up, including making a table by turning the kite surfing boat upside down between two buckets and providing the grill for cooking our meat after the fire has turned to coals. I’d marinated some Jack Fish with olive oil, lemon pepper and a bit of soy sauce which turned out really great! We stayed talking into the night not getting back to our boat until 10:00pm – pretty late for us oldies:) Roger’s mother grew up in the outback of Western Australia and they’ve compiled a book of her stories which I went over to their boat and borrowed this morning – a very different and challenging lifestyle indeed!
Some brisk weather is anticipated over the next 2-4 days, so we’ll stay here snugged up on the east side with plans to sail over to Fakarava after it passes. Our friends Birgit and Christian on s/v Petufa are on route from the Gambier to here, so we’re also waiting here to meet up with them – another beach BBQ is definitely in the making.
5/24/2017John and I are still anchored near our Aussie friends on s/v Ednbal with plans to move today or tomorrow further to the northeast corner of the atoll in anticipation of some frontal weather coming this direction. Other boats have experienced some incredible weather systems down between NZ & Tonga which some have been caught in while trying to transit westward from F.P. Nothing life-threatening, but very uncomfortable and exhausting. We’re spoiled sitting here listening in on their reports via the Magnet at 8am and 6pm, empathizing with their plights while sipping coffee or GTs.
The atoll is filling up with boats! We’ll have about 6 neighbors by the end of the day, all settling into the SE corner of Tahanea for the strong SE winds. Already talk of a beach BBQ again tonight…good fun if the weather holds and stays dry. We had a bit of rain last night, but fortunately it stopped long enough for us to enjoy a lovely BBQ under the stars.
5/28/2017We’re down in the SE corner of Tahanea together with seven other boats! We had a wonderful beach BBQ last night with the people from three of the boats. We enjoyed the sunset, roasting bread over the coconut husk fire, then cooking our meats over the coals and sharing a potluck of side dishes. It was great to see some previous friends and catch up on their travels. The owner of one of the new boats is a plastic surgeon from Kansas, so he and John had some lively conversations, which was nice for John as he’s kind of had enough of conversing with our usual friends. Oddly though, it all turned very quickly when politics entered the discussion, Gary and Mike stated that they supported Trump, and when I asked, “Why?” Gary came forth with the statement that, “Obama is the anti-Christ!” Scrapping my chin off my chest….I managed to come out with a simple, “What is it about him that makes you say that?” To which he replied, “Where do I start? The man is pure evil!” At this point he was clearly agitated and on a roll. To our credit, John and I looked at each other, took a deep breath and very calmly inquired a bit more as to the foundation of his thinking. Before much more discussion took place though, we were interrupted by a sudden change in the weather sending everyone scurrying to pick up, clean up, load up and leave in our dinghies, some of which had become high and dry with the outgoing tide! Fortunately ours was fine. John and I debriefed over coffee this morning, both glad that we kept cool and collected, but absolutely stunned that this seemingly sensible man, fairly soft spoken, suddenly transformed into a fanatic! Although the conversation we were having was only between us and them, it did not go unnoticed by the other cruisers who are curious to get our feedback today. Amazing, we haven’t had much exposure to the “Trump-Crowd” here, most of our friends are not from the USA and those who are, have mostly been rather liberal thinking. We just got a taste of middle America, stunning, not pretty and very worrying.
5/29/2017Good Morning! It’s only 7am and we are already coffee’d up and moving on with the day. Thinking of you all on this Monday, Memorial Day. We enjoyed a gathering on the beach last night of 19 people from the 8 boats that were anchored near us. We just met for the sunset and to have send-off for our friends Roger and Sasha who are planning on sailing back to Tahiti today. A French boat had 7 people on it – 3 couples and one adult son (he was cute- too bad you weren’t here with us Jodie:) Apparently the ownership of this yacht is shared by 6 people who travel back and forth between Europe and the boat for periodic trips. Over the past 8 years the boat has circumnavigated 1 1/2 times. Seems to work well for them as they get a bit of the cruising lifestyle mixed with time at home & work.
There is a boat called Tumbleweed from Seattle with two guys, Douglas and Morgan, on board – one an ex-Microsoft computer security programmer. The Fundamental Christian plastic surgeon, Gary, and his friend, Mike, were also there (sv/ Illimite), sv/Petufa (which means Smurf – the little blue cartoon characters) with Christian and Birgit, Roger and Sasha off sv/ Ednbal (an Aussie word for another wee animal character) plus Annie and Erik from sv/ Immohtep (an Egyptian Pharoah Queen)…seems s/v Raynad is the dullest boat name of all:( Plans today were to move back to our favorite Three Bird Islands, however, the winds are still strong enough to make the next anchorage a bit tough, so we’ll likely wait until tomorrow to move. We’re reluctant to leave this lovely place, however, we must sail over to Fakarava soon to get more milk, outboard fuel, propane and of course for Internet access.
5/30/2017We sailed off our anchor yesterday (yes, literally, not engine per Capt John’s insistence despite my own reluctance) and sailed all but the last mile out of 16 to our newest anchorage tucked in behind the reef at our favorite “Three Bird Islands” spot (my name for it:) Nice anchoring done in the sand and floating our chain at 15m to try and keep it away from the bits of coral. Two fun encounters, one with a Booby that soared around the boat several times, almost coming close enough to my extended hand for me to touch it, plus a Nody (like a black tern with one white patch on its head) that came super close to my extended hand and then landed on the bow. We went ashore and explored two of the islands finding a few Blue-Footed Booby nests on the ground, no chicks, a few with eggs and lots of empty ones; and also one nesting Masked-Booby who flew off and let us peek at her next with two lovely eggs. Lots of white terns anxiously flitting about, but no siting of eggs. It’s fun being back with the birds, listening to all of their chatter and watching them soar or flit about at sunset. The snorkeling is also much nicer here and very accessible to the boat. We caught another Job Fish just before our arrival here, so John filleted that and I sautéed it for dinner. We’re down to 2 apples and 1/2 a carrot now, so we had the fish with canned peaches.
Our Genoa (foresail) has a tear/hole up near the top, so as soon as the winds calm down, we’ll have to take it down and do some sail repairs. One of the seams has split. We were still able to use it, but will have to repair it before heading to Fakarava.
All is well in this beautiful spot in paradise:)
6/01/2017 Winds are howling outside and have been doing so since last night, starting with rainy squalls and now just strong winds. Not what earlier forecasts had said, which is why we are sheltered behind a rather pathetic finger of reef rather than still down on the SE corner sheltered by islands. Oh well, John snorkeled on the anchor which is very well set in now, so we’ll just rock and buck and hope that things settle before nightfall. Cups of tea and lots of reading, in fact I just drank the last bag of Pike Street Market Spice tea. No trips to the little bird islands today!
6/2/2017
Gray skies and rain this morning after yesterdays winds. We ended up re-anchoring when the wind swang very, very north and put our ruder onto a coral head (just a touch & no damage – but just happened to coincide with John being in the water having a look – despite vigorous kicking, he could not influence the trajectory!?!!)
6/3/2017What started out as a calm, hauntingly gray morning turned into a series of rain squalls that have sent us on a 360 journey around the anchor! Luckily we are clear of hazards (I ended up snorkeling in my birthday suit to check on one), but just before this all started when winds were down to only 4kts, we decided to take the Genoa down so that John could fix a tear in one of the seams…of course the thing got stuck, I had to put John up the bosun’s chair and the wind kicked up…some exciting times! Now he’s quietly stitching away in the cockpit.
6/4/2017Yesterday was a busy day for us cleaning up and polishing the boat, then moving over 3 miles to anchorage behind a reef next to s/v Petufa. Unfortunately, we’re in a bit of the ICTZ-like weather and just as we were lifting anchor the rain clouds came in on us from all over and we ended up making the transit with almost 0 visibility in the water! Good thing we had Google Earth images and a previous “track” to follow and miss the bomies. Our anchoring job wasn’t so good, but we made it so we could have Christian and Birgit over for drinks and dinner last night. A pleasant evening all around protected from the rain under our shadetree.
We have a week of light winds in the forecast ahead. What that really means is lots of clear sunny skies inter-changed with squalls of rain from all directions and/or just gray drizzle..fairly unpredictable stuff. All is well though and we’re having trouble dragging ourselves away from this beautiful area in order to go back to “civilization” with wifi & shops.
6/5/2-17This morning the skies are clear so we took the dingy ashore to explore on of the little islets and look for nesting birds. We found two separate white tern eggs in crooks of trees, one light blue with brown specks and the other the usual tan & brown. Most exciting though was to find three Brown Booby nests in one area, each with a newborn chick: one about a week old, one just a day or two old and one newly hatched with the bits of eggs next to it and TWO other unhatched eggs! This is the first nest we’ve ever seen where three eggs had been laid – amazing. Of course, the first born will eat the competitor’s before they hatch leaving only one chick to be raised. Try as we do to be quiet and not disturb the parents, they usually fly off before we even see them; the one that didn’t flee eventually couldn’t stand the tension and also left. I did manage to get a few photos from a distance of another nest with a striking brown and white mother together with her older fluffy white chick before she took off. All-in-all a very special morning.
6/07/2017 John and I enjoyed a lovely evening onboard Pitufa chatting with Christian and Birgit. She makes her own jewelry and has an amazing collection of black pearls they purchased in the Gambier. They also make their own wine and beer which they were keen for us to sample:) We took over a bottle of Malbec, so it was a good time. We had a fun morning hiking over three of the motu checking on the nesting birds and especially getting progress updates on the three booby nests grouped together. The eldest of the three chicks is developing some downy white feathers and is getting quite cheeky – it kept snapping out at us with its beak. Just a little guy, but pretty feisty! The newest born chick still has two other eggs in the nest (no siblingcide yet!?!?) and although it’s still quite rubbery, it can now hold up and control its neck, whereas before it just sort of wobbled and flopped, even twisting nearly 360 around looking as if someone had wrung it. The middle chick seems to have developmental problems. Its still having some issues with neck control and shivers alot. Its nest is the littlest and most pathetic of the group, so maybe this chick’s parents are inexperienced in chick-care. 
Both of the younger chicks are just dark gray with no feathers. Further along the beach is an even older chick now fully covered in white downy feathers. After bothering all of the birds, we took the dingy out to one of the reef & coral head areas and did some snorkeling. This area looked great with a variety of healthy young corals, a variety of parrot fish, grouper, trevally and schools of young fish, miniatures of the adults we commonly see – kind of like a kindergarten!
6/8/2017 We set out across the lagoon at about 2pm this afternoon, exiting the pass of Tahanea around 4:30pm and are now on an overnight passage to north Fakarava. We’d rather go to the south pass of Fakarava, but the tide changes we need won’t work for that. Our speeds are slow, we’re sailing about 4.4kts, so should arrive at the north pass when the tide turns incoming around 11am. Hopefully, the wifi will be working and we can enjoy some Skype calls with everyone, I can run/bike, and we can freshen up our supplies. All is well – we’ve just enjoyed a lovely sunset in the west with a full moon rising in the east:) Calm conditions so far.
6/9/2017 We have arrived in North Fakarava and are tied up to a buoy near town. We enjoyed an easy night of downwind sailing using only the Genoa with speeds of 4 to 7 kts and made it through the pass at 8:30am with only abou 2-3 kts of current against us, no raging waves this time! All is well – sunny day with 18 kts of wind out of the NE, so this end of the atoll is calm and protected. Up with the ShadeTree and wifi antennae – hopefully Skype – and into town for some provisions:) Looking forward to catching up with everyone.
6/12/2017 North Fakarava We’ve now been around North Fakarava for about 4 days. Our bilges are filled with cans of beer and tonic, the refrigerator stuffed with some fresh produce (and chocolate bars:), I’ve enjoyed some runs and bike rides so my legs are suitably exercised and a wee bit sore and the winds have continued to be from the NE making this a very protected and calm anchorage. Over the past two days LOTS of boats have come and gone, but the anchorage is full with about 25 boats. We’ve been invited to a 60th birthday party tonight onboard s/v Coastal Drifter (Canadian boat).
June 25, 2017
HIRIFA
After several days at the Pakakota, we at last motored our way down to the SE Corner of Fakarava to a place called Hirifa. Being on the lee side of the atoll, it’s wonderful to finally have calmer water, the breeze passes right over us keeping the air cool and mostly bug free, but we are no longer bonking about. We enjoyed wandering onshore among the coconut palms, numerous crab holes, and even the swampy bog until the mosquitoes discovered us! Steak, fried potatoes and Raynad’s special oriental salad with the 2nd half of the bottle of wine made for a lovely evening. Tomorrow we’ll reconnect with some fellow cruisers. Some other friends will also be headed this way from Tahanea, so we’ll be in this area for a few days. Another boat here was able to film some video footage of the south pass sharks – I’m keen to see that and maybe even get a copy!?!
June 27
The sun came out today and we’ve enjoyed the beauty it brings out in the white sands and turquoise/azure waters. It’s quite lovely here with somewhat sculpted sands shaping the shallow lagoon between us and the outside reef. John and I were able to hike around through the water from sand spit to sand spit. We even saw a small sea snake which was super cool. With the clear skies and dark night, the stars are brilliant. I’ve just come in from laying on the foredeck enjoying the view – it’s quite stunning -you’d love it. I imagine you get some great starry nights there too.
The rain has stopped and we woke up to mostly clear blue skies. Sunshine transforms this place into its reputed paradise of white sands and turquoise waters. We did see a small sea snake! Pretty cute darting around our feet until it buried itself in the sand. Dummy here had a camera and didn’t think to take a picture until it was gone:( The snake we saw was a Banded Snake Eel (Myrichthys Colubrinus)and I think we were very lucky to not only see it, but have it ripple around us for quite awhile before finally burrowing into the sand and disappearing. At one point it had buried its head and a couple of inches of its body into the sand and likely thought that enough:) However, when it popped back out, we were still there. It didn’t seem hugely disturbed by us though.
It’s the only one we’ve seen in French Polynesia.
Tonight the stars are out in their full splendor in the cloudless sky now dark with the crescent moon having just set. I often go up and just lay on the foredeck after dinner, enjoy the cooler breezes and gaze up at the stars – John just took the star book out – he’s still working at learning them all.
I think we’ll move over toward the south pass area tomorrow morning and drift snorkel or dive at slack tide around noon. We just had drinks with a couple who did about 8 dives over there in the past few days but are unfortunately leaving tomorrow for Riatea to haul their boat out and go back to the USA for 9 mos! So far nearly everyone we’ve met will be leaving their boat for several months and then returning.
June 28, 2017 – FAKARAVA SOUTH PASS – DIVING
We went for a fantastic drift dive in the south pass of Fakarava yesterday – just the two of us and oddly there were no other dive boats out even though we seemed to have gotten the tide almost perfectly right!?! After a bit of a snafu with the floating dingy line (John followed the advice of some other cruisers and dumped the full line in the water only to find that it got completely tangled around me and the boat before we could even start diving! John had to get back out, bring in the line and start all over doing what we’ve always done leaving it to feed out of the bag in the dingy,) we descended and found we were in a very gentle current with superb high noon lighting. The fish and corals were beautiful, the sharks seemed to almost shimmer.
I did get a bit of extra excitement when the first shark we encountered was alone and huge, so we just hunkered down holding on in the coral and let it pass (later identified it as a Bull Shark). We saw a live Nautilus, a group of rays and several large schools of reef sharks. Different from the dive we did last August in that they were a bit more active and not just sleeping in the current, but still congregated into three different valleys. LOTS of grouper were around too and at one point, we just grabbed onto the coral and let the grouper swim around us. They’re so cute and seem to come up close and nearly rub against us:) It was a 35 min dive (71′) and one of the best we’ve done. We’ll try another today at about 12:30. It’s another clear, sunny day so hopefully the visibility and lighting will also be super clear today.
We are tied up on a buoy provided by the government to lessen the number of boats that have to anchor in the coral. Fine with me, it’s much nicer to not use our anchor and not worry about getting it snagged on coral, or damaging anything. We had lots of fish swimming around the boat yesterday starting with 5 sharks just after we tied up and later after John scrapped gunk off the bottom of the boat, huge schools of small sparkling blue feeder fish swimming in tornado like swirls trying to escape the many larger fish that were preying on them. The water is so clear, I could watch it all from the boat!
June 29, 2017 South Pass and Hirifa FAKARAVA
John and I went for another dive yesterday afternoon in the south pass of Fakarava which was much different from the first starting out with a whale breaking for air just in front of our dingy and then breaching just as we were getting ready to go in the water. Unfortunately, we never got to see it under the water, but it was pretty spectacular having the huge animal so close to our little dingy! We were a bit too early on the tide change so found the water mostly coming in, but lots of little pockets of counter-currents which combined with the northeast winds driving the dingy toward the SE side of the pass, made for a rather interesting experience. Grabbing on at one point to just gather ourselves within one of those pockets we were in a sort of gully with lots of big Camouflage Grouper. I really love these fish, they are so chill about divers being around and I think almost welcome us as we keep the sharks away:) The visibility was not as good. We did see some sharks, but not the big congregations of them that we’ve seen in the past.
After rinsing and sorting out our dive gear, we dropped the buoy and went back over to Hirifa to join three other boats for a night of music. Steve on s/v Liward and Ted on s/v Restless set up their amplifiers and microphones at Liza’s on the beach and we all had a buffet BBQ of whatever meats we had to share and Liza made a big bowl of coconut rice and the guys entertained us with some great music. Lots of older rock & roll tunes, mostly stuff from the 60-70’s era, John and I even got up and danced on one of the rowdy rock ones. So, a fun evening.
June 30, 2017 PAKOKOTA 
We had a great sail yesterday on the 18 miles from Hirifa in the SE corner of Fakarava up to Pakakota. Actually got speeds up to 8.5 kts, but averaged around 7, so we were here in time to go ashore for a 2 hr walk and be back on the boat before the expected turn in the weather bringing gusty winds and torrential rain! Washed the boat off and made happy hour very cosy as we hunkered down in the cockpit being very glad to be here and already exercised:) Of course we also have wifi now too, which is much in use making Skype calls, and John is downloading lots of weather data for a programming project he’s working on, plus the inevitable parts shopping for boat repairs. Having completed two dives, we need to run the compressor and refill the bottles. The winds we’re getting today will definitely help with that by bringing lots of fresh air into the forward cabin. Depending on the weather, we may head back to the south pass for some more diving. I’ll go ashore today and run, or maybe even bike into town for some provisions, although I might wait and do that tomorrow when the dirt road is dry again.
July 3, 2017 – South Pass FAKARAVA – 35th Anniversary Dive:)
Good Morning on this our 35th wedding anniversary! We were up by 6:30am and splashed into the water at 8:30 for a wonderful 45 min dive through the pass. After a huge rain squall during the night, the weather is flat calm, so the pass was perfect for diving, good visibility and an easy current. Best of all were the hundreds of Grouper that are starting to congregate for their mating at the full moon. I even got to pet several of them:) One large Grouper let me pet him along the side and then turned like a puppy to come back for a stroke on the other side and turned yet again for a third go…super special. John and I both enjoyed just grabbing onto a chunk of coral so that we could stop and watch the fish. We also saw a large Napoleon Wrasse, a very large Yellow Fin Tuna and of course three valleys of sharks also congregated together, called such because the sharks seem to gather in large groups within three separate sections of the pass with the largest gathering of over 100 sharks right at the end and actually just off the dock from the dive shop. As the Grouper are gathering to spawn, the sharks are gathering to dine! Poor Grouper:( There is a film group with fancy re-breathers and loads of cameras creating a documentary movie of the “Shark Pack”. They’ve even placed cameras permanently underwater with live feeds up to their cabin. We’ll maybe try to go over later and see if they’ll show us some of it.
Anchored next to us is a boat with a French couple we met in the Gambier Islands, s/v Vagabond. Turns out that they are dive instructors, but their compressor and one of their regulators is broken, so we loaned them our extra regulator and John pumped up their dive bottles for them, so they went along and dove together with us, both of us dragging our dingy on a long painter. We’ll refill their bottles again so they can dive with us tomorrow too.
Now we’ll chill out and enjoy the rest of the day with plans for tenderloin steak for dinner. Not bad spending our honeymoon in the Swiss Alps, our 25th Anniversary on top of Kilimanjaro and now our 35th diving the south pass of Fakarava in French Polynesia:) What in the world will we do on our 40th or even 50th!?!?!?
July 4, 2017
Happy 4th of July!! John and I just finished another world class dive here at the south pass of Fakarava.
Truly amazing to see even greater numbers of Grouper, all trying to mark out their spot. I had lots of fun getting close and personal with these lovely, gentle fish:) We dove together with our French friends. The first half of the dive was all about the Grouper and then the second half we stopped and watched/interacted with a large gathering (probably 150)of sharks. Not so mellow as last August when they were lined up like bored commuters, but a bit more restless like a pack of prowling hoodlums. I’m thinking that the sharks may be rather keyed up with so many grouper coming in. These sharks are likely having a true feast after sunset! We’re talking of a night dive, but not alone, and even then I’m not sure I have the nerves for such a dive among the frenzy of feeding sharks!?!? It would be cool to watch the actual spawning of the grouper though, and that is supposed to happen on July 8th during the full moon.
July 6, 2017
We did another dive yesterday and as before saw lots and lots of sharks – all Black Tip and White Tip – fortunately we’ve only seen the one Bull Shark. The highlight though was seeing three Eagle Rays. The first one was quite large and alone magically soaring right up the middle of the pass, really beautiful and poetic motion to watch. Then we saw two together almost like a ballet as they so elegantly swam and intertwined with one another. We had great views of all of them, definitely very special. As for the sharks, they are more in motion each day and obviously on the prowl. Understandably, the Grouper also seemed agitated and alert, not congregating as one previous days so much as trying to find hideouts under coral to keep away from the sharks.
Poor things, nature can be tough. We’ve decided to stay here and dive most days to see the differences between now and the Saturday night spawning.
July 7, 2017
No diving for us today. I woke up with my sinuses clogged and a bit of vertigo, so with the added strong winds, we decided to leave it for today and hope all is better for tomorrow. The winds are stronger, so it can be challenging to keep the dingy under control when there is lots of wind up above. We (usually John) tows a 80+foot line between himself and the dingy so when we finish our dive it’s right there for us to climb into.Our French friends were going to dive with us, they too decided not to go out because of the seas/waves that make managing the dingy line more challenging. We use both dinghies, but I think they like the comfort of a second dingy in case their engine fails.
July 8, 2017
The winds are about the same, maybe a bit lighter and my sinus’ are better this AM (took Benedryl last night) so we’re planning to dive with our French friends on Vagabond this morning. It seemed like a full moon last night, although technically Saturday night is the “real” full moon and Grouper spawn. As I mentioned before, there is a film crew here doing a documentary on the shark packs (sponsored by French Gov’t) and they have a sort of open door policy at their station, so we enjoyed going over there yesterday afternoon and browsing through some of the incredible photos – big blown up shots of the shark pack at night!
Absolutely amazing – they are frighteningly beautiful photos of the sharks ripping into fish, even one of them tearing into another shark! They also have a live video monitor going in the pass which was too eventful while we were watching, but interesting and fun to watch all the same. Their equipment is amazing – including a ray of 36 GoPro cameras. Lots of editing involved in this project. We sometimes see their divers go out in their red suits and yellow re-breathers. We now have 15 cruise boats here, plus a large dive charter yacht – busy place right now with everyone wanting to catch the Grouper Spawn:)
July 9, 2017
What an amazing dive we had this morning! Our French dive buddies found out from the film crew that the Camouflage Grouper did in fact all spawn at around 6am this morning – we missed that- but thousands upon thousands of grouper had gathered just outside the pass and by diving down about 110 feet to look over the precipice into the blue beyond where we saw several large sharks, and then staying at between 85-95 we were able to swim around the rim and across the outer pass over vast fields of grouper. They were no longer hiding in the coral, but just lingering/hovering about 1-3 meters above the ground, kind of stacked up facing into the current. They were resting after their big hooray in the wee hours and we are told will all be gone by tomorrow! We’re thinking that since we got out just after slack tide and finished with the incoming tide, that the grouper are waiting for the outgoing tide and then they’ll head off to wherever their destination/home might be.
These fish are amazing, so personable and mellow. All of us were able to gently pet several of them or just stop and look face to face with a grouper and study its unique, rather large and concave eyes, ever so watchful.
They didn’t seem to mind us at all, occasionally one would even come back for an extra rub. I’ll be sad to have them gone, but so glad that we made the effort to wait around and experience a bit of this amazing event in nature. As an added bonus, the two Spotted Eagle Rays swam gracefully overhead. To finish off the morning, after putting our heavy dive gear into the dingy, we set off with our snorkels and enjoyed drifting through the shallower coral where we saw large schools of colorful reef fish swarming over the hard corals, plus the occasional wandering shark. We’ll be hoping to get a copy of the video the French pros are making when it’s completed. We have a copy of their last video and even though it’s totally in French the photography is amazing.
South Fakarava Pass is truly a remarkable place, we’ve pretty much covered the entire pass N-S-E-W. We’ll go out again tomorrow morning and then probably head on up to Pakokota.
Life is good, especially when you’re not a grouper!!
July 10, 2017
We had a fantastic 57 minute dive dropping in at the outside buoy and then swimming over and down to the SE side of the pass to check out the deep spot where all of the grouper were the day before. As predicted, nearly all of the grouper were gone! There were still several larger Camouflage Grouper hanging out in the nooks and crevices of the coral and several Black Tip Sharks prowling about, but clearly the bulk of the grouper have taken off to return from wherever they came. In a way it was nice to then just take in everything else about the dive: lots of different colorful fish, even a yellow & blue nudeybranch (sp?), three large barracuda, a lovely mother and baby pair of Spotted Eagle Rays and later the same pair we’ve seen before, a huge green Napoleon Wrasse which I was able to swim up to a nearly touch only to then discover a low ceiling cave containing a huge gathering of grouper hiding from the sharks:) The later part of the dive was spent in two separate valleys/canyons of sharks. They are all congregating again into three predictable spots in the pass allowing all the dives ample time to grab onto some coral and just watch, or as in the case of John and Mehta (the two guys managing the dingy lines) they just went right through the middle of the sharks!
Carine borrowed a Go-Pro camera from the French film crew, so she was busy taking photos and movies of the dive. We finished the dive with an incredibly fast drift over the shallower coral – It was a real blast to be soaring at about 6kts over fields of hard, shark coral!
John volunteered to fill Carine and Mehta’s dive bottles again, so when they came to pick them up she brought over the memory stick of her pictures and video from the dive. She got some great footage which will be super exciting to try and share with everyone:) Being with them has definitely enriched the dive experience for all of us.
Having two dinghies at the surface on 70-100ft lines, provided a bit of a challenge for the handlers, but at least we could also take comfort in knowing that no matter where our dive ended up, we had the inflatable boat to climb into. They are going to stay here for a couple of more days, John and I will sail up to Pakokota later this morning and so hopefully be connected to the Internet this evening, or before. It’s been beautiful with the full moon rising just at sunset.
July 11, 2017 SAIL So Pass Fakarava to Pakakota (18nm) – Had a wonderful sail leaving about 9:00am and arriving before noon. The winds were almost perfect for a close-hauled and fast sail right up the center channel. Now we have wifi and lots of other boats to share it with – a bit slower but still excellent.
HIEVA TAHITI 2017!
Link to Heiva Tahiti Information
This is a two week celebration featuring traditional music, dancing, and sporting events centered around the time in July for Bastille Day ( French Independence Day). Performance groups were selected from within all of the island groups to be able to come and compete in Papeete. We were fortunate to be able to catch the final performances. It was amazing to see as many as 140 dancers performing with live music: vocalists and traditional instruments including drums, accompanied each dance. The evening began at 6pm and the final group finished at 1am – and they were all stunning! Each group chose a traditional story to represent within their dance which was uniquely choreographed with both traditional and original music. Fortunately, announcers translated the traditional story prior to each performance, so we had at least an idea of the spiritual and emotional significance dance motions, music and costumes. Here are a few pictures that John was able to capture on the last of the dance groups – technically we were not supposed to take any photos, but he managed to sneak a few in at the conclusion. 
Dancers from all over French Polynesia come to perform at the Heiva
MARINA TAINA HILL RUN
I run 3-4 times per week whenever possible. My favorite runs are along the trails and coral roads in the outer islands, however, I found this hill run in Tahiti that offers a great workout, away from the dirt and grime and lovely views out over the marina toward Moorea.
