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We approached our first
transit through the reef with some trepidation. Firstly, we had no assurance that
the GPS and plotter, or even the paper chart, could be relied upon. Secondly, the two Standard Ports
for the tide tables were 1000nms apart, so the tidal predictions were
something of a black art.
This was coupled with the Admiralty sailing directions of slack
water being moonset +/- x hours being hit and miss, by observation, from
place to place. However, we
slowed ourselves down and hove-to for nine hours to make our transit at
the predicted (best guess) of 0935-1005 local time. As luck (or good planning) would
have it we got it about right and we transited the pass without
difficulty. In fact, being part of Initially we were alone in the lagoon, in crystal clear waters surrounded by sand sharks, but subsequently we were joined by a couple of American boats who transited the pass on the next slack water. We went ashore to explore the village - Sarah insisting we go by dinghy rather than kayak on account of the sharks. Most of the houses were built of wood but some were constructed of concrete. Power seemed to be from solar panels feeding battery banks provided by Total oil and many houses sported satellite dishes. However the most impressive building was the airport terminal. The airport itself looked as though it had been recently constructed and the terminal building was positioned at the head of the car park adjacent to the apron. The most interesting aspect was that the car park had 35 spaces including one next to the terminal marked for a handicapped vehicle. Interesting and amusing because we discovered that there were only two cars on the island! We stayed for two days and then set off for Makemo. Our moonset – x calculation was in error by about an hour but the pass was no problem, if a little entertaining. In addition to verifying the accuracy of the GPS and charts, we could see the reefs at about ten miles on radar. This, of course, would be obliterated in any sort of sea or by a rain squall, but in calm conditions showed up quite clearly. Our hearts sank when we sighted Makemo because there seemed to be dozens of masts and we were quite used to be either on our own or one of a very few yachts. In fact the masts turned out to be a wind farm! We
had an exciting ride through the pass which was well served by leading
marks and arrived to find ourselves alone again. We found a busy little village
with no less than five shops and even a mobile telephone mast which linked
us to the rest of the world.
We were joined in our anchorage by a pleasant Swedish couple on
their yacht ‘Roxy’ and with whom we would meet up with from place to place
until we reached New |
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Journal |
We spent an idyllic few days here amongst beatiful scenery and completing repairs to the halyards and mast head lights, and whilst swimming we even cleaned the hull. A lovely day’s sail took us the 85nms to Nuka Hiva where we anchored in the Baie de Taiohue surrounded by two foot long black tip sharks having a feeding frenzy around the boat. The town surrounded a horse-shoe shaped bay with the dinghy dock (such as it was) at the eastern end. There were three well stocked supermarkets, one of which had a fresh vegetable store outside. We had never thought that buying a fresh lettuce would provide such joy!
We ate in a little Pizzarea on the first night where we came across the first Polynesian we would see of what the locals called the third sex. These are males that have been brought up as girls. Apparently not all are homosexual but in the most part we saw them in the service industry. Our waiter/waitress looked very elegant in tight shorts and top spoiled only by a marked five o’clock shadow. The pizza we shared washed down with two beers cost just over Ł50. We clearly were not going to eat out very often!
We followed the east coast around to the north of the island to Anaho Baie where we met a Frenchman who planned to stay there for six months. However, he had been told by the locals not to eat the two splendid red snappers that he showed us that he had caught. This was the first example of the danger posed by eating reef fish or fish that live off reef fish. This is because of the risk of being poisoned by ciguatera. The advice in the cruising guide is to ask the locals not can you eat this fish - but do you eat this fish? Ciguatera is caused by toxins derived from dinoflagellates found on coral and seaweed and passed along the food chain. We were later to meet an American who had suffered from this after eating a fish he had caught. It was clearly not a pleasant experience.
We returned to Taiohae and
bunkered some fuel by jerry cans and rewarded ourselves with lunch at Keikahanui
Pearl Lodge which is the hotel above the bay with stunning views of it and
Moonbeam sitting gently at anchor in the middle. On 25th April we checked out
of Huka Niva and the following day set off to complete the 30nms to Ua Pau. Ua Pau is a fantastic outcrop of rocks
climbing up to the sky like fire in the distance and close up, near vertical
cliffs with lush vegetation clinging on to them. The cruising guide says that it is much
like Bora Bora, but in truth it is like so many of the volcanic islands we were
to see in
It
was time to set off for the Tuamotu Archipelago which stretches over
approximately 1000nms east – west across the