Monthly Archives: December 2019

Tahanea Anchorage with Easy and Rhapsody

Exquisite Tahanea

Tahanea is an uninhabited atoll known for its active passes teaming with manta rays, sharks, large fish, and beautiful coral.  Many of our cruising friends proclaimed this to be their favorite spot in all of French Polynesia.  We were looking forward to experiencing this rare beauty for ourselves. 

This atoll is considered uninhabited. However, locals come four months out of the year to harvest copra and one man lives here as the “guardian.”  During our visit, only the guardian was on hand.

We were in need of some fun after our productive day of repairing the port shifter cable and windlass remote.  Matt and I went exploring on one of the close motus.  It was low tide which meant we could walk out to the reef.  Most of the motus are covered in broken coral and shells with very little sandy areas. But we had fun walking around and found a ton of eels hiding under rocks in less than 3” of water!

Tahanea Motu in all its beauty

Tahanea Motu in all its beauty

Happy hour on Sugar Shack

We invited our friends on Rhapsody (Ada and John), Easy (Mike), and Imani (Doreen and Mark) over for happy hour.  We had tons of tuna and wanted to share.  Mike came over to help us clean the fish.  We had some great fun feeding the left overs to the sharks off the back of the boat.

Sharks eating our tuna leftovers

Sharks eating our tuna leftovers

We’ve had some rain storms.  But, after each one we were rewarded with rainbows.  The top photo is Rhapsody and the bottom is Easy.

Rainbows of Tahanea

Rainbows of Tahanea

The wind has been squirrely.  Sometimes we have no wind and our floats bunched together.  Which is not good for scope.  The proper way the floats should be all in one line (top photo).  The bottom shows them all bunched up.

Crazy floats not always doing their job

Crazy floats not always doing their job

Manta Rays:

We gathered the troops (Rhapsody and Easy) and headed to snorkel the pass which is known to have Manta Rays.  There was a light incoming current as we drifted from the sea into the lagoon.  It was brimming with beautiful coral, fish, and sharks.  We were on the hunt for manta rays.  After an hour, we headed to the other side of the pass.  Still no luck. We had been out for about 90 minutes and were a little pruny.  Just as we were organizing everything in the dinghy, we spotted a manta ray – the hunt was on! 

The manta rays use the pass to feed on plankton.  They open their expansive mouths, collect their food, and glide away.  Their fins or wings are so powerful that they create a stream of light bubbles off the tips (bottom photo).  It was so amazing I nearly cried.

Manta Rays in Tahanea

Manta Rays in Tahanea

These were not ginormous, but they were huge creatures.  It’s as if I could swim into the valley of their mouth and be swallowed hole.

Looks like they want to eat me, but they just like plankton

Looks like they want to eat me, but they just like plankton

The manta rays are curious and swim close to you, but then turn away as they had business to attend to – feeding.

Come back, I am not done playing with you

Come back, I am not done playing with you

It was truly a magical and mystical experience for me.  These creatures are majestic and so smooth as they casually fly through the sea.  I will always remember this amazing experience!

Maiden Drone Voyage

Matt has tried and tried and tried to fly the new drone.  Unfortunately for us they have no instructions.  Believe it or not, they send you to YouTube to watch instructional videos.  All sounds good until you don’t have wifi!  Lucky for us, Matt was able to download a few videos before we left the wifi zone.  Then we could not fly it because we were in no-fly zones (near airports) in Rangiroa and Fakarava.  Seriously?  Finally, we arrive in Tahanea with no airports, no wind, and space to take the maiden voyage.

Lots of controls on the game boy type remote.  Matt did a great job for his first time out.  Can’t wait until he gets better, smoother, and in more control.  Stay tuned for more great aerial shots!

Sugar Shack floating above the water

Sugar Shack floating above the water

The beauty of Tahanea from the sky

The beauty of Tahanea from the sky

Rock Art

We grabbed Mike and went to explore another motu off Tahanea.  It is located near the middle pass which we used to enter the lagoon.  We had seen some beautiful rock towers and wanted to check them out.  Mike and Matt in dink and on shore working on flying the drone.

Matt and Mike flying the drone

Matt and Mike flying the drone

Some people, most likely cruisers have been busy!  Can you see what is hidden in the top photo?

Rock art on Tahanea

Rock art on Tahanea

Our friends on Rhapsody took this amazing photo of Sugar Shack at sunset.  No wind, still, and breathless.

Sugar Shack Magestic Shot

Sugar Shack Magestic Shot

New Friends on Imani

We met some new friends on a boat called “Imani.”  Doreen and Mark have raised their two kids and lived on the boat for the past 25 years.  Mark is an artist and jeweler and graciously invited us over to look at his work. He converted one of the hulls into a workshop that had a buffer and metal press to create all sorts of amazing jewelry.  You can check out and order his work on etsy (etsy.com/marcgounard/shop).

Imani's jewelry work shop

Imani’s jewelry work shop

His jewelry is incredibly unique and one of a kind.  He works with stones, gems, pearls, metal and more.

Rhapsody, Imani, and Easy all decided to head to Makemo while Matt and I stayed in Tahanea but went to a different anchorage.  We hope to meet up with them on one of the northern atolls or the Marquesas.  We motor sailed the 7nm to the “7” anchorage.  This spot got its name because it looks like a “7” from the Google Earth imagery.

The 7 Anchorage in Tahanea

The 7 Anchorage in Tahanea

Boobies!

What an incredibly peaceful and serene spot.  We dropped the hook in 3 meters of sandy water and did not have to use the floats!  Thank goodness.  What a striking spot.  Turquoise waters, small islets covered in towering palm trees and a large variety of birds.  We explored the two small motus and admired all the beautiful birds. 

Motus in Tahanea

Motus in Tahanea

Brown boobies, red boobies, sandpipers and more make this atoll home.

Boobies in Tahanea

Boobies in Tahanea

I loved capturing these birds in flight.  The contrast of their translucent white wings against the blue sky was striking.

Beautiful bird sanctuary of Tahanea

Beautiful bird sanctuary of Tahanea

We found another motu at the “C” anchorage that had lots and lots of babies.  The red boobies (with red feet) nest in the low trees whereas the blue boobies (blue feet) nest on the ground.

Mama red foot boobie with her fluffy baby

Baby boobies

Baby boobies

This is a juvenile blue foot boobie who has yet to lose its fluffy baby feathers

Teenager boobies

Teenager boobies

We found lots of babies, both red and blue foot boobies – they are all fuzzy white and so cute.  We even found some eggs in a nest on the ground.

Baby boobies

Baby boobies

Its so funny to see these young palm trees.  The coconuts fall off trees, go into the ocean and land on the shores.  Then the start to grow and eventually plant themselves.  These young trees all planted where they landed.

Palm trees growing from lost coconuts

Palm trees growing from lost coconuts

Sugar Shack at the “7” anchorage sitting pretty and owning it.

Sugar Shack

Sugar Shack

Tahanea Anchorage with Easy and Rhapsody

Trouble in Tahanea

Tahanea is an uninhabited atoll known for its pristine turquoise waters and manta rays.  The motus have pink sand and towering palm trees that drape lazily over the shores.  There are three passes to enter this wide lagoon that is 30 miles long by 9 miles wide.  This atoll is one of the few bird refuges in the Tuamotus.  In addition, to its varied bird population there is an abundant sea life in the passes.  With gorgeous turquoise waters, towering palm trees and an active wildlife, this is a piece of paradise.  What could cause trouble?

Tahanea Anchorage with Easy and Rhapsody

Tahanea Anchorage with Easy and Rhapsody

Passage

We left the south pass of Fakarava at 0600 and exited the pass with zero problems.  It would be a light wind day with means lots of tacks.  The passage is only 50nm from pass to pass.  We were hoping to make it before sunset without using the motors.  With decent winds the first several hours we became hopeful that we would make it with time to spare.  However, we lost the wind and realized that we could not make it before dark – even with the motors!  Crap.  We got to the pass around 1900, hove to, and drifted at 1kt for the rest of the night (11 hours of waiting).  Around 0800, we turned around and headed for the pass.  

Passage Details

  • Miles to destination: 50nm
  • Total miles sailed: 92.1nm (did I mention lots of tacks?)
  • Total moving time: 25.23 min
  • Max speed: 8.3kt
  • Average speed 3.6kt (surprising considering we spent 12 hours at 1-2kts)

Here is our track showing all of our tacks and our hove to position over night near the pass.

CPN Track of our sail

CPN Track of our sail

Trouble All Around

After we made it through the pass, I hailed Mike on the VHF to tell him we had 2-3kts of incoming current (which is not bad).  Mike strained to tell me he had caught his finger while taking down the sail.  He is single handing, was heading toward the reef, had nothing but his cell phone in his pocket (no service).  His radio was in the cockpit along with his shoes.  His finger was crushed in a shackle and he was trapped. 

Torn between losing his finger or losing his boat.  Luckily, he was able to reach his anchor chain and windlass.  Using the windlass, he released some of the tension from the stay sail. This allowed him to remove his finger.  OMG!  We had no idea what happened until he was free and heading toward the pass.  He was in need of help, but we had to anchor first.

We dropped our hook between some bommies and attached all 5 of our 8 floats.  However, we did not let out enough scope as Matt wanted to help Mike anchor.  We thought we could just drop the rest of the scope when he returned.  What is scope?  It’s the distance between your anchor and your boat and we like a 7:1 scope at a minimum (prefer a 10:1).  Which means if we drop in 10 meters of water, we let out 70 meters of chain. 

Dragging Anchor with Floats

When Matt returned, we let out the scope, pulled back on the engines, and we dragged.  Farfugnugen!  We had to raise the chain, remove the floats, and try again.  The second time the windlass remote started to fail.  I use the remote while hanging off the bow to the floats.  Not being able to use the remote forces me to go to the forward hatch to use the wired remote then back to the bow (back and forth and back and forth).  Ugh!

While I am trying to work the windlass, I realize that there is something on our anchor.  And then Matt shouts at me that he lost port propulsion.  WTF!  He has starboard propulsion but that makes the boat steer to the side.  What a mess.  I am still investigating the issue with the anchor.  Matt and I switch places so he can remove the coral that was wedged on the anchor.  Third time is a charm.  Safely anchored, we go back to help Mike.

The next day Matt figures out that the port shifter cable is damaged.  Lucky for us we have a replacement (spare).  The end pin was disconnected from the cable and no longer working.  It took most of the morning, but Matt was able to replace the shifter, shifter mechanism, and cable!  You can see our old 19-year-old shifter was a little corroded (but it still worked).  We replaced it and will do the same on Starboard.

Shifter cable repair

Shifter cable repair

We took the windlass remote apart, checked the batteries and connections and it started working again.  Two problems solved, check and check!

The Tahanea atoll guardian stopped by to have us sign his guest book.  Then a local fishing boat stopped by an hour later and sold us yellow fin tuna for $10.

We ended our productive day with a gorgeous sunset.

Sugar Shack at Tahanea

Sugar Shack at Tahanea

Coming up next:

  • We take the new DJI drone out for its maiden voyage
  • Happy hour on Sugar Shack with Rhapsody, Easy, and Imani
  • A swim with manta rays
  • Rock art

Update:

Mike’s finger was severely crushed as was part of his foot (from the windlass).  He did not break either, but has lost skin, has blisters and is a bit of a mess.  We doctored him up – he will heal fine.

Fakarava airport

Tetumanu & THE Teitelmans

The town of Tetumanu is at the Fakarava south pass. It is not really a town, but it does consist of a church, two small pensions (lodges) that each have an eatery, and two dive centers. That is it. No magasins (markets), nada, zilch. We came here to explore the many motus, dive the Tetumanu (south) pass, and hide from the weather system and it was worth it.

In our last blog we explored Santa Suzanna Island and its pretty pools of waters. It was time to take a dive. Our friends on Chasing Waterfalls organized a dive with another boat and we decided to join them. The problem was that we did not have time to rent tanks and BCDs for Josh and Sara. So, Matt and Josh used our equipment and Sara and I snorkeled. With amazing clarity we could see the divers 70+ below us with no problem.

Diving the Pass

Diving the Tetumanu Pass

Everyone thought it was “slack tide” but in reality, it was not. It is very difficult to calculate slack tide as every day has different winds, waves, moon, etc… We tied three dinghies to the mooring and all jumped in. The divers descended and immediately latched on to rocks and dead coral to prevent themselves from drifting away. They looked like spiders with all four limbs spread out! It was really a funny sight. Unfortunately, the photos I took did not come out as they were 20+ meters below us.

They hung out by the shark wall where they watched a shark get his teeth cleaned. Yep, a fish was stupid enough to swim in and out of the shark’s open mouth to clean his teeth (see top photo). There were dozens and dozens of sharks here.

Diving with Sharks

Diving with Sharks

We slowly drifted to the lagoon before hopping back in our dinghies. Sweet, but short drift. We swung by the Tetumanu Dive shop and they had different fittings for dive tanks. So, we could not fill ours. Then we stopped by Top Dive and they were never home.  They did have a handy map showing the incoming and outgoing tides (see red and blue diagram)

Top Dive and the Currents in the pass

Top Dive and the Currents in the pass

The next day we decided to snorkel the pass closer to the reef. What a difference. Not nearly as many sharks. However, we did encounter several HUGE fish, some grouper, some with a bubble on their head. Lots of schools of fish and many, many coral species.

Fish in the South Pass

Fish in the South Pass

We took our time drifting from the pass opening to the lagoon. The current got much stronger as we entered the lagoon, but it did allow us enjoy the underwater sea life.

Super pretty coral and lots of fish

Super pretty coral and lots of fish

We organized a pizza dinner at Motu Aito Paradise earlier in the afternoon. Our friends on Rhapsody (John and Ada) and Chasing Waterfalls (Steve, Johanna, Mia, Eva, Layla) joined us. It was really nice hanging with our cruiser friends and swapping stories.

Pizza night at Motu Aito Paradise

Pizza night at Motu Aito Paradise

Full Sail Back to North Fakarava

It was nearing time to return back to the North side of the island. Josh and Sara had a flight to catch, despite our attempts to get them to stay longer. Surprisingly, after three visits to Sugar Shack (BVI, San Blas Islands, Fakarava), they had never seen our boat under full sail. We had hoisted each sail individually, but the winds were not right for a full sail. However, our passage to the north side of the island was perfect!

Up went the main and the jib! We had a lovely 10-12kts of wind on the beam which gave us a steady 6-7kts of boat speed. At one point we encountered a squall, so we reefed the jib, but within 30 minutes she was back out.

Full sail in the Fakarava lagoon

Full sail in the Fakarava lagoon

Even though they had to leave the next day, we celebrated like rock stars. We had an impromptu fiesta on our boat after our friends on Gizmo gave us fresh Wahoo. Mike from Easy, cut it up sashimi style, Janet and Darryl from Maple stopped by and Steve from Chasing Waterfalls made an appearance. It was a goofy night that led to Thing 1 and Thing 2 passed out on the bow.

Celebrating a great trip

Celebrating a great trip

We did a little shopping the next day, ordered some more bread and danishes and a wee bit of internetting. Matt picked us up at the little beach. Josh and Sara in front of Sugar Shack (background).

Fakarava near Rotoava

Fakarava near Rotoava

It was sad to bring them back to the airport, but they had a plane to catch.

Fakarava airport

Fakarava airport

That night we had a stupendous sunset that turned the sky red.

Sunset at Fakarava

Sunset at Fakarava