Tag Archives: akamaru

Tauna, Gambier

Gambier Showcase With Wayne Part I

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We are so blessed that our good friend Wayne comes to visit so often.  He has visited us four times in French Polynesia, but this is his first time in Gambier.  We plan to show him all of our favorite places!

One of the supply ships arrived the day before Wayne.  We had hoped it would be the Taporo VIII but it was the Taporo VI (the VIII was being repaired).  The unfortunate thing for us was that it did not have our fuel order (diesel or gasoline) and it did not bring very much fresh produce.  We have not seen a supply ship in over a month so fresh goods are super slim which is unfortunate.  Oh well, the next ship comes in 3 weeks.

Supply Ship Taporo VI

Supply Ship Taporo VI

The next day, we headed to Totegegie which is where the airport is located.  We anchored right by the airport and picked up Wayne with his loads of goodies for us.

Poor Wayne had a huge supply of goodies to haul to French Polynesia.  We had several key elements fail on Sugar Shack that needed new parts (washing machine, watermaker, windlass) and he brought an array of other boat paraphernalia.   It filled 1.5 suitcases!!!  Thanx Wayne!

Totegegie (airport and false pass)

We stayed one night at the airport anchorage and enjoyed the solitude of this pretty spot.  We walked around to the windward side of the island, up along side the airport runway, and back over the leeward side of the island.  Many beautiful sunsets over Mangareva.

Puamu Paradise

We took Wayne to the furthest North motu called Puamu.  This is one of our favorite spots because very few boats make it this far north.  The motu is privately owned and the locals only come out on holiday weekends.  So, we usually have this slice of paradise to ourselves.  We anchor in 2 meters of water and enjoy snorkeling and walking around the motu.

Taravai

We had a beautiful downwind run from the east side of Gambier to the west side.  We put up the parasail and enjoyed a leisurely sail.

Wayne arrived just in time to enjoy an authentic Sunday Funday BBQ.  This day is extra special as we celebrate Alan who is leaving to join the French military.  22 boats and over 65 people come to wish him well.  Photo is only of the small group of people we know well 🙂

Tauna

Tauna is a really small motu on Gambier’s outer reef.  The motu itself is a bird refuge and has become the home of many species and their nests.  The long sandy spits make it a perfect launching pad for kite surfers.  We tend to come here on calm days so that it is less crowded.

Tauna

Tauna

Perfect sunset shots looking back into the lagoon.

Akamaru

We spend a few days at the little island called Akamaru (also known as Remy’s Island).  The waters are simply gorgeous, clear, and turquoise.  We spend several hours just hanging out in the water.

We take Sweetie out to explore the reefs and shallow bommies.  All three of these photos were taken from the dinghy – that’s how clear the water is.

The village of Akamaru consists of a church and maybe 8 or 9 houses.  It is very isolated and remote.  The people who live here grow lots of fruits and vegetables as well as vanilla.

Akamaru Village

Akamaru Village

And then there are the spectacular sunsets.  This top photo is one of my favorites

Big birthday celebrations in our last blog. Events from this blog post occurred beginning of February.  Stay tuned for part II of Gambier Showcase with Wayne – coming up next!  Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind our adventures.

SW Tip Akamaru

Explorations During Calm Weather

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We did not stay long in Rikitea.  We decided to go to a new anchorage since we had calm weather.  There are several anchorages that we have not been to yet because the weather did not cooperate.  We finally had really calm weather with super light winds and no swell that were predicted to last for a few days.

Our first stop was the false pass near Totegegie. We have been to this anchorage several times, but it is a good first stop.  Being anchored here would allow us to easily access the pass during these calm weathers.  Both of us wanted to do a snorkel drift in these good conditions. Super lovely to be out here with no other boats. We did not stay long at the false pass as we wanted to head to a new anchorage on the SW tip of Akamaru.  Our friends on Hoodoo tried to anchor here during our last visit but the swell made it uncomfortable.  I must admit it is a little scary coming into the anchorage as you have to go over a reef.  We had about 1-2 meters under our rudders, but still gets your heart pumping.

SW Tip Akamaru

SW Tip Akamaru

We had some spectacular sunsets with pretty pink clouds.

We took the dinghy to shore to walk the beach and found that there is actually sand on the beach!  Not coral or broken shells, but sand.  How lovely.

The view over the reef back to Sugar Shack was super pretty.

SW Tip of Akamaru

SW Tip of Akamaru

Sugar Shack against the SW tip of Akamaru during perfectly calm weather.

After a very brief rain we received a beautiful rainbow…

We head back to Rikitea for a number of reasons.  1) the supply ship is schedule to come either the 24th or the 25th of December and we want to be there to get some fresh produce; 2) the weather is shifting and will be better for us to be in the protected bay of Rikitea; 3) we wanted to celebrate Christmas with our friends and go to local church.

Events from this blog post occurred around the second week of December, 2020.  Our blog posts run 8 weeks behind our adventures.

Ile Mekiro – The Shallows

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We had visited Akamaru a few months ago, prior to the quarantine.  We really enjoyed this little island and had wanted to come back to see if we could get in closer to the shallows on the opposite side of Ile Mekiro. The small Ile Mekiro sits just in front of Akamaru and has no livable space, a teeny tiny beach, and a beautiful white cross at the top of the hill.  Visit this post to learn about our first visit.

The water is incredibly shallow in this area so we had to time our entrance perfectly.  We needed it to be high tide during peak sunshine.  For weeks high tide fell early morning and late night which was not conducive for seeing coral heads threatening to introduce themselves to the bottom of our boat.  On this return trip we had our friends on HooDoo following us – no pressure!

Anchoring in the Shallows

After entering the small channel , we found our way to our previous anchor spot which was 1.4 meters deep.  We eye balled our path and forged ahead in a very slow forward motion.  We passed by three coral heads and made a hard right in a space that barely fit our wide boat.  From there we had to make a best guess at where we could go without touching the sea floor or a coral head.  We successfully made it to the abandoned raft, circled in front of it (avoiding the long line floating off its bow) and on into the inner lagoon near Remy’s house boat. Nothing like a little stress to get your blood pumping. 

The red line marks our approximate track.  The blue “X” is where we anchored last time.  The arrow points to the other side of Ile Mekiro where we anchored.

We ended up dropping the hook in 1.3 meters of sand (we draw about 1.2 meters).  Somewhere in the middle of low tide Matt saw .9 meters under the boat.  Not sure how that happened we did not feel the seabed dance with Sugar Shack

Hiking Ile Mekiro

Ile Mekiro is a small island with a fun hike to the top (following goat trails).  We forged our own path and took some great photos of the bay.  The top photo shows the cross we hiked too and the bottom two are drone shots Matt took of Missy and I resting at the cross.

This drone shot shows all the amazing coral on the northern side of Ile Mekiro making inaccessible.

Missy and I hanging out by the cross as Matt flew the drone

Snorkel on the Westside of Ile Mekiro

While we were at the top of Ile Mekiro we saw a beautiful spot to snorkel.  It looks like a ton of coral which was bound to be beautiful.  We took the dinghy around the island and jumped in.  A black tip and white tip shark hung out with us while we snorkeled.

The coral was incredibly healthy.  I wish I could explain all of the varieties of coral but all I can clearly say is that there were a lot of staghorn and table corals.  The thing that was fascinating was seeing the staghorn grow in between the tables giving a nice depth to the floor.

Hike Along the Ridge

We took HooDoo to the Eastern tip of Akamaru to hike along the ridge.  We had heard that we could collect lemons and pomplemouse by the beach as a bonus.  The arrow in the lower left is the beach where we left the dinghy.  The arrow in the upper right is the rock ledge we hiked to.

We landed the dinghy at a beautiful beach with a small shack.  It had soft sand and lots of trees.  Behind the shack were several fruit trees ripe for the picking. 

It was a moderate hike straight up over rocks on a goat path.

Absolutely beautiful views from the top.  The water is just stunning.

Of course, Matt had to do his jumping stunt near the edge.

And we end the post with a sunset on fire!