Hmmm. While I write the boring bit about the journey over here I’m going to have to drum up the right words to describe this place. You’re not going to like it. Really. It’s just too nice here. I’ve used words like paradise before but now I realize I was wrong.
The wind was largely on our side as we made the passage from Kauehi to the southern entrance to Fakarava. We were on good time to make the low tide predictions. Imagine and Sea Mist pulled ahead of us in their performance boats while we and A Cappella fell a little way back of the little pack of four boats that had coincidentally decided to make this particularly trip at this time. On an open radio channel Sea Mist made inquires into the tidal flows through the cut, in particular to find when the slack tide was in relation to low water. Over in Kauehi slack followed low water by around an hour or so. We expected the same here. It turned out slack preceded low water by an hour. Oops. This meant we weren’t going to make slack water. We’d heard the pass here was trickier than that at Kauehi and our whole trip plan was based around making slack. (If you haven’t figured it out by now, slack water is the half hour or so between when the water flows in and out of a cut and vice versa – related to the tides in some complex fashion)
So we decided to boost our speed a little by turning some of our stored electrons into a little extra speed. After a while the wind dropped so we increased thrust and turned on the genset a little earlier than we planned so that we would be pretty well charged up when we entered the cut.
Along the way we had learned that a pot luck was being planned at a shore side guest house. We really wanted to get some time in the water on arrival so Helen cooked up a pot of chili while on the move so that all we had to do was reheat it shortly before we needed to go ashore.
As we approached the cut we dropped sails and pointed in. At that moment we were clipped by a nearby squall and the light quality dropped significantly so I turned out and waited five minutes. I turned in before the visibility completely improved but I was certain we’d have full light by the time we were in the cut.
As we went through we found we had three knots of current assisting us through the cut. Our charts were good and the information we received from those passing through ahead of us made us confident we have no issues. As we popped through the pass our excitement mounted as the water was crystal clear and we could already see the sea life and coral beneath us. To our right was the ‘town’ which was just a collection of shore side picture postcard thatched huts, some out over the water conforming to the best imaginations of what French Polynesia would be. Without looking like being some extortionately expensive resort for the mega-wealthy.
We made our way around to the anchorage, found a spot and dropped our anchor making fast first time.
While the boat settled we readied the dinghy and threw our snorkel gear in. The boat wasn’t shifting so we were off to enjoy the snorkeling while we still had reasonably light. We dinghied back towards the pass out into the ocean, this time going inside of the reef which we had earlier gone around. The current remained strong so we donned our gear before reaching our drop off point. Once ready we motored the final distance, cut the engine, pulled it up and jumped into another universe. Swimming was pointless. We were flying along at three knots in around 20 feet of water over acres of living coral, countless fish, sharks and rays. John and I took turns holding onto the dinghy painter while the other dove down close to the coral flying over it feeling like superman. It was out of this world. It’s hard to describe the feeling being unencumbered by scuba gear, inches away from endless coral with such amazing life all around. When we had drifted close to the anchorage we all agreed to do it again. This time we went further into the main pass. It was deeper here and had less coral but soon we were back into the thick of it. Amazing. After two drifts we have had nowhere near enough of this. We want more.
Back on the boat we emailed two boats in the same anchorage as Jackster (they are mad divers) over in Kauehi to let them know that it was stunning here. We knew they would easily trade their time there for here.
Back at the boat we had a little time to rest before the 5pm pot luck. This was being (incredibly) graciously hosted by a Polynesian local who had built the most divine little home/guest house by the water. There we met old friends and new. All of our little party of four boats crossing that day were there. We met Jamie and Lucy from Bamboozle who we’d briefly met (and instantly liked) in Grenada and vowed then to meet somewhere in the Pacific (and what a place we met up !!!!!)
It is said that hell is other people and sometimes, sadly, that can be true. Last night I can only say the opposite is true, heaven is other people.
We’re going to stay here for a while. Time to let the anchor set.
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