THE TOPIC OF SELF SUFFICIENCY
My humans finally made some headway into the avenue of self sufficiency. But I will tell you more on this later.
THE SAIL TO MAKEMO ATOLL
The humans managed to get themselves out of Raroia Atoll and through the pass without incident. They used the afternoon sunlight and slack current in the pass to make the job easier. But now they did not want to arrive at the next atoll in their journey until they had the same conditions again. The only trouble was the next atoll was only 95nm away.
But the weather gods were on their side. The winds eased through the night and we slowed down to the comparable crawl of 2-3 knots. The slow progress would save us from tacking back and forth outside Makemo’s pass waiting for day light and slack water again. In fact we slowed down a little too much, and there was some worry we would have to actually start the engine to make us some miles in the morning. But then the winds filled in with the sun rise and we arrived on time!
THE NORTHWEST PASS OF MAKEMO ATOLL
Makemo has 2 passes into the atoll. One in the southwest, beside a fairly large village, and another in the northwest, with nothing but deserted islands around it. The humans had heard that the snorkeling and diving was best in the Northwest pass. There were supposed to be some excellent coral formations. Learning from the mistakes they made at their first atoll, if you have the weather visit the passes first, they decided to head here first. A nice wide well marked pass they skirted some big coral hills in the main lagoon and found a nice place to anchor just to the east.
16 26.647S 143 57.054W (you can cut and past this into google maps)
There is an even better sandy spot to anchor directly in front of us. But there is a boat there already.
SO WHAT IS IT LIKE?
We are surrounded by some lovely sandy palm fringed motus. Intricate coral heads separate us from their shore lines. Small black tipped baby sharks circle the boat with curiosity when they pass. The water is so clear we can see our anchor and the complete length of our chain. A real mix of sand and dead coral heads, so we ‘floated our chain’ again. (See svsoggypaws.com for details on how to float your anchor chain) All the pearl farm buoys we collected off the beaches in Raroia have been put to good use.
THE PASS
Is really good and lots of fun. The sides of the pass are fairly steep and covered in a rich coral growth. They are fed by the nutrient rich water that flood through here with each change of the tide. Currents can gradually build to over 8 knots in the pass, but it is usually gentler if you hug the coral walls.
We try to time our arrival for slack water, just before the current starts to run back into the lagoon. We ‘rest’ the dingy in the middle of the channel to check the current flow. If we have timed it right we tie a painter line from the dingy to ourselves, motor out to the ocean entrance of the pass and jump in along one of the walls. As the current starts to run into the lagoon the water clarity quickly improves to over 30-40m to the bottom of the pass.
Slack current is relaxing. The fish are very easy going and you can stop and take pictures of what ever you would like. When the current begins to run everything starts to speed up. At first it is fun to drift along. If you stay close to the coral walls you feel little, if any, of the current or you can move out a bit and save yourself the job of finning. You have to turn against the current and fin a bit if you want to take pictures. But gradually the current will build and build. You can still hug the walls to stay out of the worst of it but the ‘attitude’ of the fish changes completely. This is when the top predators come out to hunt.
Schools of black, white, lemon and grey sharks come out is groups to patrol the walls of the pass for potential prey. Do not worry, they have learned diver’s neoprene gets stuck in their teeth. But they are very curious and will come very close for a look. I will attach some pictures and video for you.
LEARNING TO BE MORE SELF SUFFICIENT
We have some company at this anchorage for a change. A lovely French couple Alain and Odile from the s/v Moemoea Nui (www.marqueises-croisiere.com). They have been cruising the waters of French Polynesia for over 30 years and, lucky for the useless humans, they speak very good English. Alain and Odile have been a fountain of information on the area, the people and the source of many good stories.
On top of this they are well versed on many of the plants, animals and fish of French Polynesia. They have taken the time to teach the humans how to open and clean coconuts…FINALLY! How to identify other culinary and medicinal plants. And which fish are usually safe to eat in the lagoons. The humans are finally one step closer to being a little more self sufficient.
WHAT NEXT
Light winds this time of year mean atoll hopping is a little harder. The distances between each atoll in this area are just long enough that getting there ‘in day light hours’ is hard if you can not sail fast enough. The humans have come up with a solution, hop over every other atoll. This makes the distances long enough to make them an over night sail. Unfortunately this means we miss the proposed stop at Tahanea to do the longer trip to Fakarava. We will have to come back to the Tuamotus and do the atolls we miss. Fakarava will be very different from the two atolls we have visited so far. It has daily internal flights from Tahiti, hotels, resorts, dive centres and high speed internet. We are about to head to one of the main tourist destinations of the Tuamotus. This will be a gradual introduction of the humans to ‘civilisation’ before we head over to Tahiti.
Hope they are ready for the culture shock?!
END.
