Position: 16 degrees, 43 minutes south; 146 degrees 21 minutes west

The GPS view of the pass. The soundings are in feet

We’re off once more to new places. This time we’ve left the Tuamotus and are enroute to the Society Islands, principal among them, Tahiti. Right now, it’s an hour after sunset. There’s fresh bread cooling on the stove and I’m heating the dinner I made last night in the pressure cooker. It’s handy because yesterday I cooked beans, pancetta, and potatoes and just left the pressure cooker sealed after heating. No need for refrigeration. Today, I dumped a can of chicken in with a little more water and now it’s heating up. Ann made the bread dough a couple days ago and just threw it in the oven around 1700. It cooked while we enjoyed a Charisma at sunset. Good thing we got all that stuff done yesterday since it’s very bumpy/bouncy and cooking from scratch would be very difficult right now.

Our present course is 240 magnetic. We’re doing 5.5 knots. The wind is out of the east, southeast. There are two wave patterns. The trade wind generated waves coming out of the east and a larger ocean swell is coming out of the south. The combination is what’s making the bumpy ride. The southerly swell is about 4-6 feet and the east trade waves are about 4 feet. Sometimes they combine into a little pyramid and knock us about. Anyway, stars are out as are the trade-wind puffys (little cumulous clouds). Hopefully we can avoid having squalls tonight.

This morning we woke up around 0700 to rain and squally, cloudy weather. We couldn’t even see the shore through the rain. I thought we were going to stay at anchor for another day, but as we sat with our coffee the weather cleared and we were able to proceed with our planned 0830 (ish) departure. We wanted to hit slack water at the reef pass, but as usual in these waters, our anchor was fouled in the coral. Not really badly, but it took an hour to get it in the boat. By the time it was up it was past slack water and we had about a 2 knot flood current pushing against us as we negotiated the pass. It went smoothly though with Ann calling our “left”, “right” from the quarterberth where the GPS is as she watched our progress on the screen versus our line in the lagoon from a few days ago. I love the Tuamotus, but I don’t love going through these passes. They are very nerve wracking with their unpredictable tides, currents, and of course the treacherous coral reefs.

We’ll be approximately 48 hours between Fakarava and Papeete, so this is the first night of a two night passage. We hope to hold this speed which would put us offshore our destination in the early morning. If that goes as planned we’ll either slow down during the night or heave to offshore until morning. We hope to make landfall around 0900 on Wednesday the 20th.

Time for dinner… More on the passage tomorrow.

Today Ann is writing the blog to give Bob a “Father’s Day break”. I also made him breakfast (eggs and spam – as requested). But his highlight was most likely texting with his girls. This is one of the hard parts of cruising – we do miss our families and on special days we think of them all day long.

And today is doubly special because my son, Greg, celebrated his 26th birthday today. I am very thankful that we were somewhere that had cell coverage so I could be part of his special day too! Yes, even on these remote motus there are cell towers powered by solar power set up to give the two families that live here and the dive shop some cell coverage. No internet but cell coverage. Pretty amazing in this remote part of the world.

Today was a quiet day with a few minor boat projects but as I write this the dinghy is folded and on the foredeck and we are ready to lift anchor and head to Tahiti tomorrow. Bob spent part of his day in the lazarette repacking the stuffing box. Important stuff to keep us from sinking. I spent some time polishing the stanchions because as we raised the dinghy I saw a lot of rust. Charisma is a little shinier now and ready for the next leg.

Our Charismas at sunset included reminiscing about our dads with lots of laughs and respect. We might have been near perfect children but probably not. So thanks, Dad (both of them) for putting up with us. And thanks for all of the great stories!

I also decided that I should share with you our “Supplies Needed” list as we head for Tahiti. As we provisioned Charisma we planned for Tahiti with some food stuff planned to last to New Zealand. It dawned on me that our Supplies Needed list tells us how well we provisioned. So here’s what’s on the list:

Shock cord, hooks for shock cords, and hogrings – all items needed for the current bimini -our shade for the cockpit. As we prepared to leave Berkeley I quickly placed an order with SailRite for these kinds of things but seriously missed on these items so thought we would point that out. Other items:

Spacer for headstay clevis pin or appropriate washers. We found that the clevis pin was not of adequate quality and had to be replaced. Luckily Bob had something that worked for now.

Bilge pump for dinghy – okay, we had one, but when we quickly relocated in Anahoe at sunset one night we flipped the dinghy and away it floated. Note to selves: secure replacement bilge pump in the dinghy.

4600 and 5200 adhesive – firstly you probably can never have too much adhesive material on a boat. These are adhesives that Bob says can solve most problems. The 5200 is specifically needed to repair the floor of the dinghy where a seam burst. I think it burst because I was pumping it to the wrong pressure. Luckily we have still been able to use the dinghy.

Reef walkers for Bob – oops, lost one overboard. Note to selves – secure ALL items on deck prior to voyage.

Rash guard shirts for diving – always helps to have protection against the sun and we didn’t even think of these.

Propane – this just got added today as our first bottle ran out while I was trying to cook some bread. Seems that our tanks last about 3 ½ months and we will need more prior to heading to New Zealand. We both agreed there was no way to have used much less.

Aspirin – we are not totally out but we find a lot of use for aspirin (it’s the old age penalty for the cruising life-hoist anchor, take aspirin, lol) so think we should restock in Tahiti.

Obviously fresh fruits and vegetables are a must too. We met some Tahitians at the local Pension the other night and have confirmed that we will be able to get all kinds of fruits and vegetables. Just for reference, a friend on another boat was able to trade bananas and mangoes for black pearls the other day – shows what a shortage of fruit they have in the Tuamotus. After running out of fresh fruit a week ago, (well, we still have a couple pamplemoose) we are looking forward to some great fruit in Tahiti – especially papayas!

The other item that we would have needed except we were saved by Orcinius was an alternator but we are not sure we would have had an extra on board anyway.

Not too long of a list considering we were guessing at what we needed. Our snack bags have been seriously depleted and will need restocking too but we expected that also. We hope that the cost of groceries is more reasonable in Tahiti than in the Marquesas. Fingers crossed and stay tuned and we will let you know! And we are very proud of the fact that our rum is due to run out just as we hit Tahiti – not too bad! (FYI – we restocked the beer in the Marquesas).

Happy Father’s Day especially to Bob’s dad, Tom but also to my brothers and our brother-in-laws! Hug your kids if you are close enough!

Position: Fakarava South Pass

The deeper the dive, the more sharks you see...

...the bigger they get too!

We’re still here because the snorkeling is so great. But today, we went a step further and did a scuba dive. They have a dive where one instructor/diver takes two novices (that’s us!) down the pass underwater. Wow! We thought the snorkeling was amazing. At 30 feet under water it’s an even more amazing, even surreal experience. You’re cruising along with the current a foot or two above living coral, watching the amazing reef fish swim by and then- the sharks. The cool thing about being deeper than snorkeling is you get to go through the “gauntlet” of grey reef sharks that sit down low in the current. Good thing we were getting used to the blacktips because the grey reef sharks are BIG! We cruised about 15 feet past one that was over six feet. Yipes! And there are dozens and dozens of them (actually some of the certified divers that go a little deeper report there are hundreds sitting down there. We only saw dozens).

So how did we get Ann and Bob in diving gear and down 30 feet? It was fairly simple as it turned out. First a 15 minute lecture on safety and dive physiology. Then we suit up and head for some shallow water where the instructor watches to make sure we’re breathing correctly. Then before we know it we’re heading out over the reef into the deep blue water. The dive master is managing our BCDs (Buoyancy Control Device) which is a vest you wear that you can add or subtract air and thus manage your buoyancy. He sets them so we can’t go too deep by accident. But I can tell you that 30 feet is plenty deep. You look up through the deep blue water and see the sky and clouds so far up to the surface. It’s easy to get a little anxious, but you soon forget about it because there’s so much to see. It actually went by too fast!

All in all, we drifted in on the flood tide through the pass and into the atoll for about ½ mile. It was a 27 minute dive. On the one hand, it went by in an instant. On the other, it felt like we’d been diving all day. In total we were in awe and I think Ann may become a dive convert and get certified. At the end of the dive, the dive master inflates a bright orange balloon the goes to the surface and signals the boat to come get us. Once we got to the surface we inflated our BCDs and floated comfortably waiting for our ride. The other thing I was amazed at was how far we had gone during the dive. There we were, the three of us just floating in the middle of nowhere (or more exactly a looong way from the shore) waiting for the dive boat to pick us up. An amazing day. Again.

It’s looking like we’re going to stay here another day and then leave the Tuamotus for our next step: The Society Islands. Still in French Polynesia, the Society Islands include Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora among others. A new island chain, a new experience. The trip from here to Tahiti is about 250 miles which should take us about two days give or take based on the wind. Right now the conditions look favorable for 140 mile days, so we should be able to cover the distance pretty easily.

The Marquesas were all about landfall and lush green jungle hiking. The Tuamotus were all about the turquoise water and fabulous snorkeling. Looking forward to the Society Islands ….

You actually get sorta used to seeing this.

Hard to add to Ann’s post of yesterday, but I’ll try. We went snorkeling in the pass through the reef again today. So beautiful and so much fun. Basically you motor in the dinghy out the pass into the ocean at slack tide and jump in the water. Slack water doesn’t last very long and very soon the flood tide starts to pull you gently into the atoll’s lagoon. I say gently, it only does this for about an hour before it becomes a torrent and you have to be either very close to shore or out of the water completely or you’ll get swept somewhere inside the lagoon. Actually even that is no big deal since you just get in the dinghy, start the engine and go back to your boat. You only do this on a flood tide. On the ebb, or outgoing tide you’ll get swept out to sea never to be seen from again. This is right on the ocean. 100 yards or so off the entrance it’s 4000 feet deep.

Anyway, as we came in we saw great assortments of tropical fish. It’s like looking at an aquarium except you are part of it. We also saw a big barracuda and of course the sharks that are curious and come over to say “hello”. Ho, hum, just another day.

I guess not all the sharks are friendly. We’ve learned the three signs of aggression. They arch their back, lower their pectoral fins and “rush” you. If a big one does that, it’s time to get out.

As if to punctuate that these sharks are far from tame, the Spaniards in the boat anchored next to us paddled by on their kayak and we asked them why they didn’t join us for pizza last night at the Pensione. They told us their dinghy got bit by a shark, and one side lost all it’s air so they couldn’t make it in. After they continued on their way, we were scoffing at the story saying they probably ran over some coral. On our way back to our boat we stopped by theirs. They were working on the dinghy and we asked to see the “shark bite”. They lifted it up and sure enough, there was a hole about 10 inches across with serrated edges. This was no coral scrape. Soooo….we don’t get to lackadaisical about swimming with these guys. It’s fun and exciting, but we keep a healthy respect for what they can do and stay out of deep and/or murky water where you can’t see what they are up to.

We’re staying here a couple more days, then probably on to Tahiti. There’s a “reunion” of many of the boats that set sail from the US a couple months ago. Probably about 20-25 boats will show up and there’s a couple days of fun-Tahitian music, dancing, feasts and everyone sails over to Moorea for a final day or so of Tahitian games including an outrigger canoe race. The three day party is sponsored by Tahitian tourism and Lattitude 38, so you’ll see a story and photos in the magazine later this summer. Orcinius is leaving tomorrow morning for the north pass of Fakarava. It’s a ten mile or so trip inside the atoll. Fairly well marked but with occasional coral so you have to keep a watch. So, tonight we’re cooking some steaks we’ve had frozen and they’re bringing some baked potatoes of some sort. Ann’s making rum balls for dessert.

Tomorrow we’re doing one last pass dive but this time it will be with tanks! There’s a little dive shop on the edge of the reef (literally, it’s on stilts over the water) that will do a “resort dive” where they give you a quick lesson on the key things you need to know and then you do a half hour 20 foot dive and drift along watching the coral, fish and sharks. They have a small boat that picks you up after you drift a half mile or so. With us in the water will be a Master Diver. He’s our instructor and safety diver. Just us and him. Should be fun!

Position: 16 degrees, 30 minutes south; 145 degrees, 27 minutes west (same atoll as yesterday- Fakarava)

WOW! UNBELIEVABLE!

Our private aquarium

Live coral. Just beautiful!

Fishies!

Standing in front of the dive shack at Fakarava

The dive shack and the pass we dove. Amazingly clear water.

Bob had prepped me for many of the things that we were to see on this great adventure. Some have happened – the green flash, the Milky Way, etc. Others have not happened – the sleigh-ride type of sailing across the Pacific (it was bumpy). But today he was spot on. The Tuamotus has incredible snorkeling!

After a good solid night’s sleep we were picked up by Lisa and John from Orcinius and proceeded back out to the start of the pass at low tide. Like we did in Tahanea, we jumped out of the dinghy and then floated with it as the tide came back in, snorkeling along-side. John had rigged their dinghy so that we had lines to hold onto which Lisa and I welcomed.

Fakarava is known for sharks. Lots of sharks, which they had seen when they dove the pass yesterday. We weren’t sure how many we would see when we were up higher snorkeling, but just in case we wanted to be able to quickly get to the dinghy.

The float through the pass was nice but not too eventful. Down deeper we did see some sharks but none that could be identified. The fun really started when we pulled out of the pass and over to the eastern coral reef.

It was INCREDIBLE! We really did swim / snorkel with sharks! Most were black-tipped reef sharks but there were a few others too. We snorkeled on this coral reef that had all of the wild tropical fish that you see in fish ID books. Stunning colors, huge schools of them, big ones that looked goofy and friendly, little bright blue tear drop shaped ones, and all the while, lots of reef sharks cruising through! Luckily, if you looked hard at them, they went the other way! Just unreal!

While Bob chased reef sharks around to film them I floated in schools of fish which slowly engulfed me. Colors,..amazing combinations with so many variations it was constant entertainment. We finally got out because our extremities were starting to lose feeling. And the reef sharks seemed to be multiplying. Actually some really did have babies with them. Others had the shark suckers we encountered in Raoria on them. And Bob got lots of them on film. Even the ones where he would gently push me towards them and say, “Go swim with them and I’ll get your picture!” Okay, so I did and he did!

We were all exhausted when we got out and tied the dinghy up at what looked like a bar. Turns out it was another Pension but Laurent, the guy working the place, was pleased to have us come up for a visit and the last three beers in his shop until Saturday when the supply ship comes in.

We had a very entertaining discussion; turns out he is actually from New Zealand and was full of very useful information. Not only that, but he speaks French, teaches it too, and was able to give Lisa and myself some great pointers. Including the exact language to say, “No, I don’t speak French. I only know a few words so please do not respond to me in French. Thank you.” He says it works for him with his German girlfriend’s acquaintances and should serve us well. Nice guy.

We also got to tour this end of the island and his Pension, complete with farm – vegetable garden, chickens and pigs. The island also included a very old church made of coral with a mother of pearl altar. Just stunning. (If this sounds fancy, it’s not. It’s all thatched huts with no windows or doors, just curtains. It looks like the set for Gilligan’s Island)

And to finish a fabulous day…the owner of the Pension on the other end of the island made pizza for the sailors who were interested. Most of the boats were in attendance along with the three Tahitians that were on vacation there. It was an evening full of great food in a beautiful setting with lots of fun people to talk to. We are told if you check out Fakarava.com you will see this Pension and know where we were.

Although exhausted, I need to end this blog and get out my Pacific Reef Fish book because we are going back for more tomorrow and I want to know what I’m looking at!

Rainbow off the port bow...

That’s Ann’s take on the day. We didn’t get much else done. It rained much of the day, although Ann found time to do the laundry and even got some of it dried in between the squalls. For my part, I spent a good deal of the day on getting the external disk drive of the computer to run. It has all our pictures on it and the computer wouldn’t recognize it. Very frustrating, but I finally found that the Firewire port wasn’t loading correctly, hence the computer didn’t know anything was connected. Not sure if I fixed it or it fixed itself, but it’s running again, so I don’t care.

We put away all our water toys and the plan is to leave this anchorage at Tahanea around 0200 for the 10 hour trip over to Fakarava, which is about 50 miles away. We need to get there around 1200 due to tides and the need to have the sun overhead in order to see the coral heads as we navigate into the anchorage. Our plan is to get a little sleep, then up at 0130, check the weather outside and decide if we go. Right now there are almost horizon to horizon stars, but after such a rainy day I’m not sure what the night brings. The moonrise is supposed to be 0154 and I want to have at least a little moonlight to go out by. We have our inbound track on the GPS that we can follow back out, but I don’t want to do it completely in the dark. Radar isn’t as useful here as in Mexico because unlike Mexico where you’re worried about hitting the rocks-which radar can “see”, the real hazards here are the reefs which the radar can’t see. And we’ve been climbing around on the coral ashore-I can tell you it’s jagged, rough and tough as cement. You don’t want to so much as bump it. We have reefs around our anchorage that come up to the surface on three sides of us with only a narrow exit and then we still have to get around and through the pass, which is basically an opening in the bigger reef that defines the atoll. Anyway, we’ll see. If the nighttime conditions don’t look good, our other option is to leave tomorrow in the late afternoon and then sail to within ten miles or so of Fakarava and then just heave- to (basically stop the boat) somewhere outside for the night and come in the next day when the conditions are right. Ahhh…island crossings.

The sharks swim over to the boat to say; "hello"

Black Tipped Reef Sharks. Very stealthy, very cool. We were snorkeling along and about 20 yards away saw the first one sliding among the coral. I swam over with the movie camera and got some film. He was actually a little shy. As I swam over to him, he swam away. I had to watch where he was going and then “sneak” around the coral head to get him swimming toward me from around the other side.

Today was a world class day. Didn’t start that way. Last night was squally and our anchor chain was fouled on a bunch of coral so it was short and didn’t provide any shock absorption. Charisma was rocking like a bronco tethered too close. I was a little anxious about the short chain and got up around 0300 to watch things for a while. Saw some lightning and some big squalls come by but the wind never got over 20 knots, so I went back to bed around 0400 fairly confident that the chain would hold OK and we could unravel it in the morning. Come morning (and a stunningly beautiful, no-wind day) I was able to just look down into the water from the bowsprit and see (you can see 40 feet down to the coral, the water is so clear) that our chain made several 360 degree turns around two different coral heads. One was right under the boat. So after studying the turns and plotting a course to unravel them, we started the engine and went-left 30 degrees, forward 50 feet, right 70 degrees, forward another fifty feet, right another 60 degrees and then back down a bit. OK, that about did it. The chain is laying straight and we’re back to the waypoint I set on the GPS. While we were at it, I also fixed a sheared cotter pin that holds the head-stay to the bowsprit. Our friends on Blue Rodeo reported they had the same issue about a month ago and I’ve been casually looking at all the cotter pins on the stays and darned if I didn’t find this one. If it falls out and the clevis pin it’s holding slides out the mast falls down. Kind of an important piece of gear. Turns out the pin someone put in (Svensens!!) was too small. I put a bigger one in and will continue to watch it. What it really needs is a spacer to keep the clevis pin from torqueing to one side and putting pressure on the cotter pin. I’ll try and fix that in Tahiti, but it might have to wait until New Zealand.

So about that world class day! The wind finally quit completely. We had absolutely flat, crystal clear water. Didn’t take much convincing to get us into the dinghy to go over to the reef about 100 yards away to do some snorkeling. We were a little tentative since that’s where we saw some reef sharks yesterday in a feeding frenzy. However, all we saw there was the most beautiful live coral and tons on fish. Like being in our own, private aquarium. We swam around and through the reef for almost an hour before moving to the reef just off the beach where we swam with Mr Shark.

By noon, we needed a break. Well, we actually needed a beer! It was so hot. But also, since it was such a calm day we decided to finally break out the inflatable paddle board. Turns out Ann is a natural and she paddled around the reef. Bob on the other hand, despite years of windsurfing is less an expert at paddleboarding. It’s going to take a lot more practice before he can paddle more than two feet before falling in. We also got out the inflatable kayaks. The last thing I heard was; “Nice to be back in the saddle!” as Ann took off for a late afternoon cruise around the cove. She loves that kayak.

We’re hoping for more of the same tomorrow then we’ll be off to Fakarava which is another atoll-albeit much larger one about 50 miles to the west. It’s a bit more populated. Whereas this one (Tahanea) has exactly zero inhabitants, Fakarava has some black pearl farms, some dive shops and a few other amenities. Good timing though since we ran out of fresh vegetables today. We’ll be ready for a small store to replenish supplies to get us to Tahiti by about June 20th.

Anchor voodoo and swimming with sharks. A very good day indeed.