Welcome to Fakarava

Boats killing time waiting for low tide

After a great (almost perfect) 3 day sail, we arrived a few miles from the North entrance to Fakarava, but had to time our entrance for the 9:30am low tide. As mentioned before, there is LOTS of water working its way into and out of the big archipelago and the currents can range from 3 to 6 knots. As we waited, it became downright crowded until there we a total of 12 boats, all killing time until it was “time to go in”.

The witching hour had not quite arrived when the first boat “ran the gauntlet” and headed through the 1.6 km wide North passage. The reason we started at Fakarava is we were told it is far less challenging because of the wide channel.

Boats at anchor in Fakarava

The difference in the island was amazing – from volcanic islands with 4000 foot mountains always enshrouded in cloud to an larger rectangular “box” that was only a couple streets wide enclosing a 20x60km lagoon. The highest point on the island is about 35 feet high.

A small shark by the beach

After we had settled in, Sharon rowed us over to a small sand beach by a church and we carried the dinghy (easy as no motor) up onto the grass. We did a nice walk-through town, visited a small local artisan shop, when to the bakery/store (much better than expected) and order baguettes for Saturday. We met up with Don and Gloria who we had seen before (they were the boat at anchor in Fatu Hiva when we did not stay and then we saw them again once or twice along the way and when we stop for beer at a small restaurant – there they were.

Don and Gloria joined us and we found another cool artisan shop where the owner did wood carving and seemed to collect dogs (we had about 8 to 10 to greet us). He also told us some of the history of the islands, and when he noticed the bites on Sharon’s lega sna arms (no, not Bill’s fault), he came back with a little jar of a lotion from local plants that he said would help (a gift to Sharon). He told us where we could find the “tree” that was a critical ingredient and was the oldest on the islands (500 years old). We then wandered to the Fakarava Yacht Services and I booked the shuttle to the airport on Tuesday and we discussed laundry and SIM cards.

A business in a home with an interesting sun room

Beside the 500 year old tree used to make the “magic potion” for Sharon

Last night we rowed back into “town” (population of the entire islands is about 700) and ordered 3 pizzas to go.

Today we went in to collect the baguettes (mission critical) and then went snorkelling around the boat.

Top of reef that is visible in low tide, behind the anchorage

The snorkel was great. I decided to test drive the GoPro since we are going scuba diving tomorrow, and I did not either loose or break it. My first round was to the coral between us and the shore. The second round was to the coral “island” behind us that has a reef marker on it. Both were much better than I expected, especially the reef island as it was high tide, and the reef was about 2 feet below the surface on the top.

Bill is cooking dinner, the sun is setting, the anchorage is dead calc. The Church is holding Saturday night Mass and we can hear the choir across the water. A pretty magical place.

Dead calm in the anchorage

The Church across the water, a Choir singing