Marquesas - Tahiti

Marquesas - Tahiti in Google Maps (Webbrowser) and in Google Earth (separate application)

French Polynesia spans a huge area of ocean and we are sailing some 500 nm from the Marquesas to the Tuamotus, our next archipelago in French Polynesia. As soon as we are out of the wind shade of Nuku Hiva, we are having 30kn of wind and Blue Bie makes 430 nm in 48 hours and we arrive a day earlier than planned, but perfectly with the low tide in Fakarava.

The Tuamotus with many low lying atolls and uncertain tides are very difficult to navigate still today. More boats are said to being lost here than in Cape Horn. In theory, the tides should run into the atolls with one knot for 4 hours a day and out with 6 knots for 20 hours a day. Surprised? There is an inequality of tides, because a lot of water is lapping over the reefs into the atolls and running out through the pass. There might be even no ingoing tide at all, if strong swells push more water over the reef.

We are sailing under full canvas with 10kn over ground through the wide pass in the lagoon of Fakarava. I expected it to be more difficult, but timing seems to be everything. Fakarava is a typical atoll with a low fringing reef and some small islands surrounding a lagoon. It was formed by a volcano sinking under water with the plate movement while the barrier reef kept growing fast enough to stay at the surface. The atoll of Fakarava is 40 nm long and 10nm wide – as large as the Lake of Constance. There is no rock on the whole island – just broken pieces of coral.

A few hundred mostly Polynesians and French people live here. We are appreciating the comfort of this island, too: Wonderful fresh baguette for breakfast, a neat and clean village, some pearl farming, copra harvest and tourism make for a very quaint living and visit. We are diving in the wide northern pass and see an incredible variety of fish and corals. But this dive is even topped by our experience on the Southern end of the island: A small boutique resort sits on a dream island, where the time seems to stand still with the diving I ever had: Hundreds of grey reef, black-tip and white-tip sharks are patroling the narrow pass. The sharks can be seen everywhere: snorkeling, dangling our feet in the ankle deep water from the jetty or from the restaurant. After two dives we feel so comfortable with the timing of the tides that we drift diving under our dinghy on a long tether.

After a fabulous week in Fakarava we are continuing to Rangiroa, where we try another dinghy drift-dive. We can’t see hardly anything – I am lucky to see a dolphin, but it seems we are at the wrong place. Moni goes later diving with the local dive operator, but doesn’t see much more. What a disappointment compared to the stories of other cruisers and the ‘Best of Rangiroa’ dive video. We make up for it by watching dolphins in the standing waves created by the strong current in the pass and by finally kitesurfing again. The broken corals on the beach are not too friendly to my kite, but this can’t deter me.

We are celebrating the Bastille Day, 14 of July, on Rangiroa. Polynesians love to party and they easily manage to celebrate the Independence Day of their French colonial masters as their own:) Tiputa, the main village of Rangiroa has some four hundred inhabitants and we are watching the election of Miss Tiputa and a competition for the best singers and dancers in four different categories: In addition to traditional dances also in a Hip Hop category for the youths. Everything is very hand-knitted: some talents and professional dancers perform on a high level whereas some family bands drive me to the cake stall…

Many hotels in French Polynesia have beautiful bungalows built over the water with prices starting at USD 500 a night. We participate in the experience with a drink or a coffee on the hotel terrace with other cruisers and wonder how it must be to sail around the world on one of the boats on anchor :) There are only a few yachts on anchor and we have a lot of contact with other sailors. I missed these contacts in the Caribbean and on Galapagos: There seem to have been too many cruisers to have good contact.

To arrive with the incoming tide in Tikehau we are leaving Rangiroa one early morning. But this means leaving with an outgoing current of 6 knots and it feels like running down a mountain stream with Blue Bie with standing waves and eddies requiring my full attention. A squall with 30kn surprises me under way under full sail (I know, it shouldn’t happen…) and the ensuing calm delays our arrival to Tikehau so that we are entering against an outgoing current. Finally, we have to cross the coral strewn lagoon to an anchorage in the lee of a small motu. Exhausted, I fall asleep at 7pm for the next 12 hours.

Tikehau is the smallest of the atolls we are visiting. The anchorage off a small resort is beautiful and close to some small motus (islands) with good snorkeling and kitesurfing. A few quaint days pass with snorkeling, diving and kitesurfing. Only one other boat is anchoring here – our friends Chuck and Yurico with whom we are having dinner at the resort for a change. Slowly but surely we are running out of everything: The cooking gas is low, our batteries are at the end of their life-cycle and store only a few amp-hours of electricity – too little to run the systems during a night-sail without recharging. Also, I am giving myself too little rest and some small injuries get infected in the saltwater. It’s therefore time to sail to Tahiti for some R&R.

After another windy and rough passage we arrive in Papeete safely after 22 hours. Anchoring, I see that the catwalk with the windlass got damaged during the passage. We are spending three weeks anchored off Marina Taina, some kilometers south of Papeete, replenishing and repairing. We meet many cruisers, whom we have met in the last few months and I particularly enjoy crossing paths again with Wayne from Learnativity. I met first in Salinas and we have developed a wonderful friendship. We are repairing Blue Bie alongside Samba, on which a sailmaker/boatbuilder sails around the world. I miss the windlass, which is inoperable during the repair, because we have to re-anchor every night – no fun by hand with a 20kg anchor and heavy chain. Luckily, I can occasionally sneak on a mooring ball overnight. It is a very windy anchorage and we have to stop working twice because winds with 30kn are howling through.

I have a huge shock installing the new batteries: Attaching the first, there’s a huge spark and it smells burnt. Afterwards(!), I test the polarity of the new batteries, which turns out to be inversed!!! I would have never guessed and I am happy to hear from any of you who tests new batteries before installing them in their boat or car:) Replacing half a dozen fuses and finding all equipment on board operational, I know now at least that everything is properly fused.

Finally everything is sea-shape again and we go shopping to the huge Carrefour next to the marina. We find us in a not too cheap land of plenty. Actually, the prices are not too bad with some very expensive items (grapes for USD 9) and some very fairly priced items (French cheese, New Zealand beef). Anyway, he who is buying goose liver shall not complain too loud!

So equipped, we are ready for a new chapter of our journey, exploring first the Society Islands and later sailing towards Hawaii for the cyclone season.