21st of June to 1st of July - Tuamotus

18^th to 21^st Marquesas to Tuamotus

The first couple of days we had a beautiful sail with the Gennaker out in lovely light winds between 15 and 25 knots but in the last night the winds came up big time with going up to 40 knots and rough seas. It was a rough night with the storm sail out and 2 reefs in the main.

Goodbye beautiful Nuku Hiva!

Another great catch by our fishermen - a wahoo! Yum!

21^st to 25^th Fakarava

We arrived at North Fakarava at lunch time and short after we arrived we had a visit from a fellow Aussie sailor, Harry from Malua. He came on board with lots of tips for us and told us about the fantastic diving at south Fakarava.  

Harry visiting

So as soon as he left, we lifted anchor and sailed south (he still often laughs about this today, as we have caught up lots with him since). Fakarava is a very big atoll, where you can’t even see from the north end to the south end (30 miles long and 10 miles wide, in a rectangular shape and it is the second largest atoll in theTuamotus. We arrived at the south end later that afternoon and Ben and Pete booked us straight in for a couple of dives for the next day. 

 South Fakarava

What great dives these were! We dived with a wall of sharks!! If somebody would have told me I would do something like that last year, I would have said, never! But it was just amazing. there were about 400 sharks (reef sharks, up to about 2m) with us in the water, cruising lazily around and of course all the other beautiful reef fish. The visibility was incredible and we did this drift dive through the south channel of Fakarava. Absolutely unbeatable diving experience!

 So many sharks! 

 Eagle Ray

After this we explored south Fakarava and then sailed back to North Fakarava to have a look at the little town there. The atolls in the Tuomotus are amazing, just a reef ring with some sand areas with the few shrubs and palms on parts of it, where people live. People here live mainly from fishing and there are the famous black pearl farms, where the pearls all get sold in Tahiti. Food supplies come in by ship on Thursday, so when we got there on a Tuesday, not a great variety was available! No potatoes or really any fresh food at all. We actually started eating flaked mashed potatoes out of the pack, because we couldn’t eat pasta and rice all the time! At least we had fresh homemade bread every day, even though we actually did get some fresh baguette in Fakarava! I must admit, I do like that the French invaded so many countries and islands, as there the food is always good!) In North Fakarava we hired some push bikes and had a look around the little island ending up with ordering the local pizza which is made by a local lady. We also made some more lovely sailing friends with Sonia and Laurie and their kids on Moana Roa and also Karel and Phil from Tehani Li, all great fellow Aussie people.

26^th to 30^th Toau

We decided a bit late in the day that we wanted to visit Toau, another little atoll. It was very brave of Captain Pete to lead us into the opening of Taou, which is quite narrow and the seas where quite rough, plus it was already night time, 10pm. Ben and I stood at the front with torches to see any obstacles and we pretty much surfed into Taou, it was quite scary and the lead lights of course didn’t work either. But our captain got us safely into our anchorage.

And this is what we woke up to! Paradise!

This end of Toau has only three inhabitants, Valentine, Gaston and Gaston’s father. Very hospitable people and we found we liked just to relax there a bit, do lots of snorkelling, exploring and diving.

Valentine has already the table set for the night for dinner.

 In the afternoon we explored the island.

 Here we go again! The French and their phone boxes! In the middle of nowhere!

 Havachat at anchor

Beach combing

 Havachat at sunset. How beautiful.

Gaston taught us how to open coconuts an easier way and we had the most wonderful dinner with Valentine and Gaston.  A feast with delicious raw fish dishes, salads, and that many grilled lobsters, we couldn’t eat them all. And the table setting was so beautiful with the hibiscus flowers, shells and pearls. Valentine kept us entertained with her stories about spear fishing in about 20 meters (her father went down free diving to 40 meters!) and pearl farming. We had a wonderful night.

 This made Pete smile! So many lobsters, we actually couldn't eat them all!

 Gastone doing the BBQ

 Lisa and Jack happy, some dogs to pet.

 Family photo with Valentine

 Coconut opening lessons

 Fruit picking, so yum. They were similar to lychees

The next day Karel and Phil arrived as well at Taou and we just couldn’t bring ourselves to leave Taou, it was so nice and relaxing there. Valentine had invited us to Church, which she runs, as it was Sunday. We decided, why not, a new experience and so all of us and Karel went and visited Valentine and Gaston’s little church for a service. What an experience! First we sang songs in French and Tahitian with Valentine accompanying us with her ukulele. That was fun, even though we didn’t understand a word we were singing. Than we had to read from the bible (they had an English version), first me, than Jack and Lisa and then Valentine started preaching in French/English, with Karel translating a lot (Karel is originally from Canada)! What an experience! We were there for 2 hours! The Polynesians are very religious and she tried very strongly to transfer her believes to us... We finished the day with a lovely dinner with Karel and Phil on our boat to head out for Tahiti the next day.

Off again into the sunset. Goodbye Toau