Fakarava south anchorage to Moorea

You wouldn’t believe the weather we’ve been having for most of July: numerous squalls with 30 knots or more of wind on them, heavy rain, gusty conditions and big swells with breaking waves on top. We witnessed a total eclipse of the sun on 11th July, watching the beginning and the end through our sextant shades, as we did not have the special glasses. It went dark enough for night lights to come on at the quay but it was not total darkness. A squall came over during the main part. After the eclipse, we motored 30 miles across the Fakarava lagoon, negotiating our way through pearl farms, passing over their nets, narrowly missing reefs and this was meant to be the main channel! After several squalls which reduced our visibility so much we had to turn on the radar, we anchored safely, near the south pass. We were so glad we had taken the sheltered route.

On the one settled day in a whole week, we joined up with Maureen and Paul from Calypso and used their dinghy to snorkel through the pass. We wore wetsuits as we were in the water for one and a half hours, holding on to lines attached to the dinghy and drifting through the pass with the tide. What and experience! We saw all kinds of reef fish and corals. Most scarily, we saw lots of sharks. The black tipped ones are not known to attack humans and they feed at night, but the sight of them makes you stop swimming and keep very still – just in case!

The unsettled weather continued making it most unwise to leave the lagoon and go to explore other atolls. Fresh food supplies had run out so we motor sailed back across the lagoon to the north anchorage and stocked up in the shops. As soon as there was a weather window, we left for Tahiti. We knew a yacht called Sojourn was leaving for Tahiti later that day. The winds were very light so we put up our ghoster and poled it out on one side with the full genoa poled out on the other side. By nightfall, with next to no wind, we motored. The next day we had a lovely beam reach sail with full main and genoa. Sojourn was behind us and stayed there until nightfall. Soon we had to reef down as the squalls started again. Finally, we reached Yacht Club de Tahiti carefully sounding our way through a well marked, but sometimes shallow, passage through the reef. We spoiled ourselves with a safe mooring, hot showers, washing machine, lots of drinking water and a huge Carrefour superstore. We ate camembert, baguettes, salad and fruit for the next four days.

Tahiti is the capital of French Polynesia. Papeete is a large town with dual carriageways, traffic and lots of shops. We caught the bus into town and checked in with the authorities. We took our cooking gas cylinders to the filling station and had them filled and we walked to various chandlers, clothes shops, markets etc until our legs ached. My package from England, which was meant to arrive in week, is going to take 15 days so we decided to sail 20 miles to Moorea.

You think you are sailing into a film set when you approach Moorea. Then you realise you are, because “South Pacific” was filmed here. The skyline has ridges and peaks and spires of many different shapes. It really is breathtaking. Captain Cook and Captain Bligh gazed on the same landscape and anchored in the same bays. Wow! I dragged Jeremy to Club Bali Hai where we sipped expensive beer on the edge of the bay. We scared ourselves anchoring in less than 3m near the fringing reef and snorkelled in clear, turquoise water. The next day we left Cook’s Bay, surfed down the huge swell in 24 knots of wind and entered the pass through the reef to Opunohu Bay. There’s no swell inside but huge gusts funnel down the steep mountain sides. The people are very friendly and we were given a lift in a car to the shop and brought back to our dinghy. The next time we rowed ashore, Jeremy broke an oar for the third time, just as we reached the beach. We walked 5km to a viewpoint where we saw both bays below us, Sal Darago a mere dot, and the sacred mountain of the Polynesians between the bays. Once again, this was a breathtaking view. On our 5km walk back, we passed through several Mareas, sacred sites, with altars where human sacrifices had taken place (not earlier that day, thank goodness). It was going dark and the overgrown path through the jungle past these holy ruins was eerie. We hurried back to the safety of home aboard Sal Darago.