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Farewell Fakarava

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O’ Fakarava!  We return to the South Pass anchorage for internet and sharks!  I know, I know, you are probably thinking I’ve lost my mind.  Probably true, but not in this instance.  The Fakarava South Pass is known all over the world for its amazing Shark Wall and its incredibly diving.

The Fakarava South Pass dive is considered a drift dive which means you drop in at one point and slowly drift to another point.  So, we partnered with a few other cruisers who dropped us off at the outer edge of the pass and picked us up on the inside edge of the pass. 

We dropped down to 70’ and meandered to the famous Fakarava shark wall!  It did not disappoint!

These black tip, white tip, gray, and nurse sharks just swim back and forth and back and forth.  The little fish seem to not care one bit that man-eating sharks are in their way!

Sometimes the sharks are curious and come close….

And sometimes they just don’t give you the time of day.

A small octopus was playing hide and seek…

Snorkel Adventures

Matt and I snorkel the pass several times.  Each time is a new episode in a fascinating series of the underwater world. We still see lots of sharks, but now we focus on all the beautiful fish.

A few sharks who came close enough to check us out.  We gave each other the “eye.”

We came across a lot of napoleon fish.  They have a large bump feature on their head.  These guys are the beasts of the sea.  In the top photo you can see how large they are compared to a normal fish.  I’d say the largest one we saw was at least 1.5meters long!  We also came across a large grouper and trigger (center left), another large trigger (right) and a smaller napoleon (bottom)

I liked to swim close to and under the docks.  Matt captured this above and below water photo while I was near one dock.

A school of rays swam by.  We were not sure if they were spotted or eagle, but they were gorgeous. 

And it appeared to be school day as all the other fish were in schools.

South Pass Beauty

We enjoyed many happy hours at the local dive shop which offered lunch and dinner buffets.  We did not eat with them as they were pricey at $30/$35 respectively for buffet of pizza and raw fish.  But their happy hours were amazing with a beautiful view of the sunset and sharks. 

For the most part, we had absolutely calm conditions to enjoy paddle boarding, swimming, and snorkeling the south pass.

We had many beautiful sunsets and sunrises

We had absolutely lovely weather at the South Pass in Fakarava.  No wind, literally no wind, flat seas and sunny skies.  We just hung out as there was not enough wind to go anywhere else.  Not a hard ship at all.

North Pass – Rotoava (the main village)

Our friends on Agape (Josh and Rachel) were arriving to Rotoava (the main village) soon so we decided to make the downwind sail to town.  It was a lovely 35nm sail with our parasail.  It surprised us by how fast we made it to the new anchorage.  Averaged 7-7.5kts and made the passage in 4 hours.

It had been awhile since we hung out and enjoyed Josh and Rachel!  We had a lovely lunch at a pension (hotel) on the water.

The many happy faces of my husband…

Josh and Rachel had a friend visiting, Kelsey.  We walked the beaches combing for sea shells and picking up trash.  Top photo: Kelsey, Matt, me, Rachel, Josh.

Dinner on Agape with their cat, Gilly.

Rachel and Gilly

Rachel and Gilly

A local “takes care” of a few nurse sharks.  They come around to his house around sunset for some lovin.

We had an opportunity to pet some beautiful nurse sharks.  They felt like sand paper and just enjoyed the soft caress.

It was a lovely visit to Fakarava.  But it is time to move on to Tahiti.

Ta Ta to Tahanea was our last blog post (see passage post).   Events from this blog occurred in March 2022.  Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind our adventures.

Migration to Tahiti

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The migration from the Gambier Archipelago to the Society Archipelago is about 900 nm if we were to go direct.  However, we decided to head north toward the Tuamotus Archipelago then west toward the Societies which ads several hundred miles and days to our journey.

The first leg of this migration is from Taravai, Gambier to Tahanea, Tuamotus.  This passage is roughly 664nm direct and should take us 5-6 days.  The predicted forecast is for light winds, little rain, long, rolly seas.  We put up our largest spinnaker (200 square meters), since we were anticipating light winds.  We call her “Big Bertha” and she is super colorful   Usually, we take down our spinnakers at night and just run the “working sails” (main and jib) as a “just in case”.  But the winds were super light at 6-8kts and predicted to stay that way all night.

Night 2 – dun dun dun

Matt wakes me up around 2:00am announcing a pending storm.  We need to douse the spinnaker and raise the working sails.  I grab a rain jacket and make a quick trip to the bathroom.  I should have skipped the 2-minute bathroom break.  By the time I got to the deck, the wind gusted to 26 and blew out our sail.  Insert all sorts of explicates here!  We rush to the bow to pull the sail out of the water. 

Yes, Matt could have doused the sail by himself and I could have peed my pants.  Both options would have saved the sail.  Hindsight is 20/20.  But the good news is that none of the sail pieces got caught on the dagger boards, rudder, or prop!  We will try to repair her in Tahiti.  She is 22 years old. Farfugnuggin!  The lower left photo shows you where the sail ripped.

The top two photos show you the huge wind shift and gust of wind.  The bottom right photo is the parasail that we put up afterwards.

On our 5th night, we had a guest on board.  A silly, dirty boobie.  It is so hard to be mad at these birds as it is clear they are tired and just need a place to rest before continuing on their own personal migration.  But man, oh man do they leave a nasty mess!

Part I of the Migration: Gambier-Tahanea

  • Total Miles to Destination:  664nm
  • Total Miles Sailed:  710nm
  • Top Speed: 11.0kt
  • Average Speed:  6.1kt

Notes:  Super beautiful sail with the light wind coming ENE and the seas coming from ENE to E.  The seas were large at 2m, but they were long and lazy and came with long intervals in between.  We ended up sailing 46nm out of our way to maintain the wind speed.

Don’t miss our blog post “Ta Ta Tahanea” where we explore this stunning atoll for the last time.  Coming up next week.

Tahanea to Fakarava

This is the shortest part of our migration.  The tricky part is trying to time the outbound passage through the Tahanea pass with the inbound passage through Fakarava.  Unfortunately, it just does not work out.  So, we decided to leave Tahanea at the midnight outbound slack time with the hopes of arriving at the Fakarava inbound around 9a-10a in the morning. 

Typically, we don’t like to transit the passes at night because you cannot see what the water is doing.  Is it truly inbound or outbound current?  Are there standing waves?  What are the eddies doing?  Too many unknowns.  But we have tracks from a previous transit and a wee bit of the moon light and forged our way out with no issues.

The winds were light at 10-12kts from the East on a perfect beam reach.  We started with full working sails (main and jib) and were making a respectable 5-5.5 kts of boat speed.  At dawn, we lost the wind, dropped all sails and motored.  We hoisted our spinnaker but that only gave us 3kts of boat speed, so we took her down and reverted back to the motor and the jib.  This would ensure we arrive during incoming tide in Fakarava.

Super peaceful and beautiful passage to Fakarava.

Part II of Migration

  • Total Miles to Destination:  48nm
  • Total Miles Sailed: 55 nm
  • Top Speed: 11.0kt
  • Average Speed:  6.1kt
  • Total time at underway: 11 hours

Fakarava to Tahiti

We had light winds predicted for this trip.  We left the North pass at 3:00pm and had 238nm to Papeete.  An expected 2-2.5 days.  Since we did not want to arrive at night we decided to just go with our working sails.  We set them up wing on wing which means the main on one side and the jib on the other. 

We could have flown our spinnaker or parasail but then we would arrive at night – and what’s the point in that.  So, we enjoyed a nice, slow, leisurely paced sail.

Sugar Shack under sail using the spinnaker (this is our medium sized 150 square meters spinnaker as the large one (200m) was ripped on the way from Gambier to Tahanea.

  • Total Miles to Destination:  238nm
  • Total Miles Sailed:  246nm
  • Top Speed: 9.3kt
  • Average Speed:  5.5kt
  • Total time at underway:  1 day and 20 hours

I ended up writing separate blog posts for Tahanea and Fakarava so be sure to read the next few weeks to catch up on our adventures on these two atolls.

A celebration and sad farewell to the Gambier Archipelago. (see passage post).   The migration began 25 Feb. in Gambier and ended on 26 March in Tahiti.  Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind our adventures.

Topaka Lighthouse

Oh Fakarava!

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It was time for us to leave the beautiful atoll of Tahanea to make our way toward Fakarava.  Matt and I decided to sail the 9+ miles back to the pass.  It was a lovely morning, nice breeze, calm seas.  We hoisted our parasail and enjoyed the 2-hour sail.  It’s sailing like this that make me just love sailing! Of course, we are inside the lagoon and not in true “sea conditions” but none the less it was spectacular.

A mile out from the pass we doused the sail and prepared for anchoring.  We noticed dark, foreboding clouds in the distance so we got to anchoring rather quickly.  A torrential down pour and 25kt winds came upon us just as we dropped the hook and secured the sail.  Talk about good timing.

Conditions were rough.  The swell was 1.5 – 2 meters inside the anchorage.  It is a good thing we only stayed here for a few hours as we waited for slack tide to exit the pass.  It is only 59nm to Fakarava South Pass which would normally take us about 10 hours.  But we could not time our departure at slack tide with our arrival at slack tide properly so we just left early during daylight hours.

It was a chore to try to slow the boat down.  We had both the main and jib double reefed the entire way and we were still making 5kts.  So, we reefed some more and slowed down to 3-4kts.  We still arrived at the wee hours of the morning and had to bob around waiting for slack tide and the sun to wake up.  We entered with no problems as the sun welcomed us to Fakarava.

Fakarava Hirifa Anchorage

We have only been to the Hirifa Anchorage once and were not able to leave the boat due to poor sea conditions.  So, it was fabulous to explore the beaches with new and old friends.   At the end of the beach is an eatery called Hirifa Café which was closed.  But they did have a plethora of baby animals running around.  About 12-15 piglets, kittens and puppies.

Matt and I decided to head to N Fakarava to get some provisions and beer.  We were low on everything as we have not provisioned in over 6+ weeks (out of sugar, flour, eggs, fresh fruit and veg) and beer. Fakarava is a long atoll and N Faka is about 30nm from S Faka. 

Matt wanted to test out our newly repaired spinnaker.  He repaired the clew (lower right corner) and along the bottom.  If you look closely you will see another repair at the top.  She’s been a good sail, with lots of repairs, but what can you say when she is over 20 years old!

The sail is primarily used for light winds coming from behind the boat (downwind at 180°).  However our winds were wonky and came from 60°-180°). Technically we should not have been able to sail once the winds hit 90° but damned if we did not make it work.  Fakarava at NoForeignLand.com.

FAKARAVA NORTH – MAIN VILLAGE

The last time we visited Faka N most everything was closed.  However, now everything is open and it is a wonderland!  We had our first dinner out in 9 months at a lovely, family owned place called Hirinaki Lounge and it was marvelous!  This place was so beautiful with drift wood art, sea shells and local wood floors.  Open air concept and super tasty food and drinks!

Topaka Lighthouse

The Phare de Topaka lighthouse is one of the oldest in Polynesia at nearly 100 years old.  It is built from giant slabs of coral limestone rock and stands on the ocean side of Fakarava atoll.  It stands 14 meters high (45’ tall) and is surrounded by beautiful palm trees.  You can see this immense structure from anywhere in the North Fakarava anchorage.  It is an incredibly unusual style with ten terraces made of stones, coral, and cement.  Built in 1957 under the direction of a woman, Mrs. Taui Degage.

Originally, the lighthouse served as a landmark for fishermen and pleasure boats day and night.  Today, it is no longer active or in use because other more modern models have replaced it.  It is likely to be demolished as it is in the protection zone of the airport.

Matt and I made haste and went to visit this monument that will most likely be torn down soon.  But we took the long way around. We crossed over to the windward side of the atoll to do some shelling and took a long leisurely walk to the lighthouse, 2.8miles away. 

Along the way we found a small monument which believe is a tombstone.  The lighthouse was immense and truly an oddity in its surroundings.

A Round of Celebrations

Our friends, Josh and Rachel met up with us in N. Faka.  They were entertaining Jack (Rachel’s dad).  We had two fabulous meals!  We took them back to Hirinaki Lounge.

Hirinaki Lounge

Hirinaki Lounge

The food was just as amazing as we remembered.  I got the mahi grill and Matt got poison cru (their version of ceviche).

The next day we headed to https://www.havaiki.com/Pearl Havaiki Lodge for lunch and some water time!  They have several concrete tables in the shallows of the water where you can sit and enjoy a tasty drink while under the hatch roof.  It is a beautiful property with lots of art and funny statues.

Havaiki Pearl Lodge

Havaiki Pearl Lodge

We took full advantage of the lovely setting and cold drinks!  Josh, Rachel, Jack, Matt and I.

They had these fun red chairs at the end of the dock that were calling to us!

Fakarava always seems to surprise me.  Great internet, new, tasty eateries, decent provisioning, and great people.

Events from this blog post occurred during the end of May, 2021 – early June, 2021.  Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind our adventures.