Tag Archives: tikehau

Le Tikehau Resort

Spoiled Rotten in Tikehau

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It is with a heavy heart that we leave Tahiti and the many friends we left behind, but it was beyond time for us to move on.  We headed toward Tikehau which is 174nm away and should take 1.5 days to reach.  It was a gorgeous, sunny day with blue skies, calm seas, and a light breeze.   This is a shot of us leaving the Tahiti airport anchorage behind.

Andromeda Super Yacht

On our way out of the Papeete pass we went by a HUGE mega yacht called Andromeda.  She is 107 meters long (352’) and 18 meters (59’) wide (that’s longer than Sugar shack).  She has a maximum speed of 16.4 kts and can travel over 9800miles.

Matt thinks there are well over 20 crew working on this magnificent yacht.  The interesting thing is that while she was at anchor, she had no anchors down!  You see that is strange in that, we normal boats, require an anchor to hold us in place.  However, Andromeda has dynamic positioning / sky hook which does not require an anchor.  It holds the boat in place using GPS coordinates!

Tahiti is a crown jewel, that is for sure.  Check out her crown between the two mountains.

The Passage to Tikehau

We had an absolutely stunning passage from Tahiti to Tikehau.  It was simply perfect, with gorgeous skies, light winds giving us a beam reach, small seas, and no squalls. We set the sails once and only had to adjust them lightly to accommodate changing wind speeds.

Passage Details

  • Total Travel Time:  24 hours
  • Total Distance: 174
  • Max Speed:  10.8kt
  • Average Speed:  7.2kt

We arrived at 10am in the morning, exactly 24 hours after we picked up the hook.  We did have to wait outside the pass for 1.5 hours for it to calm down.  It looked very unhappy when we arrived, so we waited for slack tide and headed in.  A rather easy entrance with an incoming tide and 2+kts helping us in.

We anchored near Le Tikehau Resort and had the anchorage all to ourselves.

Flash Back

Last year in Gambier, Matt and I were on a small hike.  During this hike, we met Raipunui who was visiting from Tikehau.  He stopped us on the side of the road, asked where we were going (if we wanted a ride), and when we told him we were going on a small hike, he asked to join us.  We ended up spending a few hours with him and exchanging contact info.

Fast Forward

We reached out to Raipunui and told him we were in Tikehau and would like to see him.  He said he was working that night (he is the front desk manager at Le Tikehau Resort).  I asked if we could come have dinner as we were celebrating our wedding anniversary and he said “I will make it happen.”

Le Tikehau Resort

This is a beautiful resort!  Le Tikehau is situated on the water with dozens of over the water bungalows. 

Le Tikehau Resort

Le Tikehau Resort

Guests have their own private beach, access to water toys, and gorgeous views of the sunset.

Le Tikehau Resort

Le Tikehau Resort

We are super blessed to be able to come on property, considering we are not guests.  Raipunui really gave us the royal treatment!  Everyone knew we were coming – we were known as “the boat people.”  It was so funny.  As we pulled up to the dock, the first employee said “ah yes, you are the boat people.”  Then we went to the check in counter (top photo above) and the receptionist said, “welcome boat people.”  Then the waitress took our drink orders and after we explained that we did not have a bungalow, she said, oh, are you the boat people?  It was rather amusing.

They have a beautiful pool that overlooks the lagoon.  It was stunning during sunset.   But then again Tikehau sunsets don’t ever disappoint.

Le Tikehau Resort

Le Tikehau Resort

Raipuni told us to get there at 1800 which was strange to us as dinner did not start until 1900. But, we did as we were told, secured great seats on the patio as we watched the sunset and had a cocktail.  At 1830, a local Tikehau band arrived and Raipunui was the singer.  With each song, a different waitress would come out and dance.  It was spectacular.  Our own private show – with maybe 10 other people!

Chow Time

We sat down at a nice two top on a raised platform.  Ordered another cocktail, because we are celebrating after all.  Matt ordered crispy red tuna and I ordered a quiche and salad.  Matt said the tuna was divine and unlike anything else he has ever had.  My quiche was ok, it looks like a pizza, but it was all quiche.  For dessert, they brought out a heart shaped chocolate mousse cake with kiwis. The band sang “happy birthday” along with the entire restaurant as they don’t have a translation for “happy anniversary.”  It was all really exciting and sweet!

Raipunui really went all out to make us feel welcome and special.  He is truly a master as his job!  We hope to see him in early December in Gambier again as he is going there to celebrate his birthday!

The pretty side of Tahiti is shown in on our last blog as we discover a new marae, snack and live concert.   Events from this blog post occurred mid-November.  Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind our adventures.

Tikehau Anchorage

Tikehau Tranquility

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We visited Tikehau last year and frankly, it was not one of our favorite atolls in the Tuamotus.  However, we did not really give it a fair chance.  The weather was horrid and we ended up hiding inside our boat at one anchorage during most of our stay (blog post 12/2019).  So, we decided to return to Tikehau on our way through the Tuamotus.

After our wonderful sail from the Society Archipelago, we had a smooth entrance through the pass and headed straight for our anchorage.  There is only one channel inside the lagoon which starts at the pass and ends at the village.  The rest of the lagoon is littered with bommies and small motus that pop up in random places.  In order to traverse the lagoon, you have to constantly monitor the charts and have a look out.  The photo below shows Sugar Shack at the pass anchorage (the red arrow), then the channel pink lines with red markers (that look like “i”) down to the village.

Tikehau Navionics Chart

Tikehau Navionics Chart

We ended up anchoring about 1 mile from the village at the first orange anchor. After the channel ended we navigated our way to an anchorage in front of the Pearl Beach Resort Tikehua.  Our friends on Jolly Dogs, Maple, and Moggy were here as well. 

Exploring the Motus

Matt and I had great fun exploring the surrounding motus in search of sea treasures.  Each motu is unique but they all share basic characteristics.  They are fairly flat, covered in coral, little bit of sand, and lots of coconuts.

The first motu we came to actually had this really pretty pinkish sand.  When the sun shone on the sand it would turn maroon, brown, and a little orange.  Really pretty.

In between the motus are little rivers or pools of water that flow from the Pacific to the lagoon.  Top photo shows us at one motu, overlooking the water between to another motu with the boats at anchor behind.

The water inside the Tikehau lagoon is really warm, like bath water.  Which is super fun, but not as refreshing as you’d like on a hot day.

Motu Tohuarei

After a few days at the Pearl Beach Resort anchorage we picked up the hook and headed to a new motu.  Only 3nm away, yet it feels like a new world.    This pretty little spit of land is literally in the middle of the lagoon surrounded by its own reef.

Matt breaks out the drone to give you a bird’s eye perspective.  Truly beautiful.

Tikehau Anchorage

Tikehau Anchorage

We explore the motu and snorkel all over the reef which are teaming with schools of fish and coral.

Blessed with a beautiful sunset each night.

Pass Anchorage

It was hard to leave considering we had this little motu all to ourselves.  However, it was time for us to head to the pass anchorage to prepare for our departure from Tikehau.  We took a new route across the lagoon instead of backtracking.  Sugar Shack have 3 sets of charts and me at the bow as a look out – so why not.

On the way, we passed by another little motu called Motu Mauu which would have been fun to anchor at if we had time.  Super pretty with lots of coral and fish around it.

Always on the look out for the bommies which can be small bits of land sticking out or coral heads just under the surface. The one in the photo was pretty easy to spot, but some are super hard to see if the sun is not just right.

Bommie hiding under the water surface

Bommie hiding under the water surface

7nm later we arrived to the pass anchorage where 9 other boats were located.  So much for the peace and quiet.   The good news is our friends on Hoodoo are here along with a lot of birds!

We enjoy snorkeling the pass and doing slow drifts with the incoming tide.  The pass is full of lots of fish including a huge school of barracudas, tons of puffers, a few eels, and flounders.

We are so glad we came back to Tikehau.  The tranquility of this little atoll (during good weather) was amazing.  The warm waters, friendly people, and pretty motus were wonderful to explore.

Events from this blog post occurred around the 3rd week of November, 2020.  Our blog posts run 8 weeks behind our adventures.

The Perfect Sail to Tekihau

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Wowza!  We had truly one of the best trips under sail!  We left Opunohu Bay, Mo’orea at 0500 for the 175nm journey to Tikehau.  This trip takes us from the Society Archipelago to the Tuamotus Archipelago over the course of 26 hours.  We had been waiting for a good weather window for 10-12 days and seized this one.  We needed either northerly or southerly winds to take us east, preferred no rain, no thunder or lightening, and low swell.  Not much to ask for considering the prevailing winds come from the NE :).

Matt and I are up before dawn to ready the boat for the sail.  We lift the anchor and are underway by 0500 and the sails are out by 0530 as we exit the Opunohu Bay pass.  We have a gorgeous sunrise send off including a sneak peak at Adromeda Motor Yacht.  Adromeda is a107 meter expedition that was built in 2016 and has a crew of 43 people!  Check out her tender which is larger than Sugar Shack!

Teti’aroa in Passing

Our direct route has us crossing over and through Teti’aroa (aka Marlon Brando’s Island).  Clearly we can’t do that so we have to divert off course to go around this pretty picturesque island.  Just a few weeks before we pass this small atoll, Kim Kardashian celebrated her 40th birthday to the disgust of many of her fans (being that we are in the middle of a pandemic and they didn’t follow any protocols).  We didn’t stop here this time past the island.

If you are interested in learning about the history of Teti’aroa, check out our blog post.  And if you’d like to check out our visit to Brando island, check out this blog post.

Brando Island

Brando Island

As we are leaving the lee of Teti’aroa we came across a rather smelly fishing vessel.  Love how the birds feast on the left overs.

We had a perfect sail with winds coming out of the ENE at 10-14kts, less than a .05-meter swell, no rain, no squalls, and an average boat speed of 7kts.  Pretty good for us!  The sunset was amazing all is well as we enter the evening portion of the passage.

A Sail at Night

Navigation is imperative on all passages.  However, you tend to rely on it more at night when you lose sight from the dark.  We utilize a lot of instruments to keep us on track.

Our Raymarine keeps track of our True Wind Speed (TWS) 10.8, depth (showing at zero as its too deep in the middle of the ocean), Speed over Ground (SOG) 6.7, Distance to Waypoint (DTW) 45.95, Cross Track (XTE) -5.84 (shows we are off course which occurred during a small squall), and Heading 046T.  This is where we control our autopilot.

The B&G chart has a wealth of information.  This and the radar screens are what I use most.  This particular screen has (down left side): Boat Speed, TWA: True Wind Angle, AWA: Apparent Wind Angle,, TWS: True Wind Speed, and TWD: True Wind direction.  The center column is our directional map.  The far right has SOG: Speed over Ground, COG: Course over Ground, POS: position, Depth, Steer, and WPT: Waypoint.  The large circular diagram in the middle shows you the boat, the apparent wind (large triangle upper right), true wind (smaller triangle upper right), swell/current (center of boat arrow 1.3) and steerage (red hour glass in red area).

Then of course we have our mapping charts.  We use three different charting systems.  The handheld Garmen GPS has one chart, the iPad has Navionics, and the computer has Open CPN. All tracking us and telling us where to go.

Fishing

We had three lines in the water and one teaser.  We were so hopeful to catch something as we had not been able to fish for awhile.  A large silver fish bit the hook and went running in the opposite direction of the boat. We were under full sail and couldn’t slow the boat down fast enough.  We headed into the wind and started bringing in the other 3 lines but by the time Matt got back to the fish he had either wiggled off the hook or the hook ripped out of his mouth due to our boat speed.  So sad!

Birds are always circling our lures.  Poor silly creatures think they are edible and always try to catch them.  One unlucky bird dove down to grab the lure and got caught up in our line.  Poor thing was dragged behind the boat for a few minutes before we realized what was going on.  It squawked at us.  Matt tried to pull it in but she got off before getting too close to the boat.  Top photo has the bird and the line comes in from the left side of the photo.  Bottom photo has arrows to show you the bird and line/lure.

So, that is 1-caught and lost, 1-caught and released and 0-onboard.

Land A’Ho

About 12nm from Tikehau, the winds divert our sail.  We get pushed off track and end up having to motor sail the last 4/5nm to the pass.  Not terrible considering we have sailed the other 170+nm.  We carefully navigate the pass as we have missed the optimal slack tide.  However, we did not have any issues coming in .

Navionics showing the pass

Navionics showing the pass

The pass was relatively calm and super pretty!

Tikehau Pass

Tikehau Pass

We have several friends who are anchored near the Pearl Beach Resort Tikehau so we head to the south side of the atoll.  It is about 1.5 hours across the lagoon to the anchorage spot.  Super purdy!  We drop the hook a short distance from the resort.

Pearl Beach Resort Tikehau

Pearl Beach Resort Tikehau

Passage Details:

  • Mo’orea to Tikehau
  • Miles to Dest. 175nm
  • Actual Miles Sailed: 188nm
  • Average Speed: 7.0
  • Max Speed: 11.1
  • Total Moving Time to Pass: 26 hours
  • Total Moving Time to Anchorage: 27:46

Events from this blog post occurred on 17/18 November 2020.  Our blog posts run 8 weeks behind our adventures.