Tag Archives: toau

Toau: The Sister Island

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Fakarava is one of the largest and most visited atolls in the Tuamotus.  It offers several magasins (markets), fuel, propane, fruits and veggies, and yacht services.  However, 25nm down the road is its sister island Toau which is hardly ever visited and a sweet oasis. 

This little atoll does not have any magasins or provisions or services.  It used to get a supply ship once a month but that has ceased as well.  Valentine and Gaston who live on the main motu near the false pass have a beautiful garden with tomatoes, bell peppers, pamplemousse, lemons, noni, avocado, and a few other items.  They open up as a restaurant during peak season (April-Oct) and offer cruisers fresh fish, lobster, and available meats.  Super friendly and always willing to accept visitors.

Valetine and Gaston's Home on Toau

Valetine and Gaston’s Home on Toau

They have a plethora of animals.  When we arrived at the dock 5 dogs greeted us with sloppy kisses.  They have cats and new kittens.

Tons of chickens and a family of pigs.

They even have a pet frigate bird named Mumu that has been with them for over 11 years!

Pet Frigate bird

Pet Frigate bird

Valentin is very religious and had a sit down with us discussing God and her beliefs.  They even have their own church for the 3 people on the motu.

She has a large collection of shells that she gifts to visitors and shares with newcomers.

Snorkeling

We had great fun snorkeling the pass during incoming tide.  We found several black tip sharks and lots of big schools of fish as we drifted in towards the bay.  The reef behind us was a treasure trove!

The reef had lots of large coral heads (bommies) with tons of varieties of fish around, and inside them.  I think you could snorkel here for days and see something new.

Our weather window opened up and we needed to leave.  It was a short visit to Toau but we will certainly return.  On a sad note, we will be parting with our good friends on Maple (Janet, Daryl, Ella, and Iris).  We met them in Bonaire and have sailed with them across many miles of ocean, visited many countries, islands, and atolls.  They will be heading to Japan in January, then Alaska, then Canada.  It was really hard to say “so long.”  Hopefully we will see them again as they have been an amazing blessing in our lives.

We will certainly need to come back to Amanu as we did not have a chance to go inside the lagoon.  We had too much fun exploring the false pass and visiting with Valentine and Gaston.

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

Marlin, The Big Catch on Toau Passage

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We like to fish while under passage.  On the 140nm passage from Tikehau to Toau we estimated it to take us 25-26 hours at an average speed of 5kts with 12kts of wind from the North of East.  Of course, that is if we didn’t spend a bunch of hours trying to catch a huge blue marlin. 

We decided to leave Tikehau between 0900-1000 so we would not arrive in the dark.  Everything started out as planned, we raised the main to full sail and had a reefed jib as we exited the pass.  Within the first hour we were hit with strong winds (20-25kt) from a squall.  Matt took a reef in the main thinking we could shake it out after the winds died down and after we made our left turn around the atoll.

Weather routing gave a direct path (as the image indicates below) but they did not take into account that we would be sailing over other islands.  So, we went around Tikehau and avoided Rangiroa and Kaukura.

Route to Toau

Route to Toau

It was a fantastic sail with 12-15kts of wind from the North, North East pushing us along at 8-9kts.  That is wicked fast for us when you consider we usually cruise at 5-6kts.  We figured it would not last and decided to enjoy it while we had it. 

The BIG catch

Matt had all three lines out and a teaser.  I did not think we could catch anything because we were going too fast.  However, around 1415 Matt noticed our teaser bungy bounce and pulled it in to find our lure missing.  Not a minute later the line next to it went “ZING!” We both looked up and saw a marlin dancing on the water.  And then off it went, unspooling thousands of feet of line and filament. And going, and going, and going. 

Since we were under sail, we had to depower the boat and bring in the other 2 lines before we could work on bringing the marlin in.  We reefed the jib and headed away from the wind slowing us down to 5/6 kts.  Matt started the slow process of reeling the beast in as I tried to slow us down even further without flogging the main or making an accidental jibe.  The pressure on the pole was constant between the power of the marlin and the forward motion of the boat making it challenging to reel the fish in.

Matt fighting with the Marlin

Matt fighting with the Marlin

He was a fighter!  Of course, I can’t blame him.  I must admit I felt horrible bringing him in and watching him suffer (what a bleeding heart).  But we will use all of his meat to feed the locals and other cruisers.  He will not go to waste and will not be a trophy hunt.

The Big Blue Marlin

The Big Blue Marlin

Once we got the fish close enough, we attempted to gaff him to help pull him onboard.  The trick is to get him close enough to use the gaff, but far enough away where his nose doesn’t put a hole in our boat.

Trying to gaf the marlin

Trying to gaf the marlin

It wasn’t pretty as the gaff kept coming out.  We had to stick him several times before we were able to finally bring him onboard.

The Big Catch

Marlin: The Big Catch

The Marlin

He is about 2.5 meters in length (7.5’) and 70-75 kilos (155-160lbs).  His nose came across our deck and his tail is off the last sugar scoop.  Who is tougher?

A picture of a full reel (top) and the unspooled reel (bottom)

We ended up filling (6) 5x large ziplock bags. I think each bag is 5gal.  Lucky for us the engle was empty so we had a place to put him.  We filled it up and still had to put two bags in the fridge!

Bagged and ready to go

Marlin bagged and ready to go

Are we sailing?

After several hours of going off course at 1.2-5kts we finally went back on track.  We headed back on course, reset the sails and we were off again at 8-9kts in 12-15kts of wind.  Sweet!  It took Matt another 1.5 hours to cut and clean the fish while I got us underway.

We finished up with the fish just as the sun was setting and as the SSB net was starting.  What great timing.  We both were too tired to make dinner, so we prepared the boat for the evening sail and set into our passage.

It was a totally smooth and fast sail.  We ended up depowering the sails again as we were scheduled to arrive at 0300-0330 in the morning (dark).  At dawn, we turned the motors on and made our way to the false pass of Toau.

Toau

Toau is known for its absolute beauty, remoteness, snorkeling, and serenity.  It is unique in that it has one pass that leads into the lagoon and one false pass.  The image below shows us (red arrow) at the false pass and it shows the regular pass on the right with the range markers and channel.

Tao

Toau

You may ask, “what is a false pass?”  A regular pass will allow yachts to enter into the atoll into the lagoon inside.  A false pass can either be from the inside of the lagoon to the outer reef or from the pacific to the inside reef.  The false pass at Toau allows yachts to enter from the Pacific to the inner reef (but does not allow us to go inside the lagoon).

Toau False Pass

Toau False Pass

We picked up a mooring ball provided by Gaston and Valentine (locals who also run a restaurant), took a quick nap and began our explorations.

Trip Details

  • Miles to Destination Total: 140nm
  • Total Miles Sailed: 142nm
  • Hours Sailed: 20:18
  • Moving Average: 7.1kt
  • Max Speed: 11.7kt

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

Christmas Tree of the ocean

The Ocean’s Christmas Tree

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Kimberly, my beautifully talented sister, went Christmas tree shopping over the Thanksgiving weekend with her family.  Pangs of jealousy and want shot through me.  Not only because I was not there with them for the holiday, but also because we would not be getting a tree as well.  Sure, we have a small wooden one for the boat, but it is not the same.  Yes, even living in paradise, with the one you love, still has you wanting more.  Greedy little thing that I am!

A few days later, Matt took me snorkeling in the little protected reef where we are anchored within the Amanu lagoon.  It has been calling to us to explore for a few days, but the winds have been such that it was not conducive to good visibility.

There were not many fish, but there were tons and tons of ocean christmas trees!  I love these little creatures (yes, they are live)!  When they are out in their full glory, they look just like miniature christmas trees. 

Sure, I can’t smell them or decorate them or even enjoy them for a month like you landlubbers do.  But I have living, breathing, colorful christmas trees.

Love the variety of colors on each christmas tree

Love the variety of colors on each christmas tree

Each worm (yep they are worms) sprouts two trees.  You always see two by two in the same colors.  They also seem to like the same type of coral.  Check out the black tree with a white top (3rd photo down on left).  Just love all the colors.

A Christmas Tree in every nook

A Christmas Tree in every nook

They are fascinating and fun to play with.  Probably not nice, but I love to watch them disappear and reappear.

We also found loads of clams with a rainbow of lips.

Colorful clams

Colorful clams

Several really large oyster shells – all growing upside down with little things that look like teeth.

Large Oyster Shells

Large Oyster Shells

A beautiful, little starfish sitting in the middle of the sand with nothing else around her, large sea cucumbers, and my own little fish enjoying the snorkel.

The reef is full of beautiful coral sculptures that invite closer to visit its communities.

The reef itself is beautiful.  The top photo is the reef above water and the rest are below water.

When they get scared or feel threatened, they suck themselves up into their little tubey thing.  These are my favorite shots from this snorkel.  I love the pink and white christmas tree.

Love the pink christmas tree

Love the pink christmas tree

We may not have access to all of the holiday trimmings, but seeing these sweet christmas trees brightened my holiday season!

Events from this blog post occurred around the 1st week of December, 2020.  Our blog posts run 8 weeks behind our adventures.