'BRAVO' exits the Tuamotus, and arrives in High Society.....

Arrival at Tahiti, village of Tautira

.....Society Islands, that is, the island group including Tahiti, Moorea, and Bora Bora among others.  After an amazing 3+ weeks in the Tuamotus, it was time to move on, as our 90 day French Polynesia clock continues to wind down.  But what a great few weeks it was!!

Typical motu

As you saw in the last post, the Tuamotus are known for their lagoons, surrounded by low motus, or coral islets.  This means generally calm waters, with no ocean swell, though often the wind blows hard for days, uninterrupted by any real land masses for hundreds of miles.

And with the lagoons come passes into them.  And in the passes are fish....thousands and thousands of fish of all sizes and shapes.  And with the small fish are big predators.....we're talking top of the food chain here...the men in the gray suits.....hundreds and hundreds of sharks hang out, white tips, black tips, grays, and others, all enjoying the smorgasbord that the incoming tide presents to them.  I mean, why cruise aimlessly all over the damned ocean, when any shark worth his teeth can just hang out in the pass, and let the tide bring him his food?  We HAD to check this out!

So after a great tour of the Hinano pearl farm, we left Fakarava north, where we posted last, and headed to the south end of the lagoon, about 30 miles away.

Black pearls ranging from a few bucks to a few hundred

Found a great gang of boats there, all with water play time on the brain.  For this UNESCO Biosphere Reserve site is world famous for its diving and snorkeling.  It's also a top spot for kite boarding on the calm lagoon waters in steady (usually!!) 15-25 knot winds, and when the winds (occasionly) lightened up, it's a great place for kayaking and paddle boarding as well.

Cindi explores a new motu

And underwater, well, it was truly a world class show.  We wound up snorkeling the pass a total of 9 times, and diving it twice....and every time was different.  From our anchorage on the west side of the pass it was a long wet dinghy ride to the pass itself, as we made our way around the reef....so once there, we would ride the incoming tide again and again.  When snorkeling, one of us would hold the dinghy line, so we'd have the dink at the end of the run, climb aboard, head out and run it again.  When diving, we'd anchor the dinghy near the entry of the pass, at a bit of a tidal backwater near shore, then walk back after the dive and retrieve the dink for the ride back to the anchorage.  It was never boring, as we'd see new critters on every dive, and we could have run it many more times before tiring of it.  Here, in no particular order, are some shots pulled from the critter cams....

"I'm too sexy for my face....."

Shoreside, the motus were great to hike around, and some of the cruising gang built a hanging bar for BYOB beach fires.

BRAVO at anchor at lower left

But eventually it was time to move on...and so, after several days of waiting for a good weather window, we headed out the pass on an afternoon slack tide (with our new fishy friends swimming below),  bound for Tahiti, about 230 miles to the west.  The first day and night were rolly indeed, with 10 foot swells and 20-25 knots of wind, but then it settled down nicely, and we arrived at the little village of Tautira on the eastern end of the island just after dawn after the 2nd night.  What a difference a couple of hundred miles made!!!  Much more like the mountainous islands of the Marquesas, the Society Islands have incredible relief, and the green mountains shrouded in mist welcomed us in to the calm anchorage.

A couple of ukes, a guitar, and a few beers...what more does a Sunday afternoon need?

After a couple of days exploring the village, including a great steep hike to the hill above (where the above photo was taken), we set sail for Papeete, the capitol of French Polynesia about 30 miles away.  

Your basic 160 foot cruising sailboat leaving Papeete harbor

And Papeete is indeed the "Big City" for the BRAVO crew...hundreds of fellow cruising boats of all sizes, repair facilities for us to get some much needed projects taken care of, grocery stores with more than the veggies that came in on yesterday's supply boat...a bit of sensory overload to be sure, as we haven't seen a real city since we left south America over 6 months ago.  Good fun, as we're enjoying meeting up with friends we haven't seen in months or even years, as Papeete serves as a kind of crossroads for all south Pacific voyagers. 

Island of Moorea, across from our mooring on Tahiti

All for now from Tahiti....we'll be in the area for the next couple of weeks....as a place to work on badly needed boat repairs, this place doesn't suck, not one bit!!!

Au Revoir Marquesas.....and Bonjour Tuamotus

We left the Marquesas with mixed emotions....we felt like we had just begun to explore these beautiful islands, but the Tuamotus, with their world famous snorkeling and diving beckoned, and our 90 day visa clock for French Polynesia was ticking.  So as soon as our weather window opened, we sailed away from Nuku Hiva on a 500 mile 4 day passage.  It was a terrific crossing, with 15-20 knot winds on the beam for nearly the entire way (save a few quick rainy, windy squalls that blew through, nearly always in the middle of the night of course).  The biggest problem was slowing Bravo down for the last day or so, in order to arrive in daylight, and also at slack tide at the pass into the lagoon.


The Tuamotus are very different from the rugged, mountainous Marquesas.  Instead of a series of obvious volcanoes, visible from 30 miles at sea, the Tuamotus (commonly known as "The Dangerous Isles" for their reputation for eating unwary ships) are atolls surrounding internal lagoons.  Some have entrance passes large enough for yachts like Bravo, others don't.  All are very low, with the motus (land areas) typically not over 2 meters or so above sea level.  Naturally all are worried about rising sea levels due to global warming, which threatens the lowest in the next several years.

Atolls don't show up until you are nearly upon them!!!

The first atoll we stopped at was Kauehi, a midsized atoll (approximately 10 miles long), with one small village located at one end.  Our tide estimator program nailed the tide change, and slack water....exactly wrong.  We entered the pass at approximately maximum current, and had nearly 5 knots against us.  A few large standing waves, whirlpools and boils to negotiate, and we were in!  Now just need to navigate the coral infested waters of the lagoon to our selected anchorage, about 8 miles to the south east.  No worries, we motored gingerly, with a constant bow watch, passing only 2 coral heads en route.

And what an anchorage was waiting for us!!!  We were the only boat for miles around (we heard that there were 2 at the village at the other end of the lagoon, but of course we could not see them), and really had this piece of tropical paradise to ourselves.  Spectacular, it was almost a comical caricature of a perfect Robinson Crusoe hidey hole....palm trees waving in the steady cooling trade winds, clear turquoise waters, coral heads with hundreds of brightly colored fish, and of course the ever present "men in the grey suits" (sharks) keeping a wary eye on us (and us on them!!!)

The water was table top smooth....nestled against the SE shore, facing the SE breezes, there was absolutely no motion aboard.....we could have been on land it was so calm.  Heaven after the passage from the Marquesas.

We got into our regular routine of boat projects in the morning, and snorkeling in the afternoon.  Ahhhh, yes, boat projects.... Anyone who thinks "who are these schmucks, always playing, never working, in their damned tropical paradise....", please take a look at this picture.  Look closely, really closely.  Yup, that's poo, all the hell over everything and everybody.  Unclogging the hoses in the head is never pretty.  After quickly tearing the rubber gloves, my only goal was to keep the crap out of my mouth, and I mostly succeeded!!!  Ewwwwww.......A jump in the clear water after this morning project never felt so good!!!  And the toilet flushes again, oh, so sweetly!!!













The snorkeling was fantastic on Kauehi, with each bommie, or coral head, hosting its own communities of fish.  Many new species for us, very different from those in Mexico and Central America.  Here are a few shots from our snorkel cams......

Shy black tip reef sharks kept a nice safe distance

Marine biologist friend Susan, from 'Honu' holds up a cushion star...a beauty!

After a couple of days a few more boats joined us down at our end of the lagoon.  All good, the area for anchoring was huge, and we enjoyed a few days of snorkeling together with new friends.

One day we went for a hike to the only village on Kauehi, about an 8 or 9 mile walk.  The walk was beautiful, but unfortunately the little town was completely closed down.  It seems that the mayor had just been re-elected, and was in Papeete for a 2 week celebration.  Since he also owns the village grocery store, it was closed until he returned!!!  Ah, island living!

All fresh water for the people living on the atolls is captured rainwaters, into these large cisterns.

Rough entrance into Fakarava N. pass with large standing waves

Finally, after a wonderful week at the Kauehi atoll, it was time to move on.  We set sail for Fakarava, a large (30 mile long) atoll about 25 miles away.  We of course hit both passes wrong, leaving Kauehi and arriving at Fakarava N. with 4-6 knots of current against us.  PERHAPS by the time we leave the Tuamotus in a couple of weeks we'll have this current thing worked out.....Nah, ain't gonna happen!

Fakarava is very different from Kauehi.  We're anchored off the village of Rotoava, one of the larger villages in the Tuamotus.  Winds and a steep chop have been the norm here since we arrived 2 days ago, and we already greatly miss the sweet night sleeps at Kauehi!  We went to find fresh veggies today at the 3 small markets, but there were none to be found.  Or eggs, or lots of other stuff....possibly on Friday, if it is on the supply ship (none was aboard yesterday's ship)   But Fakarava is known for its terrific diving, especially at the south end, so tomorrow we will weigh anchor and move down lagoon, where we hope to spend the next week or so, diving, snorkeling, and exploring the area around the south pass.  Oh, and new boat project opportunities will no doubt present themselves!!!  Cheers!