Last blog we were at Makemo, from there we left for an over the night trip of ca 80 Nm trip to Tahanea, it was not much wind, So we had to motor most of the time. We arrived early morning at slack water so no issue to enter the cut, and we anchored close to the cut.

This is the cut we came into

The only living soul we found on Tahnea was fisherman else only cruisers. We meet a South African couple on Umoya. They took us to a cut for drift snorkelling holding a line from our dingy, which we had not done before. It was very nice with healthy corals and many fishes, and it was not as daring as we first had thought, safer during incoming tide.

Look at the clip and you can hear how the Parrot fish eating on the corals.

The cut we drift snorkelled in

The anchorage

A few days later we moved further south in the Atoll and had some really nice snorkelling among sharks colourful fishes and healthy corals, the sharks was a bit scary in the beginning, but if we not bother them, they do not bother us.

We also had some bad weather with rain and strong wind, which we appreciated as our water maker was not working, we had ordered a new pump and motor, but we will not get it before we arrive in Papeete so we collect rainwater when possible.

A few days later Blue arrived, and they were making water for us as well, nice with a buddy boat.

They took this nice photo on Kerpa

Fakarava

Next destination was Fakarava which we have heard so much good about, supposed to be the most beautiful atoll.

To get there we had to make a slow overnight sailing of ca 60 Nm, to be able to pass the south cut a slack water. We left in the afternoon from Tahanea

And arrived 0630 the morning after and the timing was good we anchored a few miles from the cut.

We went ashore together with Peter and Catta on Blue and walked around and found a closed restaurant, the lady came out and asked if we wanted lunch and we said yes.

She opened the kitchen and started to prepare food, we ordered a bottle of wine and enjoyed both the wine and later a very delicious lunch, the fish was excellent.

Later in the evening we went for dinner at one of the dive centres that was recommended on a few sites, but the food there was not close as good as the lunch.

It was rather windy on the anchorage so a few days later we took a short trip to another anchorage called Hirifa.

Very nice place with really nice sandy beaches.

It was nice to walk around among the pigs and hens that walked around by them self.

Also here it was a restaurant with buffe style dinner, the ladies were tiered of cocking so of course we book a place at the table. Unfortunately, the food was not good at all, so we had no desire to go there again

Happy Ladies.

They do not served any alcohol, but no problem just bring what you like to drink.

The next day we meet up with Traveler IV, they “insisted” to have dinner ashore, this time we were the only gest that evening and to our surprise, The dinner was excellent.

Time to move again this time to Rotoava the main village in Fakarava. And again we were eating ashore, can strongly recommend the Shark bar.

There is an obvious reason for the name Shark bar, you can if you like have your lunch sitting in the water surrounded by sharks.

But we and most others chose a safer place

And the food was both good and reasonable priced.

Tohau

Time to move again, this time to Tohau only 25 Nm away, Blue and Traveler IV stays in Fakarava, so now we are alone again.

There we get some bad weather again, but this time no need for collecting rainwater as Blue has helped us keeping our tank almost full.

Despite the gloomy weather we took a short trip to the outer part of the atoll

Guess this remains had been there for a long time, not much remains of the old boat. In general we have seen less rubbish on the shoreline than expected, it was far worse in San Blas.

We were not alone on the beach, plenty of eremites

The next day the weather becomes much better so we decided to celebrate a bit so the sun downer this time was cava

Tikehau

Next stop Tikehau, a 170 Nm overnight trip, We had good wind and a bit gloomy weather again, and the sea was rather large.

When we approached the western side of Tikehau the wind picked up so did the waves. The waves crashed violently against the reef and It was very spectacular; waves came from two directions both from the north and south due to wind from east the waves bends when reaching the shore.

It was like on a disaster movie. Unfortunately I have no video or photo on it, but when we saw crashing waves we were totally convinced that no way we can pass the cut in these conditions.

We mentally prepared ourselves to continue to Papeete another 170 Nm away. Anyhow we decided to at least sail up and have a look at the cut, and to our surprise it was rather sheltered,  and not much current so it was an easy passage.

It was rather windy and our first anchorage was rather exposed. So the next day after resting we went to an anchorage more north, at the “Garden of Edin”.

It’s a Christian “settlement” of two families. They are homesteader and grow fruits, vegetables, vanilla etc, they also farm pearls which they sell to visitors.

It was nice to be able to stock up with some fresh vegetables direct taken from the place they were growing

The anchorage

A lot of boulders on the anchorage so important to float the chain.

Look close on the picture below ans you can see the chain with floats and our anchor, despite depth of ca 10 meters

It was large fishes chasing small fishes, and that caught the attentions from birds that came in a large number to feast on the remains, Just around our boat

Remind me about the movie The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock. so almost a bit scary.

Mantas The highlight of Tikihau

There is a particular place called the Manta feeding station and conveniently there is a rather protective anchorage there, and now was time to meet up with Blue and Traveller IV again.

Blue, Traveler IV and Kerpa at the Manta anchorage. Nice with a sundowner with friends again.

We had heard that about 08:30 is a good time to spot the mantas, so were there just before to see them before the trip boats came from the nearby village.

And were we lucky, just a few minutes after jumping in the water we saw mantas swimming around slowly and majestic.

We stayed another night there and had the same experience again just a minutes after jumping in we could enjoy the mantas for maybe 20 minutes, then the trip botas came and we went back to our boats again.

Leaving The Tuamotus

Now it was time for us to leave the Tuamotus and set sail towards the Papeete in the Society Islands.

Approaching Papeete and the scenery is very different no low lying atolls but more mountains.

We went to what is called the airport anchorage where we saw this beautiful rainbow

Now it was time to pick up the water maker pump and motor.

And also to find a new a propeller to our Yamaha outboard engine, we walked around in Papeete to find a propeller, the Yamaha dealer had no suitable propeller and none of the other workshops had any that fitted. The problem is that I have hit rocks to many times with the propeller, so the rubber that the centre hub attached to the blades was broken, we can only drive very slowly, else the blads just slips on the hub. We heard about a small workshop who repair engines and contacted him to ask if he had a propeller, but even there it was no. Now I have a problem, my son and my 11-year-old granddaughter were coming in a few days, and I just have to have a working propeller as it is long distances to nice snorkelling places and other places I have promised to show them. I was really concerned, then the next day the man in the workshop called me on WhatsApp and told me he has found an old propeller that would fit! What a luck! I went there and bought the propeller, I had my doubt it would work, because it had seen a lot of abuse, it was several ships on the blades, but JIPPY it worked. Now I “only” have the issue with the water maker I thought.

It came well packed in wood and plywood, and that was good, as you can see on the picture.

The old and the new units are mirror of each other and the old un it has o a 90 degree bend which do not fit on the new unit. Well with some hard work and thinking I got the new pack in place by using ply and wood to build a new foundation for the unit, and finally we can make our own water.

Of course, the cruising life is not easy, when working in the engine room with the Water maker, I found that it was VERY milky oil in the oil reservoir for the sail drive and also the level was much higher, so it was plenty of water in the oil. That need to be fixed promptly no way we can go on a long trip with that. Now I must find a place to lift so that I can replace the prop shaft bushing and seals. And now Kristoffer had arrived so do not wanted to waste to much of his time. To make a long story short, we managed to get a lift but we had to wait 4 days and the cost was exorbitant for the lift close to 2000 Euro for being 4 hours on the hard!

We used the time waiting for the lift for provisioning and some local snorkelling.

That’s all for now.