I left Marquises on June 6 2009, heading for a large group of small atolls called the Tuomotus about 500 nautical miles away. “Charlie’s Charts of Polynesia” (A must have guide for this area) describes the Tuomotus as “78 Islands all but two being coral atolls, spread across 150 degrees of longitude and extends almost 1,000 miles in a NW-SE direction. In contrast to the lush vegetation of the Marquises, the atolls have little greenery except for palm trees and short grass. Together with the marquises and Society Islands they form French Polynesia, and are administered from Tahiti. These islands have justifiably been called the Low or Dangerous Archipelago, because of their low-lying character, making them visible from a yacht only when the vessel is within 8 miles”

When I left Daniel’s Bay, one of the best anchorages in the Marquises, I really didn’t even know which atoll in the Tuomotus I was going to visit! I just figured I would sail in the general direction and figure it out along the way while I was reading the guidebooks and talking to friends on the radio. I had waited for moderate weather before leaving, the days before my departure had strong winds up to 30 knots and other boats had reported seas near 15 feet, I didn’t need any of that! A friend of mine that has been sailing much longer than I have said that they were the most difficult conditions he had ever experienced, and even had to alter his destination to run down wind in order to improve the motion of the boat. By the time I had left the wind and seas had settled quite a bit and I had a great sail, with no need for the motor at any time. The winds were down to around 15 knots, and the seas were only around 6 feet, not bad for around here.

I was also a bit nervous as this area has been considered very dangerous, especially in the past before cruising boats had radar and GPS. The Atolls are basically reefs that create a lagoon inside that makes for a well protected anchorage, however much of the reef is usually submerged so you get the feeling you are anchored in the open ocean even though you often have a perfectly flat calm water. These submerged reefs, very low islands, and sparsely populated villages with few lights, make the dangers of this area hard to spot. Throw in strong currents and before GPS you could get into trouble easily. Then to make things more difficult the passes through the reefs into the Atolls can be long, narrow, with turns, intermittent coral heads, and current up to 8 knots!, (Salsa only does 5 or 6 under power). So this means that you have to time your entry with the tide, and the sun for optimal currents and visibility. I was also nervous because I know the charts can be off by a mile or more and some of the channels in-between the atolls must be passed at night to ensure a daylight passage through the pass leading inside the atoll. By sticking with easy atolls and anchorages with less challenging passes I managed to enter and escape two atolls, Makemo, and Tahanea without any grief. I did however from the beach observe other boats negotiating the same passes when the current was running out at several knots against the wind creating very steep breaking waves, making for a hair raising passage, I suspect these boats would normally have avoided the pass into the atoll under these conditions but the weather was deteriorating even further and the pass into the atoll seemed to the be the lesser of two evils at the time.

I arrived at the pass to Makemo around 1PM on June 9th, after traveling over 500 miles in only four days and nights, sailing a course of 205’ with SE winds around 15kts most of the way. Makemo might not have been the best choice as far as atolls go in the Tuomotus. The pass that seemed a bit intimidating from the charts was even a breeze and I got lucky arriving perfectly at slack tide with no current at all. Not that there is anything wrong with Makemo, but it was missing the picturesque uninhabited sandy beaches. There is reasonable snorkeling right in the anchorage due to all of the coral heads, you can see all kinds of fish, sharks, eels, etc, but your anchor chain gets wrapped around these same coral heads sometimes requiring you to dive down 25 feet and unwrap it on a daily bases. The water was clear, and there was a little village where you could get baguettes and decent provisioning. I felt as if I was being held hostage during the several days I spent there. The wind was either too strong, too variable, or simply blowing from the direction I wanted to go. The whole idea of going to Makemo was to enter the Tuomotus far enough South and East so that that the SE trade winds would provide favorable sailing to and through the other atolls I wanted to visit. At one point the pass into Makemo had huge breaking waves that put other sailors in a bit a dilemma. The wind was coming from the North at around 20 knots and blowing straight into the cut through the reef. This created very large standing and breaking waves that left three sailboats outside the reef with deteriorating weather and forecasts for seas over 12 feet. After half a day of waiting for the perfect tide, it never came. I sat on the beach near the pass with a handheld VHF updating the boats with the condition in the pass until eventually they decided that it wasn’t going to get any better and all three went for it. This is something you really have to see to appreciate, at one point it looked like the boats were getting totally swamped from the waves, however everyone made it in without any serious issues. This same weather was holding me prisoner inside! A few days later I finally had a reasonable weather window to visit another atoll where my friends were anchored with excellent fishing, snorkeling, and of course sandy beaches! Unfortunately, I never made it. The actual wind was much lighter than forecasted and after a long sail all night in light variable wind and squalls I was still within 20 miles of Makemo and exhausted, but close enough to enter the adjacent atoll of Tahanea. I tucked into a very nice anchorage in Tahanea but only for one night to rest and clean the bottom of Salsa, at this point I had enough of sailing in the Tuomotus and decided to abandon the other anchorages I wanted to visit and just press on to Tahiti, I was getting the feeling that it was time to move on. As soon as I was anchored I dove on the anchor to check it and to start cleaning the bottom for the longer passage to Tahiti. I was in the water less than 5 seconds before a shark approached me and decided I would clean the bottom in the morning. The long sail the night before had me so worn out I slept almost 14 hours straight and woke up early to try cleaning the bottom again, this time no shark. 30 minutes later I was almost done when Mr. Black Tip shark showed up again, this time I just watched him as he swam underneath me in 20 feet of water and I kept scraping the bottom of the boat. 30 seconds later he decided to double back and get a better look at me this time a little closer to the surface and I figured the bottom was clean enough! The forecast indicated that if I didn’t leave for Tahiti today I would be stuck in this atoll for another week so I set sail and headed South West for Papeete

No pictures this update, around this time I started having problems with my camera, specifically with the memory card that has since been replaced and seems to work ok now. As I write this update I am in Bora Bora and will sail for most likely the Cook Islands within a week. Next update coming soon will be the trip from the Tuomotus to the Papeete Tahiti, and through the Society Islands, witch will bring this blog finally up to date!

Filed under: sailing

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