Author: richwest3

Rangiroa (Kind Of, Almost) (Tuamotus, French Polynesia)

July 7 – 8, 2012

After an overnight motor, we arrived at Rangiroa.  Again, we had no idea what time the slack tide would be to enter the pass – what’s new?  No one seems to know.  We called on the radio and the best guess was to try in about an hour.  We waited and did.  It wasn’t too bad – not like white water rafting in Fakarava!  There were waves but we were going with them.  Once inside, it’s like a great big lake, really big!  Here are some pictures.

As soon as we got in and anchored, a couple of friends from Seawings came over in their dingy and gave us the bad news: there were strong winds due to start in a few days and not let up for at least a week.  As the anchorage wasn’t very protected if the wind went at all south, and since we didn’t want to be pinned down and trapped on our boat for a week, we made the hard decision to head out the next day without ever going on land at Rangiroa and head for Tahiti.  Here are our friends delivering the bad news – Brian and Juliet.

The next morning, we headed off.  A local gave us this sendoff.

Bye Rangiroa!  Maybe we’ll get to visit some other day. -Rich

Sharks! (Tuamotus, French Polynesia)

June 23 – July 08, 2012

In coming to the South Pacific, I knew I would be going to a faraway place, but I didn’t know I’d be entering another reality. I don’t know when the shift occurred, but it became apparent around the time we got to Fakarava. It started with one person talking about how great the snorkeling was at South Fakarava and justifying that by the number of sharks they saw. Then another person did the same, and then more. Soon, every person I talked to rhapsodized about how many sharks they saw and how wonderful it was.

I ran into people at the little resort at the south end of Fakarava atoll and found out they come from all over the world to this out-of-the-way spot, just to dive with the sharks. From a local, I heard about an atoll south of here that’s “even better,” because there are “more sharks.” In the reality I came from, sharks are not only not sought out, they are reason to get out of the water. Here, people talk about them as though they are ponies on the beach, or deer in the forest. The more you see, the better! So, I decided to try to fit into this new reality where sharks are a good thing.

I heard that it’s normal for them to be occasionally curious about you – not to worry. So I got in the water. The main reason for someone like me to see this area is the incredible variety of coral and tropical fish. As far as I’m concerned, if the sharks were to go elsewhere, it would be perfect! (I would not dare say this in front of anyone else here!) I like to look at things underwater because of their beauty, not because I have to “keep an eye on them,” in case they begin to “act in an aggressive manner,” and “bite my ass.”

The first snorkel we did through Fakarava’s south pass we saw the sharks and they reminded me of a pack of dogs. I kept an eye on them, and they pretty much minded their own business. Rich and I did end up getting near some that were after something in the reef and getting into a bit of a feeding frenzy about it. Rich told me to stay back. He didn’t have to tell me twice. We went out and around that bit of business, then headed on, pretty much at peace with the sharks.

The next morning we went again, mostly having the pass to ourselves as we were early. This was a mixed blessing in that we had this fish and coral paradise to ourselves, but we were lacking that safety-in-numbers feeling. As we drifted along, we started to see the sharks. I noticed one behind me which soon grew into a small group behind me and they seemed “curious” about me. I decided they could be curious about what happened to me as I jumped out of the water and into the dinghy. When they were gone, I got back in the water.

Later, we went to an area off to the side of the pass called “The Swimming Pool” which was supposed to be good for new and skittish snorkelers. I don’t personally agree that it would be a good place for a skittish snorkeler in that there tended to be a shark or two in there, and now you were sharing a smaller space with it. It should be called the shark intimacy pool. I wasn’t sad to leave it and go back out to the pass. We drifted toward our boat at a good clip, which I very much enjoyed in that there was lots of fish and coral . . . and no sharks.

A week or so later, when we were in Toau, we went snorkeling near the pass. The fish and coral were once again amazing. I was pretty enthralled until I turned to see a Black Tip Reef shark, about 5 feet long, aggressively swimming at me as though it were in attack mode, or as Rich put it, charging me. I screamed, and I found that you can scream pretty loudly through a snorkel. I don’t know if I imagined it, or if the shark was actually surprised, but he darted off.

I went to the surface where Rich said urgently, “Get out of the water.” He didn’t have to tell me twice. He got out, too, and we went to another area to snorkel. It was good for me to get right back on the horse and not think too much about the shark. Later, some researches who ended up at dinner with us told me I had nothing to fear from the Black Tip sharks, that he probably thought I was spear fishing. Maybe that’s true, but I have to wonder if she would have been so blasé about it if it had charged her. Will I snorkel with those sharks again? Yes, although I will be keeping an even closer eye on them. -Cyndi

Rich: I turned to look at Cyndi just as the shark charged her. I really think it was a full-blown attack in the making. The shark had it’s pectoral fins down, it’s back arched and it was moving fast, directly at her. Her unexpected scream through the snorkel scared both me and the shark and he darted away. I guess chances are that he’d have turned away even without the scream. Who knows. We didn’t stick around to give him another chance. I’m the only one that’s allowed to bite Cyndi!

OK, so this picture has little to do with the story, but I like it.  -Cyndi

Toau – Anse Amyot (Tuamotus)

July 06, 2012

After our white-water rafting adventure, we went to Toau.  It’s a small atoll just northwest of Fakarava.  Instead of going in the pass and inside the atoll, we used the mooring balls provided in a little bay outside on the northeast corner of the atoll.  The bay is called Anse Amyot.

There’s not much here – just a couple of families that make this atoll their home.

It has some nice snorkeling and it was a pleasure to just pick up a mooring, rather than finding space to anchor.  Speaking of snorkeling, it was here that Cyndi was charged by about a five foot black reef shark.  It arched its back, lowered its pectoral fins and in a classic “I’m going to eat you” posture, charged right at her.  When it was about 5 feet away, she screamed through her snorkel, scaring both me and the shark.  He turned and darted away.  We got in the dingy and motored to another spot in the atoll to snorkel without the extra company.

And as usual, the sunrises and sunsets were wonderful.

The families that live on the atoll, particularly Gaston and Valentine, invite cruisers in for a dinner they prepare with wonderful fresh seafood and even lobster. -Rich

 

The Ups and Downs of the Cruising Life (Fakarava, Tuamotus)

July 2, 2012

There are a lot of things to love about this life, and we post a lot of pretty pictures, but the reality is that there are many challenges that we face along the way. Some of them are relatively minor, and some are more difficult and even dangerous. What makes these challenges and discomforts worth enduring are the rewards: beautiful scenery, good food, new friends, and the excitement of novelty and discovery. There is a certain balance, what I call a golden ratio, of good to bad experiences that make this lifestyle worthwhile. Rich has nicknamed this the e/a quotient (Ecstasy/Agony). When this gets out of balance the wrong way, when the “agony” percentage gets too high, then a person has to re-evaluate the plan. Some people quit all together, some decide to cruise part time, and some simply wait for the balance to be restored.

Rich and I went through this process at the end of our passage to Fakarava. I will mention here that by the time we arrived in the Marquesas, we had accumulated a high “agony” balance. I have been meaning to write about the passage but just never got to it. I will sum it up by saying it was surprisingly difficult. We have made two passages to Hawaii and back (back is notoriously uncomfortable) and to Mexico, and we thought we knew the passage process very well. But we were surprised by this one. What we thought would be our most comfortable passage turned out to be the hardest passage we have ever done. We had good winds (and with that we were lucky) but we were knocked around by a harsh and relentless swell from the east pretty much the whole time. By the time we arrived in Hiva Oa, we had been “ridden hard and put away wet,” as I think the saying goes.

And so we began our Marquesas cruise with a deficit, but soon we were having experiences in the “ecstasy” category, and our quotient was coming back into balance. After beautiful Daniel’s Bay, we headed back to the anchorage we missed in Ua Pou (Hakahau) to wrap up our cruise of the Marquesas. We met some friends there and had a nice night with them before they headed on to another island. This left us with a weekend there while waiting for a weather window for our next passage.

At this point, it became apparent this town had some annoyances: young people partying and blaring music on the dock (right next to the boats) until 3am, few clouds which made for relentless heat during the afternoon, children who like to use your dinghy as a swim platform after you leave it (which means a dinghy full of water and sand when you get back), and one particular local who really makes a pest of himself as he “befriends” the boats anchored there (I won’t go into details on this, but trust me).

Needless to say, we were anxious to leave in spite of a weather forecast that was less than ideal. We did leave on a windless morning and ended up stopping at a beautiful anchorage on the other side of the island, which we had all to ourselves. The annoyances of the past weekend were quickly forgotten in this beautiful place. But we were feeling anxious to move on, and if we waited for ideal conditions, we could be here for weeks. Actually, the biggest problem was a predicted two days with little wind.

We did head out and had some lovely wind to for the first day or so; then we got into that predicted period of no wind. It was comfortable enough but no sailor is ever happy using that much fuel. It was a relief when the wind came back up, but then concerning when it kept going up, becoming gale-force winds on our final night. It was a rather harrowing trip to Fakarava, and once we got there, we had to kill time and wait for an in-going tide so we could get through the passage into the atoll.

Luckily, being at the north end, we had gotten out of the south swell. Rich was able to put the boat on auto pilot and motor slowly along the top of the atoll and back, killing the 3 hours we needed to kill. In the meantime, our e/a ratio was seriously out of whack once again as this passage, added to the passage from Los Angeles, made for big e/a deficit once again.

Sailing on the ocean takes strength, endurance and courage, and these are things we have less of than we did 10 years ago. We had to ask ourselves if we were really up to this, and start listing our options if we weren’t. We have good friends who are ahead of us on this trip, and they had decided to put their boat in storage in Tahiti early in August and then return again next April after a much-needed break. They, too, had a rough passage, and they have decided not to do this full time. Our strategy was just to list our options, and then to wait and see what happens in the coming weeks.

As often happens after a bad experience, you end up someplace wonderful and have an especially nice time. That is what happened to us in Fakarava, which has been wonderful enough to restore our e/a balance (even with the wild ride while exiting the atoll), and for the time being we have decided to continue on.

We still think we are going to New Zealand, but we have discussed the option of sitting out the off season in a place like Tonga or Fiji as the New Zealand passage is intimidating. Time will tell. For now, Fakarava was incredible. Next Toau and we are hearing reports that it’s a very magical place. Stay tuned. -Cyndi

e/a approximately equal to zero as we kill time before attempting to enter the north pass of Fakarava after a rough passage from the Marquesas.