The atolls of Makemo and Tahenea… The Tuamotos…

After tearing ourselves from beautiful Raroia, we did an overnight passage to the atoll of Makemo. After a smooth entry through the north east pass, we stopped in the village of Pouheva for the on-going hunt for fresh fruit and veggies. Voila! the village was a thriving metropolis compared to Raroia and the supply ship had been through 5 days before so we picked up rare stocks of green beans, carrots, fruit, slabs of brie and hot-out-of-the-oven baguettes!!!

Above; boat buddies; Ta-b and Tika anchored outside the village in Makemo

Above; heading back to Tika with a backpack full of vegies and a supply of baguettes.

Pouheva is a typical Tuamotian village, larger than most outside of the comparatively densely populated Fakarava or Rangiroa. Makemo has a land area of just 52km sq. and a lagoon area of 602km sq. with 832 inhabitants (600 of whom live in Pouheva) As with all settlements we have seen in French Polynesia, it is immaculately kept, with trimmed edges, well groomed gardens, swept yards and whitewashed walls. The locals ride their bikes to the store for their daily baguettes and it is rare for anyone to pass us without a smile and a welcoming “bonjour!”

Above; Ta-b beat us to the bakery and snaffled the last chocolate croissants!

Below left; Captain Underpants working hard and below right; homes nestled along the atoll; their only export is copra (coconut) meat. Drying rack structures feature at intervals along the sandy fringes of the sparkling lagoon…

Makemo was the first place we perfected our technique of buoying our anchor chain. Many of the lagoons are littered with coral heads and it can be tricky to find a sandy spot to drop an anchor in. There is also a tendency for wind changes that can swing the boat 360 degrees and the chain can wrap around rocks or coral anywhere within the swinging area. This system protects the coral and avoids having to dive on our anchor chain and unsnag it! Attaching the fenders involved me hanging off the bow sprit and clipping each one onto the chain. Russ would then lower another 5 metres or so and I then attach the next one. It worked well! (image credit; YachtingWorld)

Below left: sitting up on the mainsail cover gives us the height required for navigating around the copious amounts of bommies littered throughout the Tuamotus lagoons. And INSIDE the sail cover (below right) is the perfect cubby for those times that you just want to chat out of earshot of the parents…

Yet again, another Tuamotian drift dive gave us the best snorkelling-based thrill ever…. 

We took the dinghy out through the north west pass and coasted back in on the tide; an underwater landscape of coral gardens and abundant marine life flowed below us like a spectacular, slow-moving, interactive picture show. We went back out and did it again 3 times before we were happily satiated. The photographs don’t do it justice but there are a couple that come close!

Below; a white tip reef shark

Below; these photos give you a feel for the coral drop-off…..

Above; moorish idols, ornate bannerfish and butterflyfish feed amongst a coral landscape.

Below; pulling the dinghy as we drift through the pass- the water is so clear it is near invisible

Below; love this shot of Kai- he is so relaxed under the water…

Below; Our friends on S.V Ta-b have a wakeboard!! and a 25 horsepower outboard! And lots of patience…yay!

Sunsets in this part of the world are vivid…. expansive… intoxicating…..

The breath taking beauty of the Tuamotos envelops us. We are immersed in it and everyday we are snorkelling, windsurfing, beachcombing and staring doe-eyed at the landscape. We also continue to live on the boat and manage all the daily domestic tasks that come with it. School in the mornings, cooking, cleaning, laundry, mechanical, electrical and rigging boat maintenance, scrubbing the decks (and the hulls), cleaning out lockers and sharing  meals and stories with any cruisers we happen to be sharing our anchorage with. As all this happens, stunning beauty is just a flick of the eyes away. Our eyes flick regularly. Doing school in the cockpit with the kids. Flick. Hanging washing on the lifelines. Flick. Lowering the dinghy. Flick. Rigging the windsurfers. Flick. Drinking our morning coffee. Flick….Our eyes are drawn to take in the surroundings and some primeval part of my brain tells me to linger with each flick… I am almost painfully aware that at some point in the future I will not be here, taking in this view. We are drinking it in and can’t get enough. We find ourselves staring for minutes at a time mesmerised and high on the scenery. It takes me a long time to hang washing out.

These atolls are by far the most amazing and alive place we have seen so far. Nothing could possibly match them. At some point, when Russ and I are sitting on a beach watching our children windsurf across a breath-taking bay of glimmering water, Russ looks at me and says “how the fuck are we ever going to leave this?” I can’t answer him because I really don’t know.

From Makemo we moved to Tahenea; the pass in was a little more interesting that Makemo as the tide was running out hard. Ta-b was behind us and for a minute or two it looked to us as if they were going backwards and there was a nail-biting moment when we were concerned that they would get washed onto the reef. It must have looked worse than it was from our perspective on the other side of the isthmus; Ta-b took it all in their stride and it was a running joke that they didn’t once enter a lagoon pass in the Tuamotus at slack tide!

Running through passes! above right; Ta-b coming into the sporty Tahenea pass…(photo credit S.V Jacaranda)

There were dark, broody skies and squalls during our time in Tahenea. It is fun snuggling down to do school during squally weather and we spent our afternoons windsurfing, exploring in the dinghy, swimming, snorkelling and reading on the beach. We are still in the tropics so we never get cold despite the squally conditions.

As we take in the wonder of these atolls, we contemplate a time not so long ago (1966-1996 ) when nuclear testing was conducted by the French government in two of the southern Tuamotu atolls (Moruroa and Fangataufa) Despite world-wide protests (including Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior and two New Zealand frigates on site) some 175 explosions took place and 127,000 Polynesians worked on, or were present during the explosions. According to recent reports, Tahiti, 630 miles away was exposed to 500 times the maximum accepted levels of radiation and high levels of thyroid cancers and leukaemia in Polynesia are attributed to the plutonium fallout. Moruroa and Fangataufa are still off limits today and are still guarded by French forces…The Rainbow Warrior was blown up and sunk (causing one fatality) by the French Foreign Intelligence Services in 1985 in Auckland harbour as it readied to set sail to Moruroa for further protests.

Above; a spider conch shell

Below; Makemo- the movie…

Next post: Fakarava!

 

This entry was posted in The Sail.