Toau; our last atoll in the Tuamotus…

After around 6 weeks since our last food re-supply,  I was quite literally dreaming about fresh vegetables! We started fantasising about the reputedly large, well stocked Carrefour supermarket in Papeete. The thought of food did ease the pain of our farewell to the Tuamotus, but our impending departure still felt like a tragedy of epic proportions…

Toau, to the northwest of Fakarava, is one of the few atolls that has an anchorage on the outside of the atoll. Anse Amyot is a little basin on the northeast corner of Toau where yachts can pick up a mooring ball and avoid entering the pass into the lagoon itself. But this was our last Tuamotu atoll and we wanted the full experience, so instead, we entered the lagoon for one final week soaking up the vibes of another remote, Tuamotu paradise!

There was a family living on the lagoon and harvesting copra and sea cucumbers. We met their young boy as he walked along the beach with his dog. The only English word he knew was ‘pineapple’ but he gave us a tour of the entire island, introduced us to his mother, sang us several songs and spent hours looking at Kai and Jaiya in wonder. He was a dude and we loved him.

Mornings found us at the saloon table with a pile of school books, trying not to get distracted by the call of the sand, salt and sun outside… Afternoons were lazy affairs on the beach, snorkelling the pass, windsurfing, contemplating our Tahiti passage and all the boring, daily tasks of cooking, cleaning. laundry and never-ending boat maintenance… Some evenings we set a fire on the beach, star gazed and planned our route to the Society islands. 

Below; I crossed the lagoon by paddle board while Russ and the kids moved the boat to a new anchorage…It was a long paddle but a little piece of delicious, meditative me-time…!

The snorkelling on the outside of the lagoon was not as rich with fish and coral as Fakarava, but mammoth crevasse’s and drop-offs on the sea floor made it interesting. Rocky ridges gave way to intense, looming spaces and the plunging blue abyss of deep, deep water…      

We did eventually move around to Anse Amyot to wait for a weather window for our Tahiti passage.

Below; we snorkelled around the bay and came across the saddest thing; fish traps packed full of decrepit looking tropical fish…

Below right; A lovely meal with our friends from S.V TA-B at the little family-run restaurant- after seeing the traps, my fish tasted of guilt…(and, the night before a passage, a nagging worry about ciguatera)

Below; TA-B and Tika…boat buddies through the Tuamotus…

The Tuamotus; a glimpse of atoll magic..enjoy this drone footage because it was in Toau that our Phantom3 malfunctioned and dropped in the water No more aerial shots until we replace it in NZ!

Next post; Tahiti