After spending 5 weeks in the Marquesas, it was becoming evident that we could not linger too long in the Tuomotos – we only had 90 days in French Polynesia and had big jumps to make between the Marquesas, the Tuomotos and the Society Islands.    We debated whether to try to see more than one of the atolls but realized that we just didn’t have the time – every time you enter an atoll you run the risk of getting essentially stuck there – if the weather turns it may make the pass unpassable and you will be sitting there until the weather improves.  We knew of many boats that found themselves stuck in one atoll or another for a week or more, preventing them from moving onto their next destination. This seemed especially taxing when in an atoll that did not have a settlement – no access to fuel or supplies and no ability to move on would be far too stressful!  Taking that into account, we opted for Fakarava – we knew it had a small village to explore, there is a pass at both the south and north ends, the northern one being quite wide and deep and passable in most conditions and it was supposed to be beautiful.  

We had a five day passage to Fakarava and landed at the northern end of the atoll, near the village of Rotoava.   We were so happy to see Viva anchored nearby – we had met Pierre and Marie in the boatyard and had been chasing behind them all through French Polynesia.   We reached out to them immediately and made plans to go to their boat for drinks and pizza that night.    We had a fabulous night on board Viva, visiting with Pierre and Marie as well as Kevin and Stacey from SV Flying Free.   The pizza was a treat and the company was fabulous!!

The next day we headed into shore to explore.   Rotoava has a great little enclosed “harbour” for the dinghy dock which was such a treat after some of the sketchy dinghy docks we had encountered in the Marquesas!!   We set out to wander down the atoll, through the tiny village – there were a few restaurants, a gas station with a fairly well stocked grocery store, the vegetable market (which was really only a vegetable market for about 2 hours after the supply ship came in!), another little grocery store, pizza shop and a few little clothing stores and of course pearl shops.   As we wandered down the road, we had to keep stopping just to stare out at the water – it was so incredibly clear and calm!!   We found nurse sharks swimming in close to shore at one stop and little fishies swimming in amongst the coral at a couple of others.   We wandered down until we came to a small resort, a gorgeous complex that included a little restaurant that had tables in the shallow water and milkshakes on the menu – what a treat those were!!!!    We tried to head back in for dinner that night only to find that the only restaurant that was open required reservations – so back to the boat it was!

The next day we spent a bit more time exploring and then headed to one of the restaurants for dinner – while we were waiting for them to open, the Flying Free crew arrived so we ended up having a lovely dinner visiting with them.  

We had a bit of a surprise the next night when, out of nowhere, the wind shifted hard to the south – within hours the fetch had built and we were hobby horsing on our anchor in 25 knots of wind – it was a pretty uncomfortable night until the winds switched around a bit to the east, reducing the size of the waves.   We had not necessarily intended to head to the south of the atoll as we for some reason had figured it to be a 60 mile run – that makes for a pretty long travel day for us and we really only intended to spend 4 or 5 days in Fakarava.   As it turned out, it is about a 30 mile run – taking that, and the fact that the winds were again to switch to the south, with 30 knot gusts expected, we decided to go check it out!!!   We motored out mid-morning, following the well-marked path through the bommies (they were huge!) – about half way down the wind started to build and the sea state was definitely starting to be “not fun”!   We had thought we would head directly to the South Pass anchorage but when we arrived at Harifa, nestled in the South East corner, we decided to drop anchor there.    Being so much closer to the south shore, the waves were minimal though the wind did blow pretty good all the rest of that day and the next.  

We finally headed over to the south pass the next day – the anchorage is a bit of a nightmare with giant coral bommies everywhere!!   We milled around trying to find a clear patch of sand to drop the anchor, that was not too close to other boats.   We finally settled on a spot and Owen deployed the anchor, floating our chain with fenders every 50 feet or so, as we had been doing in other anchorages in the atoll.   We let the boat back down and realized all to quickly that we were closer to the boat behind us than we wanted to be.   We decided to reset and started to bring up the anchor, only to discover that we had somehow already wrapped ourselves around a bommie!!   We tried to drive around to clear it but I think we guessed the wrong direction and wrapped it even worse!!   Owen finally had to get into the water with a mask and snorkel to see where the chain was wrapped – as we would unwrap from one bommie, the slack chain was wrapping on another – we tried for nearly an hour to unwrap us with Owen in the water and finally ended up with him at the helm and me on the bow shouting directions for where to turn while keeping up enough speed that wouldn’t let the chain go too slack – nearly two hours later we were off – finally!!   We moved a bit further east and set in a good patch of sand – but when we backed down we were too close to the reef and so we again pulled up anchor and tried again – finally, nearly 3 hours after starting the process, we were anchored (though it felt like we were so far east we may as well have stayed at Harifa!!).

After all of that, we decided we needed a dinghy toodle and as Kris and Steve from Exit had also arrived that day, we asked them to come along.   We headed into the dive shop – one of the only businesses on the south end and had beers at their small bar.   Kris and Steve had already made arrangements to go diving the next day.    The south pass of Fakarava is famous for its “wall of sharks” drift dive and they were excited to experience that.   Owen was really wanting to do a drift snorkel through the pass and wondered if he could tag along with their dive boat – Kris sent a message to the divemaster inquiring and he was told to come along.

The next morning, I dropped Owen off with Kris and Steve and they headed in early for their dive/ snorkel.   As it turned out, Owen was not permitted to go with the dive group – the snorkel was set for after the dive finished.  He hung out, doing some snorkeling around the dive shop and then all three of them joined a small group for a wonderful snorkel, seeing all sorts of fish and sharks.   I, being the chicken that I can sometimes be and having very limited experience snorkeling (like only 3 times previously), decided that the idea of a drift snorkel through a pass populated by sharks was not my idea of fun.

The weather was set to change to a more northerly direction and the supply ship was due into Rotoava so we decided to leave the next morning and head back to the north end.   We were up at the crack of dawn, planning to make it to Rotoava around the time the stores reopened for the afternoon, hopefully freshly stocked with veggies.   We started to pull up the anchor and, of course, found ourselves wrapped on a bommie!   Once again, Owen was in the water directing me as I drove in circles trying to free us – all the while, Steve was in the water giving Kris directions to get them unwrapped from their bommie!!!   Another hour of trying had us finally free and headed north.   We didn’t quite make it back in the time we had hoped but we were able to score a few freshies at the store.    We ended up grabbing pizzas for dinner that night and dining aboard Exit for another great night of visiting.

The north winds never did really arrive but they were once again set to blow from the South so it was that we once again made our way to Harifa – us and most of the boats from the North end!!!    By mid-afternoon the next day, the anchorage was packed.   The winds did in fact blow quite hard from the south for several days – we spent a couple of days just hanging out on board and then, when the winds finally started to ease a little, we were able to get out and explore a bit more.   We went into the beach one night for sundowners with Kris, Steve and Pierre and managed to get a snorkel in the next day.     We snorkeled around some small bommies in the corner of the anchorage and were pleasantly surprised to see quite a few fish of all different types and sizes.

Though we had only intended to be in Fakarava for a few days, we were nearing the two week mark there – honestly we could have stayed indefinitely – it is so beautiful there!   Sadly, we knew we had to get moving along – a window weather was opening and we needed to head west to the Society Islands.   We did one more run up the atoll to Rotoava to restock diesel and grab a few more groceries (but not before getting wrapped on one more bommie – quite literally the only bommie in that part of the anchorage!) and then finally headed out for Tahiti.

We were so sad to be leaving Fakarava behind and truly wish that we had been able to explore some more of the Tuomotos but time was not on our side!