Makemo. Manjula and I followed our electronic bread crumbs out of Raroia and through the pass. As on the way in, the waves were breaking in the pass as we plunged through the current and back out into the ocean. It was a beautiful evening passage. We sailed comfortably over night arriving at the pass into Makemo about 7:00 AM. As we entered the narrow pass, we were struck by the clarity of the water. We later learned that the visibility was over 150 feet. We could see the coral clearly in 40 to 50 as we floated past. When we entered an area of 12 foot depth the bottom looked so close that I slammed the engines in reverse spinning Endless Summer in a circle. It looked to be 1 to 2 feet deep at most. Finally satisfied that it was actually deep enough we continued on into the atoll. As we rounded the corner in front of the village we saw a yellow boat we knew. This was Elana with Adam, Leone, Mees, and Peter on board. They were from Holland. We had met them briefly in the Marquesas, and also briefly in the village at Raroia, but not gotten together yet. We motored over and said hello and found they were planning to head to the same anchorage as we were about 14 miles up the inside of the atoll. So it was set, we would get together later. With that we turned off our engines, rolled out our jib, and began what was one of the most pleasant sails of my life.

The wind was fresh, about 15 knots from our beam. Now about 9:00 AM the sun was setting all other elements to life. Clouds, water, palm leaves, beaches. Every ripple sparkled, over the clear flat waters inside the atoll. The water was so clear in fact that it did not feel so much like we were floating as flying. We glided along so smoothly and easily. With the clear water we were emboldened to venture into the shallow waters near shore. We sailed effortlessly around the coral heads so easy to see as we explored motu after motu. We were having so much fun. Eventually we found a spot too pretty to pass and anchored close to the beach behind a protective screen of palm trees. Below our keel were boulder sized coral heads just deep enough to allow us safe anchorage, but shallow enough for terrific snorkeling. Our new friends came along shortly and anchored near by and after an afternoon of swimming and beach combing, we arranged to join them for drinks after their children aged 2 and 3 went to bed.

Our conversation covered all the important international subjects a first meeting of Americans and Dutch should. We apologized on behalf of the United States for George Bush to a second term, and for not being direct enough as a people. They in turn asked if they could vote in our elections and asserted that their's was a proper flag. We asked why they actually bothered to have elections in their little country of six and a half people. Why not just leave everything to the Americans? And so the conversation went. By the end of the evening new friends were made.

In the morning Manjula and I snorkeled around the boat. The coral heads were incredible with lots of live coral in amazing colors. We had learned that our friends Jim and Kent were in Fakarava about 80 miles away, so we planned to leave later that day. Adam and Leone decided to join us. So at noon after several trips back into the water to untangle the anchor chain from the coral we got under way.

We had about 12 miles of coral studded waters to cross before exiting the atoll. Unfortunately the lighting conditions deteriorated rapidly. Clouds came over head turning the surface of the water white. It was nearly impossible to see into the water.

We followed Adam and Leone in their aluminum boat for an hour. They were going slowly with Adam on the bow directing their progress. Then we took a turn in front. We curled our toes a few times as we saw coral coming into view at the last moment.

Eventually we made it across and arrived at the pass. Once again Adam and Leone took the lead running the pass like a set of river rapids. The current was streaking out the narrow pass with waves breaking from the speed of the water. We raced through the channel carved out of the coral by thousands of years of water motion and were deposited into the sea again.

Makemo is almost 40 miles long. We had sailed 25 miles inside the atoll but still felt like we could have explored much more.

We sailed in company with Elena over night to Fakarava arriving about 7:30 in the morning. As we entered the pass we saw a sight that made me jump up and down!