Fakarava is picture postcard perfect! The atoll is fringed with coconut palms and crystal clear turquoise blue water. After 5 days at sea, who could not resist leaping into the water for a swim? The lagoon is dotted with small motus (islets) and pearl farms. Fakarava is one of the major producers of the famous Tahitian pearl - lustrous gems in shades ranging from pale grey to teal, green, blue, purple, rainbow and black. Polynesian legend has it that "Oro, god of peace and fertility, used the rainbow to visit earth; he offered its iridescence to the oyster's mother of pearl, thus giving Tahitian pearls their amazing spectrum of colour". The pearls range in shape from the perfectly round to oval, tear-drop and the interesting irregulars, called Keisha. One cannot leave these islands without purchasing at least one Tahitian pearl; but it is so hard to decide which one - the settings, colours and shapes are all so beautiful!
Navigation within the lagoons presented another new challenge for us. Navigation markers are now the reverse of North America with port hand markers being red and starboard hand markers being green for entering through the passes in the reef; however, once inside the reef and adding to this confusion are the markers for travelling within the lagoon - green to the reef and red to the lagoon side. It was a bit like driving on the left hand side - we kept repeating the mantra to make sure that we were on the correct side of the markers. Coral here is a real issue, both for anchoring and moving anywhere in the lagoon, even within the marked channels. We kept a bow lookout for coral heads or "bombies" in all but the deepest water, and tried to travel when the sun was behind us for added visibility - not easy with the constant build-up of clouds. Fortunately, we have been safe so far, although others have not been as lucky.
We anchored in front of the pretty town of Rotoava, the largest in Fakarava. It is well supplied with two decent grocery stores (magazins), post office, restaurants, pearl shops, churches, etc. Fresh water (rainwater) is available free of charge at the post office; and as we had been experiencing watermaker issues, we filled our tanks by making numerous trips to shore with jugs. (Note: Thanks again to Tim & Sue Sanderson, who said we must take a Lee Valley folding trolley with us!). Fakarava Yacht Services (recently started by Aldrich and Stephanie) was invaluable to us "yachties". They had good wifi, laundry service, bicycle rentals and lots of helpful information. Roundabout, Code Blue and Sequoia decided that the six of us should rent bicycles for a day to explore the atoll. Roads are limited - one road goes 6km west to the airport and the other heads south of Rotoava and is paved for about 16km. We headed south through coconut palms, and a variety of trees and shrubs that can amazingly deal with the wind and high salinity. As we rode along, we occasionally got a whiff of the heady perfume of Tiare Tahiti - the beautiful white Gardenia. I will always associate its lovely perfume with French Polynesia; especially in the evenings at anchor, when the boat is suddenly filled with perfume, as it wafts out on the land breeze. The atoll is narrow enough that we were often able to see both sides (ocean and lagoon) at the same time. With only occasional traffic, we behaved like a bunch of kids, weaving and riding six abreast down the road - what fun we had! Steve even found a place that would sell him a bottle of Hinano beer, although he was chastised for drinking and driving. We enjoyed a picnic on the lagoon side - pate, brie and fresh baguettes - life is good!

On arrival in Fakarava, we discovered two major equipment problems. When changing the Duogen from water to wind mode, we noticed that the post of our Duogen wind/water power generator was severely corroded for the top two inches (it had been in perfect condition when we left Nuku Hiva 5 days earlier). We managed to stabilize it with Rescue Tape, but could not fully extend it in wind mode and certainly could not use it in water mode. This is a serious problem for us, as with the solar panels and Duogen, we are virtually energy neutral; but the solar panels have been struggling with the short daylight hours and amount of clouds we have experienced in French Polynesia; and now losing the water mode on the Duogen compounds everything. Carl and Ted spent several days searching for the stray current, with helpful suggestions from the company in England - they measured 12V on the tower, so no wonder it had corroded! Unfortunately, all the "work-arounds" suggested by the company did not work and now we are faced with ordering substantial replacement parts when we get to Tahiti. Luckily, it still works in wind mode. Secondly, our watermaker started making some strange noises on the crossing and the salinity of the produced water was climbing. Fortunately, there is an HRO/Seafari service rep in Tahiti who can look at it. We have been most pleasantly surprised by the excellent response we have received from the French dealership.
Fakarava was to be the only atoll we had time to visit in the Tuamotus, so we headed south to see as much as possible. A-Train (Gwen & Russ from Vancouver, BCA Members) had shared some information they had received from another cruiser ahead of us about potential anchorages. As Fakarava is 30 miles long, we planned to stop part way down at one of the recommended locations. With our forward looking sonar on, we led the parade, keeping a sharp lookout for bombies and repeating the mantra "green to reef and red to lagoon" as we negotiated the narrow marked channel. We anchored in about 50 ft of water off a lovely sand beach rimmed with palm trees, in water so clear you could see the bottom from the boat. We quickly got into our kayaks to explore the beach and collect a few shells. The next day we headed to Hirifa in the SE corner of the atoll - another lovely spot with a few houses on the shore. Liza runs a restaurant there, so we made reservations for the following evening. Meanwhile, Steve was mad keen to get diving, so Code Blue headed over the next day to the South Pass (Passe Tumakohua), famous for its sharks! We remained another day in Harifa, enjoying the peace and tranquility. Dinner at Liza's was excellent - fresh mahi mahi cooked in Crème Fraiche and white wine. We lingered over our meal, enjoying the companionship of Jan and Carl, gazing out at our boats lying peacefully at anchor in the lagoon while the surf pounded the other side of the atoll; our hostess played cards with her family, in no hurry to send us home. Steve's report was "super fantastic diving" and he should know, as he had just completed his 600th dive! We hurried over the next day to join them and Ted booked two dives for the following day. While Ted and Steve were diving, the rest of us went snorkelling right off the shore. The snorkelling was outstanding with excellent visibility, myriads of coloured fish, many of which I had not seen before, and of course - SHARKS!!!!! Most were black-tipped reef sharks, which supposedly only hunt at night, but one never knows for sure. However, after seeing so many, I was finally able to say "Oh, just another shark"; although it was amazing to be in waist-deep water and surrounded by nine sharks! The South Pass definitely warranted a second morning of snorkelling; then we headed back north towards Rotoava, anchoring again in another gorgeous uninhabited bay along the way. The weather window for the two day sail to Tahiti looked good, so timing our departure for slack water in the Garuae Pass, we headed out with Sequoia, A-Train, and several other boats. It was a wonderful downwind sail for the first part, until the squalls started hitting us again with winds to 40kts. We are finally learning that those big lows far to the south spin off a lot of bad weather and that we should pay attention to them! Sadly, we arrived in Tahiti in driving rain and almost no visibility - we could barely make out coconut trees on the shore (thank goodness for radar). After years of dreaming about sailing to Tahiti, it was a disappointment not to be able to see the island. However, once the clouds cleared, we had to pinch ourselves to realize that we had actually arrived in Tahiti and had sailed all those thousands of miles to get here! It really is still hard to believe.