Friday, June 1, 2007 - Anchored in Rotoava Village, Fakarava Atoll
01 June 2007 | Fakarava, Iles Tuamotu, French Polynesia
Don
The early morning sailing en route to Fakarava was fast because of brisk winds from astern so Sand Dollar was allowed to drift the last 8 miles so as to arrive at the lagoon entrance at slack water. Although my timing was correct as far as published tidal predictions are concerned, I found the pass to be extremely agitated with 8 ft breaking, steep seas and blowing spume. I tried to punch through but was forced to retreat wondering if I had miscalculated, but all my figures were correct. After sailing back and forth for two and a half hours to kill time I decided to approach the entrance again for a look. I found a 4 knot outgoing current but no heavy seas and perfectly manageable. The pass was successfully negotiated and I continued on to the anchorage at the village.
In retrospect, I determined that the predictions for slack water were incorrect and, while expecting a slight opposing current draining the lagoon, I found a strong current still flooding into the lagoon piling up against the waves from an 18 knot wind. This is what created the large breaking seas. Once the current reversed, the flow was with the wind and the seas became short. I suspect only the locals know about these things. The published information is based on scant data and generalized over a large area of many islands. There is not much demand for better predictions because the traffic is so limited, a few supply ships each month and a bunch of yachties May through June.
Tomorrow I will go ashore to see if there are any vegetables at the small store.