Rapturous!

Vessel Name: Rapture
Vessel Make/Model: Caliber 40 LRC
Hailing Port: Berkeley, CA
Crew: Greg Newman, Susan Wells
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07 March 2024 | Tasmania
27 January 2024 | Manley Beach
03 December 2023 | The Gold Coast, Jumpinpin
22 November 2023 | The Boatworks, QLD
15 November 2023 | Morton Bay
27 October 2023 | Bundaberg marina
15 October 2023 | Townsville Marina
04 October 2023 | Townsville, Queensland, Australia
28 July 2023
08 July 2023 | Keppel Bay Marina
30 June 2023 | Gladstone Marina
20 May 2023 | Bundaberg, Australia
23 March 2023 | Antarctic peninsula
10 March 2023 | Calafate and El Chaitén
21 February 2023 | Puerto Varas, Chiloe and Cochrane
05 February 2023 | Santiago, Chile
21 January 2023 | Santiago
12 January 2023 | USA
Recent Blog Posts
07 March 2024 | Tasmania

Tasmania

A misty, high alpine scene

27 January 2024 | Manley Beach

Sydney

Sydney Harbour Bridge

08 January 2024

Southport to Coff’s Harbour

Coffs Harbor from Muttonbird Island

03 December 2023 | The Gold Coast, Jumpinpin

The Gold Coast and Southport

Walking the beach at Southport

22 November 2023 | The Boatworks, QLD

Boatwork

The reason for stopping in the Brisbane area was to get a few boat projects done. Greg had been talking to contractors for weeks and more recently he has been calling suppliers to make sure that parts would be available. Our first stop was Scarborough Marina where Greg and I started with giving Rapture [...]

15 November 2023 | Morton Bay

Bundaberg to Morton Bay

The next part of our journey down to Brisbane lay to the inside of Frazier Island. This area, called the Great Sandy Strait is a vast network of channels and shoals that have to be navigated carefully. The navigation channel is clearly marked but there are areas where it can only be navigated at [...]

An uninhabited Atoll

22 June 2020 | Tahanea Atoll, Tuamotus
Susan

Sunrise overTahanea Atoll

It was time for a new adventure, somewhere we've never explored. After a week in Fakarava taking advantage of low winds we passed through the South Pass at 4:00pm during high tide slack. The pass was as smooth as glass
with barely an eddy. Phew, one more pass under our belts. We motored as slowly as we could through the night with light wind on our nose and fairly flat seas. At dawn we arrived at Tahanea, an uninhabited atoll 47 miles from
Fakarava. We went through the pass at ebb tide slack meaning that the tide was about to turn from flowing into the lagoon to flowing out of the lagoon. At that moment, the water was going nowhere which was exactly what we
wanted.

This atoll might be uninhabited but cruisers love it. There were already three boats anchored far apart behind the coco palms on the motu, the strip of land that has accumulated on the corral circling the atoll. One of them was
Jollydogs who we've heard on the single side band radio net. We were eager to meet them. September and Windward were the other boats. Who knew if they would become familiar names as we follow one another across the
Pacific.

After anchoring and catching up on sleep, we were ready to discover this new land. The whole of Tahanea is a National Park where no commercial fishing is allowed. It's a sanctuary for endangered Sandpipers and ground
nesting Boobies. Supposedly, this is one of the few atolls that have no rats. People only come here to collect the coconuts for copra. They use the coconut meat to extract coconut oil mainly for use in the cosmetic industry but
also processed for alimentary consumption, probably Trader Joe's coconut oil. We went hiking on the motu next to the pass. What is striking is that there is no rock on these atolls. Dry land is all broken down corral. As the coral
dries and ages it turns black, looking like lava flow but with fossil like shapes. A few scrub trees and coco palms are the only vegetation. These atolls in the Tuamotu archipelago are the oldest of the Polynesian islands. Their
central volcanic peaks have long since subsided below sea level leaving on its barrier reef that keeps growing to remain at sea level. Walking on the reef is to feel immersed in primal nature; wind, salt, waves, sun with no human
veneer to buffer the assault.


The next morning we were up early to snorkel the pass during the low tide slack. We drove our dinghy out into the pass and dropped down below the turbulence on the surface into the blue green calm. The pass was deep and
the current flowing into the atoll fast (timing the tides is guesswork). We hardly had time to adjust to the temperature before we were through the pass. We clambered back into the dinghy which requires a hup-two-three, massive
dolphin kick to get over the dinghy tubes. Back we went out to sea, this time nearer to the shallower edge of the pass where the coral is less worn down. The usual fish suspects were there, parrot fish, convict fish named for
their yellow bodies and black transverse stripes, Moorish Idols, but also huge 150 lb groupers, spotted eagle rays and grey reef sharks that hunt in packs and are definitely to be avoided unlike the timid black tip reef sharks. The
fish here in Tahanea are much larger than those in Tahiti presumably because they are not fished out.

The weather has been unsettled while we've been here. These atolls have no landmass to moderate the major high and low pressure cells that swirl across the Pacific. Tahanea has been in squash zone between low and high
pressure cells. This is the same weather configuration that put the two boats in Fakarava on the coral so everyone has been obsessively checking the weather prediction models. The prediction was for the wind to back anti
clockwise all the way around the compass as the clockwise rotation of the low pressure cell was replaced by the anti clockwise of the high. Last time, the wind blew 50 knots, not a time when you want to be anchored on a lee
shore and since the wind was constantly backing, everything was a lee shore. The question was when to move the boat. This time all 4 models of PredictWind were showing that the wind speed would be slow but the
atmosphere is so unstable that anything could happen. Along with the other skippers in the anchorage, we held a Grand Weather Conference on Jollydogs. It was a massive technology data dump with three or four different
apps downloaded by satelite being consulted and cross referenced trying to decide where was safe harbor. Finally, the consensus was to take our lumps early, on a South East shore with excellent holding ground when the wind
was blowing (hopefully slowly) from the West, and be set up for the much stronger South Easterlies when they arrived.


Approaching Frontal System

It was a great decision. We actually spent the rotation on the beach with the other cruisers shucking coconuts and watching our boats swing slowly around. Right now we're in the middle of the South East blow firmly anchored
with our nose pointed at that no-longer lee shore beach.


Susan at Work


Susan Cleaning Conch on the Beach
Comments
Rapture's Photos - Main
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Tahiti, Moorea, Huahine, Raiatea, Tahaa, Bora Bora
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Created 9 June 2019
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Created 24 November 2018
50 Photos | 2 Sub-Albums
Created 30 May 2018
9 Photos
Created 8 August 2017
Photos of the boat, people and places in the Bay.
3 Photos
Created 24 June 2017
Memorial Weekend 2017 Greg, Susan, Mike and Toni Spicer, Nick Spycher
11 Photos
Created 23 June 2017
29 Photos
Created 21 May 2016
July 25 to August 15 San Franciso, Half Moon Bay, Monterey, Morro Bay, Cojo, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz Island, Santa Rosa Island, Santa Barbara Island, Catalina.
15 Photos
Created 23 August 2015
The Food Saver vacuum sealer is a really useful device. The aluminum packs contain a 2 person serving. They just need to be defrosted and thrown in the oven - no prep work required. We could bake all 3 at once, or the crew that is sleeping can bake theirs when they wake up.
6 Photos
Created 24 June 2014
Memorial day cruise from San Fran down to Monterey, but we turned West at Santa Cruz for about 50 miles before tacking North for a direct beam reach back to San Fran.
12 Photos
Created 18 June 2014
The second overnight cruise. San Fran North West to Pt. Reyes, then south cutting east to Pillar Point and back to San Fran.
21 Photos
Created 18 June 2014
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Created 6 May 2014

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