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