How to do Takapoto in less than a day
27 May 2007
Cass
Land ho was a quick one. We got to the Tuamotus yesterday around 1pm but didn't anchor at Takaroa as I have been leading you to believe. Instead we went to the island next door, Takapoto, and met up with s/v Free Spirit. These are beautiful palm tree saturated, white beach, blue water islets quite similar to San Blas in Panama. Upon arrival, we dove on the anchor in some of the most amazing water I've seen since Cozumel, Mexico. The vis has to be more than 60 ft and the sea floor is entirely made up of live coral. Sora's hull looked like it was floating in mid-air.
Russell, the captain of Free Spirit, was awaiting his girlfriend who has been delayed another week. So, rather than hang around we have changed the Tuamotu itinerary and are sailing north to Ahe, about 75 miles away. The plan was to wake up at 2am and do a night sail so we would landed around noonish, however, we had a rain shower and everyone caught a couple extra hours of shut eye.
We are motor sailing now headed dead down wind and should be in a new paradise later this afternoon. I believe we are planning on staying here about a week. This should be enough time to clean the bottom, hull, cockpit, stainless, cabin, galley, take the stove out and clean one year of cooking out from behind, hook up the grill for the first time in a year, scrub the bottom of and patch the dinghy, fix the outboard, solve the foot-pump-wont-prime on the water maker issue, re-rivet the dozen hatch dog downs that have been compromised, re-wire the generator, take the auto pilot apart to solve random electrical issue, run a fish up the main mast because our starboard spinnaker halyard chaffed again, make chaffing gear for said halyard, take radar down and trouble shoot the double scan scenario, and spit shine the master stateroom before mom gets in town on June 19th.
Hope everyone has a fantastic Sunday. Can't help but think of Pensacola on this fine weekend bottomless champagne brunch and some good southern food would fit the bill.
Cheers to remembering, Cass
This picture is of a quaint beach house on shore in Takapoto. Talk about remote...