We left OaPou in the Marquessa Islands about 5 days ago. We left at noon and had a wonderful day and a half of idyllic sailing with a beam reach no seas and about 15 knots of wind. We had sunny skies and about 450 miles to cover. The second night we encountered a couple of squalls but not bad and by the third day we were on schedule to arrive at dawn the next morning. We sailed alongside a buddy boat and entered the pass just after slack tide in Takaroa which is an off the beaten path atoll.

When people imagine the South Pacific they could be thinking about the Tuomotus. The water is crystal clear. We can see the bottom at 60 feet. The colors just jump out at you especially the deep blues and the turquoise water over the reefs where it may be less than 20 feet deep. Two other boats made the trip with us and we were led in by the leading boat that had just arrived. Sometime these passes are daunting. There can be current of up to 8 to 9 knots with standing waves if the wind is in the opposite direction to the current. It's important to hit the passes near slack tide to minimize these potentially dangerous situations. But despite our concern, we got in easily and worked our way to a place to anchor near a small town. The following night we had guests over and Nancy made for the first time Bananas Flambeau to celebrate our arrival here.

These atolls are geologically fascinating. Millions of years ago they started out as volcanic islands with mountains of lava several thousand feet of elevation. With time the volcanic rock eroded and the ocean built a surrounding reef. And over eons the entire interior of the island disappears leaving only the surrounding reef. Many have narrow passes where huge currents exit the lagoon after swells and rain raise the volume of water within. This whole area is populated with black pearl farms. Many of these islands had in the past more than 50 farms each. The lagoons are littered with buoys connecting the pear farm lines and are hazards to navigation so you must be extremely careful if you take the main vessel searching for the ideal site to anchor. Today we went to a pearl farm for a tour. I let Nancy describe this as she was very excited to finally doing this.

These lagoons are so large, some are 20 to 30 miles wide so being inside and anchored can be very challenging. The controlling depth maybe 70 to 100 feet but within a boat length you may encounter a "bomy" This is a coral formation that come straight up from the bottom and sometime up to just under the surface and must be avoided when navigating these waters. That's why we have our crows-nest. You can only safely move the boat between 10 am and 2 pm when the sun is high and you can read the water.

The amount of wild life is unreal. Fishing boats come in after a couple of hours of fishing with 15 to 20 yellow fin tunas each maybe 20 kg in size. Rock lobsters are plentiful and with the right conditions can easily be caught. There are many sharks but they are well fed and no one seems to be attacked here. We saw a ray that was several meters in width.

Tomorrow we are off the the next island....Kauehi. We need to cover about a hundred miles so we'll leave in the morning and need to be there the next morning to get through the pass at 10;00 am.

Enough for now. More to follow.

From the Crew of Always Saturday