The crossing to the Tuamoto Islands was relatively uneventful. The weather to start was calm, which allowed for some pleasant sailing, but after the first 3 days, the wind died completely, so we had to motor. It had been forecast, so wasn’t a surprise, although never enjoyable. The only incident of note was catching a massive mahi mahi, which at least kept us in fresh fish for the voyage!

The first atoll to visit was Fakarava. Entrance to the atolls has to be timed correctly for slack water, as the tide can rip in and out very quickly at the height of he tide. We had sailed slowly through the previous night to arrive early morning, where there was a flurry of yachts coming out and going in. We waited until they had finished and went for it, and despite quite a strong current against us it was relatively straightforward. We anchored just inside the entrance in very calm waters. There were strong winds forecast for the next few days, so we knew we would have to move the following day, so we would be protected from the winds blowing in from the south. Next day we set off for the south east of the atoll along with 10 other boats. Everybody had gone to get some protection from the winds, so there were around 30 boats in all. The following week we had arranged to do a dive, so we moved back to the north of the atoll. The plan was to do the dive - which was great, lots of sharks, and a huge manta ray being cleaned by other fish amongst other things - and then catch the tide to go out and on to the next atoll. Unfortunately, the anchor chain had got wrapped around a rock, and we had to get the dive school back out to sort it out, by which time it was too late to catch the tide! Back to the north anchorage where we very nearly got the chain snagged again, and then back again to the south, as the weather was turning nasty again, and we needed to take shelter.

After realising that you spend most of your time finding shelter from some very strong winds, we decided it was time to move on. And at the end of the day, even though I know how this sounds, one palm fringed beach is much the same as the next one! It will be good to have a bit of variation, and have a few hills to climb, and a few more people to interact with. So ,Tahiti and the Society Islands, here we come.