Another day another Atoll….
Only one week in the Tuamotos and we’ve already had so many adventures!
What an exciting, unusual, interesting- and I think the photos will show how very very beautiful this place is. We are both completely blown away - and may never leave!
There are only so many photos you can take of palm tree laden, white sandy islands and I think I have reached my quota for this entry.
The Tuamotos are an area of around 330 square miles - part of French Polynesia- situated NE of Tahiti, and SW of the Marquesa islands. They consist of a collection of atolls ( a sort of ring shaped island with a coral rim encircling a lagoon of seawater)- it’s difficult to explain but if you continue to read this blog I’ll try explain it a bit more and we’re going to be here for a while. We're only on our first Atoll and there are 77 in total in the Tuamotos.
The circular rim of coral surrounding the atoll has a break or a pass in which boats can enter the lagoon. Some of these atolls have no pass so entry by boat is not
Entering the atoll via the pass can be tricky, because, like with any tidal area, the water is either coming in (flooding) or going out ( ebbing) and sometimes the current kicks up, causing white water/ dangerous sea - sometimes too dangerous to cross.
There are a couple of different models used to explain the development of these atolls which is hugely interesting if you like that sort of thing.
We sailed SW from the Marquesa islands over 4 days to arrive in the middle of the day last Saturday
In true Nauplios style we did all our research on the way here, picked up information from various cruisers and our friends Bib and Charmaine who were here 20 odd years ago also gave us some tips. (Thanks Bibsters)
Our Starlink ( Wi-Fi) was working well on the way down and we had received information about a severe weather warning from the French Polynesian meteorological office. Apparently all sailing and water based leisure activities were banned the weekend we were arriving - due to the predicted arrival of a large swell from the SW causing potential 7m waves. Yikes!
We perused all the available weather reports and tried not to alarm ourselves too much!
Reaching Raroia, just after high water, the water on the pass was calm and settled, we glided over and found an empty anchorage, in, what looked like paradise.
Navigating these tricky waters inside the Atoll required us both on full alert
Because of the large number of exposed sand banks which are affectionately known as boomies- or booeys - crossing the atoll was like picking our way across a minefield.
Sometimes the booeys weren’t obvious until you were really close and the most reliable way of spotting them was on Google earth maps .
As you can see by this screenshot there are quite a few.
Anyway - we got anchored- had an arrival beer and settled into a week of chilling- swimming- exploring.
Met some nice people in the anchorage and basically had a great rest!
This baby made an appearance and we discovered some of the little islands nearby
It was quite windy so we didn’t venture too far but we did visit this little island where the kontiki raft had made landfall in 1947
Www.kontiki.no
This was such an interesting story, and seeing the island where the monument is situated, brought it all to life - essentially a team of (brave/mad) Norwegian adventurers left Peru on a raft to test a theory about the immigration of Polynesia from South America.
The raft floated for 101 days eventually making landfall on the atoll of Raroia
A book and later a film - ( which won an academy award for the best documentary film of 1951) were released about this unbelievable adventure.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kon-Tiki_(2012_film)
Interestingly this little kontiki island was the only island around not populated by palm trees.
When we paddled onto the island there was absolutely nobody around - and we were greeted angrily by a huge number of squawking birds - flapping about / flying over our heads - serious memories/ nightmares of ‘the birds’ film.
We noticed trees full of little nesting birds - I'm no bird expert but I think they were boobies.
Boomies, boobies, booeys.... omg.
Anyway the commotion these birds were making was a clear indication they didnae like us being about invading their bird space- so after seeing the kontiki monument we left them in peace.
These amazing crabs were scuttling around with pretty much the Empire State Building on their back.
One thing we have never heard of before is where cruising boats lift their anchor chain off the sea bed to protect the coral. This is called “floating your chain” and we are still learning how to do it. Luckily in our last anchorage we weren’t near coral - it was all sand -so we didn’t need to.
We did speak to a few cruisers in Raroia who had located some pearl floats - ideal for floating the anchor chain.
These big circular floating balls are used to float the pearl nets on a pearl farm.
On Raroia near the Kontiki anchorage is a disused pearl farm which, sadly, since Covid, has had no visitors and has now gone out of business.
The owner is happy for cruisers to take a few floats in exchange for some food or drinks. We took along a big bag with cold beers, cokes and a cartoon of orange juice. He wasn’t there when we visited as it was Saturday morning but we had been reliably informed he was totally happy for us to take the floats.
So we left the bag of drinks on his porch and, balancing four big floats on our kayak, paddled back to nauplios.
Sailing Notes
We crossed the pass ( there is only one pass on Raroia) just after high water ( high water stand) we had 1-2 knots of current against us but it was a really smooth crossing
There is a leading line we plotted onto our navionics and used this as a course.
We then turned to starboard and followed the channel markers to the anchorage just next to the small village. ( don’t forget it’s red channel markers to port now!!)
We used navionics, CPN and Google earth to navigate and Google earth reliably identified the booeys but I wouldn’t suggest entering a lagoon after about 4pm unless you have another way of seeing the boomies or bombies.
We anchored on the first night outside the village on Raroia - there is apparently an airport, a shop and rubbish disposal according to the tuamotos compendium - or www.noonsite.co.Uk
We didn’t go ashore as it was too windy/ the sea was too choppy.
The next day we crossed the atoll in the morning- again using Google earth, eyeballing and extreme vigilance. We still managed to touch the bottom despite all of this - luckily no damage to nauplios.
The anchorage on the other side between the kontiki monument and the pearl farm is big with a sandy bottom. We didn’t float the chain.
One of the islands has a bbq/fire pit.
Beautiful sheltered anchorage in a strong easterly wind.
We left the pass just before high water and again 1.5 knots of ebb/ outgoing tide and fairly flat sea.
From the Galley
No food on Raroia for us and no fish!
I soaked two bags of chick peas and boiled them in the pressure cooker - mixed with cumin, chilli/hot sauce/tahini to make fairly firm paste. Rolled into balls - some bigger than others. Dipped in cornflour then fried off ( needed a lot of oil)
Served with sweet chilli sauce = delicious and once made, lasted 2-3 days
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