After the storm a colourful sunset

26^th June

The weather is perfect for Tuamotus, good winds for 3 days then it all dies down, perfect to enter the atolls. So we left this afternoon, but now 50 miles out we are thinking in turning back. Graham does not feel well and he has fever. I have been doing most of the night watches and plotting position.  He started a course of antibiotics as we think is a bacterial infection from a wound in his leg that did not heal properly. 

27^th June

Now we are on a no turning back point, the seas are quite rough. Just hope that the antibiotics work. We just found out that they are all out of date!!!!

28th June

There are two good reasons we chose Takaroa as landfall. It is located on the north of the archipelago, one of the easiest routes as we wouldn't have to deal with the currents running between some of the atolls. The second reason is that there is an anchorage outside so we can have a rest and wait for the tide before tackling the pass. Looking through Charlie's Charts, we just found out that this atoll has a major pearl farming in the lagoon, so entrance is restricted. After lots of debating we decided that if conditions are not less than perfect we will not enter our chosen atolls. We are arriving in 12 hours and the wind just died down. Graham is feeling a lot better, that is a good start.

Baby Shark.

29^th June

We finally came up with a plan, head South and try to enter Apatiki. The pass was one of the easiest in the Tuamotus and was only 5 hours away. We arrived there at the right time for the tide and the sun position to see the corals. But another big weather system was sweeping across with more black clouds and lots of rain; this one was 4 miles wide. The visibility dropped and we had to turn back and wait until the weather improved to enter the atoll. After one and half hour we saw a little blue sky, this time we had to be quick as we saw the next lot of black clouds forming. By now the tide turned and no sun behind us, feeling tired, we had enough and decided to enter even the conditions were not perfect.  With full engine and sails out we went for it. Coming near the pass we saw the breakers all around the entrance and due to being exhausted we could not work out if those were reefs in the middle of the pass.  They were eddies (little swirls in the water) formed by the current. Having full current with us we entered the lagoon on a ridiculous 6 knots, enough to the wreck the boat on the corals. Luckily we survived without touching any coral reefs! The lagoon is impressively big, we did not expected to find any boats here, but they were 2 others. One of them was flying a Brazilian flag, a catamaran called "Bra-vo". We dropped the anchor and went to bed. By the time we got up the wind shifted again and now we were almost on top of this damn corals! We tried to re-anchor but the anchor had got wrapped around corals and we were going nowhere. Least we were safe! That is when we decided to open a can of beer and forget about it.

30^th June

Graham dived and freed the anchor and we found another spot away from the reefs. Again we fouled the anchor on the corals, but this is the way here, in the Tuamotus. Ricardo from Bravo came over and told us his nightmare story while staying here, but he has an added problem, one of his engines does not work! Snorkeling is fantastic, for once we appreciated the coral heads, there are hundreds of them.  Also the amount of colourful fishes was unbelievable. The lagoons are also home to sharks, especially "Tiger sharks". These are more ferocious than Great Whites, they will attack and eat anything, even their own! Graham went pearl diving, but no pearls were found in the oysters. In the afternoon "Bra-vo" left, the other boat having left earlier, so we were all alone in the atoll. This is the beauty of this place: the remoteness and feeling of isolation.

We went exploring ashore. There were no need for clothes as there is no one around! Fantastic lagoons in the beach strip! We saw baby sharks in the lagoons. The colour of the water changed from green to turquoise  to deep blue. As it was low tide there were lots of puddles of waters with moray eels hiding in the corals. Absolutely amazing.

02nd July

Time to go. We cant help thinking that if the weather changes we have no real shelter and in that case it is better to be out in open water than in a lagoon. But as we learned already, nothing is easy in the Tuamotus. The anchor was again wrapped around some corals, additionally we had really strong winds and swell. Graham dived with an air tank, I was motoring forward to give some slack to the chain so Graham could relocate the anchor in sand. It was nerve wrecking as I had to keep the boat away from the corals and also from Graham, if only I knew where the corals and Graham where! Exhausted Graham came up-just before the air run out in the tank- and then we lifted the anchor. Now we were ready for the pass. We calculated the tides and it should be coming to slack water. That wasn't the case, going through the pass we had 6 knots with us, so we were on the high of the tide. With so much current we had not much control of the boat. We got through with no problems. That was our fair share of excitement for the week, now we were desperate for some rest and some nice sheltered bays. So we are heading to Society Islands.