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Published: August 9th 2008
The passage to the Tuamatu’s was fairly uneventful. Once again, we ran out of wind after the first day and had to motor for the remaining three. If we had of left two days earlier, we would have had too much wind…seems to be a reoccurring theme.
The Tuamatu’s are a group of 78 coral atolls that generally enclose a lagoon. The pass into the atolls are to be navigated with care as they are relatively narrow and have strong currents running depending on the time (high and low tide). Best time to attempt the passes is during slack water, though we never quiet sure when this was, so we went with the flow…literally.
The first atoll that we visited was Kauehi. Once we successfully navigated the pass, we motored for 8nm until we reached the anchorage. The atoll was like a big lake. As we approached the village you could see this vivid band of turquoise. As we got closer, you could see that it was the shallow water that fringed the white sand. Coconut trees swaying in the gentle breeze…paradise!!! We spent four gorgeous days chilling out and enjoying the crystal clear water. We met a number
of new cruisers including Judith and Soenke from Hippopotamus, Dirk and Heidi from Latina and Jeremy and Danni from Thulani. We spent a number of nights enjoying their company. We snorkelled on the outer reef which had great coral but the number of fish and variety was a bit disappointing. The village was very small with a few houses scattered around a church and general store. Even the road was made of compacted coral…very cool.
The next island we visited was Fakarava. This atoll is much larger in size and in population. We met up with the same four boats from Kauehi (also Diana Felicia). Thulani started an early morning ritual, a dingy trip to the bakery and delivering a fresh baguette to each yacht before the occupants awoke. The following day it was the next yachts turn for the baguette run so we all had fresh bread for breakfast. The bakery was closed on Sunday and it was our turn to supply the baguettes. So we decided to bake a loaf of bread for everybody. Si must have started at about 4.30am and we were finally finished by 10am. Everyone was amazed that he actually did it…me included.
One the first day we hired some bikes and rode 10km to a pearl farm. It was lunch time when we arrived and the farm was closed so we peddled back 2km to the Mai Tai resort for lunch. After a lovely meal and a few glasses of wine, the ride back to the pearl farm into the wind didn’t seem like such a great idea after all. We had a quick tour of the farm and bought some black pearls to make into pendants and ear rings. It was a great day but our legs definitely felt it afterwards.
Unfortunately the wind picked up during our stay and Si didn’t do any organised dive trips due to poor visibility. He did a dive with Judith and Soenke around a coral reef which I snorkelled around. Heaps and heaps of really cool fish. It was like swimming in an aquarium. Si was fairly impressed though visibility was not great but at least it didn’t cost anything.
On the Saturday night, eleven of us went to a local restaurant for our steak fix. We had caught a yellow fin tuna so anything other than fish was looking good.
After the meal we had everyone come back to Woodsia for drinks. Thankfully our cockpit is big and fit everyone comfortably. It was great to meet some new friends and it really made the Tuamatu’s special.
Leaving for Papaeete, we were delayed for a day due to strong winds. We have four friends from Perth Andrew & Bec and Jonathan & Mornay, joining us on the 9th Aug for some fun filled days in the Society Islands…can’t wait to see them!!
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