Tahanea – Toamotu Archipelago 6/8-9/8 2016

The 6/8 at 7 o’clock in the morning, on slack time, we sail out threw the reef at Raroia north pass and 7:18 we sat the main and sailed, the 143 NM, towards the atoll Tahanea. Very nice sailing because we finally could sail downwind. There are time for bred baking and reading during the day and in the evening we had a beautiful new moon and several planets like Jupiter to look at. The next day we should sail in, threw the pass, at 13 h and had problems getting the speed down, for not to come to early. We ended up with a half furled in stay-sail and arrived just on time, to go threw the pass, in an easy way.

Tahanea is a beautiful atoll with only to houses were people leave when they collect nuts and fruits and a lot of coral reef with fish. Around Alexandra, on anchor, you can and see sharks swimming.

We took the dingy to the shore and snorkel´d. There were fresh corals, a lot of nice coloured fish and our first black tipped shark.

The catamaran “BigFish” was on anchor too and we got advice, from he captain Richard, of a mechanic in Papeete.

We had also a visit from Andreas, from the boat Mellifera, that we first met in Fatu Hiva and we decided to go snorkelling with the ingoing tide and so we did that afternoon. Lars had the dingy tied around his hip and the GoPro in the hand so he got some nice film. It was beautiful with a lot of healthy corals and fish, especially a big Mantarey.