Fakarava 9-11 June

16º 13.475s 145º 33.451w

Wed Jun 12 2019

Sunday at the village of Rotoava the baker was open for a couple of hours early in the day. Cruisers who like their baguettes were seen dinghying in to shore at the crack of dawn to make a score before the baker either closed or ran out of bread. We had enjoyed a fairly restful night, however we could hear our anchor chain rubbing against at least one small coral head which precluded completely sound sleep. Rumor had it there were several free public moorings in the area but that they had not been maintained and might be quite risky to use. Our pals Stephen and Yvonne on SV Triple Shot, the Neel trimaran were on a public mooring but Stephen wasn’t sure it would stand up to a blow. Hearing that Fakarava Yacht Services was open and had information on the mooring status, I dinghied ashore, tying up at the local crepe restaurant’s dinghy dock. The restaurant was open and busy, and I greeted Emir and Xin from SV Hugo enjoying their breakfast as I wandered through.

Fakarava Yacht Services was about a 3-minute walk away, and once there Stephanie and Aldric, the lovely couple who run the place were happy to help me. They offer complimentary high speed internet (a fiber optic cable has been laid to Fakarava) which Emir has certified as “OK”. Stephanie noted that only 2 weeks ago the public moorings had been inspected and found to be in good condition. Upon returning to the anchorage, I noted that one of the 3 white public mooring balls was available, so Isabel and I quickly weighed anchor and scooted on over there. She did a fine job of driving up so that I could snag it with the boat hook, and soon we were securely fastened with a 3-legged brrom standard dock lines, complete with chafe protection on the mooring loop.

I dinghied over to invite Julian and Patricia SV A Capella of Belfast for a sundowner, but remained to offer assistance as they were trying to up anchor and move to a more secure site. Their chain was wrapped on a bommie and wasn’t coming up, and eventually Julian had to whip out the SNUBA system to dive deep enough to sort it out. After 3 attempts they were finally satisfied with their new anchor set, and somewhat weary they eventually joined us on board for drinks and dinner. Isabel fretted a bit that we didn’t stock a full “English” bar, but Patricia took a particular liking to our Mexican margaritas. Ever English, Julian stuck with his gin and tonic. Isabel had whipped up a yummy spaghetti bolognese, and a lovely evening was had by all.

The wind remained out of the East overnight, but a swell began running more from the South which made JollyDogs a bit uncomfortable with the high frequency roll as waves on the starboard beam passed from one hull to the other. By mid-morning Sunday the weather forecast was looking a bit “breezy” towards the end of the week, so both A Capella of Belfast and SV Krabat determined they would get underway for Tahiti that afternoon, as they had “schedules” to hold to. Most all of us absolutely hate schedules. Krabat had moved about 10 nm down to the little protected anchorage of Pakokata Yacht Services the day prior and reported that not only had they scored a free mooring, but that the anchorage was free of the swell running up by the village. Isabel was getting anxious about the weather forecast and the thought of more chop, so we elected to depart for Krabat’s location where we would take their mooring. Just as we were about to drop the mooring ball, Ian and Manuela on SV Mr. X showed up, so we rang them up on the VHF and offered our mooring which they were delighted to assume. Sometimes things just seem to work out.

There’s a rather narrow marked channel running along the East side of the atoll, and the wind angle was too high to sail, but we did successfully motor sail the 9 ½ nm making water and charging batteries. Upon arriving at the little Pakokota resort (restaurant and 3 bungalows) we were delighted to find a beautiful sheltered lagoon with about 10 boats in residence, 8 on nicely maintained moorings. We slowly toured the lagoon while Krabat completed their departure preparations and as they cast off we moved into position and took the mooring. Time to go ashore and explore, or at least as far as the tiny resort where we suffered a local beer and enjoyed some “complimentary” wifi. They were offering 350 megabytes gratis, throttled so that streaming a movie was impossible. Keeping the limits low is about the only way to make folks behave, but the signal was nice and strong out at our mooring so who can complain?

Today has been windy with a good bit of rain but I did sneak in a nice workout on the SUP, and we did get ashore for a bit of a walk joined by the resident puppy. We wandered across the atoll to the windward side beach, only to discover a plethora of plastic trash that’s probably blown and floated all the way from North / Central / South America. It was so sad we abandoned our beach walk and wandered along the narrow gravel road instead. Oh to be a puppy!

During the day Triple Shot and SV Hugo showed up, and both reported that the village anchorage which we had abandoned the previous day was getting a bit rolly, making us look smarter than the average bear. We’ve booked dinner at the tiny resort tonight, looks like it’s turning into a party!