Well Makemo turned out to be a great stop! As we departed Raroia our pals on SV Le Pukeko were just ahead of us, and they texted the local policeman to let him know we were both heading to Makemo. He must have called the policeman on Makemo because when we arrived he knew we were coming and was happy to see us. Entering the pass was easy with an incoming tide and wind on our backs, and our anchor spot worked out great, with no challenging bommie tangles. We wandered around the atoll smiling and saying hello to all we met, and we experienced a warm reception from everyone. Lots of folks wanted to know where we had sailed from, what country we were from, and while Isabel rattled on in French with many people I managed to get by just fine with my terrible French and somewhat questionable English, probably better described as Southern ‘Merican.
We arrived on Friday morning and that meant no “official” alcohol sales until Monday. Let’s just say it all worked out just fine, and we did leave with ample supplies. Isabel made her list, checked it twice, then shopped until we just about dropped, but away we came with enough food for another month or two. Having completed our own provisioning, we then purchased numerous food items and 60 liters of gasoline for our friends on SV Agape and some of their buddies who have all been at Tahanea for about 10 weeks. Josh and Rachel on SV Agape have a dive compressor and maybe we’ll squeeze in a few SCUBA dives while there but snorkeling and some kite boarding will also satisfy pretty well. There’s no permanent settlement on the atoll and no ciguatera problem, so the spear fishing is meant to be outstanding. Nobody should be going hungry.
We succeeded at getting the ATM to give us cash both Friday and Saturday, then it decided it didn’t like us anymore. Hopefully that’ll do us for a while. The VINI hotspot by the post office offered a strong signal in the anchorage, and we finally got our MicroTik mast-top WIFI repeater to earn its keep, allowing us to boost and rebroadcast the WIFI inside the boat and then update apps and software and such on all devices simultaneously. Isabel managed a Skype video call to her dad, and I succeeded at a WhatsApp call to our pal Mike Racine who was to have been with us a few weeks back but is hanging around home in Albuquerque until Covid-19 isn’t such a problem any longer. We both managed to update all our podcasts, so now I can wallow in The Motley Fool’s range of audio productions for weeks to come until once again we emerge in the land of “data”.
There’s a bit of a blow brewing, coming up from down South, so Monday morning we blasted off for Tahanea, driving out of the pass with about 4 knots of current and wind effects on the bow. A last phone call to sort out a credit card update and we were off! It’s been a lovely sail, hard on the wind but in fairly flat sea conditions, and the only challenge now is slowing JollyDogs down so that we don’t arrive too early. About 0820 the tidal flow should be just about right, so that’s our planned arrival time at the middle pass of Tahanea. We’ll probably drop the hook and sneak in some drift dives in the pass before following Josh and Rachel down to the Southeast corner where a large sandy anchorage and good protection from the wind and seas outside the reef will be our friend. Looks like about a week of strong winds, hopefully in the right range for our 10 square meter kite.
Funnily enough, even with all that broadband internet access I never thought to look at the news until about an hour before we departed. I realized why when I finally did have a look. Nothing but Covid-19 and political squabbling. Our own fearless leader keeps the smoke and mirrors going at high speed, demonstrating a blatant level of corruption not seen since Huey Long ran Louisiana.
Glad we’re here.
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