Amanu was great! We swam with a whale and we kite boarded our butts off! We learned how to launch and recover to our own boat stern. I made lots of progress with both the 10-meter Airush Lithium and 12-meter Airush Union kites, working on turns without sinking, and doing some completely unintentional leaps into the air, generally with disastrous results. Isabel got back in the groove, tooling along upwind to her left side for about a kilometer. Next up – right side! Being with all the kiters from SV Due South, SV Slingshot, SV Sybo and SV Ari B made it a lot more fun, with folks looking after each other and offering encouragement.
We explored the star anchorage and other spots on the East side, and finally on January 23rd, 2021 we motored out the pass and sailed across to the atoll of Hao, anchoring just off the village. Hao is where the French Navy administrated the nuclear weapons testing here in French Polynesia. No museum that we could find, but plenty of ruins around the former naval base. There’s also a 10,000’ runway for large transport aircraft.
Hao also has boarding schools for all the kids in the area – something like 17 different atolls that are very small and isolated. We inquired at the mayor’s office and a policeman drove us down to the school to meet the French principal and another administrator. I sat in front, because I sat in the back of a police car once and didn’t really enjoy the experience. At the school, Isabel explained that we had heard many of the kids were from difficult economic circumstances and didn’t have money for basic hygiene and other necessities, but it turned out soap and such are covered by the school. The principal did note that some of the kids couldn’t afford flip-flops or t-shirts (formal wear for us), so we offered a cash donation to help purchase whatever the kids could use. They seemed pleased by the gesture, and we were happy to find a way to help out.
While we were there our pals Ryan and Nicole hollered on the VHF one day to inform us the whale we had gotten to snorkel beside had been found dead. Poor thing never found its way out of the lagoon and managed to starve to death. The national marine biologist had the local officials take blubber core samples and lots of photographs then they towed the carcass out the pass into the open ocean. Our pals on Ari-B followed along in their dinghy and were a bit unnerved to find a crowd of very large tiger sharks arriving not only to investigate the whale carcass but to also investigate their dinghy. Fortunately, Hypalon isn’t is interesting as blubber to a tiger shark so Alex and Carla are still around to tell the tale. Tiger sharks are not to be trifled with.
Hao was good. There was no wind for kiting, but provisioning was the best we’ve found in the Tuamotus, and the cell service offered 4G data so we used our Vini Hotspot to “take care of business”. Our shipment which came on the freighter Petkum, voyage 160 finally arrived in Papeete so we dealt with customs broker Gondrand to support the clearance and freight forwarding procedure.
Hao would be a great place to bike as it’s a large atoll and there are miles of roads to explore. Sadly the pension that used to rent bikes no longer does so, perhaps a casualty of the pandemic. The free wifi that’s usually available from 1600 – 1900 weekdays was also unavailable, apparently because someone broke the roof mounted antenna. Bummer.
Slingshot, Due South and Sea Rose all joined us in the anchorage and we had great fun playing patank by the pier and taking turns to fetch fresh baguettes in the morning. Before we left the supply ship Nuku Hao arrived and spent a day unloading and loading everything from soup to nuts – interesting to observe.
Anyway, we really enjoyed Hao! Lovely people, great groceries, almost too much internet exposure. Sometimes it’s better to not know what’s going on.
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