Tuamotos

This trip gets better and better and I think I have a new name for paradise: Tuamotos, because they are the same thing.

Though arriving in the Tuamotos was like coming to Heaven (if you chose to believe in such things), we were close to having a catastrophic arrival.

At 2 am in the morning on the day we were due to arrive, my brother wakes me up and tells me that we have lost all power, there is no wind and we are drifting towards a huge reef. Not good. No power means that we can't start the engines and no wind, well, means that we can't sail away. The waves were pushing us closer and closer to the reef and though there was hardly any wind, it was enough that we were able to sail away from the danger and when the sun peeked over the horizon the solar panels got enough juice that we were able to start our engines and could get safely into Fakarava. We even caught a nice Mahi Mahi:

We stopped briefly in the northern anchorage by the town, to buy some baguettes and to say hi to Nikita and Liquid Courage, before we continued to the south pass, where the real action is.

I enjoyed the best free-diving I've ever done going on drift-dive after drift-dive. The coral there was vibrant, colorful, active and filled with life. We saw an abundance of sealife, to the point where it was overwhelming. It really felt like you were swimming in a huge aquarium. Of bigger fish, we saw giant manta rays feeding, spotted eagle rays cruising by, a lot of sharks, Napoleaon fish, giant groupers, tuna and LOT'S of colorful coral fish. We would ride the dinghy from the anchorage to the pass and drift either in or out depending on which way the current was flowing.

After one drift-dive, we had to rescue Mike and Sammy, because their outboard motor failed and they were faced with the daunting prospect of paddling against a 4 knot current. It wasn't easy for us to make any headway when we were towing them, because my 5 hp engine isn't the most powerful puppy on the market, but she did the trick.

Though the free-diving was amazing, the scuba diving blew me away.

When we dropped down to the bottom of the pass, we saw things I've never seen before. The groupers have gathered in fantastic numbers to mate and it's no joke when I say that there were way over 20,000 covering the coral like a living carpet. That was still nothing compared to when we met a virtual wall of sharks.

There were black-tipped, white-tipped, silver-tipped, gray sharks in incredible numbers. They were just cruising around and sometimes got a little bit too close for comfort.

Besides the spectacular diving we hung out with other boats we had met over the last few months: Quartermoon, Liquid Courage, Nikita, Haze and Go Beyond. As has almost become a tradition, we did some awesome bonfires. Everyone brought some food, we brought our BBQ and then we had a proper cook-out with delicious food and ample amounts of beer and rum.

The weather did turn a bit windy and rainy on a couple of days,so then we invited other boats over for dinner, drinks and games.

Oh yeah, and someone who had "never" played poker before ended up not doing too badly.

Without hesitation I can say that the Tuamotos are the most awesome grounds for sailing I've ever had the pleasure of sailing in. Besides hanging out on South Fakarava, we also hung out more in the North anchorage, where we also had a couple of spectacular dives. Then we headed over to Tuao where we spent another amazing week. In short, I love the Tuamotos and can't wait to sail back with my next boat :-)