Fakarava is a Unesco protected area because of its particularly diverse ecosystem. Well, I will have to investigate that a little more I think. We arrived on Sunday together with three other boats, Enchantment, Exit Strategy and Honu. We all left early in the morning to get through the Kauehi pass at the end of the outgoing tide and arrive to Fakarava in time for the incoming tide. As we all headed for the exit, Honu took the lead and made it safely through the pass, reporting back to us with some advice to stay a little closer to the starboard side of the pass to avoid the current and standing waves. Yup, standing waves. That's what they are called. I am still not sure what a standing wave looks like and this time I even had the binoculars out as I was standing in the boat, ready to wave back. I am a little embarrassed to ask what is a standing wave, as all the sailors use the term and everyone seems to know exactly what it is. And when someone throws a sentence at me like "We had the wind from our quarter aft and the GRIB files indicated a steady 20 knot wind from the north but luckily our ground tackle held ...(blah, blah, blah cause by now I am still trying to picture an aft quarter wind and decipher GRIB)", I just nod politely and say, "oh yes, I know what you mean". What I do know is we were the last ones out and we hit a speed of 11.1 knots as we rode the current. Yipeeeyayay!
It was a pleasant sail leaving the dark clouds behind and arriving to a calm and sunny anchorage at the northern corner of Fakarava. We plan to get to the south pass today which is about 30 nautical miles distance. These atolls are surprisingly large and the motus (local term for the island bits of the atoll) are long and narrow. We have heard the diving here is spectacular, so you know what's on our agenda for this week.
SY Enchantment on our starboard with Michelle and Vern.
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