Slow boat to Amanu
As I write this we are dawdling along in very little wind, with mainsail & jib wing on wing, (ie on opposite sides) doing about 3 knots. Such a contrast to the strong winds we experienced in Makemo, where we tucked in as much as we could off the village to escape the worst of the blow.
We had in fact prepared ourselves & the boat to leave Makemo a week ago, but the forecast looked to turn a bit nasty for our arrival in Amanu. Not having been to this small & sparsely populated atoll before, we really weren’t sure how good the anchorages were in terms of good holding & wind protection, so opted to play it safe & stay put.
So we, together with our friends on Kelani & 3 other boats, prepared for the stormy weather. As it turns out of course, it wasn’t as bad as it might have been. We did have 24hrs of squalls with gusts of over 40knots a couple of times, which was a bit trying, but the anchor held perfectly. Unfortunately, another boat dragged during the high winds & had a tough time re-anchoring in what is quite a tricky anchorage, (lots of bommies & shallow sand) – thank goodness it was daytime & they could see what they were doing. The wind moderated the following day to 25kts or so, but it absolutely poured with rain for another 2 days.
I get ahead of myself however, as the last blog finished when we left Fakarava for the overnight passage to Makemo. That was a fun trip! Plenty of wind on the beam, so a fast reach with speeds of up to 9knots. Woohoo! We entered the NW pass at Makemo early in the morning. It looked a little daunting at first with very turbulent water at the entrance to the pass, but we found a calmer patch of water to enter the pass with a few knots of current pushing us along. (Entry & exit of passes in the Tuamotus is always a bit of a high stress moment, as depending on tides, waves & wind, there can be up to 8knots of current flowing through, making them completely impassable).
We made our way to our first anchorage which was an hour or so from the entrance. The lagoon was not charted so we relied on satellite images which showed the bommies near the surface and Bill on the foredeck with his eagle eyesight to navigate! This is a new skill for us as on our last trip we didn’t have access to these satellite images to guide us. After a restful couple of days we moved to the Eastern anchorage in Makemo, a really peaceful spot with a huge sandbar & a place which was excellent for snorkeling, full of living bright purple coral, loads of clams & lots of colourful fish – see the photos!
As the wind turn to the NE it was time to move again, so we headed to Pouheva, the main settlement of Makemo, which has a total population of about 1400. It was a treat to enjoy fresh baguettes & croissants again from the small bakery & buy a few supplies. There were 4 small ‘supermarkets’ which had a reasonable supply of groceries but not a lot of fresh stuff. Obviously the cargo ship had not been in for a while, although I was able to buy onions, potatoes, carrots, zucchini, tomatoes & wombok, which was a pretty good haul. Sadly no fruit available anywhere, so I am now well into the fruit I had frozen whilst in Moorea, after which it will be tins of fruit with yogurt & granola for breakfast!
We have in fact been to this place before 15 years ago – indeed we had anchored our last boat, Vagabond Heart, only 50m away from where we were on Mowzel Cat, (according to our old tracks which Bill has kept). So it was a bit of a walk down memory lane as we found the lighthouse, mairie & churches looking just a little worse for wear. Having said that there was a brand new jetty & a lot more infrastructure built around the port area. We also made a point of visiting Beko & his family whom we met on our last trip. Beko is a talented carver & carved several items for us when we were last here, including a tiki from whalebone, which Bill still wears around his neck to this day. We also bought some carved black pearls – using a dental drill Beko carves dolphins, manta rays, flowers & Polynesian motifs onto the pearls. They are beautiful & priceless and have been distributed to friends & family over the years. It seemed an auspicious occasion to meet up again & as a momento I purchased a carved fishing hook that he’d made. In Polynesian culture, a fish hook is a symbol of strength, power & determination and represents good luck & safe travel across the water, so it seemed a very fitting gift to ourselves!
So next stop Amanu where we are likely to be for quite some time before favourable winds arrive to complete our journey to The Gambier Islands. Once again the exit through the pass needed good timing. We took the dinghy ashore for a rekky three times before we decided it was calm enough to go. We were then lucky to just scoot along north of a line of big heavy squalls marking the northern edge of a big trough for most of the trip. They sat ominously to our right and showed up big and bright on the radar, but they all passed just behind us, which was a relief. It did make for a bit of a broken nights’ sleep, but we were thankful nonetheless.
The entry through the pass was certainly memorable- we arrived at completely the wrong time in the morning & witnessed standing waves in the pass as the outflow hurled into the ocean. We waited a couple of hours & although marginally improved, the outflowing current still looked strong. A boat, (the same type as Mowzel Cat), exited whilst we were sussing the pass out & it hurtled through at 7 or 8 knots being launched into the air as it struck the waves. Made me a bit nervous, although Bill thought we would be ok as we were entering against the current. Well I did at least, persuade him to hold off for another 45mins after which we managed to manoeuvre the boat through the swirling current into the lagoon. Big exhalation and we had finally arrived in Amanu!
And what a stunning place! It is a very small atoll comparatively with a permanent population of around 200 people who live in a settlement in the south. The rest is uninhabited motus and reef flats with a very special “star” bommie in the middle (the navel of Amanu) which we will look forward to visiting.