AdventuresAboardAvatar: Sail to Makemo (Ma kay mo)

We have been watching the weather for a while, wondering when the Miramou winds would stop. Finally, on August 22, it looked like a break in the big seas and winds, so we headed out the pass and sailed overnight to a new atoll, Makemo.

In the middle of the night we had a ship coming up behind us. Turned out to be one of the supply ships that goes to Makemo. No wonder he was on the same course as us. Normally when sailing at night, we try to keep about a 5 mile distance between us an any coral reefs, but with the ship saying he would pass us to starboard, that left us closer than usual. We had the ship to the right of us about 2 miles and the atoll of Katiu 2 miles on the left. It felt a bit tight, but thank God for radar which increases the comfort level, knowing exactly how far away each of them was! When we arrived at the West pass of Makemo, the tide was just changing. It is critical to enter a pass with an in-going tide. But when we got there, we saw something in the water directly in front of us. Humpback Whales! Exiting the pass! One of them spy hopped and looked right at us! I guess he heard our motor and wanted to know exactly where we were. Tonnage wins, so we let them swim out before trying to enter. They swam right by us about a boat length away.

We almost missed the incoming tide as it was just starting to go out when we got into the pass. Motoring hard against the current, we made it inside the atoll. Now navigation starts to get interesting! Using the Open CPN program on the computer which can show us sailing right through a Google Earth satellite photo, we were able to locate the coral bombies and avoid them. This is what they look like from a distance.

And this is what they look like up close. We are in 100 feet of water, and right over there is 0 feet of water!! Good navigation is critical!! The good news is, that if you keep a good watch with polarized sunglasses you can spot the change in water color from about 1/2 mile away and alter course to avoid them.

Not all of the bombies stick out of the water and are visible. We call these sneaker bombies and they are the really dangerous ones!

Civilization starts to appear on the shore with many interesting houses.

By the time we get to the Quay in the village, there are two supply ships. The one who went behind us is anchored waiting for the first one to leave.

There is a deep wash going through the atoll towards the ocean. This is where many of the locals keep their boats and one of the places we can put our dingy to get ashore.

Avatar waits inside the lagoon between this wash and a bombie.

Looking the other way from the bridge over the wash, you can see the ocean in the distance and va'a canoes at their launching point.

Turned out to be 6 boats anchored here at the village, which was the most people we had seen in a while. With only one restaurant ashore, we all decided to go out for pizza and meet each other. The boats & flags were Avatar (USA), Costal Drifter (Canada), Paragrin (USA), Carapitanga (Brazil), Mahalo (USA) and a French singlehander (did not get his boat name darn it!) This photo from left to right that you can see is my Miguel, of course, then from the orange shirt is Jerry a local, Jon Lou the Frenchman, Bruce Captain of Mahalo, Joe is making the toast from Paragrin, Phillipe & Vivian of Carapitanga and Michelle, Joe's wife.

This shot has Mike surrounded by Deb and Phil from Costal Drifter, then Shannon from NZ and Jules from England, both crew on Mahalo, and Gabriel with the flower in her hair, Jerry's wife, who is the nurse on the island.

Now you can really see the beautiful Gabriel and her crazy hubbie Jerry, who lucky for all of us, speaks English, French and Puamotan! (yes the language is spelled with a P) What a fun evening it was and a world wide group!

One of our projects in Makemo was to tie up to the Quay after the supply ships left and end for end our anchor chain. The local kids found us very interesting and wanted to talk, so I got to practice my French with them. They laughed and I laughed, so a good time was had by all!

Now back anchored just inside the Quay, the water is unbelievably crystal clear. If we threw anything (usually veggie cut offs) into the water we had a huge school of fish to entertain us. So I did this often! So many fish!!

Most of the school was Unicorn fish. Check out the nose horn on the guy in the middle! (double click on photos to enlarge)

Feeding freinzy!

One lone yellow rimmed butterfly fish in the mix.

When we were not feeding the fish scraps, they ate the growth off of the bottom of our boat! So even after we were there for a month inside this atoll, we did not have any bottom growth to clean!! Good fishies!!!

The second place to tie up the dingy is in a small cove near the post office and gymnasium. A rather large yellow boat normally docks here. It has 3 outboard motors on the back and would zoom past us with several fishermen dressed in foul weather gear.

Makemo has one of the main villages in the middle group of the Tuamotus, so there are 3 schools here. One is a Catholic High School, so these kids have the choice of staying here or going to Tahiti for high school. There is also a large middle school with dorms for the kids from the other close by atolls and and elementary school. Today when we walked passed the gym and the little kids were playing on their tricycles, bicycles and scooters.

The gymnasium has a huge roof, so the village commune collects the water and sells it to the villagers if they need it.

Not sure what this old building was behind the gym, but an interesting old coral rock structure.

As we walked up the dirt path, one of the houses had their piggies in a pen out back. They seemed very interested to sniff us.

This is a beautiful white flowering Frangipani tree located in the yard of the Mormon church. Turns out our new friend Jerry and his family are members and he learned his English when he was sent to Australia for his mission.

Another Frangipani tree with lovely red flowers in bloom.

The Boulangerie is the bakery! So we got fresh baguettes and no more bad bread!!

The door of the Boulangerie has a windmill on it! I guess representing the grinding of the grains?

This house must have a big family, look at the size of those pots!! Mike thought maybe that is where they used to cook people ;-)

There are so many pearl buoys that float up, everyone has them decorating their yards and trees.

This is the busy street in Pouheva village which leads to the lighthouse on the ocean side and shows the Catholic church.

The original Catholic church and the housing for the priest.

It is a lovely property.

This is the village diesel generator that provides electricity to the whole village of 600 people. Empty diesel containers on the left. It runs 24/7 and is right across the road from the church.

The house diagonal from the church turned out to be our friend Jerry's house. I bet they are glad the generator has a sound sheild!! Note the whole village of Pouheva has this purple and white wall lining the roads.

The street lamps are solar/battery powered! How cool is that?

One of several old abandoned homes. If people don't live here anymore, usually they either moved to Tahiti or they died.

The City Hall building. Note it kind of needs a face lift. Apparently they built new buildings for them, but won't let them move into it yet!?! Government politics, uhg!