Sail to Fakarava, music in Hireefa

Before most passages Mike does an engine room check and service. Before our overnight sail he had changed out the fuel filters, checked the oil and water. As we headed out the pass at the change of the tide, our faithful Isuzu decided to cut out right in the middle of the pass! So we quickly rolled out the jib and sailed back into the lagoon. Once we were clear of any danger, Mike ran below to find that one of the fuel filters had not seated right and we had sucked in some air to the fuel line. Hmm, hate it when that happens. Once solved we quickly got the engine running again and headed back out the pass. This is the view of our track on the chart plotter as we circled back and finally headed out.

We left with two other boats just before sunset for the 50 mile trip to the South Pass in Fakarava. That is Restless, with Ted and Anne-Marie leaving the pass just behind us in their Cape Dory 40.

Here is a close up of the pass side of the motu we had hiked to from the shack.

Restless sailing outside the pass.

Cape Dory's are quite fast and he zoomed ahead of us. Actually he beat all of us and left last! Nice work!

Liward is ahead of us in their Hans 48.

The sun was setting in front of Liward leading the pack.

We were all watching as the sun starts to dip below the horizon.

It is very hard to photograph the elusive green flash, but we all saw it that night!

The moon was in his happy face mode, smiling down upon us after returning from the new moon phase. I was not able to photograph it, but the moon set not long after sunset and with a black sky it lit up with stars. I swear I had never seen as many stars as I did that night. It was like the Milky Way Galaxy was painted across the sky!

The sun rose the next morning, a few hours before reaching Fakarava.

We were all anchor down in Hireefa, which is in the SE corner of the atoll. The water here is such a lovely turquoise!

We got together that night aboard Liward (after naps of course). Steve is a great musician and promoter and loves to find other boat musicians to play with. This night we had Mike and Katie from Pangea, Ted and Anne-Marie from Restless and us from Avatar.

Mike looks at his lovely wife as she sings along with Steve on guitar.

Miguel, Anne-Marie and Lili enjoy the music.

Katie is a trained professional vocalist and Ted is a very talented musician, playing his fiddle or violin at this moment.

Later he switched to his sax! What a great night it was!!

The next day Liza had returned home to her cruiser hangout restaurant. It is a great spot, decorated with all kinds of sea debris and flags from various places.

They made a hammock out of this netting (note to self, must come back and rest in that!!)

But we were headed on a hike to the outer reef with Lili on a shell hunting expedition. This is the back side of Liza's house (note cement walls for protection from the ocean!)

Behind her house is this lovely middle lagoon which is fairly deep, but we crossed it on a sandbar up to our knees.

Miguel with his hiking stick checks out the outer reef.

This one big white stone sanding on end with a piece of coral on top marked another path to reach this spot.

Notice how red the coral is out there protecting the atoll.

Lili and Miguel walking ahead of me.

At one of the high tide marks we found a huge amount of sponges!

This really shows that high tide mark!

Later in the day, Steve and Lili came by on their paddle boards all decked out in matching garb. They looked so lovely with in the same colored water!!

The sunset from Liza's hangout is just spectacular!

Her husband fires off the barbecue while her little niece watches.

Quite a few of us came ashore for a pot luck dinner. We all brought meat to grill and they made a big rice dish.

I can't stop taking photos of sunsets. It is like an obsession for me.

This black headed tern was headed home to roost after the sun had dropped below the horizon.

Inside Liza's hangout, the crusiers are doing just that!

Steve and Ted get ready to rock the house. Liza comes out of the kitchen to listen in.

The lovely Liza in her amazing kitchen.

This little geco kept chirping. They seem to love palapa style roofs!

Liza's husband was doing a great job on the BBQ.

The kitty lets me pet her. She seems to like it!

Finally dinner is ready. Soooo much good food!

Christy gets the niece's very skiddish dog to finally take a scrap from her hand.

Steve and Ted are really rolling now that dinner is over.

They are rocking up a storm.

The neighbors (also family) are listening from the sand.

John and Christy of Raynad, can't help themselves they get up and swing dance!

Miguel takes the kitty in his lap.

This was a fantastic day!!! So much fun and friendship!

Back to the North Pass Tahanea

An atoll is basically a big ring of coral, but the pass is where the water both exits and enters into the lagoon. The pass of course is the only place a boat can enter as well. We needed to go to Fakarava, so we made our way back to the North passes of Tahanea. It was still a bit overcast so we were following a Pitufa track on our chart plotter (a track they made before with out hitting any bombies). But we were a bit confused when we saw a dark area ahead of us which we thought might be a reef. With a look thru the binoculars we realized it was a huge flock of Noddie Terns fishing. They were clumped so close together we thought they were a reef!

As we got closer we could finally see individual birds.

The sky was finally beginning to clear as the sun was setting on the anchorage in the North.

The next day we watch a boat heading for the pass thru the shallow turquoise water as the tide was turning to go out.

We wanted to explore the motu where we could see a shack had been built. When we arrived there were no people, but I would guess they were coming back at some point as it was a very well made shack! Note the large coral pieces holding down the aluminum roofing so they don't blow away in the wind.

They have a great view of the anchorage from here and you can see there are many boats here with us.

This looked to be the kitchen area

Which is adjacent to the dining table.

They had placed some fish net stakes on an area where the water washes in from the outer reef. There were no nets on it now thank goodness.

From the back side of the shack you can see the standing waves in the out going current. This happens on which ever side of the pass the water is going towards. And when it goes out, it usually goes out strong, because the waves from all around the atoll push water into the lagoon, but it can only go out at the pass.

This was an interesting coral formation with a tidal pool inside the outer reef.

As we walked toward the sandy pass we came upon this big dead tree that looked quite wind blown for its whole life.

It made a great cradle for this photo of our friends on Pakia Tea as they sailed into the anchorage from the South side of the lagoon.

We saw many strange coral formations on our walk. This one looked like private parts frozen into a piece coral, washed up in the sand.

The coral even understands the math formula of pie.

So many different types of coral in the sand.

The white dome turned over looked like someone's brain.

A dried out tide pool from when the water was much higher.

The little holes in this piece of coral looked like claw marks had dug them out.

Another cruiser had weaved a palm frond to put her coconut findings on, but the little hermit crabs had found it when she was not looking.

They are very curious critters about the size of your fist.

The pass is on the other side of that motu, but the water and sky are just so lovely.

One of the most important things we learned from Pitufa was how to use buoys to keep our anchor chain from wrapping around the many bombies growing in the sand. It works wonderful!!

Mike checks his work.

No more chain wrapping and no more damage to fish houses!