Time has Sped Up

Ships Log: June 21, 2024, 08:14 Ua Pou to Raroia. TWS 15.5, AWS 10.5, TWA 147D, AWA 103D, SOG 9.5. S 13.09D, W 141.56D

If we hadn’t gone swimming in the waterfall-fed swimming hole at the end of the 11.4 K (690 m elevation) Mount Poumaka Trail, I’m not sure we would’ve been able to wake up at sunrise and make it out of the anchorage yesterday morning. Having the cold, fresh water all to ourselves after the long hike, energized us for our departure.

We’ll come back to the Marquesas archipelago in the spring, but for now, the winds have picked up, making the anchorages rolly, so we’re happy to go southwest. 

Ships Log: July 4, 2024, Raroia, NE anchorage

Two weeks? The calendar says so, but it can’t be. C’est impossible! 

Here in Raroria, time and the windspeed are one. At first, the days passed slowly. There were a few boats in the anchorage, sitting still atop the clear water.

It was so quiet I could hear the small Blacktip sharks break the surface now and then.

We took a tentative paddle into the shallows. Then we tiptoed around the hermit crabs on a motu in search of old pearl farm buoys. All the sailors recycle them as floats used to lift the anchor chain above the bommies (coral towers under the water).

We donned our snorkel gear for a rendezvous with the creatures of the deep (funny blue clams, manta rays, a white octopus, a turtle, oodles of colorful fish, and yup, sharks). Mostly our days were taken by rest and recovery in the form of calling our loved ones, computer work, and sleeping on flat water for the first time in six weeks. 

The music started playing around noon on a Tuesday. Papoosh and Augustine strummed their ukeleles while Vaya led Holly and me in dance. Then Augustine taught the men a Haka. It was easy to tell which one of them knew what they were doing.

The wind started blowing on Wednesday and time sped up. It hasn’t stopped whizzing by us since. Michael broke out the 10-meter and his foil board first. Watching him glide, I felt whatever had been weighing me down lift. 

We had days that averaged 15 knots, 18 knots, and 22 knots, but the wind always blew from the east, steady as the trades should be.

We had guest kiters that made our experience all the more fun. Raymond, who taught himself to kite right here in Raroia, stopped by on his panga with his son Dimitri, and after some fumbling with my French about safety, he took off in stride.

Then Antoine and Basil came over for a session with their cheerleaders (Stefanie, Nathan 3, and Alice 4).

Wayne was kind enough to offer a photo shoot using his zoom lens, and Ray sent us a drone shot of Gerty on the playing field.

Between the kiting and the beach campfires, I still had plenty of time to write, and Michael did a super job reupholstering the port hallway ceiling.

So, yes, all is well in this faraway place, and it is, indeed, a privilege to be here.

On Saturday at 05:00, we will depart Raroia for Makemo Atoll, and the challenge is real. The wind has blown water over the coral barrier and into the lagoon, creating a high water situation that is changing the effect of the typical tides and currents here. This makes it difficult to know when the slack tide will reach the passes, if it arrives at all. Unable to predict this ideal, our current thinking is to cross the East-West Raroia pass at 06:00 (slightly after high tide at first light), sail faster than 8 knots for 80 nautical miles to reach the North-South Makemo pass at 18:00 (slightly after high tide and before last light). This will be a technical feat, using OpenCPN, Google satellite photos, and a continuous lookout on the bow to avoid bommies. The key is to time our transit so that we have the right amount of current to maintain steering while avoiding a treacherous wind or swell against current at either pass- the one we’re leaving from (Raroia) and the one we’re going to (Makemo.) Word has it, there’s a pizza place at our destination, hence, our motivation for working out the details. I can only imagine what the captain would do for an ice-cream!

Last Remarks

• What a group! Ane, Tom, Stefanie, Antoine, Alice, Nathan, Barbie, Wayne, Basil, Bob, Bruse, Corine, Karmen, Tom, Donna, Marc, Jen, Bryan, Ray, Holly, Dimitri, Raymond, Papoosh, Augustine, and Vaya.