Raraka, Tuamotus
We had tried to go to Raraka on the the way to Kauehi, but didn't have details of the pass and the guide said that it was difficult. After talking to a Swiss boat that had just come from there, we decided to give it a shot...we ended up being the 4th boat of the season. No sooner had we set foot on the beach next to the small village (5 families live there) than we were invited to dinner with one of the families (Daniel, Leone and 6 of their 8 kids...they gave two away to be raised by friends, a practise that is fairly common here). We enjoyed an awesome dinner of curried octopus and Mahi Mahi.
The next morning the peaceful anchorage turned ugly, with the wind turning 180 degrees and increasing in strength from a 8-10 knots to 30 knots. Hence, our palm-studded shoreline that had been breaking the wind for us now became an uncomfortably close leeshore, with its fringing reef threatening to wreck our boat. We were in 35 feet of water and the waves quickly developed to 1 metre as we were trying to free the anchor from a coral head it was stuck on (very common in these atolls). The reef won, breaking our windlass and sending all 250 feet of our chain on the seafloor with our anchor. Being less than 200 feet from shore, this was now very dangerous, so Gary cut the chain free in a hurry. Luckily, the pass was calmer than the lagoon and we were soon outside with the atoll again sheltering us from the strong winds. We hove-to or sailed in circles all night, maintaining watches all night long and hoped for a change in the weather to retrieve our tackle.
We were lucky. In the morning, the wind subsided to 10 knots. Lo stayed on Demelza outside the atoll as Gary took the dinghy, loaded with his dive gear in through the pass and got help from our local friends, Daniel and his sons, to find and pull up the anchor. Success! After being fed a lunch of salty dried fish and rice, Gary dived to unravel the chain from the coral and the boys pulled up the chain. Their eyes nearly popped out of their head when Gary inflated one of our dry bags to help lift the anchor to the surface. It was a tough night, but the success felt good. We decided not to test our luck again in this atoll, so started on our way towards Tahiti. With a broken windlass, we couldn't use our anchor and thus couldn't stop (there are no marinas in the Tuamotus). Our only possibility was to stop in Fakarava, as we had planned, if we could rig up our stern anchor with a spare rope and thus haul it up by hand.
Daniel and his sons helped us retrieve the anchor and chain.
Lo desperately wanted this plan to materialize as Gary came down with a terrible case of food poisoning about 30 minutes after they departed Raraka. The sun was just setting and Gary suddenly felt incredibly tired and HAD to go to sleep - very unlike him. Within a couple of hours he had a fever of 102 F and Lo realized that she was on her own for this passage. Our computers had both broken, so we were traveling with paper charts and the GPS. At about 1 am, we were between atolls, with more than 12 miles from land in any direction and only 10 knots of wind. Lo heaved-to and slept for an hour. The radar was especially handy to confirm the location of the atolls and after her quick sleep, Lo kept awake by rotating from the radar to trimming the sails/windvane to checking on her patient. Gary really wished that Daniel hadn't given us those bottles of frozen water for our icechest that Lo was now using to cool him down as the Tylenol didn't seem to be breaking the fever.
When the sun came up, Fakarava was in sight and now was the task of rigging up an anchor that would hold us in a blow. Lo wanted nothing more than to sleep, but that would only happen if she rigged the anchor first. Gary was comatose, but managed to pull himself out of it to check Lo's work and help her finish the job. Then, he even stayed up to navigate the boat through the breaking waves in the pass, but fell back into bed the minute after the new anchor was set. Oh, thank heavens, Lo thought.
The next morning the peaceful anchorage turned ugly, with the wind turning 180 degrees and increasing in strength from a 8-10 knots to 30 knots. Hence, our palm-studded shoreline that had been breaking the wind for us now became an uncomfortably close leeshore, with its fringing reef threatening to wreck our boat. We were in 35 feet of water and the waves quickly developed to 1 metre as we were trying to free the anchor from a coral head it was stuck on (very common in these atolls). The reef won, breaking our windlass and sending all 250 feet of our chain on the seafloor with our anchor. Being less than 200 feet from shore, this was now very dangerous, so Gary cut the chain free in a hurry. Luckily, the pass was calmer than the lagoon and we were soon outside with the atoll again sheltering us from the strong winds. We hove-to or sailed in circles all night, maintaining watches all night long and hoped for a change in the weather to retrieve our tackle.
We were lucky. In the morning, the wind subsided to 10 knots. Lo stayed on Demelza outside the atoll as Gary took the dinghy, loaded with his dive gear in through the pass and got help from our local friends, Daniel and his sons, to find and pull up the anchor. Success! After being fed a lunch of salty dried fish and rice, Gary dived to unravel the chain from the coral and the boys pulled up the chain. Their eyes nearly popped out of their head when Gary inflated one of our dry bags to help lift the anchor to the surface. It was a tough night, but the success felt good. We decided not to test our luck again in this atoll, so started on our way towards Tahiti. With a broken windlass, we couldn't use our anchor and thus couldn't stop (there are no marinas in the Tuamotus). Our only possibility was to stop in Fakarava, as we had planned, if we could rig up our stern anchor with a spare rope and thus haul it up by hand.
Daniel and his sons helped us retrieve the anchor and chain.
Lo desperately wanted this plan to materialize as Gary came down with a terrible case of food poisoning about 30 minutes after they departed Raraka. The sun was just setting and Gary suddenly felt incredibly tired and HAD to go to sleep - very unlike him. Within a couple of hours he had a fever of 102 F and Lo realized that she was on her own for this passage. Our computers had both broken, so we were traveling with paper charts and the GPS. At about 1 am, we were between atolls, with more than 12 miles from land in any direction and only 10 knots of wind. Lo heaved-to and slept for an hour. The radar was especially handy to confirm the location of the atolls and after her quick sleep, Lo kept awake by rotating from the radar to trimming the sails/windvane to checking on her patient. Gary really wished that Daniel hadn't given us those bottles of frozen water for our icechest that Lo was now using to cool him down as the Tylenol didn't seem to be breaking the fever.
When the sun came up, Fakarava was in sight and now was the task of rigging up an anchor that would hold us in a blow. Lo wanted nothing more than to sleep, but that would only happen if she rigged the anchor first. Gary was comatose, but managed to pull himself out of it to check Lo's work and help her finish the job. Then, he even stayed up to navigate the boat through the breaking waves in the pass, but fell back into bed the minute after the new anchor was set. Oh, thank heavens, Lo thought.
posted by G.Mann at 6:28 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home