Demelza's Big Adventure: Raroia, Tuamotus

There are an endless number of routes cruisers can take through the "Dangerous Archipelago," thus named from the many ships that have gone aground on the very low lying atolls. We wanted a route a bit less travelled, so struck off for the southeastern side of the northern atolls, which are "protected" from cruisers to some degree by the prevailing southeasterlies (i.e., it's often an upwind sail). We were lucky to get fresh easterly winds for the four-day passage, having to actually slow the boat down for the last two days to arrive at the pass in daylight and at the right tide. Perfect sailing conditions!

Raroia has one pass by which we entered into the lagoon, welcomed by GLORIOUS, MAGNIFICENTLY CALM waters (Lo had just finished reading Herman Melville's documentary of life on Nuku Hiva in the 19th century, Typee, of which his overly dramatic and verbose style was contagious. A recommended read to anyone visiting the Marquesas...but back to the Tuamotus). Raroia has one village of about 150 people, a number of which have come from Tahiti for a slower, more relaxed pace of life.

Although there is not much to see on coral atolls except palm trees, maybe up to five types of shrubs and hard, cement-like coral coastlines, we spent a week in Raroia getting to know some locals, relaxing, reading, and exploring the underwater world. As a side note, those "white sand beaches" you often see in calendars displaying a coral atoll paradise, aren't sandy or soft beaches at all. One day in Raroia, after a nice picnic by the water (hard not to be by the water here, really) of our standard Tuamotuan lunch of cheese and crackers and fresh coconut juice, Lo was getting itchy for some exercise, so she decided to run around the motu. Gary didn't think this was such a great idea as the ground (consisting of ancient reef material) was very uneven, hard and sharp and could really hurt you if you stumbled and fell. Lo was going nonetheless, and he decided to join her afterall. They completely circumnavigated the motu twice in just half an hour. Unfortunately, right at the end of the run, Gary snagged his foot on the spiky coral and Lo watched on in horror and ironic disbelief as he stumbled over his feet one after the other. She expected him at any time to regain his balance, but no, his momentum took him down into a football-style roll on the hard, sharp coral. OUCH! Rolling over knee and shoulder, he got some nasty scratches and bruises from this and reiterated to Lo his opinion of running on coral.

The locals thought we were crazy when they heard that we'd gone snorkeling in the pass. High currents and sharks are the main concerns, but both faired well for what turned out to be an absolutely phenomenal snorkel; in hindsight, one of the best of our Tuamotuan experience. Leaving the dinghy anchored in the lee of the motu, We walked up the white coral coastline to the pass, and waited for the Blacktip sharks to clear before entering. The passes of all the motus have pretty strong currents, up to 6 knots or more in some areas, so we timed it to drift in with the flood tide.