French Polynesia - Tuamotus - Makemo

Our first Atoll in Tuamotus - Paradise Found

Our last anchorage in the Marquesas was Ua-Pau.  We left Ua –Pau enroute for the Tuamotos. We had an average of 20-25knots of wind which made for a fast 4 day passage sailing into the wind. 

The Tuamoto Islands are all atolls with lagoons and islands of a variety of sizes.   An Atoll is a coral island consisting of a reef surrounding a lagoon.  These atolls are the remains of a submerged inactive volcanoes.  Navigating to and within the atoll is a challenge.  The entrances to the lagoons are very narrow, you have to time the entrance based on tide and current.  Once you are in the lagoon you have to pay attention, the charts do not account for all the hazards of coral up-growth, even when you are in 100 foot of water.

 Makemo is the third largest atoll in the Tuamotos.  We were happy to find out the village of Pouheua, has a boulangerie which makes baguettes, croissants and pastries.   We set off for the bakery at 7am and witnessed a show of locals pedaling around on bicycles mostly toting baguettes in their baskets.  Upon further inspection it appears that the children have regular bikes and most of the adults have E bikes.  There are some cars here too as well. 

The following day we headed off to a secluded anchorage a two-hour motor from the village.   After navigating in through all of the coral heads, we found a sandy area in between coral heads and dropped our anchor.   I felt a lift of tightness removed from my chest, we have finally arrived to a dive friendly island and I can relieve myself of the heat and achy back pain in the ocean.   The sun beamed down brightly on the white sand and the clear blue reflection was blinding.   The brightness was hard on the eyes even with your sunglasses on.    A small shark circled our boat checking out the latest arrival.   We did some drone photography then grabbed our skins and jumped in to the very warm 86f/30c and clear water for a snorkel.  We have arrived in paradise!

All of the black dots are coral heads aka bommies. They are mostly dead but there is some living coral on each

#1 Cleaning bottom with sucker fishes #2 Monofin Dartfish #3 Oval Butterflyfish

White-tailed Dascyllus

#1 coral #2 Saddled Butterflyfish #3 coral head

Lagoon entrance you can see how much the current is churning here

The maxima clam, also known as the small giant clam