August 8, Wednesday, Day 34
Vessel Underway from Fakarava to Toau

Overcast conditions, bursts of rain, strong winds while underway
Arrival under sunny skies: 56% Humidity, 70F/25C, 1006 milli bar,
S 15.57
W 145.52

Captain:
We left Fakarava earlier this morning and came up to Toau. It was once again, one of those sailing days I find kinda frustrating. Our tide prediction program showed low tide to be at around 8 AM, but in reality it happened several hours earlier. We encountered 3 knots of incoming current, which made slow going for us. Usually we motor at about 4.7 knots, and that is without wind or current. In a pinch, we can do close to 6 knots, but the engine gets hot, sounds like it's ready to come apart, and smokes. We will need to do something major about the engine after we return to California next summer. We really want to go through passes at or very near high or low tides to minimize the chance of encountering fast currents. At the peak of ebb or flood tide, the currents have been reported to reach 6-9 knots. Well, we made it through the pass without difficulty, at times making 2 knots over the ground. OK, but slow. There were 2-3' waves caused by the current, but they too presented no problems.
We've gotten pretty good at dealing with that.

Once out the pass, we set sails and course for Toau. We had two choices for entering Toau. There is a southeastern pass that is only 15 miles from Fakarava, or a northern entrance that is close to 30 miles away. As luck would have it, we overheard several boats on the VHF radio, one of which we knew, talking about tides. Tom on s/v Mokisha confirmed my suspicions, we indeed missed low tide by several hours, and that high tide would come several hours sooner than we expected. We would never make the northern entrance in 3 hours. Of course during this conversation with him, a squall was approaching, and off we went at 9 knots. Well, if it could hold, we could make the north anchorage no problem, but that surely wasn't gonna happen. We were now only 4 miles from the southeastern pass, doing 9 knots - decision time. Down came the Main Sail, the Genoa got rolled up almost half way and our speed dropped to 4 knots.

Before, we were sailing smooth and comfortable, now we were slow and rolling. UGH. Even Gaby, whose stomach is like mine (made of steel), wasn't feeling so hot - not at all what she had in mind as a way to celebrate her 14th Birthday. We sailed on for another hour this way, then reversed course, rolled out the Genoa and set course for the southeast pass.  We reached the pass a half hour after what was to have been high tide. We passed through, helped by the range markers that we had no idea were there, even with our cruising guides. So much has changed in the Tuamotus since our cruising guides and charts were printed. We have seen some new electronic charts that are based on new mapping done by the French, and they are quite good. We have been told that if you can find

The French charts, they are the best for this area. Unfortunately, we were unable to find them, and we haven't made the switch to electronic charting. We encountered about a half-knot current against us, more than I thought we would, but no problem at all. Most of the tide tables for this area are not exact. The one thing that the tide tables cannot take into account is the amount of water that enters the lagoons driven by wind waves. Good portions of the atolls are just shallow coral reefs that the swell is constantly pounding on. It's no wonder that at times there is a constant outflow of water through the passes. It's real interesting to be some distance from the edge of these reefs and watching the waves crashing on the horizon.

We anchored in 30' of water, well protected from northeast to southeast wind. Gaby got her Birthday wish; spent the afternoon playing Mah Joong. Judy roasted a leg of lamb that we found in the store on Fakarava, (similar to USA prices), and made a chocolate cake with mocha frosting. Watched the movie, Holiday, followed by several episodes of Friends to round out Gaby's special day.

First Mate:
As we crossed the pass to leave Fakarava, a dozen or more dolphins friskily played at the bow. It was too rough to go up to the bow to watch them, but we have noticed this pattern that dolphins hang out in the passes of almost every atoll we have visited, awaiting our arrival.

Sleep is a wonderful way to deal with rough seas, all females aboard dozed off during this short passage.
Grateful we be for a Captain who can manage during these times, alone. Single handing with a chef and dozing crew.

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