Marquases to a Tuamotus Island and Kon-Tiki

On the morning of 18th April 2024 Sunday Island sailed from Ua Po Marquases in light winds towards the Tuamotus atols. We set the full main and hoisted the code 0, and sailed South with the wind slightly aft of the beam. As we sailed a pod of six Rough Toothed Dolphins played on our bow.

Issy and Max have become expert dolphin and bird scientists, and often refer to Mark Carwardine’s “field guide to Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises”, and Peter Harrison’s “Seabirds” to identify the different species. We also have a number of Fish identification books onboard. The kids observe an animal, making notes on its size, shape, colours, identifying features, and pod size, find a picture of the animal they have just observed then refer to the index to find more information about the species. I am amazed how proficient they are at their identification process. Nobody says “Lets Google it” on Sunday Island!

Over the first day we lost a number of Lures to Tuna and Marlin. I have begun making lures because we can not find ready made ones in the Marquases. The initial hooks I used were a bit flimsy, and would surprisingly loose their barb when we hooked a big fish, allowing the fish to swim away. After a few modifications to the hooks, we began reeling in a few Albacore tuna. Emilie and I are becoming expert Tuna cleaners, and we have a great system when the line go’s Zing…. everybody has a job to do. I pull in the Genoa or Code O. Emilie trims the mainsail, pulls out buckets and the gaff, Issy gets down the deck cushions, and Max puts in the wash boards (A large Mahi found its way into our bedroom a few weeks ago when we did not have the washboards in). Once preparations are complete, and we have slowed the boat down I begin to real in the pray. Once alongside Emilie takes the rod, I get the gaff and we lift the fish into the cockpit, kill it, then hang it over the side to bleed. Normally by this stage the cockpit looks like a blood bath. Once the fish is bleed, I begin to clean the fish. Normally the kids are interested in what Is contained inside the fish’s stomach, so we normally do a bit of science during the cleaning. I gut and portion the fish, then Emilie does the “fine tuning” and puts it in the freezer.

Weather became quite squally over night, so we put a reef in, dropped the mizzen and furled the genoa before we experienced the 28kt gusty winds with distant storms lighting the night sky with lightening and thunder. Over the next two days we enjoyed some nice but sqully sailing during the day, but reefed down over the squally unsettled night.

On Sunday 21st April we were approaching the Atol of Raroia. Most atols only have one or two “Passes” allowing the majority of water to flow out, and vessels to sail in or out. Water enters the Atol via the pass, and by breaking waves over the surrounding reef. Consequently, up to 8kts of current can be found in the pass can be found during peak tides, and it takes experience and calculations to ensure a yacht can safety enter the pass at the correct time with minimal current. We calculated the pass would be “slack” at 0630, so we slowed the boat down over the last night to time our arrival to the pass.

I was on watch at 4am sailing towards the pass when our electronic autopilot tripped then failed. Luckily we did not have far to go, and I hand steered until we were in the vicinity of the pass, then hove to until sunrise. I am thankful that the autopilot failed so close to land, as if it had failed during one of our longer passages, we would revert to the Aires wind vane steering, or hand steering for lighter winds.

At sunrise we made our approach to the pass. There was lots of white water, but our calculations looked correct. We went through the pass with the engine almost at full power, and only making 1.5kts. It was like being inside a washing machine. We were joined by two Huge bottle nosed dolphins. Finally after 1.5 hours we got through the Whitewater and entered Raroia atoll and made our way to the Kon-Tiki anchorage where Thor Heyerdahl and his crew found landfall after 101 days on a balsa raft drifting from South America to prove his theory about Polynesian Migration – a great book if you haven’t read it! I thought how much my uncle David Hildred who drifted across the Atlantic in a Plastic raft, would love to see this tiny island amongst others in the atoll of Raroia.

Raroia is absolute paradise. Picture your stereo-typical tropical island and we were surrounded by these. We laughed when Emilie took a photo of the kids and I said, “you should take the photo from here to get the island with coconut trees in the background” but then looked around, and there were surrounded by countless other coconut clad islands. We visited the Kon Tiki monument, enjoyed some fantastic snorkelling, and enjoyed wingfoiling around the atoll. Even the kids had a go at using the wing while standing on the Sup paddle board. We enjoyed a BBQ on the beach, and I prepared and cracked a coconut to drink for morning tea. We took the 10nm tender along the atoll’s rhim to have a look at the pearl farms, and found endless beauty. True paradise.