NOT in Fakarava!

There’s a much longer blog post to come about our escape from Fakarava, but it’s late and I didn’t want to let another week go by without an update.

Final sunset, as it were, from the Rotoava anchorage in Fakarava

We left from the town anchorage at Fakarava on the morning of October 20, code zero set on the pole for the downwind run to the pass. Light winds as expected still gave us a gentle 3.5 knot ride, and then we dropped the pole and headed up to our course for Toau (atoll #9).

Fakarava and Toau are very close to each other (map from ontheworldmap.com)

It’s a short sail, 24 miles anchorage to anchorage, easily done in daylight. We were even towing the dinghy. Fishing lines went out as soon as we cleared the pass at Fakarava. 

We were just about 2 miles from the pass into Toau when BOTH fishing lines went taut at the same time. Jeremy brought one aboard, then dropped the code zero so we could adjust course as needed before grabbing the second line to pull it in.

2 tuna. One bonito (not our favorite), and one big yellowfin. Jeremy took the bonito ashore to gift it to the man who lives here, then came back and spent the next 2 hours processing the yellowfin. There are probably 6 pounds of beautiful tuna in the fridge - and all our boat neighbors were handed bags of ready to cook fish. Not having a freezer means you get to play Santa Claus sometimes.

This is a LOT of fish!

Welcome to Toau!

Image of Toau from NOAA