Fakarava Review: Atoll Number 8

*Locating Fakarava within the Tuamotus. (Map from* *ontheworldmap.com*)

Fakarava was atoll #8 for us, after Amanu, Hao, Raroia, Makemo, Katiu, Takaroa, and Kauehi. We have some experience now. What I have to say flies in the face of what many others say.

There are a couple of reasons to visit Fakarava, and a few reasons to avoid it. To make a long story short, if you’re on a limited time frame and have to choose only one or two atolls to visit in the Tuamotus - there are far, far better ones than this.

On the plus side, the diving is rumored to be superb. Fakarava’s status as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve hints at the diversity of its underwater life. The South Pass, according to a dive-knowledgeable friend, is rated as one of the top dives in the world, especially if you can time it for the first full moon in July, when the grouper come to the South Pass to spawn and the sharks congregate in numbers of both that are hard to fathom.

Even during non-full moon days in not-July, the shark activity at the South Pass is so dense it’s referred to as the Wall of Sharks. Get about 30 feet down, so I am told, and swim slowly along the steep drop off that goes from the shore down the 60 feet to the bottom of the pass, and you’ll see hundreds of sharks of all kinds, lazily moving with the current and paying absolutely zero attention to you. It’s the place to go for shark immersion therapy to get over any fear of sharks. A friend wistfully said he is sad that so far no shark has come close enough for him to try the “push them on the snout and send them away” trick that apparently works.

Snorkeling the South Pass is certainly interesting, though much of the coral seems to be dying or dead or at least covered in silt. It is a kick to swim with sharks and huge napoleon wrasse, dodging bright blue needlefish or ballyhoo and wondering what it is with the black banner fish.

*Swimming with a black tip reef shark Fakarava South Pass*

Another reason to visit Fakarava is . . . nope, coming up empty.

*One of 4 cruise ships we saw during our time in Fakarava*

I guess if you are wanting to take a lesson in foiling or kiting, the presence of a catamaran-based kite school in the Hirifa anchorage might be a reason. I’m unaware of other schools in the Tuamotus, and this one gets good reviews.

*Screen grab (and color edited) from a video of Jeremy foiling in Hirifa*

The problems with Fakarava start with the anchorage at Rotoava (the settlement), move to the attitudes of the inhabitants, and go from there.

*Full rainbow over Rotoava. Note the number of boats!*

Fakarava, to go with its biosphere protection status, has implemented a number of anchoring restrictions in the atoll. There are exactly 5 places where it is legal to anchor: the North Pass, the airport, Rotoava, Hirifa, and the South Pass. With the exception of Hirifa, the legal places to anchor are deep and dense with coral heads, with water that is not clear. You cannot see a good patch of sand to drop the hook, and anchor floats don’t help a lot if you can’t be sure you’re dropping into a clear place. There are many other places in the atoll where there are good stretches of sandy shelf, but those are off-limits for anchoring. Seems a bit crazy that for a place wanting to save the coral, they’re crowding boats into areas where there is already a lot of coral (with little way to avoid it) and not allowing it in places where the coral is not.

*Sunset looking back behind the boat, reef visible above the water*

The exception to this is Hirifa, in the east end, where there is a good sandy shelf with almost no bommies, and it’s shallow enough you can easily see the bottom and choose your spot. If we had only been to Hirifa, it is possible our perception of the atoll would be quite different. We spent most of our time there, enjoying the calm, the good holding, the good foiling, and chasing bait balls.

*Looking towards the beach from the Hirifa anchorage*

Rotoava, the settlement, is not interested in having cruisers there. This was made abundantly clear to us when the first morning we were anchored there we were approached by a man on a jet ski, who didn’t even bother with a Bonjour before beginning to yell at us that we were not anchored in a proper place (we’d checked on the chart before dropping the anchor) and this was the place for jet skis and we needed to move. Turns out he is the mayor. Just exactly the attitude you want your officials in a place that thrives on tourism to have.

This same unwelcoming attitude was prevalent at the shops, and according to friends, at least one of the restaurants in town, where at a largely empty beach front spot they were seated at the only table that had not been cleared and their silverware placed down deliberately in a puddle of leftover soda or beer.

Provisioning is often cited as one of the reasons to go to Fakarava. A supply ship ostensibly calls every week, delivering produce and other supplies. While IF you time it correctly and are waiting with a crowd of locals and other cruisers to pounce on the cabbages or carrots when they’re unloaded onto a large white table, elbows flying as others also work to get their fresh stuff, you MIGHT find things like sweet potatoes or scallions or kiwifruit that you haven’t seen in months, the prices of everything are sky high. Not just produce, but other staples (like beer) are generally five to 10 percent higher in this atoll than even the smaller ones we’ve visited. One of our visits, though, there was no unleavened flour to be found in any store. None. Not exactly a provisioning slam dunk.

If you’re a diver, the sheer experience of diving in Fakarava to be able to say you’d done it, is likely to top any other concern. If you’re just a cruiser looking to truly experience a beautiful, friendly, tranquil Tuamotus atoll, there are many others that are far, far better.

*Rotoava anchorage on a pretty empty night. Is that a shooting star???*

It wasn’t all bad. We had some good experiences socializing with friends and foiling, snorkeling, and participating in our own version of the NoKings rally. There was also a massive bait ball the last 3 days we were in Hirifa that we took some time to chase around.