Pas de Suckage
Sunset moment
We call it “Pas De Suckage” (read with your best French accent, with the last 3 letters of the last word drawn out and emphasized), those glorious “pinch me” moments that just feel like they need to be acknowledged in some understated way. We’ve had so, so many of them, way more than the “THIS SUCKS” ones (once we left the boatyard, that is). Sunsets. Finding cool shells or (ahem) even a glass fishing float. Sunrises. Gloriously gorgeous anchorages.
Sailing in Amanu
Lately, though? Most of these “pas de suckage” moments have come when we’re sailing inside these lagoons.
Zooming along in Hao
Neither of us truly comprehended the scale of these atolls. Knowing that it’s 10 miles from pass to anchorage (Amanu) or 30 miles from one end to another (Makemo) is one thing intellectually, but experiencing it is quite another. Each one of these individual atolls, at least the ones we’ve been to so far, could be considered its own cruising grounds.
Happy skipper, checking sails as we go alongside a bommie in Raroia.
The other aspect of being in the Tuamotus that we weren’t quite expecting? How great the sailing is INSIDE the lagoons. (The usual caveats of sail when the sun is high and behind you, your eyes are your first navigation tools, and don’t blindly trust the weather forecast all apply!) It’s surprising to us how few boats seem to travel under sail inside the atolls, but I guess the bommies are concerning, or maybe it’s too much work to deploy sails for just a couple of hours of travel time.
Makemo magic
There are bonuses of small boat sailing. Easily handled sails is one of them!
Downwind sailing, jib only, in Makemo
We’ve tacked our way across lagoons in 10 knots of wind. Experienced blissful beam reaches where the boat is routinely hitting 7 knots of speed. Sailed wing-on-wing down the coast with only the sound of the hull through the water as our audible companion. The dinghy is usually towed behind (often with the inflated paddle board secured inside), but we’ve been known to hoist it alongside or even, once, bring it on deck athwartships.
Random photo of coconut palm, Katiu
The water inside the lagoons is usually flat calm, with none of the ocean swell we find when we venture out a pass to travel in between atolls. It’s this flat water that makes the lagoon sailing so special to us. It’s a rare sail that doesn’t have us grinning at each other.
Enough wind we needed to reef; flat water means its smooth
Pas de suckage indeed.
Yep, PDS