Moving on...

Havaiki Resort

We left South Pass Fakarava and sail back up to the north anchorage,  off the village of Rotoava.  It was hard to break away form our friends on Breeze, but it’s time for us to get moving along. Americans only have a three months visa in French Polynesia.  Since, we entered the Marquesas April 19th, our visa ends July 19th…so it’s time to go! We need to re-provision (read beer)  before we head out to another atoll called Toau. We also have new guests on board:

Rob and Bri join us on Wizard

Meet Rob and Bri…they are young professionals from Missoula, Montana who quit their jobs to travel the South Pacific offering to work as crew along the way. We offered to give them a ride to the next atoll, and if they can’t find another boat  to take them to other atolls, we'll give them a ride to Tahiti. We are enjoying their energy and they LIKE TO COOK!  Lucky for me! It’s a win-win situation!

A very scary  incident happened on our way back up the channel to North Fakarava…as we had read in our chart guide to be watchful of the coral heads or “bommies”, we had two people on deck  looking out as well as the chart plotter instruments showing the course dotted with coral reefs to steer clear of. All was good, except for one moment, when we were  all talking in the cockpit, sailing along at 6 knots when …BLAMM!! OMG! We hit a coral head and stopped flat out! We're stuck atop a coral rock  with the genoa still pulling! Quick! We assess the damage…we look at each other… everyone's OK.  Quick! Check the bilge…no water coming in. Good. Check  the hull…Rob dives in under the boat…no holes, only slight impact fracture in the paint along 2 ft of the keel. Seems OK.  Ouick, furl in the sail!  We can’t believe what just happened!  We're shocked! We check the charts to see what did we hit? Is the reef charted? We don’t see it on the charts! We double check our course and see that we were just barely outside the channel  and here was a big coral rock that we hit! We  check for personal damage: I had lurched into a cabin bench below, so I have a big leg bruise, Bri lunged forward down the companionway and sprained her hand, and some things flew into the cabin, John slammed into the helm, but, all in all, no visible damage. Wizard is a solid boat that with stood a full on hit! We are amazed!  We  have learned a lesson that we must NEVER let our eyes off the look-out. Not even for one moment.  We will have the hull checked out in Tahiti, but it looks OK to us and we didn’t sink…we drop the sail and with engine on,  power in reverse off the rock. On our way we go… WHEW! That was a close one...

The community gathers for a church service everyday.

In Rotoava, we reprovision the boat. Our favorite store, Magazin Rotoava saved us two dozen eggs, again from the last delivery. Sweet. We load up on supplies; beer, peanut butter, chocolate...the usual.

Calm waters in Fakarava

June23
The anchorage is so calm and flat as a lake. The weather forecasts no wind for 5 days. It's idyllic. We paddle board, snorkel and hang out.  It's hot with no wind! We watched a thresher shark cruise around under our dinghy. Remoras hang out under the boat along with all kinds of schools of small fish.

 We had lunch today  at the Havaiki Resort,  a charming beach bungalow retreat on the water where you can get those "fruity drinks" with flowers and sit in the water under thatched palapas...we didn't, but you can.

Havaiki Pension and Restaurant

Looks like fun to eat at a table in the water...

The poisson cru (raw fish) was awesome!

Our first begging tropical cat was hard to resist!

Docking at the Havaiki Resort

Quiet, calm and uncrowded

When we first pulled in to anchor there were only 5 boats here. Now, there are 16.  Must be the cruiser season. Most stop in Fakarava for the scuba diving and to re-supply before heading on to Tahiti.

Tomorrow we too will be heading out…first stop will be the atoll of Toau.
Let you know more later….