I was on the early shift from 5am after a very good night’s sleep. The sunrise was absolutely stunning it could have been a sunset it was so red, with a sliver of moon out. I had a terrible time last night with a red light out ahead on the horizon but nothing showing up on the radar, I could only see a bigger red light with the binoculars. I was just getting a bit twitchy and wondering when I should wake Rowan when it disappeared. I sat there pondering for a while if that was good news it had gone or should I be more worried. Suddenly it came to me, it might have been Mars dropping below the horizon! I couldn’t believe how big it was and how red. I watched Orion’s belt for about half an hour and watched it sink below the horizon, so consoled myself it must have been Mars. Quite extraordinary, how bright red it was.
We had made such good distance that we were hoping to make the morning slack tide for the pass into Rangiroa rather than have to wait for midday. By 7:30am Rowan was back up and we watched a boat go through the pass ahead of us which was reassuring. It is quite a narrow long pass and has to be approached correctly. As in our blind pass at Tauo there are two beacons a reasonable distance apart, you have to line them up to get the angle right for the approach. Such a clever, old fashioned system which is still in use. We got through no problem, turning right after the pass into the anchorage. There were quite a few boats to negotiate but we found a nice open wide space in not too deep water. We put out all our 4 buoys that we have scavenged and a fender and hope like mad that we don’t get tangled with a bommie.
Once we were settled we went to a beach nearby that did not look private and had a couple of hours reading under a very shady tree. Later in the afternoon we went into the dinghy dock with my shopping trolley and bags to do a bit of provisioning. The main supermarket was just down the road, but absolutely empty with nothing fresh at all, except some manky onions. Rowan asked the lady at the till when the next supply boat was due in and she said she had no idea. She was rather rude and the shop was dire so we left with all our bags still empty! We walked a little further along and found a lovely palm lined road leading towards the pass, we followed it down and found a rather nice low key hotel and restaurant, with a huge terrace right on the water’s edge. The water was roaring through the pass quite dramatically, you can really understand why you need to wait for slack tide to come through. It was lovely and shady with a cool breeze coming from the sea, so we decided to have a beer and contemplate what we were going to do. The French hostess told us that supermarket we went to was terrible, the two better ones are in the next village along about 6kms away. Too hot for that, but she said the little CocoCola corner shop was pretty good and we should try it. We booked in for supper tomorrow night as they were full tonight. We returned down the road and found the the corner shop and were overjoyed to find some good looking fresh veg, we stocked up on tomatoes and carrots, and some fruit, plus chocolate and a few essentials, like beer at £5 a can!
Always a bit tired after an overnight passage we were ready for bed pretty early.
Sunrise, you can just see the moon on the photo on the far right
Half an hour later, the colour has gone from the sky, the sea looks like an oil slick it is so flat, absolutely no wind!
The two white markers in the far distance need to be lined up for the approach
The two white markers lining up and choppy waters of the pass
There was quite a chop in the pass but relatively calm with only 2 knots of current
Flat waters the other side, and a little island (motus) we have to get around
Our restaurant on the pass where we enjoyed a delicious cold beer
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