March 2018

Go East, young man !

The rainy period that I told you about last month dragged on, and as it rendered impractical our favorite anchoring spots in the center Tuamotus, we have, in early February, set sail eastward, towards Hao and Amanu, the only two atolls endowed with deep passes in the eastern part of the archipelago, each enjoying a vast and magnificent lagoon; and the place is little known, despite the quality of the shelter, and the favorable geographical position, very few boats call here, en route to the Gambier archipelago or returning in the month of April. Thus a picturesque sailboat with square sails called here a few days before heading to Mangareva.

And we found good weather again and, the incredible color of lagoons and coral reefs that dot them; when one of these reefs presents a rectilinear shape, perpendicular to the periphery of the lagoon, it is called a "kaoa", and the sailboats that sail the area find an excellent shelter from the sea if not from winds. Sometimes it is in the center of the lagoon that an elongated reef offers shelter; in the center of Amanu, a particularly spectacular reef is called the "pito", in Polynesian: the navel...

So many beautiful places to fly our little drone... That's it, I'm almost comfortable taking of and landing from the deck of the boat, hence the series of beautiful images of our anchorages that illustrates this letter . For those of you who know our habit of getting close to the beaches to walk ashore in a meter of water, and who are surprised on these photos to see us anchored offshore, it's just that the temperatures at this time of the year are a little too high and we prefer to stay well away from the shore, and preferably facing one of the false channels that separate two neighboring "motu", the "hoa".