Arriving in Tuamotos had to be timed with tide, current and sun...
Entering (and exiting) the Atolls (a small pass in the reef system) had to be timed accurately, otherwise you had "standing waves" at the pass and at times extremely strong current.
All navigation had to be done with "eyeball" sighting as the charts were not accurate.
The Tuamotos are very picturesque...
of course we had to have a fire on the beach, and once burned down, toasted marshmallows
with Dean having his own private island...
Richard and Dean went for a scuba dive through one of the passes
with Richard seeing a huge manta ray - it would have been 15 feet across
(unfortunately no photo)
Most places we anchored we were surrounded by sharks...
At Fakarava Atoll, this local man happily fed this nurse shark
Fakarava was our leaving point to sail to Tahiti - after 3 months Dean was extremely excited with the prospect of seeing Lynnette, who had decided to fly up to meet us
(with Kane and Jess & Deans Mum) however the weather had other thoughts.
A system had come through and was hanging on, meaning that our carefully laid plans of having plenty of time to spare to get to Papeete before her arrival was looking dubious.
We will not take risks with the weather, so with that in mind, Dean booked a flight
The last meal (brunch) (for this part of the journey) aboard Our Rose in Fakarava
then a very short dinghy trip to the dock at the airport
and Dean was on his way.
Thank You so much Deano for joining us for this journey...
You were such a great help on Our Rose and a wonderful friend!
So, as Murphys Law would have it the weather forecast showed perfect conditions for us to sail to Papeete, however on our second night we had 4 hours of 35 knots with lightning everywhere and interesting seas.
We were so thankful to arrive without a strike on Our Rose!
We then sailed to Moorea, where Lynnette had organised a house
and we anchored just off with Our Rose.
We had the most fantastic week of laughter, fun, wine/cocktails and more wine/cocktails
with wonderful food. They had brought up NZ Lamb, Eye Filet, Scotch Filet and we had Tuna aplenty.
The photo below is Me, Lynnette, Anna (Deans Mum) and Jess...
on our "Cocktail Evening"
The two of us, and Anna and me...
Kane and Jess on Our Rose...
Richard did a dive Introduction with Kane & Refresh with Lynnette...
Jess was ready to jump in the Kayak to follow them...
It was sad to see everybody leave and look forward to the next time we see them again,
Wherever that may be!
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