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8. day - 06/08/2007 - It was raining nearly all day so we went to see the other sailing boat for the day. Here we met with Lee who is a singlehandler sailor with his 42 feet Hallberg Rassy. He has already been singlehandled once the world around.
Meanwhile the local motorboats were very busy in the lagoon. They were preparing everything for the next day Kon-Tiki celeration. The celebration was planned to take place at the opposite side of the lagoon where the Kon-Tiki arrived 60 years ago and which was more miles from the anchoring place. They delivered there the hand made tents and other things.. |
9. day - 07/08/2007 - In the morning airplanes arrived from Tahiti. Many guests (including the Vice-President of Tahiti) and photographers arrived. They were transfered to the other side of the lagoon with motorboats, where the celebration was planned to take place.
Lee (neighbouring sailing boat) arrived early in the morning and he took us to his sailing boat where we changed the engine on his dinghy. It was a 30 horsepower engine so he needed help to swap it. We made the 6 miles ride with him on his dinghy and we became a bit wet during the journey because a quick squall hit us badly. But all together it looked it would be a sunny day. We followed another motorboat in the lagoon, as we did not know where were the coral reefs. We motored round the corals in
the spur of the boat before us.
When we arrived to the island everything had been nicely prepared. There were tents made of the leeves of palmtrees, girls who were giving flowers necklaces to every guests and boys offering coconut drinks. Olav and Thor Heyerdahl (grandsons of Thor Heyerdahl) were welcomed on the island and the photoghraphers started their shoots. We were also busy with photographing and recording videos.
The ceremony was quick. There were some speeches, songs and pray. A plaque was also uncovered which was donated by the Kon-Tiki Museum of Oslo.
Then the traditional Tuamotuan seafood started to be served with some music in the background. The food was dug underground on glowing embers the previous day to make them cooked for the day. People today do not really cook this kind of food in their everyday life only at fiestas. There were fish, squids, turtle and other nice food we could choose. The dish was also made of natural leaves. After lunch we had time to swim a little in the turquoise water of the lagoon. We saw some small sharks around
for example the black tipped shark. They did not look dangerous.
In the afternoon we said good-bye to everyone we knew and returned to the boat. We admire the work of the locals they put in this celebration and into the preparation work. We enjoyed every part of the party. |
10. day - 08/08/2007 - In the night we woke up for a very strong wind, the boat was shaking. The lagoon is around 6 miles wide and the anchoring place is on the western side. The trade wind comes from the east and it has 6 miles long place to make bigger waves in the atoll. We could not sleep so we switched on the windmeter. It was around 20-25 and we experienced nearly 1 meter waves which rolled the boat. We also found that the anchor chain went strait down to underwater although it should have work with the contraction
- release method indeed. It seemed that the chain had got stuck on a coral head.
The dangeour was this time that there were too much stress on the bow of the boat. We had to release the the chain somehow. We brought a rope and tied it to the chain at two points then we let out more chain leaving the rope to take over the work from the chain. The rope had enough flexibility to replace the chain temporary. We had not got enough place to let out more chain because there were some corals behind. We decided to sleep with the anchor alarm of the GPS. But everything was fine until morning
when we started the reanchoring. So this is the problem with its anchoring place, but it is also possible to drop the anchor at the other eastern side of the atoll.
We started our busy day with fixing the leaking parts of our dinghy. Most of our glues were dry but we found one we could try to work with. This is usual with the rubber dinghies the sun and heat can cause some problems on them. But the waves were still strong we did not want go on shore this day. When we finished with the work we knew we had some time to dry it. It usually takes around 24 hours.
There are many fish around the boat and they eat everything even the skin of the potato.
At around lunch time Hafskip sailing vessel turned up and was looking for anchoring place. It was so funny that we did not discuss at Marquesas where we were going to go, but they chose the same island as we. So we made a traditional Hungarian been gulash party on board with them and with Lee. |
11. day - 09/08/2007 - This is our holiday!. |
12. day - 10/08/2007 - Lee was coming in the morning with a more than 1-meter long tuna with him. He caught it outside of the atoll which part is not affected by the fish poisoning. Then he left to have some sushi in the morning. After a while he came back with some tuna filets.
Lunch ? - he asked.
So after we placed the fixed dinghy on water we started to prepare lunch and again Lee and Hafskip were invited. The tuna had huge and nice slices.. |
13. day - 11/08/2007 - We accomplished our plans from the previous day and got on shore. We looked at the settlement after the celebration. It was very calm. We walked to the outside ring of the atoll where the ocean swells break and we found nice rock forms.
We walked to the edge of the island and we were supprised that people used cars here. We estimate only around 1 hour walk from one edge of the atoll to the other. We walked also along the runway of the airport. Today there was not any flight from Tahiti.
When we arrived back to the dinghy it was full with water. It was tied to a coconut tree safely but the increasing waves hit it. We could not pull out from the water it was very heavy so we started to bail out the water, but some waves filled it again. After we had won over the waves we returned back to the boat.. |
14. day - 12/08/2007 - We left for visiting a new atoll. This atoll was Tahanea, which is around 130 miles from Raroia. We had a good wind 15-20-25 knots all day and we were running and broad reaching by 5-6-7 knots. The waves became stronger, but we could stabilise the boat in the good wind. We passed Taenga and Makemo atolls during the passage.. |
15. day - 13/08/2007 - We arrived at Tahanea at around lunchtime. We planned the journey very well and it was high tide, which meant the current was going into the atoll. So the atoll pulled us in with around 3 knots. It was really easy to get in. There was not any reef or rock around either so we could easily turn out from the current and we could reach the anchoring place. There were two French boats here and they said hello. After two hours another sailing boat arrived. For our surprise it was Lee and he was coming
in with a stronger current and reached around 10 knots of speed in the entrance. He told us that he went to Makemo the previous day but the anchorage was bad sheltered there so he left the next day. In these days there were really strong wind sometimes above 20 knots.
This anchorage is well protected from the trade wind and ocean waves mostly behind the coconut trees. Tahanea is uninhabited atoll and you can live on this island like Robinson. You can go fishing, collect crabs, lobsters or coconuts. People say that this is the only atoll where there is not fish-poisoning. We did not want to try it, as there is not any hospital around.
After the sunset we went catching lobsters with Lee. In the pacific it is possible to catch them without diving. The perfect time is when there is not moon. In the dark they climb near shore. It was perfect timing, as there was not moon. We started to search the lobsters with the flashlights. They freeze themselves for the light and with gloves it is easy to catch them. We found them at the entrance of the atoll but there were not too many
Daily positions:
01:00 16-22.20S 144-01.30W log= 22284.0
12:00 16-50.39S 144-42.00W log= 22332.2
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16. day - 14/08/2007 - We chose Tahanea because people say that the snorkeling is amazing here. In the morning the two French boats left so we stayed only with Lee on this island. Lee arrived with two groupers. He caught them with his dinghy by pulling a line behind him. We heard that there was not fish poisoning here but we were still afraid of the sickness if accidently still there were any. So we let the fish go alive finaly although they looked gorgeous species.
In the afternoon we went snorkeling. First we tried to row against the wind with the dinghy then we let ourselves go down with it. We watched the coral heads while we were drifting. Some of the corals were clear white with blue and black fish around. When we swam close to them the fish disappeared in the coral head. Near the entrance we saw many colourful parrotfish and I found one beautiful shell that I took to make some pictures of it. Then we let it go alive. We went to drift snorkeling with Lee
to the path of the entrance. The corals were very nice and the water was clear however we did not see too many fish. We saw some small ones and some big groupers near the bottom. We were curious about the underwater world, but the sharks were also curios about us. It was understandable as we entered their world. We saw 2 bigger grey reef sharks (around 2 meters) passing us and also one followed us for a while but only because of the curiosity. We also saw some blacktip reef sharks but they were
only around 1 meter long. They usually follow the dinghy but if we jump into the water they go away quickly. It is not suggested using spear gun when they are around.
Although the temperature is hot 30-31 degrees Celsius at daylight the neopren suit is good in the water if we plan to spend more time in it. The nights are cooler around 24 degrees Celsius |
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