0800 Position 14-27S 145-58W. At anchor in the lee of Pahereroa Motu, Manihi Atoll, Tuamotu Archepelago
I was confident that coming up on the shallow waters surrounding Manihi Atoll would mean fish, but we had no luck with our two lines out. Rob has found another cedar plug, and he put that out next to my contemporary resin head. The plug probably scared all the fish away.
The Tuamotus is an archipelago of approximately seventy eight atolls, the coral remnants of the once high islands that eroded away millions of years ago. The atolls are all similar, a ring of low coral rubble islands atop a circular reef that surrounds a large lagoon. Most of the atolls have one or more channels through the reef that boats can use to get into the lagoons. Manihi has one channel into its sixty square mile lagoon.
There is not much tide here, just a foot or so, but the only way for all the water in these atoll lagoons to get out when the tide is falling is through the channels. It was approaching low tide when we arrived outside Manihi's channel at 10AM, and the tide was racing out. The pass is about fifty yards wide though and the cruising guides say it is deep enough, so we gave it a go. It was heart in the throat stuff. We were powering at seven and a half knots but only moving at one and a half knots over the ground. Six knots of current mixes the water up pretty good, and we were being pushed all over the place at times. The shallowest portion of the channel was at the inner end where we could see the water level drop about six inches as it accelerated from the calm of the lagoon into the rushing river of the channel. We never saw less than sixteen feet of depth though and made it into the lagoon unscathed.
Once inside the sheltered water of the lagoon the only danger was uncharted coral heads, but that was no problem with a good lookout. It was blowing more than twenty knots, and we needed to find a sheltered anchorage. The village by the pass was exposed, so we powered across the lagoon and along the motus until we found a nice spot in the lee of Pahereroa Motu and tucked behind a reef. The anchor went down at 1130AM in fifty six feet of water.
Rob had a list of boat projects he wanted to get finished before we pick up Rene in Rangiroa in a couple of days, so he got started on them. Mike, Bill, and I launched the dinghy and went in to the motu to explore and dive the edge of the reef.
I foolishly forgot my slippers so I couldn't walk far on the sharp coral rubble that forms the motus. Bill and Mike disappeared into the coconut palm and scrub jungle and made it all the way to the ocean side of the motu before heading back. They said it was unremarkable. These motus are all privately owned and most have at least one house like structure on them. Occupation must be seasonal though, and this isn't the season, because nearly all of the structures appeared to be uninhabited.
The water in the lagoon was like a bath. The water temperature here is 86.5 degrees, a degree warmer than the open ocean. When I dive in these lagoons I always tow the dinghy because there are always sharks around. I've seen the black tip sharks get aggressive and when they do it is wise to get out of the water immediately. We only saw one shark, a five foot black tip, that darted into the deep water between Bill and I. The giant clams with their iridescent blue, brown, yellow and green lips were a new experience for Bill and Mike, but there wasn't much else that was special.
This is our calmest anchorage since leaving California. The rolly open roadsteads of the Marquesas are behind us, and we should have all calm anchorages like this in protected lagoon waters until we depart the Society Islands in July.
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