14 Days in Makemo

Yep this is what happens when you arrive in port on Reverie - BLOG
STOPS.

We really try but there are just so many other distractions.
Anyway back to Makemo...

After stirring in the morning after our arrival we just sat and
enjoyed the lack of movement on the boat!

It was quite odd not to be moving. The lagoon in Makemo is quite
large but with the wind blowing off shore it was like Reverie was
sitting on concrete, very flat and calm.

There were two other boats in the anchorage. One French who was
anchored way out near a coral head and the other an Italian boat
which was not too far from us. We later found out that the Italian
boat had come through the Pacific the year before and spent the
summer in New Zealand. They then sailed back from NZ back to Tahiti
then into the Atolls. Tough sailing from NZ to Tahiti as you
basically have to sail a few thousand miles in the southern ocean
before heading north to Tahiti. We asked them how their trip was....
"very tough" they said. They were having their family fly out from
Italy to spend a couple of weeks with them in the atolls - they have
moved on from Makemo but we will see them again in Tahanea.

So after our passage of 20 days we thought it was time to stretch
our
legs, so we launched the dinghy and ventured off ashore. Well we
noticed that there had been some changes in 3 years - a few
more mini stores had been built and one grande supermarche! Yipeeeee
we were in heaven - we could buy everything from Cadbury's
chocolate, nutella, bottled starbucks frappacino and even timtams
and twisties!! Our only challenge was that we had USD (and nobody
wants that here! in fact nobody wants it anywhere any more!),
luckily
the large supermarket takes credit card, and were happy to change
our money for a questionable rate!

Our prime object was to find some fruit and veg as after 20 days at
sea we were really low on fresh stuff - but we were easily
side-tracked and came out with a couple bags of junkfood, and
ice-cream instead. Lucky that Makemo now gets fruit and veg
delivered once a week by plane from Papeete, Tahiti - so we had our
junk food fix and picked up some healthy stuff the following day.

While walking around Makemo almost all people will say hi, some will
even stop for a chat it's all very friendly, totally safe and very
relaxed. People don't lock their cars, houses, bikes, boats etc..
Lovely!

It wasn't long until we met up with Benoit our friend we met when we
were here 3 years ago!. Benoit teaches at the local technical
school. As most of the Tuamotu atolls are quite small there are only
a few islands that look after secondary and technical education.
Makemo is one of the atolls that has a Technical school and has
students from other nearby atolls attend their courses. It's
only a small school (80 students) but it caters for all the basic
skills.

After only a few minutes with Benoit we were invited to his house
for Sunday lunch.

Arriving at Benoit's is quite easy, you take the dinghy from the
boat, head up the atoll a little and head in at the first house pass
the wind farm ( 6 wind generators). Benoit has a view that in
Australia, in fact anywhere in the western world would command a
price tag of 10 million dollars+, he looks over the magnificent
Makemo lagoon, leading into his house is a small pass through the
coral reef that you can drive a small boat through. He even has a
small Motu ( island) built out the front / back of his house with a
small fare ( local house / 4 posts and a roof) on the Motu all with
a coconut palm! As we arrive we are met with his three kids Kizito,
Unaki, and Desuba ( when we were here three years ago Desuba was on
her hands and knees crawling around Reverie cockpit, now she's a
very cute 4 yr old Polynesian girl with a fast growing English
vocabulary).

Lunch at Benoit's was typical French ( Benoit is French, came here
about 15 years ago, married his wife Cecile - Polynesian) It was
long, lots of wine, the local Tahiti brew "Hinano" - great beer,
food, cheese and chit chat. We leave much later and schedule in
dinner for two days time, that will also include two other French
folks who we also met three years ago ( the local school Principal
and his wife).

The next day we had some administration to take care of, after our
debacle in the Galapagos ( see past updates) we needed to check
into the country, we were hoping this would be easy but had a
slight degree of nerves. Ahhh the French, life could not be
more relaxed for these guys, we met with the local Gendarmerie (
police) he could have not been more relaxed about things, he took
our details, stamped our passports gave us a simile and said "Au
revoir" That done we were set.

Well, what we planned to be a quick stop in Makemo turned out to be
a longer stop that we found hard to break from, dinner, lunches &
drinks with Benoit and others in town made it very hard to leave.
But we had to make the call and head out. We were both quite sad to
be leaving as we were becoming very attached to the small community
of Makemo and it's stellar location. Makemo is not on the regular
tourist map, infact it's not really on the cruising map either, they
do get
a few boats come through, but not many. This meant that our two
weeks anchored in the main town "Pouheva" was noticed, people would
ask "are you from the Blue boat"... we were always greeted with
smiles, actually it gets tiring saying hello to every one who
passes you and trying to beat them to the "hello"... they always get
you first!. Such a nice sincere custom and way of life that you miss
in western cities. Imagine everyone who walks past you says hello -
and they really mean it! it's wonderful!!

With sad eyes we pulled the anchor and motored North West through
the atoll, passing Benoit's house we were given a wonderful goodbye
with palm leaves waving, the three kids and Benoit all out on the
Motu waving us off - we will be back for sure. Both of us had wet
eyes as we headed north.

Half way up the Atoll we stopped in a small protected area, the
water was clear and the beaches looked like they were created from a
travel brochure - perfect..

Makemo Atoll is long and thin, 55km long and 11km wide running
in a NW /SE direction. The trade winds typically blow SE, so
finding a nice protected anchorage could be a challenge. But half
way
up the atoll is a long finger of a reef that you can tuck in behind
which we did. It was flat, clear, and as we said great beaches!. We
spent a few days here before making our way right to the "top" of
the Atoll where the second pass is.

Up near the second pass the anchorage is deep and full of coral
heads and totally exposed to the trade winds when they are blowing.
Three years ago we spent a crap night here with "Safari" (some
awesome friends!) with winds blowing up to 45 knots and rolling
seas, not this time, it was calm, flat and super clear water. If you
wanted to snorkel to see the bottom you could do it and stay dry, as
leaning over the dinghy and looking down gives you a stunning view
of below, there could be no water there at all! It really is that
clear!

Two days later we were off to one of the best places in the south
pacific ( our opinion) The Atoll of "Tahanea".

J&J