RIKITEA
If you come to the Gambier Islands, there is no avoiding the main village of Rikitea. Situated on the largest island of the group it has the only links with the ‘outside’ world.
For those first arriving by boat to this southeastern corner of French Polynesia, Rikitea is where you check into the country. It is also where missionaries first landed and started the spread of Catholicism. So you will find lots of churches and missions.
Rikitea is the only village with an internet connection and the only island the monthly supply ships stop at. It is the only place in the Gambier you are going to find a bakery, shops and restaurants. But I will warn you, do not get your expectations too high, everything is a little simpler out here and ‘broad band’ speed is non-existent. To compensate they have an egg farm, so lots of very fresh eggs, and the best baguettes we have tried yet in French Polynesia.
For anyone anxious to stretch their legs, well marked trails lead up both of the islands highest peaks with views out over all the other islands in the group. For many cruisers that have just crossed the Pacific, Rikitea is a little slice of heaven to recover from the battering’s of the sea.
THE ANCHORAGE – A blessing and a curse.
The anchorage off Rikitea is well protected from the sea by a series of shallow reefs. These gives boats protection from the force of the sea swell, but does allow some wind driven chop in at high tide. The route over the reefs would be difficult to follow if it were not for the number of well placed channel markers. The channel is wide enough to get supply ships in, but is unlit at night.
The village and harbour is on the east side of the island, and the dominate winds come from the east. This means the wind blows straight into the anchorage, but the reefs block most of the swell. The wind direction may keep the bugs down, but for boaters this makes the island a lee shore. For non- boating types, this means the wind is trying to blow the boats ashore. The only thing stopping them is a small anchor and a length of chain. Not a desirable situation to be in.
Despite the perils of the anchorage boats flock here when the weather looks to turn nasty. Why you ask? Well for some it is the all round protection from waves, others the chance to fill their days with hikes and internet while the weather is foul, and for the finally lot, well they just never got around to going anywhere else in the Gambiers.
SO WHY ARE WE HERE? – We got caught by the weather when a supply ship come in.
We knew some strong winds were expected, but so was one of the those precious supply ships. We thought we could slip into port and back out before the weather hit. We would have made it too, but we were too wimpy to head out in the rainy weather that struck before the winds. ‘Oh well’ we thought ‘Looks like we will have lots of fried egg baguettes for the next few days’. With good holding and the reef for protection the anchorage should have been perfectly safe for the coming winds, but you always forget the ‘human factor’. Humans make mistakes…..but never us dogs!
For once (make a note of this) I do not have to moan about my humans mistakes. Looking at the charts, taking some advice from friends and putting a beach for me ahead of being closer to the docks, the humans decided to anchor in the furthest north end of the harbour. It is a little further to get to the dingy dock from this end of the harbour, by about 5 minutes, so not too many boats like to anchor here. But this end has a little reef sticking out that blocks the waves coming down the mouth of the channel.
At the centre of the harbour cruiser did, what cruisers do. The majority tried to anchor as close as they could to the dingy dock area. You can’t blame them. Who wants to waste precious fuel or get wet going ashore? But what happens is everyone ends up anchored too close together. When the winds get up they find themselves in a situation were they can not let out more anchor chain or are swinging into their neighbours when the wind shifts direction. Usually a combination of both.
The first big gusts hit in the early hours before dawn. We were all up like a shot to check on the anchor. From the cockpit we viewed one of our neighbours sailing by. His anchor had let go, but he was on the helm and motoring forward. He had anchored out in front of us the day before. When we ran into him later, he admitted he did not let enough anchor chain out as he ended up too close to us.
Rule #1- If you are not 100% happy with where you are anchored, re-anchor.
Rule #2- Always put out ‘more than’ enough anchor chain to take up the shock of your boat pulling on your anchor. A friend said it well ‘No use running aground with chain still in your locker’.
You would figure, by the time cruisers make it out this far, they would know how to anchor. But then again, my humans have had to ‘live and learn’ and they still make silly mistakes. As the gusting winds swooped in, as expected, more and more boats in the centre of the harbour started to drag or had to move to avoid collisions. With everyone spreading out things started to settle down. No one hurt, no one run aground and no boats damaged in the end.
So you see, even in paradise some wind and rain must fall. Stay safe out there.
