Tahanea, Tuamotu Atolls, French Polynesia – The best laid plans of mice and men

Have you ever heard the saying THE BEST LAID PLANS OF MICE AND MEN?

I am not sure where the saying comes from, but it has been used to describe plans that go astray. Man (and dogs)may be an intelligent creature, who can prepare and plan, but in the end we are no different than mice when it comes to the whims of destiny. And, for the crew of Spirit of Argo, our destiny was about to take a turn for the WORST.

THE SAIL TO AMANU?

I am getting ahead of myself. Last I talked to you we were frolicking around the lagoon of Hao with plans to sail next door to the atoll of Amanu. Well that is where our plans started to go astray. On the day of departure we had the perfect wind and clear skys for our maiden voyage after so many boat repairs. That was until one of my humans ‘wiped out’ getting into the dingy at the village quay in the morning. She managed to ‘chip’ a chunk out of her shine. Delay 1: Half hour to ice leg injury. The luck did not get any better as the morning of departure continued.

Delay 2: Anchor chain wrapped around coral. Despite our best efforts to find a sandy spot for the anchor, and float the bulk of the chain, the shifting winds had wrapped the first section right around a pinnacle of rock and coral. At 12m we could see the mess, tried to untangle it by steering the boar around it, but she was hooked. My humans are rubbish free divers, so out came the dive equipment to sort it out from below.

Delay 3: Of course, no sooner did the humans get back aboard, but the anchor chain caught up on another bommie. A little frustrated with the situation, the windlass circuit breaker tripped. Not good. The circuit breaker is easy enough to reset and is located in the chain locker at the front of the boat. The only problem is the locker is at the end of the forepeak bed and guess where all the spare sails and a couple of months supplies is stored. Yep, you guessed right. A mountain of gear had to be pulled out, stuffed into the main cabin, to get to the chain locker door. With the windlass reset, we managed finally to maneuver the boat around until the chain was free and the anchor up.

The boat was free, but we were not. Hao had kept her hold on us once again. Between getting access to the dive gear, and the windlass circuit breaker, the boat below was a jumbled disaster area. It was now mid day and we no longer had enough time to sail over to Amanu and get safely anchored before dark. The winds were predicted to turn unfavourably the next day. We licked our wounds, swallowed our pride, and limped back to the small boat harbour to moor there until the next weather window.

The weather prediction was northeast winds. Not good for sailing to Amanu…..but good for other atolls. Change of plans!

THE SAIL TO TAHANEA

Northeast winds would be perfect to sail all the way up to the uninhabited atoll of Tahanea (230nm). So we all agreed, we would visit Amanu next season and instead head north to an atoll renowned for its snorkeling and diving. Off we went.

A beautiful sail. Wind and seas coming onto the stern quarter of the boat. Light winds, between 12-17 knots, so we could have the full main and head sail out to stabilize the boat in the swell. All the squalls passed us by and the heavens put on a fabulous light show. Running much faster than we planned, we arrived in under two days at the mouth of the pass into the atoll.

With the sea so calm, we dropped all the sails and drifted waiting for slack water in the pass and the sun to rise high enough we could see the coral heads. We headed in about 9:30 am and found a nice protected sandy spot in 10m just west of the central pass. One of the things that make Tahanea special is it has three passes, close by each other, in the north. That gives those that love snorkeling lots of options for fun. That may have been my humans plans, but destiny was about to put a spanner in the works. BANG!

WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE AND NOT A DROP TO DRINK

Have you guessed from the title what broke next? The water maker. We had been working it very hard lately. The reserve tanks were dry. No rain for months to fill them, and now that we were in the Tuamotus, no springs or mountain rivers either. It was the first time cruising we had gotten so low, so the last thing we needed was for the water maker to break….and it did…in an uninhabited atoll….with no chance of getting any water. We were f*^ked!

Or were we? Most boats would say yes, but we are not most boats. Most boats fit the largest water maker they can, so they run the engine or generator the least number of hours to get the maximum water output. We do not have a generator, so we went the other route. We fitted the smallest water maker we could so it could run all day on the solar panels. We may not be able to get the final output the bigger water makers can, but with the savings, we had a second for spares.

The front plastic plate had cracked. The humans thought it was just from years of fatigue. They took the front plate off the spare and fitted it onto the original and fired her back up. BANG! Not a good sound. The front plate did not break, but now the metal bracket that jointed the pump to the filter piston had sheared. What was that? It was obvious something more was wrong with the water maker. I convinced the humans to ‘sleep on it’. A little tired from the passage, they needed a good night sleep and then they could look at the problem with ‘fresh eyes’ in the morning.

Things did not look any brighter in the morning. No welding equipment to repair the bracket. No idea what was wrong with the water maker to cause the problems and no water left. Squeezing the dredges from the water tanks the humans just had enough to make coffee and contemplate their choices.

TOO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED NEXT YOU WILL HAVE TO ‘TUNE IN’ TO THE NEXT INSTALLMENT. See you tomorrow with the continuing saga.

END.