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Mischief - Mischief making Log 18 Further adventures of S/Y Mischief through the eyes and ears of Chas Baynes



Day 36 Wednesday 4 April 2018 - Makemo then en route Fakarava

Such a quiet night at anchor - the boat was rock steady and the only sounds were the waves breaking on the outside of the lagoon on the reefs, one or two ducks calling and a more ominous sound of fins splashing the surface of the water as sharks circled the boat in the dark.

As morning came we snorkeled over to a nearby coral reef and were surprised by the number and variety of fish to be found. There were a couple of reef sharks that followed us over initially but they seemed to lose interest and we didn't see too many.

By 1145 we were back on board and addressing the anchor issue - the chain had wedged under a coral head during the night in 10m water and had bitten into it making it potentially difficult to lift. We motored over the chain and I took up the slack on the windlass and the coral head broke with a clump and the chain sped up into the locker. Not a problem at all but we will rig an anchor tripping line in the future just in case the anchor itself gets wedged which may be a different matter altogether.

Just as we were leaving there was a local diving boat which seemed to be depositing divers into the water around the reef we had just swum around. It turns out they were spear fishing there so very pleased not to be in the water whilst they were engaged in that as the sharks get attracted by the fish in distress and take a very keen interest - the feeding frenzy yesterday off the back of the boat was as near as I would want to be to a feeding shark! But the divers were oblivious to the fact and carried on regardless with one chap towing a floating collection basket and the other two fishing away. They seemed to be catching quite a few. The trouble is that, by definition, the fish they were catching were reef fish and the books say there is ciguatera in these here parts so perhaps they were only after the smaller ones with less risk, but who knows.

We were however a little early and the tide was still ebbing out of the lagoon and with the entrance being so narrow the water speeds up. Being behind you makes it difficult to steer as the boat needs its own motion through the water to attain steerage way; we ended up sluicing out at 5 knots which is too fast to stop in an emergency but we were alright as we were retracing our inward track on the chartplotter.

The wind outside the lagoon was really light, only 5 knots from NE so we were sailing at 2.5 knots. We were not in a hurry but it does get to you after a while and when the wind dropped still further that was the decider and on went the engine on low revs doing 4 knots - we don't want to arrive too early at Fakarava atoll south entrance as we will be hanging around again to await the slack water around 1pm.

1700 we are still motoring in no wind and calm seas on a bearing on 269 degrees at 4.5 knots - due west towards Fakarava between two atolls Kaitu and Tuanake - again so low lying you can only make out the palm trees indicating their presence. At least we are heading into open water for the overnight passage and there is nothing about for miles. Luckily we still have plenty of fuel!

At around 1900 I went and sat on the upturned dinghy on the foredeck to watch the approach of darkness as the sun had dipped below the horizon - not a trace of the mythical "Green Flash" you occasionally experience in the Caribbean, even though there was no cloud on the horizon. However, the colours on display were breathtaking with deep orange, almost red, on the horizon working upwards to a light orange higher in the sky reflecting off high light clouds, with contrasting dark clouds and deep blue sky then to dark overhead with the early stars behind. Meanwhile Dave and Trevor were convinced there was a yacht's mast head navigation lights ahead as there was a portion of the light showing occasionally white and occasionally red; I thought it was a planet - Mars probably and was proved right as it eventually disappeared below the horizon. On the other hand it could have been a yacht and it had just sunk! Oh well, you just get the staff nowadays………

Meanwhile we motor on slowly into the night.

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