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Mischief - Mischief making Log 17 Further adventures of S/Y Mischief through the eyes and ears of Chas Baynes



Day 35 Tuesday 3 April 2018 - Arrival Makemo atoll - where is everyone?

A quiet night on the whole with the wind dropping but with engine running at 2,100 rpm giving us about 7.5 knots.
I awoke to a flat sea and blue sky with Easterly 10 knots breeze. Made the schoolboy error of not disposing of the Cadbury chocolate bar wrapper from the cockpit which had consisted of 2 squares of chocolate only but promptly accused on change of watch of eating the whole bar! Wendy and I had one square each with a coffee, honest! We made up for it by having a sword fight with a couple of stale French sticks; Aramis v Dartagnan aka Wendy and Chas. All for crumbs and crumbs for all!

Our 0630 position fix gives us around 36 nm to run on 205 degrees to Makemo northwesternmost pass, Passe Tapuhiria, which we ought to reach around 1130 this morning.

At 0800 we had a bite on one of the static lines, literally. Whatever it was took the whole lot, lure, muppets and a lot of line. What was I saying only yesterday about lures and big fish? Case in point.

Having only just said that again how wrong can you be? The rod bent a little as I was watching it then whoosh off it went. Dave made a grab for it as I slowed the boat and this huge Mahi Mahi leapt out of the water some way off and crashed back in and bent the rod double. Dave played it like an expert and eventually brought it to the stern where I gaffed it and lifted it onto the boat - a 14kg brute of a thing, absolutely beautiful in greens and blues. Seemed a shame but we soon killed it and filleted it by which time we were closer to the atoll and hey presto, Land Ahoy!! I got the Blue Peter Badge as I noticed palm trees on the horizon, the tallest objects on the island.

1145 we were motoring through the pass taking great care to stay in the deeper water with different colours signifying different depths and coral. It is best to guide the boat in by sight from the bow using polarized sunglasses to cut out the glare, with the sun from behind or above.

We were expecting to find another yacht Alora at anchor inside but there was no sign of them nor anything else for that matter - completely deserted. Alas, she had gone to the more easterly Passe Arikitamiro which is some 30 miles away next to the village of Pouheva - no doubt with a bar. The thing is, Alora had given us detailed instructions on entrance over the radio and we had come in by a different entrance - doh! All we have here is complete solitude and reef sharks.

We dropped the anchor in 10m then swam to check its lie as the water is crystal clear and wonderfully warm. The chain is lying around a coral rock and then 40 degrees off to the left so may prove a problem to retrieve but we live in hope. We swam around the boat for a couple of hours with scrapers to clear some of the weed that had grown around the waterline - we only did this two weeks ago in Tahuata and is even worse now with green weed two inches long along the waterline reducing to a thin covering the deeper it went with the keel relatively clean. Obviously the weed grows more prolifically near the surface and the sunlight. The anti-fouling paint is not working!

The sharks around these parts are very sleek and graceful Black tipped reef sharks and the bigger ones (they are quite big take it from me!) have little very bright yellow fish swimming alongside. They appear initially curious and content to cruise around leaving us alone, thankfully! It makes for fantastic snorkeling with the occasional burst of brown adrenaline as one comes in for a closer look.

It is so peaceful here it is eerie. But there is one way to cure that - put Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers on the stereo at full volume with a cold beer in hand whilst we await dinner of FISH!

We are going to leave tomorrow, given we are social beings and the others are in the other anchorage, to head off towards the next atoll, Fatarava so need to retrace our steps at slack water at lunchtime. Meanwhile here's to Tom Petty! And dinner is ready……

Wendy later on decided to liven things up a little by feeding a tin of tuna over the stern swim platform to the sharks and caused a feeding frenzy - loads of them came for their tea. Just remind me not to go sleep walking tonight!


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