After spending a decent amount of time in Fakarava, a famous scuba spot in the Tuamotus of French Polynesia, it was time to leave “civilization” and sail to the isolation available in Tahanea. Tahanea has no cell service or full time residents. No stores or supplies; only a pristine, undeveloped atoll.
Though we have many events to write about, I thought I would share this short post about our sail to Tahanea. A quick peek into a lovely daysail.
We upped anchor in the predawn light, which is 5 a.m. here, and set sail on the 80 nm passage to Tahanea. Our plan was to arrive in time to drop anchor before sunset.
The conditions were a little choppy when we first left the Fakarava, but the sail was actually quite nice. Our true wind angle, once we turned toward Tahanea, was around 80-90 degrees and the true wind speed varied between 11-16 with a few gusts here and there.
Even though TTR was well stocked and filled with fuel, we managed to complete the trip in just over 8 hours, averaging 9.8 knots of boat speed under main and reacher.
Frank and I are really thankful that Ticket to Ride is fast enough for us to complete these passages in daylight hours rather than requiring an overnight trip. As much as we enjoyed our first sailboat, Let It Be, this passage would have required an overnight sail on LIB rather than a long daylight cruise.
When we dropped anchor in Tahanea, we were the only boat in the anchorage. A delightful happenstance that lasted three full days. We took advantage of our solitude and the beautiful weather with refreshing swims after morning workouts, scuba dives in the pass and toasting each sunset.
So there you have it, a short post about a daylight trip from the famous Fakarava atoll to the remote, undeveloped atoll of Tahanea.
As always, thank you for stopping by to read our blog. If you want to hear from us more often, please visit us on Facebook or Instagram. Wishing you good health and fun adventures.
Ticket to Ride 
I didn’t realize TTR was significantly faster than LIB. Interesting tidbit. Thanks MG.
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Yes, Pat, TTR has a bigger sail plane, is lighter, has dagger boards and is a performance cat. On TTR passages it is routine to sail over 200 nm a day. We have days of more than 250 nm on TTR. On LIB we were very happy to sail more than 160 a day. Clearly the difference in nm sailed per day has a huge impact on the time a passage takes.
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Lovely post! We are back in French Islands in the Indian Ocean. On to South Africa tomorrow!
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I just watched your most recent video. Wow, y’all are moving along! Looks like all is well and that you are having a great time. I’m so happy for you. But we miss you and Pierre!
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Thanks for the update, it’s an honor and a privilege to be updated on a life some of us only dream of, not because we can’t, but because not ALL of us should. ( just think how crowded that anchorage would of been)
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Haha, yes, the anchorages could become quite crowded! Thank you for reading our blog and sharing our stories. Enjoy beautiful N.C. We spent a decent amount of time there in April….such a pretty place.
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