But Wait! THere's More... Maupiha'a

​To the west of Bora Bora lies two more of French Polynesian islands. The tiny, relatively quiet atoll of Maupiti, with its spectacular Mount Teurafaatiu and surrounding reefs and motus is a popular destination with yachties travelling west. The entry pass is long and notoriously challenging though and with the strong winds that have been blowing for weeks now, generating waves over 2-3 metres, was never going to be an option for us to stop. Even if we managed to get in to the atoll, we might get stuck and it could be weeks before we got out again! Instead we opted to break our journey to the Cook Islands by making a stop at the atoll of Maupiha’a, a bit further west. The Maupiha'a entry pass, while “exciting” is short and relatively easy. Although we have officially checked out of French Polynesia we decided to spend a little time in this "no man’s land".

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Anchorage in the NE corner of Maupiha'a

A week in “No Man’s Land" – Maupiha’a

​We start off with two headsails as the winds are behind us. Winds are low at first but they get up later as we get out of the influence of land, and the swell builds to 2m+. Sometimes the swell smacks us and just exhaust the sails and they snap back hard. Lucky we didn’t have the kite up. Lovely sunset, moonrise around 11pm. Our overnight passage is uneventful, although the wind was up and down a bit. I spot land about 10am and we are falling below course so we furl the genoa to come up head for the north of the island.

The Maupiha’a Cut

The cut is relatively narrow but deep sided and with strong currents at the entrance  pushing us to port as Keith tries to line up. Once we are into the channel it goes pretty smoothly. There are some rocks on the left side as we come in which we leave to port, and then it’s a clear run across to the anchorage. There is one other cat here. We spend the day catching up on sleep and have decided we don’t want to rush off tomorrow to beat an approaching trough. We will stay here, relax and explore while it passes, and then head to Aitutaki.

​Meeting the Maupiha’ans

Norma and Harry hard at work

We went ashore to meet Norma and Harry, the island’s caretakers. We put together a little care package of some food items for them as we heard there is no regular supply ship here and while they are self-sufficient, the extras that yachties drop in with are always appreciated. Norma and Harry work on harvesating the copra, removing it from the coconut shells by hand, soaking it in seawater and then drying it on big wire beds in the sun. They have to wait until there is around 40 tonne of copra before the boat will come to collect it. They never know in advance when that will be, being informed just a few days before. Communications are limited to one satellite phone which is shared amongst the island’s 8 inhabitants. All of their power is solar and they collect their own water, grow herbs, fish and hunt coconut crabs. Norma also collects the tern’s eggs that are plentiful at this time of year.

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​There are 8 people living on the island, Norma is the boss of Maupiha’a but her boss is in Maupiti. They have lived here for 13 years and Harry would gladly stay forever – Norma is not so sure. Grandchildren are growing up and its very isolated here. Norma was not shy in telling us that she and Henry are the most productive of the people living on the island, in terms of copra.
 
Later on we took the dinghy over to an old stone dock and walked through to the exterior of the island to take a look at the reef. The wind has settled considerably since we arrived yesterday.

Coconut crab, waiting for lunch...

​Lovely lunch

Great haul of eggs

We were joined for lunch with Norma and Henry by a lovel Japanese family on SV Santana (20 year old Catana). Akira and Mayo and their son (7) and daughter (5) are relatively new to cruising. Lunch was a fabulous spread with carpaccio of parrot fish caught by Henry), fried fish and curried coconut crab with rice. Norma had also made some tern’s egg omelettes. It was Delicious, and what an amazing spread. We sat around in the afternoon chatting (I had to translate as H&N don’t speak much English) and watching the kids play.
 
We went to see the terns, walking along the path towards the sea. They are so loud and so many of them, it felt like an Alfred Hitchcock movie! The kids collected lots of eggs which we took back to ITIKI. The challenges of getting eggs through the Caribbean and Pacific have been well noted, so I was certainly keen to try this ready supply. Norma gave us a heap of leftovers food as well which was very generous. That’s dinner sorted, and as it turned out, lunch the next day.

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Beautiful beach in the south of Maupiha'a

​South Mauphia’a

The next day a couple more boats arrived, both that we have met briefly before. Keith dropped over some frozen water for Norma and Harry (their fridge is broken). Went for a dinghy ride down to the south anchorage for a look, passed a few huts along the way. It’s quite shallow right down the very end. We beached the dinghy and walked around the end of the last motu. It’s a lovely, course-sand beach and lots of hermit crabs of various sizes gathering together, checking out each other’s shells. Apparently they can swap shells with each other as they grow and do it in a group so nobody is left naked or homeless for too long. We watch for a while as everyone checks out a fancy looking new home, but it seems it is not practical and it is passed in at auction.
 
We came back via a couple of large bommies in the middle of the atoll but it was a bit too rough to consider snorkelling here. We had some fellow cruisers over for drinks, I made curried eggs with the terns eggs. A slight fishy undertone but otherwise YUM!

​What’s under the water

After a lovely sunny morning, the weather started to turn and big black clouds were gathering. This is the trough passing over us, which means we will be clear to leave soon. We tried to snorkel the cut but visibility was poor, current was fast and there was nothing much to see. Went over to a nearby motu and anchored there. Some quite small bommies with lots of fish and reef tip sharks circling in the shadows. A little disappointing after Fakarava, but it seems now that everywhere will be!
 
We said our farewells to Norma and Henry and left in the morning for
Aitutaki, Cook Islands. A 360nm journey. It was a very relaxing time and nice not to be rushing or counting the days. So glad we took the time to slow down in Maupiha’a