One of the inhabited Tuamotus atolls, Makemo has a history of copra (coconut products) production. The pass into the atoll is clearly visible with a lighthouse surrounded by a school campus. On land, a paved road runs lengthwise near the shore with a few roads crossing perpendicular to it. Most of the traffic is on foot, with a few bicycles and even fewer cars. A harbor pier is tucked immediately inside the pass and we anchored for a few days in the harbor.

After sailing through the night, we arrived early the morning of the solstice. We anchored in about 40 feet (13 meters) and could see our anchor resting on the bottom. We heard music from the shore and suspected the town was celebrating the solstice and/or the beginning of winter break. We waited to go ashore until after lunch and beached the dinghy amongst the fishing boats at the beach with the seawater stream flowing through. A friendly horde of school-aged children swam in the creek, observed by a few adults swimming with them or sitting in the sand.

We wandered the town while waiting for the grocery store to reopen at 3:30. We were excited to find cabbage, two cucumbers, tomato and eggs! A group of teenage girls in flowered skirts and dresses were gathered outside the store, and obviously going somewhere special with their musical instruments.

Cooking

At home we enjoyed entertaining, and I’ve always liked to cook, often with a pressure cooker. Things have gotten considerably simpler and on our Pacific crossing, I used the Instant Pot almost exclusively. That hasn’t changed since our arrival in the South Pacific, where fresh vegetables aren’t readily available. Here’s the recipe for Herman’s current favorite, Shepherd’s “Pie”:

• Meat mixture:
  • Brown 1 lb ground beef and 1 small chopped onion
  • Add
    • 1 cup dried diced vegetables
    • Fresh vegetables (cabbage!), chopped. If any on hand.
    • 2 cups water
    • 1 package gravy mix
    • Cook 3 minutes at high pressure. Release pressure immediately, or after sunset.
• Potato Layer
  • Mix
    • 1 cup instant mashed potatoes
    • 1.5 cup water
    • 2 tsp butter
  • Put on top of meat mixture
  • Top with 1/2 cup grated cheese
• Cook at high pressure for one minute. Release pressure immediately, or when finished with cocktail.
• Eat when cool enough and potatoes have absorbed liquid. Store leftovers in yogurt container in fridge. When underway, eat cold from container.

Cooking on a boat should be simple.

In the Bay

Herman and I spent an afternoon doing chores on the boat: laundry for me and scrubbing the hull for him. While the laundry hung drying, I went for a leisurely snorkel around the bay. My favorite was the little yellow fishes that hid inside the coral so well that they could hardly be seen. It was fun to swim away and then return to see them hide again. After we got out of the water, Herman noticed a fish about three feet long lounging in Tieton’s shade. In the photo, the rocks on the bottom 45 feet below are also visible.

We’d met our neighbors Eilert and Gunilla on SV Elin at the Raroia beach party, and we noticed they were having trouble lifting their anchor. It had wrapped around some coral/rcoks and their scuba tanks were empty so they couldn’t dive. We gave them a tank so they could untangle and float their chain, and they brought a bottle of wine when they returned it. We invited them to share the wine with us that evening, so we got a chance to get to know more interesting people. They sailed in the Pacific 30 years ago, then returned to Sweden to form a business, which they sold a few years ago so that they could get back to sailing.

Underway Again

The South Pacific Convergence Zone (SPCZ) is where two opposing pressure systems meet, and it shifted northward towards us. We decided to skip our next destination, Tahanae, which is towards the south, because we would likely see more rain and wind. We spent an extra day in Makemo to allow some of the en route squalls to pass, then headed to Fakarava. We’re looking forward to spending a few days in Fakarava waiting out some strong winds, then we’ll get a chance to snorkel and perhaps scuba dive in the UNESCO recognized waters.

We paralleled SV Zoe, who were anchored next to us and we met ashore, for a while on the coast outside Makemo. In order to take advantage of the wind behind us, Zoe sailed wing-on-wing, a beautiful sight.