After a three night passage from Hiva Oa in the Marquesan archipelago, we arrived by the break of dawn to our first atoll in the Tuamotus archipelago, Raroia. Raroia is where most cruisers start their exploration of the Tuamotus, due to its location in the eastern and central Tuamotus. It is also a fairly wide and thereby easy pass to enter into the lagoon.
As we are Norwegians, there is especially one thing about Raroia, which makes this stop extra important to us. A Norwegian explorer, Thor Heyerdahl, landed with his crew on board the straw raft Kon Tiki here in 1947. They had drifted from Peru for 101 days, in order to prove that these islands could have been populated by people from the east rather than the west.
It was a huge achievement, and an important point was proven that the population several thousand years ago could travel far on the oceans. Recent research based on genetics has, however, proven that these islands in fact were populated from the east.
The Kon Tiki anchorage is located on the eastern side of the atoll, at the The Tahuna Maru motu (islet). There is a plaque there which was raised here in 2007 by Thor Heyerdahl’s grandson. It reads: “In memory of the pioneer of the pioneers who dedicated his life to put off the outer limits of human discoveries…. over the limitless ocean!”
The plaque was donated by the Kon Tiki museum in Oslo, Norway, which is part of the Norwegian Maritime Museum, where Carine’s grandfather was the general manager back in the day.
We stayed a total of two nights at this anchorage, exploring the nearby motus and visiting a pearl farm which was no longer in operation.
Our favorite anchorage in this atoll was actually in the northeast corner, where we were gathered with many other sailboats to ride out the high winds that came the day after we arrived. We were about 15 boats on this anchorage for the 10 days the sustained winds over 20 knots lasted.
We visited each other’s boats, had beach barbecues, snorkeled, explored the different motus and collected coconuts. Such a beautiful anchorage with lots of things to do!
We especially loved the Twin Palms Yacht Club, that cruisers have established on one of the motus (islands). It had a spike we used to easily open coconuts, as well as memorabilia from previous cruisers.
One day, we got picked up by one of the locals from the village nearby, and we did a dive at the main pass. It was an amazing drift dive, which was probably the most technical dive Carine has ever done. We experienced current probably around 4 knots.
We saw white, black and grey reef sharks, a tiger shark, a huge school of big barracudas, as well as lots of beautiful coral and plenty of colorful fish. The captain made a movie from parts of the dive.
The following day we got picked up again, and got transported to the village by boat. We had a lovely lunch at one of the local’s house, Vera. She made several variations of fish, like ceviche and sashimi. Soooo yummy!
Vera also operates the only store in the village, so we stocked up on a few items. Fresh produce is really non-existent on the smaller atolls like we are on now, but our next stop, Makemo, should have a little bit more to chose from.
We had a lovely time in Raroia, and set sail in the late afternoon to do an overnight sail the 80 nm to our next atoll, Makemo.
