Sailing Makatea - Caves & freediving
After a really quick sail we arrived at Makatea. Due to the mooring bouys being out of action we had to make our own, making use of some huge ships anchor chain that was on the reef as our deadman.
Being such a steep drop off the only option was to moor close in. It felt far to close, but after going astern towards the shore while attached to our new mooring we convinced ourselves it was ok and set about exploring this amazing island.
The one advantage to it being such a big drop off is that we could step straight off the stern into 60m of water. Great for some freediving practise!
We decided to see the island properly by taking a tour either a local tour guide. Reuben. He explain the history of the mining on the island and took us to some amazing places before finishing with a huge spread of homemade food.
This isn’t somewhere we will forget in a hurry!