Makemo

Tags: French Polynesia, Makemo, Tuamotu, sailing

Date: September 15, 2026

From Amanu we sailed over night to the Makemo atoll. Here we are sailing through the pass with a view to the town and its lighthouse:

Current in the pass:

We stopped for a few hours at the town, Pouheva, for some groceries, trash disposal and check in at the city hall. Then we continued on to the south eastern corner of the atoll where we anchored in 2.5 m of water:

We went for a walk ashore where there was a camp for the people harvesting the copra. There were no people in the camp that day but two dogs were left behind to guard the place. They were reasonably friendly: did a lot of barking but were not aggressive. They loved chasing coconuts that we would throw and just followed us around wherever we went.

We walked across the narrow island to the outer side where (what looked very much like) a road had been constructed running along the coast:

After a while this dog got so friendly that it wanted to lick our calves as we were walking along and Félicie had to put on her strict voice to make it stop:

Then it started barking ...

... and ran into to water:

The other dog was more calm and just stood there looking:

After four nights at the anchorage we went back to town navigating between a large number of coral heads on the way:

Here is a close-up where another coral head further away is also visible.

Back in town we went for a walk along THE road. There was a short bridge between the motu (small island) where most of the town is situated and the neighboring motu where the town continues. The local use the narrow strait to moor their boats. Amanda is just visible as a light colored dot in the background:

We continued along the road for a few km, passing from motu to motu. Here are some planted coconut palms along the outer beach:

The road is very straight:

We passed several copra plantations. Below is one of the metal roofing platforms they use to dry the coconuts: