Arrival Kauehi Atoll!

15º 57.548s 145º 04.777w

Sat Jun 01 2019

Arrival Kauehi 31 May 19

We were standing off the pass into Kauehi atoll at 0700, sails stowed and both engines idling, getting a good look at the water. We observed a small fishing boat in the flow inside the atoll, and a French sailboat soon departed through the pass, hailing us to offer details of the current they observed. The tidal guestimator had suggested slack flow right around 0752. Last night on the SSB net Chuck from Jacaranda reckoned that the guestimator was about an hour late, hence our effort to be there ready to go before 0700.

To the right side of the pass were pretty sizable waves, and to the left some very busy water, but just right of the channel center things looked really mellow, so we motored forward and made our entry. It was about 0740 when we were well inside the channel, and we observed a maximum of 2.7 knots of current flowing out of the atoll, so perhaps Chuck’s recommendation was pretty darn close. In any case the entry to the lagoon was a non-event, kind of why we picked Kauehi for our first foray into atoll land. Once inside a few hundred meters we turned to starboard and aimed towards the anchored superyacht Kawil, a 112 foot monohull we had observed up at Taiohae Bay, Nuka Hiva. We figured they are fairly deep draft, nevertheless Isabel did her best on the bow, looking for any indication of shallows, including lighter colored water, brown patches that might be bommies, etc. Sunrise was at 0601 so conditions were not ideal with el sol about 40 degrees to port and still a bit low on the zenith. We took it slow and eventually decided to proceed to the Southeast anchorage as the chop was pretty big in the vicinity of Kawil. Too much fetch where they were near the Southwest part of the lagoon.

The forward scan sonar came in pretty handy today; between that and the standard depth sounder along with visual observations we felt comfortable with our progress, however we still kept it slow so that our arrival at the anchorage would happen with a sufficiently high sun angle. As we closed on the anchorage we were hailed by our new best friends Andrew and Julia on SV Hullabaloo, a beautiful Oyster 55 flying the Royal Yacht Squadron burgee. They were out in their dinghy prepared to help us spot our anchor. Over the VHF they related their own arrival experience as an example of why it’s great to have a bit of guidance. Apparently they did just fine getting in, but the following morning they found themselves a bit uncomfortable with their proximity to some bommies and elected to move a little ways. We were keen to avoid that trial by fire. I advised them that as a bug smasher pilot, I was accustomed to a golf cart with a “follow me” sign leading me to parking but would happily compromise and follow their dinghy, even with no sign. It all worked out fine, but honestly, there was no red carpet, no warm cookies fresh from the oven, no coffee! What kind of service is that?!? These guys need to fly into Coos Bay, Oregon where all aircraft are treated like the Global 6000 that our pal Andy Trygg flies. Best FBO ever!

Anyway, here we are! Anchored in 8’ of sandy bottom with around 50’ of chain out, about a 6” ripple on the water and 9 knots of gentle breeze. Sandy beaches and coconut palms a few hundred meters away, a pair of juvenile black tip reef sharks that want to adopt us, and amazingly bright little fishies all around the bommies! There’s also some rather large grouper messing about, showing no fear of us. Obviously there’s ciguatera here and nobody hunts them. Well, good for them, and we’ve got a freezer full of freshly caught tuna anyway. . .

I’m pretty sure this is the spot where they take post card pictures, or maybe they filmed the movie South Pacific here. Anyway, it’s our little piece of paradise for now. After our snorkeling event we celebrated our successful passage with a couple shots of the Don Jose super high end tequila that Ralph and Helen gave us, took a nap, had some lunch, and are gently moving into houseboat mode. We’ll join Andrew and Julia on Hullabaloo for sundowners, then look forward to a very long night’s sleep.

Our passage stats:

532.1 nm

90 hrs 55 minutes

5.9 knots average speed

11.5 knots maximum speed

12.5 hours motoring on the passage, then we stowed sails and motored through the pass and to the anchorage, about 2.5 hours altogether.

Our sail combinations for this passage included full main and jib, then full main and screecher. We reefed the main and furled part of the jib late in the night just to slow down and avoid arriving too early. Altogether it was a spectacular sailing trip with beautiful weather and overall gentle seas.