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.
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