Kauehi, Tuamotus

You read all sorts of stories about the passes into and out of atolls. Many a story contains tales of yachts lost on reefs or run aground etc. The current in some of the passes can reach 4/5 knots with large standing waves from wind against sea.

Sometimes when there is a large sea running the waves break over the top of the reef, flood the atoll and there is an OUTBOUND current when the tide is coming IN! So you can imagine I was a little anxious as we approached our first atoll entrance. The tide was inbound (about an hour before slack water), the seas small and the wind on the beam as we lined up the approach. Sally perched on the bow to look for coral heads, we charged at the entrance. We zoomed straight through aided by tidal inflow and a good beam reach in 15knots. There was what looked like a little bit of chop where the pass ends and the lagoon water starts. The closer we got the more the chop took on the form of standing waves. Sally had a great time with an impromptu "wet T-shirt" competition, which she dully won, clinging to the forestay as her stomach experienced zero gravity. I was nice and dry in the cockpit. Perks of the skipper :)

And we were in! Piece of cake. Sure I would not like to do it against a tide and wind, but for all intent and purpose, entering is not hard. Time it right and make sure your conditions are favourable and one will be fine. 

Our original Tuamotus landfall was going to be Rariroa but getting there was requiring us to beat. After 3000 miles of pure downwind sailing (and beating through most of the Caribbean) we did not like the sound of that so we peeled off and headed for Kauehi. We had heard on the SSB net that a few boats were raving about it and it was on our "go to list". 

Kauehi

Just having passed the entrance, the rod started singing to us about dinner. But it was stripping quite a lot of line! We dumped the jib in favour of reeling in "the big one". It felt like a big fish. In the distance, I saw a flash of white and then an "upside down smile"…SHARK! Sally decided that this would be incredibly bad karma to land a shark just as we entered the atoll. I tended to agree, however was not too keen on replacing my lure. So on went the battle, for a good 25 minutes where I pulled and he pulled and we tug of warred. Finally a tired shark pulled up next to an even more tired Dylan. Donning the gardening gloves (why spend life being called "lefty" if you can help it), I wrestled with the hook trying to free it from its mouth. By the way this was a small shark, only 4ft long black tip. I was leaning over the side of the boat as I did not want a pissed off shark flopping about in the cockpit. Not winning with the hook removal, we moved to hook cutting. Grabbing bolt cutters I leaned over the side again. Line in one hand and bolt cutters in the other. I cut the hook free and sharky sped off very unamused! 

Now safely inside Kauehi, one can see why people like it. Beautiful and unspoilt. We sailed along towards the anchorage keeping an eye out for bombers (coral heads that appear as if from nowhere). We were sailing along in 80ft of water and then coming straight up from the depths is a coral head that is 1ft below the surface! Fortunately they are easy to see even in poor light as the water clarity is so good.

Deciding not to anchor on top of everyone else (the atoll is a few miles long / wide with the village only in one little spot 6 miles from the anchorage). As such we found a lovely patch of turquoise water with few coral heads and enough swing room to drop anchor. 

Just amazing! Bunches of little islands (motus) line the fringe reef. They are covered in palm trees, white sand beaches and clear water. Large fish swim around the boat as if curious to see what this new creature is in their midst. 

Absolute paradise!

We went snorkelling on the coral heads in the middle of the atoll and saw at least one resident shark circling the head and sometimes a good 20+ lbs bump head wrasse. Grouper and large snapper would all come and check you out. All safe in the knowledge that they are rife with ciguatera and no one wants to eat them. My speargun finger itched as I had to just watch them instead of hunt them. They are all beautiful fish though and in some ways I am happy that they are plagued with disease as there are loads of great sized fish in the atolls for people to see.

We decided to be more social and moved over to where the other boats were anchored. As is customary, a pot luck was organised ashore. We had a grand fire and a good graze. There were a couple of cruising kids present who helped find all the contenders for the great hermit crab race. Unfortunately the races were marred by heavy cheating in such that as soon as my hermit crab was about to claim victory, one of the kids would either claim ownership or replace it back to the start line. In fairness, all the damn hermies looked the same under limited torch light! Guitars were strum and a few songs sung and the night ended with a low tide and paddling the dinghy most of the way back home as coral heads seem to have moved since dusk!

After a few days of chilling out we headed out, stopping near the entrance of Kauehi to snorkel the pass. This did involve tying the anchor to a coral head in rather dubious conditions (a 15+ knot north wester squall sprang up on us…not a prevailing wind). We drift snorkelled the pass which was on an inbound tide and so each run was at about 4knots and if you blinked you missed it! Not much to see other than beautiful corals and some very fit fish clinging to the sea floor. Did not see many big fish. 

Back to the boat to untie the anchor and we headed for the pass while it was slack water. Once out it was a beautiful sail towards Toau.