The rangers, Harry and Katou came out to us as soon as we were anchored to run through the customs and immigration clearance. We bouyed our chain but were still unable to avoid getting it wrapped. Anchoring was not quite so straight forward as the relatively small anchorage already held 5 boats, and the remaining space was either too deep for us or littered with coral bommies. The pass was a simple one with the reefs easily visible in the clear, flat water, allowing us to sail into the anchorage. Once the sun had risen high enough to give us good visibility of the reefs, we made our way through the pass and into the lagoon at Suwarrow. By the end of the day we were still early so spent the night hove to (stopped) 15 miles clear of the island. It felt a world away from the conditions at the start of the passage. We spent the rest of the day appreciating the ocean view, reading our books and munching on popcorn. The light winds had allowed the sea to calm down, so instead of getting annoyed that we would not make it when planned, we made the most of it by stopping Florence mid-ocean and going for a refreshing swim, one at a time of course! The water clarity mid-pacific in a depth of around 4 kilometers is unbelievable. We therefore made the decision to slow down, spend an extra day at sea, but enter the pass in good light the following day. We were well on target to arrive in 5 days until the wind died on us during the night of day 4, this meant we would be pushing it to get through the reef entrance in good daylight the following day. Despite the discomfort we were thankful the waves were behind us and we could surf down them rather than climb up them. The 4m waves made for a very uncomfortable first couple of days at sea, as we rolled gunnel to gunnel and fought to brace ourselves and avoid getting thrown across the boat. There was a big swell running at 4m which was not forecast to die off any time soon, but at least it looked like a decent wind forecast would get us to Suwarrow before the next stormy weather came through. The stretch of ocean between Bora Bora and Suwarrow can harbour some pretty unsettled weather, so we had been keeping a keen eye on the forecast.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |