We have safely arrived in Kauehi, one of 76 atolls in the Tuamotu Archipelago. It was a four day/night passage. The first three days were fantastic sailing, perfect conditions. We were struggling to keep the boat slow enough to time our arrival for Saturday at 3pm with the slack tide. In the end we decided to aim for the 8:30am slack tide. As the sun was setting on the start of our fourth and last night of the passage, we could see plenty of unsettled looking clouds on the horizon. Since we had three reefs in the main and two reefs in the head sail, we were more than prepared for any weather.
Okay, so sure, our sail configuration was set well for the conditions, but this particular crew member was not pleased when at the start of her 6pm watch the wind started to increase upwards of 30 knots with waves hitting us hard on the port side causing spray to cover the boat, even up over the bimini (the hard top that covers the cockpit). After changing course to run a little more downwind, I woke up the captain to get his advice. After two interruptions to his sleep by me, he finally decided to just stay up. There was no sleeping to be had with the sounds of the water slamming the side and between the hulls, along with the howling wind. It was just one squall after another, relentless. We saw a top wind speed of 40 knots and a top boat speed of 8.4 knots (that is with three reefs in the main and barely a small triangle of head sail). The waves were ridiculous. I can't tell you how large they were because I am a poor judge, but Maple and her crew have never been coated by so much salt water in our four years together.
After a sleepless night, we approached the pass at 8:30am. Our friends on Ubi were just ahead of us and I think just as tired. As we approached the pass, which is known to be one of the easier passes, we could see tremendous turbulence within the pass. We got slammed by one more giant wave as we entered the passage, just one more kick from Poseidon. We got to see Ubi just ahead of us doing a fabulous job navigating the pass. D also did a fabulous job getting us through safely, but once through it, to quote D: "Clearly slack had not started yet." It was a white knuckled experience for the two of us that is for sure when the boat was not even managing 2 knots of boat speed with both engines on full tilt with the water churning around us. And this is one of the easier passes?! Oh dear, will this end up being our only Tuamotu stop? However, now that we are anchored in the most gorgeous blue water you can imagine, looking upon beaches that are barely above sea level and palm trees, I think we have might need to explore the Tuamotus further. It is not a hard place to be! And now this tired crew is enjoying the stillness of the anchorage and heading to bed soon.
At 2019-06-16 01:55 (utc) our position was 15°56.94'S 145°03.81'W
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