GETTING INTO THE TUAMOTU ATOLLS
Yesterday I was telling you humans about atolls. How coral and small islands (motu) form a ring around a central lagoon. Of course, no one wants to anchor outside the atolls when they can get inside and find protected sailing and anchoring. Luckily, many of the atolls in the Tuamotus have passages large enough for a sailing vessel to enter.
The atoll we are headed for, Raroia, has a passage on the northwest side big enough for us to bring Spirit of Argo through and into the central lagoon.
16 00.99S 142 27.44W
But there is a little problem. They have tides here in French Polynesia. The waters here rise and fall 1-2 m creating currents in the atoll passes. The strongest currents are near the end of the flood or ebb. These currents can be so strong, and the passages through so narrow, that rips, whirl pools and standing waves can be created. For this reason it is best to try and transit a pass during slack water.
Timing these passes is not an exact science. But one cruising boat did their best to create a program to allow other cruisers to better estimate the slack water for any of the atolls in the Tuamotus. If you are interested see: svsoggypaws.com and their free cruising guides and fact sheets. You have to build in some parameters for stronger winds and higher wave heights, but this program has gone a long way to helping many cruisers to get through the atoll passes safely. We are using their ‘Guesstimator’ to get through the pass at Raroia.
Once inside you are ‘not quite’ home free of dangers. If you would like to sail the waters inside the lagoon you must still keep a keen look out as none of these are charted. You will find most of the waters clear, but occasional coral clusters will rise up from the lagoon bottom and reach almost to the surface. Thankfully the waters are very clear in the lagoons, so it is only up to the cruiser to travel in good light and to keep a watch.
OUR PLANS
We are hoping to get to Raroia at slack water, transit the passage and sail through the lagoon to a motu on the southeast side of the atoll.
We need to time our arrival at the pass for slack water. Not so easy when you are at the mercy of the winds. At any time they could increase, and speed us up. Or decrease and make us travel slower. There are 3-4 slack water a day, but we need to make sure we make one in day light so we can see any obstructions. Using the Guesstimator, there will be two slack waters to meet our needs. One at 6am and another at 12 noon.
If we ‘speed up’ we can make the morning transit. But the sun will be in the east, so it will not be the best time of day to travel across the atoll. We will have to anchor up and wait for the sun to get higher in the sky to light up all the coral heads.
If we remain at the present speed, we should make the noon transit. From the pass we should have good light to continue our journey across the lagoon and find a nice little island with a beach for me.
There are supposed to be a couple of nice islands at that end of the lagoon to anchor off of. One of the islands is the landfall sight for the famous Kon Tiki expedition. There are supposed to be some nice beaches, a pearl farm and some good snorkeling. If we get bored, we can head back towards the pass and there is a small village just south of the pass we can visit.
The best laid plans of mice and men. You know how things tend to go for my humans, so do not be surprised if it all goes wrong?!
THE TRIP THERE SO FAR
Three days at sea so far….and I am not complaining. In fact, despite some rain and roll, this has probably been our nicest passage yet. The winds were frustratingly light there for a while, but it did mean that the sea state was very calm. We sailed by the Disappointment Islands this morning, and it only seemed fitting that we should hit some rain storms there. The acceleration that the winds gave us was a blessing in the light airs. It is so warm, that the rain does little to chill you. The winds have improved, a little, and we are averaging just under 4 knots.
Our position is:
14 30.80S 142 01.46W (Note: I am told you can copy and paste these coordinates into google earth and it will show you where we are)
Under a 100 nm to go, we look set to make the noon window for slack water into the atoll at Rarioa.
I will fill you guys in on how the humans do in the next blog.
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