Wednesday, September 17, 2014

We are at Maupihaa -

A beautiful atoll with a tight pass! The pass was so tight that I was quite concerned that we could actually hit the edges. Now there was about a 20 knot cross wind, and about a 5-knot current flowing out, so it was not ideal. But I figured it would be good practice for the next pass.  Atutaki's pass is only 40 feet wide, 6 feet deep, and about 1/2 mile long.  I don't think that we will be attempting that pass.

We had a nice spinnaker run down here, a little bumpy, but very pleasant!


Courage

We made it to Maupihaa today as 3 boats were leaving.  We sailed under spinnaker for maybe 30 hours?  Good sail, but that was only 100 miles pass to pass.  Like going from LA to Bakersfield.

Impressive how everything slows down out here!!  The pass felt very small!  Narrow on both sides, I got pictures (lot of good that does us right now since even with Internet I can barely share them). 

Beautiful beach we walked all afternoon/evening, finding shells, crabs, an eel, a small reef shark, etc.  We are well, have heard incredible things about the locals here, only 20 adults live on this atoll, no supply ships, no airport, etc.  Very rustic, hospitable, friendly and happy people willing to share their culture. They definitely appear to do copra and probably some pearl farming it looks like.  So, maybe tomorrow we'll seek out some locals and see how it goes.  We brought extra rice, flour, sugar, etc. onboard to trade or just supply these more remote islands.


Good night, Shannon

No comments:

Post a Comment