22 May 2011
So I made lots of food in our galley and mentally prepared for a 10-14 day passage to Rotuma or Vanuatu with a stop along the way. I took a quick look at weather on the internet before we departed, and it actually showed that we would have some northeast winds, fairly strong for about the first 48 hours. Perfect timing!
48 hours after leaving Tarawa, after zagging to get around atolls in our path, we were 16 miles west of Tabiteuea, having sailed comfortably past Abemama- the atoll it had taken us so long to get to on our previous trip south! But Tabiteuea was still to our windward requiring one tedious long tack. All day it took to reach the northern end of 25 mile long Tabiteuea, near Peacock Anchorage. Now I know why they call it Peacock anchorage. Everywhere you look, its dark blue, aquamarine, light blue, and brown REEFS!. Lots of things to weave your boat around or run solidly into. There are no detailed charts to show this. You are in 15 feet of water, 2 miles out from shore, with coral heads everywhere – some breaking into white faom, some not. It’s a good thing we came in with perfect light overhead to see everything. We slowly sailed around the heads, and the shallows, and found some deep water- about 30 feet, surrounded by very shallow reefs. They would provide some nice protection and nice snorkeling for our stay here.
After setting anchor, we promptly fell asleep.