We just arrived at Makemo in the Tuamotus. Kim and I had a good passage. 72 hours with light winds the last day and a half, but flat seas to go with it. We planned to shoot the pass into the atoll at 8:51-9:51 AM local time per the Tuamotus Estimator program we had to tell us the time to enter the passes. Different here that anywhere else to date, the timing of the entry into the atolls of the Tuamotus is important. The cruising guides have current flow numbers of anywhere from 5 knots to 9 knots for the entry here. Obviously, a 9 knot current in your face doesn't work well with a 6 knot boat. Anyway, my Garmin chartplotter had high tide at 6:50 AM, the Estimator program had 7:51 AM for high tide and slack current, which is what we care about, an hour later at 8:50-9:50 AM. When we arrived at 8 AM thinking we had an hour to kill before entry you could see the standing waves in the outgoing current in the pass. We hurried and got things ready for entry and everything stowed. I estimate we had up to 5 knots of current in our face as we came through the pass. I was running at a speed that always produces about 6 knots on North Star and at times we were down to 1 knot and very turbulent. We probably should have just waited another 5 hours and come on the next tide. Anyway, need to find out what is the problem with the Estimator program and see if there is a fix. My Garmin plotter has some spots stored in it, but not all the passes. I'm not sure if the problem is just this location or if all the data in it is off.

Oh well, it is flat as can be here. No waves at all. Should sleep well tonight. Kim is already scoping out the pearl farms. There are 3 other boats here in the atoll. Can't wait to get in the water. It is gin clear here. Time to start wearing out our new scuba compressor. Pictures and videos will forthcoming when we figure out internet here. Haven't even put the dinghy in the water yet.

Till next time.... Steve and Kim