The four day passage to our first landfall in the Tuomotus went without incident. An easy offwind sail under reefed main and the big code zero. We averaged about 130 miles a day for the 530 day passage. In order to enter the atolls of the Tuomotus, one needs to time the entrance of the pass along with the tides. There is much information on the technique, but the basic approach is to enter the pass where the current and wind are in the same direction. Otherwise, dangerous standing waves can appear in the pass, that can have dire effects. The easiest way to accomplish this is follow the tide tables and plan your entrance through the pass at slack water, where the tide is at its high or low, thus no current. Well, sounds easy on paper, unfortunately, the tide data is only available for from to locations in the Tuomotus, Rangiroa and Hao, both a fair distance away. So the exact time of slack water needs to be estimated, based on these locations and your longitude. After careful study and analysis, we were able determine slack water comes a half hour before Rangiroa and 1.5 hours after Hao. This puts us enter the pass at daybreak.

All went as planned after a slowed down our speed for final night of the passage, where we threaded our way through two islands to be at the pass by daybreak. We transited the pass under full engine speed, but still encountered a 2 knot outgoing current, but no problems, Sherpa's "Iron Sail" pushed us through to the other side without any trouble.

After running the pass, we plotted a course through the lagoon, to a remote anchorage on the SE side of the lagoon. with Paul at the bow watching for coral heads, and Pete watching the depth sounder we weaved are way to an idyllic spot, about 30 yards from the swaying palm trees on shore. The water is a light blue azul color, just what you would see in tourist books. The island are motus, or small dispersed islets, separated by water. Wow, amazing!!

The motus are all uninhabited, except for the occasional tourist that is dropped off for a picnic I think. We saw 4-5 foot black-tip sharks in the little lagoons that separate the motus, obviously looking for something to eat. They are said to be harmless, but I think we'll avoid them. The motus are about 200 yards across from the ocean from the lagoon, but I'm sure during a tropical storm or cyclone, these motus would be awash, as they only are about 8-10 feet above sea level.

The GRIB weather files call for increased winds for the next few days, so we will have to be hunkered up snug at our anchorage until weather improves for us to exit the pass and move on to Fakarava. As it turned out the winds have been a steady 15-25 knots for the about 36 hours now, but are anchor is holding us tight. It looks like they are starting to subside a little, which should allow us to leave Sunday, midday, as to arrive at the next location at the proper tide.

John