Quick Update. Arrival in Tearavero Village, Kauehi Atoll
Tashi Delek
Mike & Carol Kefford
Sun 8 Jun 2014 06:16
We dropped anchor at 1100 on Sunday 8th June. This is local time which is
half an hour behind Marquesa time and 10 hours behind Greenwich Mean Time or
Universal Standard Time (UTC) as we are supposed to call it these days! For
some reason repeated time zone changes make it more difficult to keep track
of whether we are going forwards or backwards and we always have to have a
discussion while standing in front of our clocks to be really certain of
what the local time should be. We have one clock set to UTC so that never
changes and then we spend a lot of time counting backwards on our fingers to
make doubly sure that we are about to reset the other clock to local time
correctly. After that we have to change the time on two cameras, the phone,
the ITouch that we set all our alarms on, a normal alarm clock, the IPad,
the chart plotter (sat nav for boats),........
Our last night at sea was tedious in the extreme. There was barely any wind
so we motored. But there was a big squall so we got a lot of rain dumped on
us. Harry on Malua arrived at the atoll several hours ahead of us and
kindly waited at the entrance to the pass so that we could go through
together. Because this is a fairly benign pass the timings in relation to
tides is not as critical so we had several hours to play with which was
good. We had a quick chat on the VHF radio when we arrived and then set off
giving Harry enough distance to make a sharp about turn if he had any
difficulties. Mike stood at the front to look out for any coral heads and
Carol helmed. Even though it was very overcast which meant we could not see
particularly well into the water it was relatively straightforward with only
a 2 knot current with us and standing waves no bigger than 30 cm. Although
the way they boil around you is quite interesting. We were through within a
few minutes and then had to follow the channel across the lagoon to the
village where we knew Sud Oest, Moana Roa, Elenor and La Rochelle were.
Then Harry disappeared as overcast rapidly became squall and he was hidden
behind a curtain of heavy rain, two, three, four - bang and we got it too.
No nasty winds just terrible visibility and another good soaking but it
quickly passed and we chugged the six or so miles to the anchorage.
It is glorious. There will be many, many photographs of palm trees, white
sand, turquoise water, little houses on stilts which are in fact pearl farms
but very picturesque. Within minutes of dropping anchor we were invited for
a champagne supper with Harry and Lizzie to celebrate our crossing and
Harry's birthday. Not long after that Laurie (Moana Roa) came on the radio
to say everyone in the anchorage had been invited to a fish and chicken BBQ
by the family living next to the beach. Everyone take a salad or side dish
and the rest would be done. He and his son were also going to lay a Hashing
trail around the island so the energetic could run and the rest of us walk
after the meal. In the end, due to more heavy rain that was all postponed
to lunchtime the next day which of course suited us much better.
We had a really lovely time but will write a proper blog about it with
photographs.
We will be here for a few days, probably moving to another anchorage at some
point and then will move on to Fakarava.