Anchored with considerable relief. A tough upwind passage -rather like the aborted Easter Island route but with more wind.

It always surprises me how much difference the boat speed makes to the wind direction. Looking at the forecast think the wind is going to be aft of the beam giving a nice easy reach whereas the apparent wind comes forward of the beam giving an uphill struggle through the chop.

The 1st couple of days were O.K and we actually had full sail leaving Ua Pau and were glad of he canvas in light wind. 2nd day we reefed down 2 notches and the wind built to 20 knots plus with dark gusty clouds and rain. 3rd day a gust beat me to the jib winch and the sheets parted from the sail leaving it flogging uselessly. Winding in the furler left about 3 ft of sail still flapping due to the tightness of the  furl so had to spend  much of the afternoon re-winding the drum on a wet and lively foredeck.  Since then we have been motorsailing with reefed main and making painfully slow progress into the waves. We had some respite from waves in the shadow north of the attoll but then the last few miles we picked up the sea again and motored at about 2 knots, very other wave stopping the boat dead in the water.

We chose Kauehi because the guide book mentions the relatively  easy entry pass into the attoll and I was glad we did. We were just inside the 5 hour window after moonrise that is supposed to be slack but we were barely moving against swirling current and white water on both sides with engine struggling to push us through. The prop may be quite fouled as it doesn't appear to be giving as much speed as if it were clean.

We crossed the attoll -about 6 miles back to the north-east to find some shelter near the village and just made the anchorage before dusk at 6pm. In this wind the waves inside the attoll are still quite substantial and finding flat water not so easy.

So we have a few things to sort out tomorrow and a wet boat to try and dry out if we get some sun. The forecast doesn't show respite from the wind few the next couple of days at least.