Logbook: Hikeu and passage to the Tuamotus

We went off the charts for one stop on the island of Ua Pou in the Marquesas. It is bay called Hikeu and Liz on Swell had recommended it as a chance to visit an uninhabited bay. We were excited to explore off the charts (on our charts, off the depth indicators into a solid gray area) and perhaps to have a valley to ourselves.

The bay was beautiful as she had described and had fruit, as she described, but unfortunately for us, between her visit and ours, development had commenced.

We left after one night on passage for the Tuamotus. We had  weather wind for 48 hours of good wind, and then weird wind. You would think that after our passage from Mexico we would have waited? Nope. We were ready to go and although we will wait to stay safe, apparently we won’t wait just to be comfortable. 2 days of good sailing, a bit of being becalmed, then the front passed, and we sailed in clocking wind the rest of the way.

A passage that often takes 4 days took us just over 6 and we arrived in the Tuamotus at Kauehi at dawn. The atoll made a surprisingly crisp radar return before sunrise and we delayed our arrival until the morning slack. We mistimed the slack and ending up fighting an outgoing current but we chose a straight ahead, clear pass for our first and so all went smoothly.

It was interesting how this passage felt after having sailed from Mexico to the Marquesas. We weren’t complacent, but we were a lot more relaxed. We finished getting “ready” the first afternoon while underway. Very different than our last 6 day passage (Tofino to San Francisco).