Logbook: Kauehi

I’m glad that I wrote down my first impressions of Kauehi before we went to any other atolls. Now, looking at the photos for this post, I see the less-than-ideal aspects of that beach but at the time I didn’t. I’m very glad we were able to snorkel at Kauehi with two or three wee black tip sharks before arriving at Fakarava’s South pass which is loaded with black tips, white tips and grey sharks and was very intimidating for us and would have been more intimidating if it were our first shark experience.

The water clarity in the SE anchorage at at the beach was outstanding, much better than at the anchorages in the South of Fakarava although the clarity in the pass at Fakarava is the best we’ve seen so far.

We spent three nights at Kauehi and just like our landfall in the Marquesas, we spent a lot of that time simply sitting in the cockpit and staring at the scenery. We also kayaked around, walked on the motus, kayak-snorkeled* and finally fully snorkeled.

We misjudged the pass on the way in and had a bumpy ride through outgoing current but on the way out we used the visual cues to refine our timing and had a smooth exit for an overnight sail to Fakarava.

When you are too much of a wuss to jump in, you can still lean over and snorkel: