Pitufa.at

We arrived today after another fast and rough passage in Niue. Niue is our first ‘Makatea’, a raised atoll–a flat coral plateau surrounded by cliffs. On our trip over the Pacific we sailed by other Makateas several times, but never stopped: Henderson Island close to Pitcairn, Makatea NE of Tahiti (This one gives it’s name to raised atolls), Rurutu in the Austral Islands, Mangaia, Atiu, Mitiaro, und Mauke in the Southern Cook Islands. The bottom drops steeply all around the coast, so anchoring may be difficult, but fortunately the Niue yachtclub has set out buoys, so we’ll stay and explore a while!

Beveridge Reef is a submerged atoll, only a ring of coral in the open ocean. It has a wide pass, which we entered at 16:00 o’clock. We crossed the lagoon and are now anchored on the turquoise shelf with no land in sight–just surrounded by a ring of breaking waves. There are no other atolls around, the nearest land is the raised atoll Niue 149 nm away. As fascinating as this place is, it’s still a solemn reminder that if global warming continues at this pace, the sea will soon claim the palm-fringed atolls of the Pacific with their bird colonies and friendly Polynesian population and turn them into landless reef rings like this one.

We’ve had a swift passage: 800 nautical miles/1480 km in just 6 days. Pitufa is a heavy boat with a relatively short waterline, so she’s best in strong winds, the 20 to 25 knots (37-46 km/h) we’ve had this week were ideal for a downwind passage. Of course strong winds also mean bumpy seas, which makes the life for the human and feline crew a bit uncomfortable. Leeloo got seasick on the first day, but recovered quickly and when we caught a big fish on the third day (a mahi-mahi/dorade big enough to feed all 3 of us for a week) she was already bold enough to climb up to the cockpit despite the rolling boat and shout for her share as soon as she smelled the fish blood on deck.

On downwind passages we have the genoa (foresail) poled out to keep the sail stable and to gain sail area, but when the wind shifts and sometimes comes from the starboard and then again the portside of the stern the foresail must be adjusted accordingly and it used to be a tedious procedure to roll up the sail, rigg the pole on the other side and let the sail out again–especially at night in rough conditions working on deck is splashy, annoying and risky. On this passage we rigged the two poles we carry on both sides of the mast, so sail changes were much quicker and easier.

Last night the wind died down, so we have to motor the last miles to Beveridge reef. Of course it’s annoying to have the Yanmar droning, but on the other hand it’s ideal to reach Beveridge Reef in calm conditions. Many boats on the way to Niue plan to stop there, but most have to abandon the plan, because of rough weather.

When we set out from Maupihaa the water temperature was still 28 degrees, but now winter is coming and additionally we’re sailing south, so the water’s now down to ‘chilly’ 25 degrees. After a perfect sailing day week (144 nm/267 km each day) the wind is now slowing down. 160 nm to Beveridge!

Pitufa with her high stern is usually a very dry boat when sailing downwind even in high seas. At the moment we have following waves of about 2 m and most of them just rush through under the boat, from time to time one spits up a little bit of spray, but yesterday a bold one managed to break over the stern. Fortunately we had the hatch on the aft deck closed (not tightened), but still some water made it into our bedroom. 300 nm to go to Beveridge!

Yesterday we slowed down in order to reach Aitutaki in the morning, but when we then got a new weatherforecast this morning, we decided to sail on without stopping. We’re now headed to Niue, with a possible stop at Beveridge Reef. 450 nm to Beveridge!

Yesterday morning the weatherforecast suddenly looked favourable, so we got the boat ready as quickly as possible (still took us 4 hours to clear up) and left Maupihaa at noon. The seas were still a bit rough, but they have calmed down a bit by now. There is more wind than forecasted, so we’ve been doing 6 knots all night long–let’s hope it stays that way! 110 miles done, 240 to go to Aitutaki (Cook Islands).

We reached the tiny, westernmost inhabited atoll of French Polynesia late this morning, somewhat hesitant as it has a bad reputation. This is what ‘South Pacific Anchorages’ says: A number who have visited the atoll consider that there was not sufficient compensation for the trauma of entry and exit…

Approaching we compared Garmin charts and satellite pictures, the chart is about 15 m off which doesn’t sound a lot but makes all the difference in a pass that is just 20 m wide…
The entrance was frighteningly narrow, but clearly visible (it’s deep and the reef next to it very shallow) and marked with 2 white stakes. South Pacific Anchorages claims: Breaking seas on the weather side cause a continuous, generally strong outflow regardsless of the tide.
We therefore expected a countercurrent, but saw that there were no eddies outside, but some chop inside the lagoon and indeed we had 1 kn ingoing current (15 kn wind against current).

Here’s some info for the brave among you who want to try that pass as well: we entered at 11:30 (Tahiti local time, 1:40h before high tide in Papeete). General conditions: swell 1 m SSW (1.5 m the day before), wind 15 kn ESE (several days), 2 days after full moon (spring tide). All markers that are mentioned in the chart towards the lagoon side (2 red ones to mark a reef at the inner end of the pass, a green and a red one to mark the deeper channel at the exit into the lagoon) are missing, so it would be dangerous to attempt entering in bad visibility (we had sunny skies at noon). We just kept to the right as soon as the pass got shallow to avoid the reef in the middle and had never less than 3 m depth.

We had heard that there were just a few people left on Maupihaa and were suprised to see several woodfires ashore. We are now anchored on a sandy patch in the Southeast corner of the lagoon in 3 m of gleaming minty water surrounded by coral heads that come up almost to the surface. There’s a little hut ashore with a boat anchored off the beach and a car(!) parked next to it. Tomorrow we’ll go exploring, say hello there and check whether there’s actually a road for the shiny vehicle (it can’t be longer than 4 miles anyway, because that’s the length of the long motu that stretches along the eastern coast of the atoll–there are no motus in the south and just a little one in the west.

This month we have to leave beautiful French Polynesia after 3 wonderful years, firstly because import tax on the boat would be due now and secondly because there are many more interesting islands further out in the Western Pacific.
The next island group west of Fr. Polyn. are the Cook Islands that are spread wide from north to south, but they don’t have many anchorages where a keel boat like Pitufa can enter and the fees are very high, so we decided to skip them generally. Further west lies Niue (1100 nm from Tahiti), a raised atoll also called ‘The Rock of Polynesia’ and the smallest independent nation of the world. It has no pass and no anchorages, but a few moorings off the main town where yachts can stay–given the weather situation is stable. 100 nm east of Niue lies Beveridge Reef–a reef surrounding a lagoon that has a pass, but no land at all.

Each morning of the past week we got up at 6 o’clock, got all available weather forecasts and considered our options. Would the wind stay stable all the way to Beveridge reef and then calm down enough for us to have a good time there (it shouldn’t be too rough or the waves make it over the reef)? Or should we just sail to the westernmost island of French Polynesia, the tiny atoll Maupihaa, also known as Mopelia (entry only in calm conditions possible)?
Yesterday morning we were ready to set out for Maupihaa, but then the sea seemed too rough for our arrival a day later and we chickened out and only sailed the 25 nm over to Bora Bora, where we planned to spend the afternoon relaxing and swimming in the turquoise lagoon. Instead we discovered that the seams of the lazybag were falling apart, took off the mainsail and the lazybag (the bag where the mainsail falls into when lowered and where it stays covered and protected from UV light in anchorages) and spent 5 hours on the sewing machine repairing it.

This morning we considered all options again, but the weather situation looks too insecure to head to Beveridge Reef or Niue, so we got on the way to Maupihaa instead where we’ll arrive some time tomorrow, the wind is more fickle than exprcted. Yesterday a 2 m high swell from the Southwest still thundered against the outer reef of Bora Bora, today it’s going down, so tomorrow morning it should be calm enough to attempt the pass into Maupihaa which is only 20 metres(!) wide and is notorious for very strong currents.