Tuamotus | Land Ho
We have had a mixed bag of weather over the last few days from consistent trades to 30knot squalls. We are slowly coming to accept that Nanuka actually prefers heavy weather and really starts to come alive in 20 knots plus… especially with a bit of a beat (sailing into wind).
This morning we spotted trees on the horizon as the sun rose off our port stern. The Tuamotus pose a bit more of a challenge as each pass into the atoll is greatly affected by tides, swell and wind - at points creating currents up to 12 knots with large standing waves. It’s a bit of a guessing game as to when slack water is, if it even occurs at all when a steady wind has been blowing. Our guess today for the pass into Makemo is 10:00am. Because of this, once we were in the Lee of the atolls we tried our best to slow Nanuka down to time our arrival for around 9;00am. Fingers crossed we are right!