by KC2RIY, on August 18th, 2010 (
At Sea, Southern Cooks)
The weather on our last days passage to Aitutaki was not kind to us. For most of the day the wind dropped to around 9-10 knots from practically behind us. Having had the Code Zero up all the night before we left it up all day. We managed to make between 4 and 5 knots but this was not enough to make Aitutaki by dusk.
Night fell and we were still making our way slowly to Aitutaki. We made it until about 10 miles out when the wind fell further and went a little confused on us. We fired up the genny and began motoring. We furled the Code Zero but left it up just in case.
I noticed we weren’t quite getting the power output from the 72V chargers that we should. It didn’t really affect top speed but it did affect the spare output I normally like to use to top up the drive battery bank charge. We have two banks of three chargers and the drop was consistent with the loss of one of the six chargers from the equation. Another problem to contend with. On the problem side I did receive responses back from Spectra regarding the water maker problem and they have agreed to send a replacement part on warranty. I now have to find a shipping address in Tonga.
Knowing my charts were at least 200ft off I gave the reef to the north of Aitutaki 3/4 mile clearance. Even in the dark, we could take sightings of hilltops and some lights to verify the island was where it should be. We approached the anchorage outside the pass through the reef very carefully. We could see there was another couple of boats already anchored there about a quarter of a mile apart and we parked ourselves between them.
Once we knew the anchor was settled we popped a beer each and celebrated our arrival.
In the morning, after the usual net stuff we put away the Code Zero and a few other things we’d left out. We then dinghied in through the pass to the main dock where we tied up the dinghy and went ashore. We said hello to the port captain who had no formalities for us. After over 10 months it was great to speak to an official in native English. We were soon at the end of the ‘boulevard’ where we drew out some NZ$s and visited customs/immigration and the agricultural inspector. The paperwork progressed smoothly and with a lot of friendliness – a great change from some of the other places we have been to. We then went for a little walk around, looked at a few shops then sat down to fish and chips for lunch – huge portions which bloated us out.
Back on the boat we prepped to come in. The tide was rising but it was only just after low tide. We’d taken soundings on the way out and knew we just had enough room. We did bump bottom once and ran into a shallow sand bank obliquely which we had to back off from. But nothing major. We soon had our bow and stern anchors out and settled in for the afternoon to relax after the passage.
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Tomorrow we plan to hire bikes and cycle around the island. In the evening we hope to go and see some local dancing at one of the nearby vacation spots. We heard from a couple of people that tomorrow nights dancing is the best on the island/atoll.
Incidentally – we are now the furthest south of our trip to date.