Friday 30 January – halfway stop in the atoll

We got going as soon as possible as the wind is calmer in the mornings and tends to build up with the heat of the day in the afternoons. As we are heading straight into the wind we wanted as comfy a passage as possible. We got the engines on and headed out, the swell was not too bad, but definitely not a cooked breakfast kind of passage. When we got to the leeward side of the atolls it was not too bad, the small entrance to the atoll was the far end, once we turned to go into the entrance we could notice the swell a lot more. There was a marker showing the one side of the entrance, we made our way gingerly over the shallow entrance getting down to 5ms, light blue waters with a lot of dark coral patches. We made it over safely thank goodness and once inside it was deep again for the 5 miles to our anchorage. The whole atoll is under water, just bits of reef sticking out at low tide. There are quite a few little fishermen’s cabin on stilts on the reef, but we didn’t see any boats about, most probably too windy. We got to our spot which was nice and sandy and the anchor dug in well. Rowan was keen to go snorkelling straight away, it was way too windy and choppy for me. He went off in the dinghy to the reef, he didn’t last that long, he was bitterly disappointed, the coral was in bad shape, no fish and the visibility was poor, and surprisingly quite a lot of trash. Anyway it was a good relax for us.

We spoke to Han who has arrived in Mettingham, she had the Marque man there and had a few questions for us, so bizarre sitting in my bikini (trust me it is too hot to wear anything else!) in the evening heat on a remote atoll speaking to everyone dressed in scarves and hats back home.