We are very happy to have finally anchored in Penrhyn; however, as we anchored on Saturday we could not clear in through customs until Monday morning, so we were stuck on the boat and the anchorage was terrible. The boat bounced up and down constantly. At night the ocean spray from high winds and heavy waves hit our bow and occasionally splashed through the hatch of the forward cabin. The waves were so bad that we could not lift our outboard onto the dinghy so the Health Inspector motored his small boat and picked us up to meet with the customs agent at the police station. Once we were finally cleared in the Health Inspector took us home to our boat and we were off to the opposite side of the island where calm protected waters and sandy beaches await.
On our way over to our new anchorage, the sky turned dark and rain pinged the boat. We motored around bombies, which are large pinnacle reef points that stick up and can be hard to see. The winds gusted to 32 knots as we navigated the 7 miles across the inside of the atoll with fairly large sized waves considering we were inside the protection of the atoll. The lagoon squall past over us and we were finally able to more clearly see ahead and navigate safely to our anchorage.
All and all a fun day.
Wade and Sara
