We were surprised this morning with a knock at our boat by Brice a friendly local we met yesterday. He stopped by to give us black pearls and coconuts. As we talked story we learned about a beautiful motu north east that we were permitted to gather coconuts, coconut crabs, island crabs, and lobster. We were so excited because this is exactly what we’ve been looking for since leaving Penrhyn so we pulled up anchor and headed off.
Two-thirds of Apataki atoll is not charted so we had a bow lookout the entire time to watch for pearl lines, coral heads, and whatever else that could appear. The atoll is fairly clear and almost no coral heads but the pearl lines could cause a very bad day for a boat over 6 feet. The oyster float balls were around 50 yards from each other but there was a line connecting the balls and sometimes they were much shallower than expected. The transit took nearly four hours to travel 17.5 nautical miles. We were covered from head to toe to protect our skin from the sun as it beat down.
While sailing we launched Kalo to take drone pictures of Just Drifting under sail because the winds were so light. The landing was a bit nerve racking but not bad for our first time. After we anchored we dropped the dinghy and headed to the many coral heads before shore to shoot a fish in the face. Wade was two out of two so we had a lovely grouper dinner.
Cruising Tip: Bow lookouts are important in an atoll because there are times that coral heads or pearl oyster lines can appear out of nowhere. Even with the most up to date chart might not show obstructions. We us hand held VHF radios set to a low power pleasure channel to communicate observations.
Cheers!
Wade and Sara
Boat position at noon: 15 degrees 21.565 minutes south, 146 degrees 11.836 minutes west
