We Made it to Raroia!

After 2.5 days at sea, we entered the pass at Raroia at 6:30 am this morning.  The last night was rough with 20 kn of wind and confused seas.  We had to slow the boat down so as not to arrive too early at the pass, so we spent much of the night with only our mainsail up with 2 reefs in it.  Still we were sailing at 6 and 7 knots. 

I was very nervous about going through the pass since I had never done it before and have read so many stories of boats have engine failure, etc. in the middle of it all and then going on the reef. 

I could see the white water as we approached the pass which was caused by the current flowing into the Lagoon at about 2 knots, and the wind blowing the opposite direction at 20+ knots.  I was told white water was normal in the pass and that if I stayed to the left side  of the pass we would be fine. Danielle was up on the bow keeping a look out, and I watched the chart that showed the course we should take to make it safely through.  The white water stayed on our right side of the boat and was roaring as we passed by.  As we were told the water was more calm on the left side, and we cruised right through without a problem! Yay! That was over!

Now we had to work our way up the lagoon to the anchorage spot at the north end.  A fellow cruiser had send us a route that I set up in our chart plotter and I set up our autopilot steer that course.  It worked perfectly!  The water was 80 to 100 feet deep, but we did pass very closely to several bommies, which were easy to see based on the dramatic change in water color from deep blue to green by  the bommies.  It crazy how these things just pop up from the depths all around you!

After about 45 minutes we made it to the anchorage, and we dropped anchor in clear beautiful water surround by white sand beaches and palm trees!  Yes!

And ever better, the boat was not rocking!  For the first time in 6 weeks the boat was still.  It felt SO. GOOD! 

After the anchor was set we all laid down for a nap.  It had been a long night.  We woke up to a fellow cruiser calling us on the radio and he invited us over for a tuna dinner.  Looking forward to that!

So glad to be here safely and looking forward to getting some rest in nice calm waters!