Sailing Brahminy: AITUTAKI, Cook Islands

The dark silhouette of the peak of Aitutaki rose out of the night as we approached in darkness. As we sailed closer, the large island could be made out as the first rays of the sun glowed the eastern horizon. We had dodged several squalls during the night and now a light rain fell. The tide was high at 0900 and this was the best time to get through the pass. This pass it must be said was the most frightening of all the passes so far navigated on our voyage. There is always a strong outflow of current through the pass but this is magnified when there is a big swell running as the sea pounds the reef overflowing into the lagoon and needs to escape back out into the ocean. The swell was big that day at 3.5m. I decided to traverse the pass in the dingy first and checked it out several times while Sara kept Brahminy well away from the reef. It was tight, 8 metres across, with unforgiving reef either side and 6 knots of surging current steaming out creating 1 metre standing waves in the centre. It shallowed dramatically once through to about 1.3m and that was at high tide!

The next high tide wasn’t until late afternoon when the sun would be low in the sky making it more difficult to navigate the reef so the decision was made to go for it. I took a to the northern side of the approach of the pass as the current was a little less. The force of the outflow was extreme and one slight turn of the yacht or an engine stalling, gear cable breaking or any other slight breakdown would mean that we would be on the reef. I pushed both engines to full throttle at 3 thousand revs, something I rarely do and we proceeded at 1 knot with 6 knots of surging water steaming, bubbling and breaking past us. And we were through! As soon as we passed the thresh hold it calmed off and we navigated down the 500m channel to the anchorage. PHEW!!!

We were boarded by Quarantine, health and customs and everyone was very welcoming and friendly. We couldn’t wait to explore the island. Sara and I hired bicycles and rode around the entire island, which took a day stopping at lovely beaches, fruit plantations and homegrown cafes along the way. Aitutaki is a jewel in the Pacific, It is totally unspoilt, the people are absolutely lovely and there is zero crime. After French Polynesia with the snobby French bureaucracy, the constant fear of theft and the language barrier, this was like paradise.

We volunteered for a few days at an organic plantation and café with a lovely lady named Sonja, a 20-year resident of Aitutaki at Tuano’s Café. This is a must, Sonja is lovely, her food is absolutely delicious and the garden is a sanctuary for weary travellers. It was great to get my hands in the earth again, weeding and planting after so much time in the ocean, it was literally very ‘grounding’ for me and relaxed my nerves after so many open ocean sea miles. We harvested some bamboo and made an outdoor shower for Sonja’s ‘woofers’ (volunteer workers) and Sara helped in the kitchen making coconut milks from scratch, turmeric infused breads and breadfruit lasagne!

The weather turned and we stayed in Aitutaki for 10 days to await the trades again, but loved every minute of it. The island council recently banned anyone taking their own tenders into the lagoon as several incidents had occurred like someone spearing and killing ‘old George’, a massive GT (Giant Trevally) who the tour operators had fed for years to the delight of the tourists. We took a lagoon tour to some of the motus and were stoked to see nesting Red Tail Tropic birds with chicks, a first for me! We swam with some huge GT’s, and three Hump Head Maori Wrasse, amazing!

We departed early one mooring and the swell was a lot less, we were ‘shot out ‘of the lagoon at high speed and it was a little sad to leave. We made for Palmeston Island, 400NM to the South West.