During the last 20 NM to the WPTs west is Penrhyn, we suddenly saw the island out of maybe 8 NM distance. We could a few islets all of the same height and rounded corners seen from our position.

A bit back, I raised the question what is the highest point of the island. Now I give the answer. The top of the palm trees. The island as such is only 1.5 – 2 m above sea level.

Back to the time at sea.

The wind was stable and we made good progress. I changed the auto pilot from Wind Vane Mode into Track Mode, in which it steers MaRe exactly to the entered WPT but very stable wind directions are needed.

Knowing it will be beyond 2100 h and the moon will still be behind the horizon, I didn’t want to go to the anchorage of SY Barbarella although I knew the coordinates of their anchorage. I simply did not feel safe.

Therefore, I decided to heave-to and drift abeam with the wind and additionally with the current away from the atoll. We slept without our normal watches. Only I put an alarm for 2 h later to check the position and situation. After all was fine I went back and slept again until 0600. With this daylight we changed sails and went as high as possible into the wind to reach the entrance of the pass. We needed 2 tacks to make it close enough to the pass to get the sails down and prepare for the entrance.

After the first tack a nimbus cloud made a bit fun of me. First the wind changed in the right direction and I was very happy, but when the cloud was leaving us, it left us with strong wind and direction change of 45 deg in the wrong one. I was very “happy”.

Finally we made it into the entrance. It was not marked but I was told that the Navioncs maps are good for here. Thus I plotted in advance the horse shoe shaped route to Gorgeous Bay, just in front of the village Omoka the main village of Penrhyn. The other, smaller village is on the eastern side of the atoll.

The passage through the pass and the horse shoe shaped canal was not easy.
15- 20 KN of wind, changing directions very frequently and most likely some currents on top, was challenge. Finally I made it to Gorgeous Bay. Anchor dropped and pulled into the sand at about 11 – 12 m. MaRe was secured and we were waiting for entrance clearance party to come on board.