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Taking Our Tiny Home Into The Danger Zone

Nikki Wynn

Jul 28, 2019 — 3 min read

Que up Kenny Loggins because we’re headed to the DANGER ZONE! We spent the better part of a month anchored in Tahiti attempting to tackle a boat load of projects and prepare for the Tuamotus or AKA, The Dangerous Archipelago.

Our Curiosity may be a tiny home, but she’s still a sailboat and it is a full time job to keep her afloat. She is coming up on her 15th birthday and I think she is feeling it. We’ve racked up thousands of nautical miles over the past several months and the poor girl needed some TLC before taking on any more big adventures. Especially a journey into the danger zone!

The Tuamotu archipelago is a string of 77 stunning (but tiny) atolls spread over 930 miles in the South Pacific. Most are so low lying they’re no taller than a palm tree. As you might guess, they are incredibly hard to spot from a distance. Blink twice and you’ll think it was nothing more than a mirage.

Add in cautionary tales of ripping currents and narrow passes colliding with coral head studded lagoons and it’s easy to see why sailors call it the Dangerous Archipelago.

But, despite all that, it’s considered a paradise seekers mecca. And, there have been a few thousand sailors who have charted the way for us since the days of Magellan and Captain Cook. Should be a piece of cake, right?

What are you waiting for, click the play button and we’re…🎵 gonna take you right into the Danger Zone! 🎵 (Sorry, I can’t help myself)

What a start to the Tuamotus! You can call us chicken if you want about that mooring situation. But after all those weeks of hard work (#BoatLife), I’ll be damned if I am going to risk having my boat washed up on a reef! It’s a toll we weren’t willing to pay at this atoll. 🤣

But seriously, if we would have had a northerly wind blowing us out to sea vs on shore, we would have been all about it. But, we didn’t and as Sherlock Holmes would say,

It is stupidity rather than courage to refuse to recognize danger when it is close upon you.

Que será, será. I’m still pleased as punch we were able to see such a rare atoll…even if it was from a distance. I could have exhausted three more drone batteries flying around looking in all those crevasses, it’s such a striking terrain.

Sailing to Makatea in the Tuamotu archipelago

Sailing and beautiful views of Makatea in the Tuamotu archipelago

Sailing to Makatea in the Dangerous Archipelago of Tuamotu

the beautiful atoll of makatea in the tuamotu in the south pacific

And I love a good stormy sunset…especially when they stay at a distance.

What I wouldn’t give to see a time-lapse of this island over a few million years. Watching it slowly emerge from the sea, dry up, turn green and come to life. Water and oxygen are a magical combination!

Speaking of magical combinations…I can’t wait to show the rest of this archipelago. I really thought we had seen the best of French Polynesia between the Marquesas and the Society Islands. But oh how I was mistaken. See you next week!

🙏 THANK YOU!

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