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Sailing The Society Islands - Shallow Draft Heaven! [Sailing Zatara Ep 36]

3 September 2017 · 21 min · 176K views · Huahine

What this video covers

Cruising the Society Islands in French Polynesia, the crew of the catamaran Zatara navigates between Huahine, Raiatea, and Tahaa while managing shallow-water navigation and passage-related seasickness. To ensure safe anchoring in shallow lagoons, the crew verifies the accuracy of their depth sounder by manually measuring the distance from the seafloor to the sensor and the keel using a tape measure.14:00 They confirm the sensor offset is accurate within a few inches, noting that their five-foot keel requires careful monitoring in depths near 1.6 meters.14:18 The crew explores local river systems, harvests wild coconuts, and coordinates travel plans with a friend boat, Wiz.10:04 Despite the challenges of maintaining a consistent sleep schedule and managing nausea during coastal hops, the crew prioritizes finding secure, shallow anchorages with good holding in sand.9:03 They plan to continue their westward route toward the Cook Islands, Samoa, and Tonga.21:00 Verifying depth sounder offsets against actual keel depth prevents grounding in shallow, uncharted tropical anchorages.

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