Visiting Easter Island (Boat-Based)

Sailing To Anakena

The rugged shoreline on the west coast of Easter Island. You can't really see it in this small picture, but the cliffs are formed from dozens of distinct layers of lava.		A blowhole along the west coast.

The grassy slopes of the west coast leading down to the sea. You can see different shades of green on each side of the fence at the left side of the picture, presumably from different grazing patterns.

After we returned from our shoreside excursion the Armada radioed us with a weather report that warned of shifting and increasing winds. Our Hanga Roa anchorage would be unsuitable for the forecast winds, so David decided to move the boat to a different anchorage. Although the island has no "all weather" anchorage, it at least has a decent anchorage on each side of the triangular island. So when the weather changes to make one anchorage unsuitable, there's a suitable anchorage not too far away on another side of the island. Right now, the best side of the island would be the north side, which has an anchorage at Anakena. As an extra bonus, Anakena is supposed to have a sandy beach and a major ahu with several moai.

We hoisted the dinghy aboard and lowered it into the cradle, which worked as intended even though it was only half completed. After prepping the boat for departure, we raised the anchor and motored north, then east, on a short two-hour passage. To be sure we arrived before dark we decided to motor instead of sailing.

It was a pleasant jaunt and we stayed close to shore so we could watch the scenery go by. The shoreline was impressively rugged and obviously very volcanic. In one place the sea had eroded deeply into the flank of one of the major volcanoes creating a steep cliff that exposed layer after layer of lava flows. At several points along the shoreline we saw blowholes, where incoming waves were compressed into a rock cavity causing water and air to be expelled upward as from the blowhole of a whale.