Max draft for South Pacific cruise?

[canadian cat]

I am planing a cruise of the South Pacific with no real hard itinerary, but including French poly, Cook, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, New cal. Maybe some other spots but who knows.

Would 10' draft be a pain all the time or every once and a while I won't be able to go to a spot?

[Wannabe-007]

10' draft is fine.
I've just spent the last 2 years cruising the south pacific and although I have a 4' draft, I've seldom been in places where your contemporaries couldn't anchor up behind us.
There are a few places, but it's not worth worrying about at this stage.
Maybe you could spend some time looking at the Navionics charts online to get a feel for various spots.

[canadian cat]

Thanks for the info. After reading this article I have a better idea of the names of places. Atoll Cruising 101: The Tuamotus | Blue Water Sailing

Now I can work through the charts to check depths.

Reading through a few other articles it seems that deep anchoring is more of an issue.

[s/v Moondancer]

Biggest problem we had was due to us only having 300 ft of chain!

[exMaggieDrum]

The only place we saw issues for draw was for several passes to get in to atolls in the Tuamotos. At less than 7' draft we passed on a few as too dodgy, for us at least.

[roverhi]

The passes inside the fringing reefs are usually deep enough to get a 10' draft through. The area inside the reef with enough depth could be seriously restrictive. May force you to anchor a long way out from shore or a long way from what's onshore. One boat with deep draft that was out cruising with us typically anchored much further away from where the rest of us yachties hung out. Not a big thing if you have enough gas for your 50hp Rib and we envied their washer/dryer combo.

[Celestialsailor]

Do you have a boat now with 10ft. draft?

[captmikem]

I carried 12 feet through all of the areas you mentioned, there were a few places in the Tuamotus and Yasawas that I did not go but other than that I was happy to have the draft.

Michael

[icemate]

I had no problem but only 6'6" draft. Only one place I had concern was in Tonga (Nukualofa) near the resort. Charts don't show how shallow at low tide. Head to the marina area and you are safe. Enjoy your cruise. If you get a chance, Great Barrier Island, NZ is a great place and you can anchor with a paper-weight.

[exMaggieDrum]

In the Tuamotos we got in to most of the places we wanted in side the fringing reefs but there were a couple that were too shallow and one had some breakers and you had to time it at the right time for the tide (Toau). But on Toau, the best place to go is the little tiny set of houses on the other side of the pass. The anchorage there is just a little indent on the fringing reef and not a pass in to the center. Great place but the moorings were dicey. That was several years ago so may be completely different now. But 10' should be fine in most passes.

[reed1v]

Ten feet is ok. Many of the old island traders drafted well over 12 feet and got into all sorts of nooks and crannies. Did a trip back in the early 60s on one that drafted close to 15 feet when loaded down. Did the Societies and the Friendlies in that ancient schooner.

[Jimmyhenry]

You will find Aitutaki in the Cooks is too shallow to get in. I think the pass is less than 2 metres. (I think that is less than 10 feet. We have not used feet in NZ for 50 years. I think USA must be the only country in the world still using feet).
Also Gadji in the Isle of Pines, New Caledonia, may be a bit tight but worth the visit.

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by Jimmyhenry

(I think that is less than 10 feet. We have not used feet in NZ for 50 years. I think USA must be the only country in the world still using feet).

Yes, we're waiting for the rest of the world to come to their senses.

[reed1v]

Originally Posted by Jimmyhenry

You will find Aitutaki in the Cooks is too shallow to get in. I think the pass is less than 2 metres. (I think that is less than 10 feet. We have not used feet in NZ for 50 years. I think USA must be the only country in the world still using feet).
Also Gadji in the Isle of Pines, New Caledonia, may be a bit tight but worth the visit.

Yes, we use our feet a lot over here. Might try it sometime. We do of course meter a lot of things, especially gas.

[Jimmyhenry]

Originally Posted by icemate

I had no problem but only 6'6" draft. Only one place I had concern was in Tonga (Nukualofa) near the resort. Charts don't show how shallow at low tide. Head to the marina area and you are safe. Enjoy your cruise. If you get a chance, Great Barrier Island, NZ is a great place and you can anchor with a paper-weight.

Be careful in Fitzroy, Gt Barrier. Whilst is is a superb anchorage, in a blow the surrounding hills can funnel the wind severely. In a mini cyclone we moved to the southern area of Fitzroy to Wairahi Bay which is exceptionally well protected and nice thick muddy bottom. With 50 metres of 10mm chain and a 20kg Bruce anchor we were driven backwards at about 7 metres an hour. Eventually had to move and laid around 75 metres of chain and that stopped us. (12 metre yacht. Full keel. 12tonne weight)

Don't try the paper weight trick.