Charts around this part of the world are not the most accurate. In many cases because they were made well before the advent of GPS and in some cases not helped by the limitations of electronic chart format. However, a new and surprising source of information is becoming widely used by cruisers who swap files and techniques like the secrets of a cult.

Here is what my chart electronic chart of this part of the Amanu atoll looks like Not particularly helpful! We eyeball navigate everywhere we go as there is little more we can do. However the advent of Google Earth and in particular the tools and websites that we can use to turn Google Earth images into pseudo-charts makes things much more interesting. For instance, we were looking for a place we could likely anchor securely on the eastern side. The above chart doesn't help. However when you see this image you can immediately envision it: We can see a spit that comes out and a small area of much shallower water. Experience tells us that this colour is likely 4-10m deep and indeed we are in 7m of crystal clear water with enough room to swing whatever the wind direction. What we can't tell from the image is the bottom composition. In this case we have some sand over coral which makes it a little harder to get the anchor to stick - but we are holding fine and will probably stay a second night before moving on to the "navel" tomorrow (more of that when we get there... )

This is the new go-to tool for lagoon navigation!