We visited Kiritimati in April and June 2018. We found good holding in sand 50-60′ of water just NW of the copra pier, but the bottom is patchy – it was helpful to have good light when anchoring to find the sand patch.

We agree that anchoring in 30′ of water is probably pushing it in terms of swell. The anchorage off the village/Oil depot is more sheltered from swell (especially S swell) than the anchorage at the pier, but easier to get on and off the island at the pier.

Timei & Tima at Rainbow Enterprise (also called Lagoon View Hotel) were very helpful in arranging transport for us, as well as tracking down various government officials when we were trying to clear out and they were not in their offices.

It would be do-able to enter the lagoon and go to the London small boat harbor with a shallow draft vessel in the conditions we encountered (with good light and careful pilotage), but weather was fairly mellow during our visit.

Most of the shoreline would be tough to a beach a soft-bottomed dinghy on due to shallow coral, so we used the KPA pier and ladder to get on and off the island.

Posted on behalf of Alexandre Marques de Azevedo of SY Sargaço from Brazil:

A good tip is to anchor in front of the “copra” harbor and call our friends Timei & Tima (you pronounce it Simei and Sima because of Ti = S).

You can call on channel 23, phone 95093, e-mail timeitima@gmail.com, or just look for them 300 meters northbound from the harbor (they agree to give their contact to all sailors).

They are wonderful people. They run a small hotel business named “Rainbow Enterprise”, but they are very happy to help boat people just for the pleasure to share time together and help people. They helped us very much with the authorities even though it is not their business, and it was very, very helpful. They helped us with the internet, laundry, supermarket etc. I tried to pay for the service but they absolutely did not accept.

Timei & Tima have a kind of generosity and sympathy that we do not find very easily these days.

It is also a good idea to avoid arriving on weekends because the authorities try to charge 100% extra. And bring a “clear out” document (Zarpe) otherwise they will find you. Yes, people are very nice but the authorities are not nice at all!
We really liked a place named Paris!
Enjoy!!!!