Kiritimati (Christmas Island)

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An online cruising guide for yachts sailing to Kiritimati.
Disambiguation: For the island in the Indian Ocean see Christmas Island

Kiritimati or Christmas Island is a Pacific Ocean atoll in the northern Line Islands and part of the Republic of Kiribati. Nuclear tests were conducted on the island by the United Kingdom in the late 1950s. During these tests islanders were not evacuated. Subsequently British servicemen as well as local islanders have claimed to have suffered from exposure to the radiation from these blasts.

The island has the greatest land area of any coral atoll in the world: about 322 square kilometres (124 sq mi); it is about 150 km (93 mi) in perimeter, while the lagoon shoreline extends for over 48 km (30 mi). Kiritimati comprises over 70% of the total land area of Kiribati, a nation encompassing 33 Pacific atolls and islands. It lies 232 km (144 mi) north of the Equator, 6,700 km (4,200 mi) from Sydney, and 5,360 km (3,330 mi) from San Francisco.

It's roughly 320 km2 (120 sq mi) lagoon opens to the sea in the northwest; Burgle Channel (the entrance to the lagoon) is divided into the northern Cook Island Passage and the southern South Passage. The southeastern part of the lagoon is partially dried out today; essentially, progressing SE from Burgle Channel, the 160 km2 (62 sq mi) main lagoon gradually turns into a network of subsidiary lagoons, tidal flats, partially hypersaline brine ponds and salt pans, which as a whole has about the same area again as the main lagoon. Thus, the land and lagoon areas can only be given approximately, as no firm boundary exists between the main island body and the salt flats.

Kiritimati is the first inhabited place on Earth to experience the New Year each year (see also Caroline Atoll, Kiribati). Despite being 1,530 miles (2,460 km) east of the 180 meridian, a 1995 realignment of the International Dateline by the Republic of Kiribati 'moved' Kiritimati to west of the dateline.

The entire island is a Wildlife Sanctuary; access to five particularly sensitive areas is restricted.

Charts

Source

Chart Number - Chart Name

Chart Number - Chart Name

Source

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Weather

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Passages

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Islands

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• [[Island1]]
• [[Island2]]

Navigation

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Communication

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Entrance

{Green|If there is no port of entry in the island omit this section.}}

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Berthing

Anchorages

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Yacht Repairs and Services

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Marine Stores

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Repairs/Yards

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Water

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Friends

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Links

• Kiritimati (Christmas Island) at the Wikipedia

References & Publications

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Rod Heikel, Greek Waters Pilot, Imray Laurie and Wilson, Cambridgeshire, ISBN 9780852889718, expands to

Rod Heikell, Greek Waters Pilot Imray, Laurie and Wilson, Cambridgeshire, ISBN 9780852889718

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You may want to remove the above entries and use instead a link to the Country or Region that lists the relevant references. If so enter, after removing xx, the following:

See [[Country or Region#References_&_Publications|Coutry or Region]].

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Comments

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Contributors to this page
Names: Lighthouse, Haiqu