Carondelet Reef is a horseshoe-shaped reef, presumably a submerged atoll formation, of the Phoenix Islands, also known as the Rawaki Islands, in the Republic of Kiribati. It is located 106 kilometres (57 nmi; 66 mi) southeast of Nikumaroro, at 05°34′S173°51′W / 5.567°S 173.850°W / -5.567; -173.850, and has a least depth of 1.8 metres (5.9 ft). It is reported to be approximately 1.5 kilometres (0.9 mi) in length.[1] The sea occasionally breaks over it.
During a voyage from Puget Sound to Australia, Captain Wilder Farley Stetson (1849–1924) of the ship Carondelet sighted a reef on August 31, 1898, from position 05°35′S173°58′W / 5.583°S 173.967°W / -5.583; -173.967. He was within 2 nautical miles (3.7 km; 2.3 mi) of it and considered it very dangerous. He named it Carondelet Reef, after his ship.
The multiple positions of Winslow Reef mentioned by Robert Louis Stevenson may have been due to confusion of the position of Carondelet Reef with that of Winslow Reef.
