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| Anchorage Island, Suwarrow Atoll |
I shall attempt to describe our last port of call with the adjectives it deserves, but bear with me, for as I write we are sailing along under storm jib only with seas to match.
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| Swimming with Giant Manta! |
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| Sooty Tern |
Suwarrow is a small atoll several hundred miles from anywhere in the
Cook Island group. The one main island (all of ½ a mile long) has a semi protected anchorage amongst a lot of coral heads that stick up about a metre off the bottom to snag your anchor chain. But given the right conditions (non reinforced trade winds) this is paradise. Two care takers look after the island for six months, being away for the cyclone season.
If you have read Tom Neale’s or Robert Frisbie’s books about the island you will understand why. The
high point of the island is only about 10ft and exposed to the ocean swells. James and John are the two caretakers and hosts; keeping everyone in line and making them feel welcome.
The record 28 boats in the anchorage did not feel busy; it’s just one of those very relaxed places. We snorkeled most days on various reefs or with Manta rays, went lobster hunting on the reef on a moonlit night, enjoyed several potlucks ashore and did a reef walk out to
Whale Island (full of nesting birds). The hard part was dragging ourselves away after nearly 2 weeks.
This we did and headed for Niue, but the strengthening high pressure below us sent winds we did not like beating into, so we bore off toward
Tonga.
I leave you with a log entry by Heidi on the second last day of this leg ….. “Lie down on cabin floor for 10 min, catch my breath and settle my stomach.
Get up, go climb (bottom hatch board has been in for a few days) into the cockpit and look around. Check the course. Lie on floor, repeat. The end of each 4 hour watch seems like a major victory. The reward: a few hours sliding on your bed where you can’t lose your balance.”…… This trip we had our worst pooping to date that put nearly a foot deep of water in the cockpit, but for all the weather there was no upchucks.
A day at anchor Heidi still talks of sailing to
Chile...... what a spirit or is it just a short memory
J.
Such is the price we sometimes have to pay to visit paradise!
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| John (caretaker and all round great guy) and Heidi |
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| Potluck dinner in the "clubhouse" |
