11.10.13
Nearly 700nm ENE from Bora Bora, lies
this northern most of the Cook Islands. It is the very picture of a deserted
coconut palm treed atoll, and is in fact the one on which Tom Neale lived out
his dream life as its sole resident and about which the book “Island of my
own”, was written.
Our passage from Bora Bora was a real
mixture of good and bad! Wind, no wind, rain and squalls, decent sailing and a
good sized Tuna! The trip took exactly 5 days, with us having to slow down
through the last night, to arrive in good light, after a 170nm fifth day.
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| Mary is NOT enjoying this! |
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| Not sure if this is a vellowfin or a bigeye,but as sashimi it was delicious |
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| Our beautiful new sails BUT look where the 4th reef is!! |
The main island, Anchor Island, is no
bigger than a rugby field, lying just north of the pass, and provides a good
anchorage for about 20 yachts, in gin clear water.
The island is now also home
to two Park Rangers (currently Harry and Charlie), who are based there for 5
months of each year.(June-Oct)
The only visitors to the atoll are
cruising yachtsmen, making their way across the Pacific, between French
Polynesia and Samoa/Tonga /Fiji, and Sheer Tenacity was the 137th
yacht to visit this year. A $50 park fee entitles one to a 14 day stop over,
and we found it hard to tear ourselves from this little spot of heaven!
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| Suwarrow yacht shelter and Harry's office for check in |
Each evening, the cruisers migrate to
the island for communal sundowners, to watch the sun go down over the atoll, play boulle (old men’s marbles in the sand with
steel balls!), or attend a “pot luck”.
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| Anyone for boulle? |
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| Sundowners and no Green Flash this time |
One evening the rangers organized a
pot luck, with Yellow fin tuna caught by Charlie that morning, cooked over the
fire in Coconut milk , and giant grilled coconut crabs . The Cruisers provided
the salads and side dishes, while Harry and Charlie entertained us with some
traditional Cook Island Polynesian song and dance culture, which morphed into
Van Morrison as the evening progressed!
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| Harry the Chef cooking coconut crabs |
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Harry and Charlie the entertainers
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Feeding frenzy!
Most evenings at 5pm Charlie throws the heads and innards of his daily catch to the sharks on the ocean side of the island. This is done on the ocean side to avoid whipping up the sharks in the anchorage and around the yachts into a similar frenzy |
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| Ebony and Ivory? |
We are anchored in 6m of crystal
clear water, which is like being in an aquarium, …. Including anything from 5
to 25 Black tip Sharks, shoals of halfbeaks, garfish, Jacks, parrot fish, Angle
fish, and Trigger fish!
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| Looking off the back of the boat........scary! |
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| Holding the camera underwater from the back platform |
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| Now swimming with them.....note the pilot fish (Remora) |
About ½ mile from the anchorage is a shallow patch,
where the Manta Rays have a daily appointment with the Cleaner Wrasses, between
8.00am -9.00am! Snorkeling with them at this time is a real privilege!
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| See the Cleaner Wrasse doing their job |
We took a day trip with Charlie down
to the Seven Island spot, about 3 miles
south. En route we went to Bird Island, where we walked amongst hundreds of
Sooty Tern chicks (spotty and much bigger than their parents!), some red tailed
Tropic bird chicks, a gazillion Lesser Frigate Bird chicks, all left alone in
their nests (twigs!), by foraging parents, as there are no predators around,
plus 3 types of Boobies with chicks…( Red Footed, Brown, and Masked)
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| Redfooted Booby |
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| Sooty Tern Chicks |
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| Redfooted Boobies |
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| Red tailed tropic bird and below a chick |
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| Masked Boobies |
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| Lesser Frigate bird chicks |
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| And more! |
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| "Nog 'n Piep" |
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| All shapes and sizes! |
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| Get out of my face!!! |
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| Wing exercising! |
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| Dad, egg and neighbourly chick |
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| Too small to be left exposed |
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| Got to get out of this place.......... |
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| Female with chick |
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| Male with chick |
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| Sooty tern with very young chick |
On the biggest of the 7 islands, we
saw numerous giant blue /red Coconut crabs. One big fellow I picked up..(very
carefully), must have weighed 2kg, and
his pincers could easily amputate a finger if not careful!
All too quickly our two week limit
loomed up, and we had to hit the road again.
Our destination was Va’vau, Tonga,
but as we left the weather painted a horrible picture for Tonga, so we made for
US Samoa, which was only 500nm away, offering a safe haven before the nasty
stuff arrived. Apart from a couple of squalls lasting about 8 hours, we had a
very good passage and one fair sized bonito.
One major benefit of coming to US
Samoa, is that we can order boat bits from the USA as an internal postal delivery, in quick time, and should be
able to leave for the next leg in much better shape iro the “Power Struggle”! ….
Dud alternator, Mastervolt battery charger at half speed etc! We have bitten
the bullet, and ordered a new Balmar alternator, smart regulator plus a new 60
amp Battery charger, which should be delivered here by the middle of next
week. We will have old Balmar rebuilt in
NZ as a spare, and get Mastervolt in NZ
to finally sort out the low charging levels in the 100A charger.
Hopefully we should be up and running
again by the end of next week! As I was once told by my T shirt supplier’s
delivery man….. “If you use it… it must broke!!”
Fantastic pictures, as usual! :-)
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