SUWARROW

We took the weather window to go to Suwarrow (500 miles), forecast was 10 knots, picking up on the last day.  This is not really what we look for as we generally don’t think of ourselves moving in 10 knots, but we had enough diesel, so off we went with Somerset, Pacific Flyer and Monkey Fist. 

We drive/motor sail the first day, charging the batteries and making water.  Then the next day we put up the gennicker and with 10-12 knot and flat seas we made good speed, we averaged almost 6 knots.   We took the gennicker down at night and flew the full main the first night, then a reefed main the next night.  This too worked well.   Still once Pacific Flyer caught the wind she was gone, or as Paul on Monkey Fist said “now you know why she is called Pacific Flyer”!  The last day the wind did pick up and the seas came from 3 directions and it was sloppy, so we were glad to get in.

The flat seas made not only for a good passage, but good fishing.  Or maybe the good fishing made for a good passage.  “Fish on”!  The rod holder breaks, so it must be a biggie!  Cheryl is working the rod and reel, I am handing the line in two feet at a time.  We bring it in 50 feet, let it run.  Bring it in 50 feet, let it run.  Then bring in the fish.  I hold it by the leader, out of the water, while Cheryl gets the gaff.  A swing and a miss.  A swing and Interlude.  A swing and a hit.  We get the fish on board, a 48 inch (yes, 4 foot) Wahoo!  WAHOO!! is shouted many times over the next couple of days!

WAHOOOOOOOO......

Suwarrow is a marine park, part of the Northern Cook Islands.  They have 2 rangers on an atoll, who among other things do your paper work and collect the fees.  The atoll has fresh water and someone has donated the shell of a life raft so you can do laundry, one half for washing and one half for rinsing!  The agitator is your feet, so you do the laundry dance, which is cha-cha-cha-swish, cha-cha-cha-dip!  The line was in the sun and wind, so the sheets were dry in an hour!

Clean sheets Yeah!

The bad weather we came in on stayed for our whole time there.  So we spent much of our time on the boat.  Each night was either drinks on shore or a pot luck if you wanted.  Oh my God, someone brought a salad, greens, fresh stuff!  After 2 months when you see a salad elbows came out and forks dig in, a riot broke out in the pot luck line!

When the wind finally dropped below 20 knots (to say, 19) we went for a snorkel.  The visibility was great, despite the wind.  Lots of corals and lots of fish.  So the next day we went to the manta cleaning station.  We spent about an hour and a half with the mantas, just amazing.  There were three in total, the one kept coming back.  They did not mind us being there, watching the cleaning and the dance was priceless.

 

Cheryl dancing with the Manta

 

You meet some very gifted people on boats.  We crossed the Pacific with a boat called Full Monte, in fact they were one of the ones we saw and spoke to on VHF during the crossing.  The daughter, Jessica, age 13, is a poet.  She had written a poem about the crossing the Pacific and we had a long awaited date for her to read it to us and for us to have cookies.  Her poem was amazing; she really captured the feeling of crossing the pacific.  And the brownies were great too.

Three boats presented:  Movie night under the stars.  Somerset with its screen and projector, Monkey Fist with its amplifier and Interlude with her generator showed Master and Commander on anchorage island in Suwarrow.

We have been travelling with Somerset for a while and Sunday was Jim’s birthday and our last evening together.  So dinner was on Interlude with all of Jim’s favourites.  Cheryl made bacon wrapped water chestnuts as an appetizer.  Carol brought a bottle of Moet Chandon!  Dinner was stuffed lamb with massive amounts of potatoes (for Jim and Cheryl) and roasted vegetables.  Desert was Blueberry Crumble.  It was a great way to celebrate Jim’s birthday and the time we had spent together.

The weather window for our trip to Somoa, 507 nautical miles was 20 knots for the first few days, then to diminish to 15 knots.  Lets see.  We had squalls the first night, sustained 35, so we had only a kerchief up and still averaged in the high fives, in fact did 10.5 knots at one point.  Basically the wind speed for the passage was 25-30, plus squalls.  At times on the passage we did have the whole head sail up, but really not that long.  And the seas, confused, which is not fun.  (Our friends who left at the same time going south to Tonga had it way worse, because of their angles to the waves, more wind, squalls for longer and the passage was longer!)

We arrive on Friday morning, we thought.  It seems that the date line has been moved!  And it is Saturday in Somoa.  No one works on the weekend so we stay on anchor on the boat as we have not cleared:  Health, Immigration, Customs or Quarantine!

 

 

WOW and DOULBE WOW

We started French Polynesia with a WOW as we arrived in Fata Hiva after our Pacific crossing to a truly amazing site with towering pinnacles and lush green landscapes.  Then we finished French Polynesia  with 2 breathtaking atolls.  The first atoll was Maupiti, just 30 miles from Bora Bora.  It has a reputation of having a rather challenging entrance.  As we are coming in we see Somerset in their dinghy, having finished a snorkel, waving and welcoming us in, the pass was calm and the anticipated 3 knot outgoing current was not there, but still Karen had to add a little extra throttle to get us in.  As we entered we saw a stunning cliff ahead and on both sides we had beautiful aqua marine water letting us know we were going to have a sandy bottom to anchor in.

The next day we went with Somerset to play with the giant mantas.  The mantas hang out at this coral area where the tiny cleaner fish come out and do their job, sort of like a manta swim through car wash.

 














We head back to the boat and since we were wet we thought why not do a little cleaning of Interlude, so Karen and I started to clean the sides and a call came out that there are humpback whales just outside the pass.  Okay it was a hard decision …clean the boat or go swim with whales….yup the whales won.  Somerset, Carol and Jim, in their dingy called “Clyde”, a very appropriate name as Clyde is a much bigger dingy then Trouble, picked us up and off we went with 2 other dingies.  We saw a spout, then another and off we rush to the spot where they were, we jump in but we missed them, then we see a tail off in the distance and off we race, missed again, then right in front of our friends dingy on Saliander a whale leaps up and does a spiral, amazing.  We chased around for 3 hours watching these magnificent creatures entertain us. 

Finally with a flap of it’s huge tail the whales were off out to sea.  Thank you guys.  We figured there were 3 separate groups of whales and sometimes you could hear them talking. 

Sunrise in Maupihaa 

WOW WOW my friend from home gave me this book “50 places to sail before you die” and Maupihaa (or Mopelia) was on the list so off we went.  (Thank you Michelle!)  Maupihaa has a reputation as a very difficult pass to get into the lagoon.  In fact in the book it states the guy who wrote about Maupihaa had been there 4 times and only been able to get through the pass once.  We left Maupiti for the 100 mile passage to Maupihaa and the seas were calm so we ended up motoring most of the way so when we arrived at the pass the pass was easy, but it was still a little scary as it is only 65 feet wide with a sharp coral wall on either side no room to change your minded as there is a current.   Our first anchorage is in the north part of the atoll where we try to pick a spot that we think has the least amount of coral heads for us to get caught on, or not get caught on. We are still gun shy around coral heads as that is how we damaged our bow.  But after finding the perfect spot and the anchor is firmly planted in sand we look up and see a beautiful white sand beach, beautiful blues and turquoise coloured water around you and palm trees.  Pretty hard to take! Oh yeah and a few black tip sharks there to welcome you.

The next day is another calm day and off we go with Jim and Carol on Somerset for a snorkel through the pass.  Can you saw shark, okay lots of sharks and some of the biggest fish we have ever seen and they are all so different and beautiful.  We went ashore and met one of the families and they gave us a fresh coconut and showed us around their home and copra operation.  Copra is the process of taking coconuts that have fallen off the trees, removing the white meat and letting it dry in the sun and then it is shipped every 8 months to Tahiti where it is eventually makes it’s way into perfumes and skin products. Okay just some facts about the area: there are 13 people here spread out along the shore most of them women and the used to do pearl farming but now mostly they do copra.

 

The wind picked up and from the wrong direction so this time we moved right away and went to the other end of the atoll and once again picked our perfect spot to anchor between coral heads.   One of the boats Monkey Fists had befriended one of the local women at this end of the atoll and she invited us all to have a pot luck at her place the next night, but first we needed to help her go and hunt for some lobster and crab.  So off all 6 boats went lobstering in the dark with just a flash light and a bucket.  Okay Hena and Kevin, the 2 locals where successful, us, not so much.  The Lobsters didn’t have to worry about us finding them that night.  The next night was the feast and what a feast, fresh lobster, coconut crab, lamb, pork, scallop potatoes, salad, fresh bread and so much more.  Paul on Monkey Fist and Gavin on Pacific Flyer started playing the guitar and harmonica, soon Hena and Kevin provided the beat on an old plastic barrel and with spoons.  We all sang along or tried and we even got Hena and Kevin to sing their native songs.  What a great evening.

The Feast with Kevin and Hena

 

So what do you do on an atoll for 2.5 weeks.  Pot lucks, Birthday parties on the beach, sing and play music, snorkel and dive, do bonfires on the beach and watch beautiful sunsets. 

One day Saliander (Pete and Rae) invited all of us for an excursion for the day.  They have 55 ft mono hull.  First on the agenda was a dive of the pass, in a word WOW.  Rays, huge fish, with an occasional shark, just for fun.  We sure have to get use to the amount of sharks.  Hena and Kevin our new local fiends came with us and they caught a dozen fish spearfishing, so lunch on Saliander was fresh fish and buns.  (When Hena or Kevin caught a fish, they immediately held it above the water and slapped the water to keep the sharks away.  It seems to work, but we are not sure that we want to try that!)  Then off we went on Saliander out the pass to go fishing and whale watching.  With 4 lines out we finally got a hit on 2 of the lines but after a minute or 2 we lost them along with the lures.  Oh well, the fish get to live another day.  Then we spot a whale, no it’s 3 whales, they play and flap their tails for us and give us a show. Mother Nature is so cool.  After a wonderful day we return through the pass and back to our boats to watch another sunset in paradise.

 

One day we took the dinghy’s to bird island were we saw birds at every stage:  eggs, chicks, featherless and downy, and parents dive bombing us.  There were shore birds, bobbies, terns and…?  (We need to learn more about birds!)  We walked the lava rock around the island finding many marine creatures.  A truly educational day.

Who needs a movie theater when we have Somerset!  Jim and Carol invited the gang to their boat for a movie night complete with pizza and popcorn.  With a big screen made out of sunbrella fabric and surround sound we all sat back on Somerset’s bench seat, 12 of us, yup it is a catamaran and enjoyed watching the Life of Pi. 

For exercise, other than lifting a fork to eat, we played Bocce on the beach and we spent 2 days as copra farmers.  Yup the gang went and helped Hena for a half of day gathering coconuts that have fallen in the bush about 400 of them, cracking them open with an axe then removing the meat with a special copra knife, then the  hauling them to her place to be washed with sea water and placed on a drying rack.  It was not easy but it was fun and we all had fun trying and concluded that this was hard work. 

Yup Karen hard at work with Paul from Monkey Fist

A couple of days later Hena asked if we would collect coconuts for the cooperative (which is all 13 of the people on the atoll), so of we foraging for a couple of hours where we probably gathered 3000 coconuts.  We even got a few other boats to join us.  We had a goodbye party with Hena and off we went to anchor by the pass and get ready to leave this beautiful place as it seemed that there was a weather wind forming to allow us to move on.  We had another excursion outside the pass, this time on Somerset.  First we  went for a snorkel/dive of the pass, (we opted to snorkel so that we didn’t get our equipment wet before a passage)  the current at the pass this time was really moving so it was a 5 minute snorkel or dive!  After the snorkel Carol and Jim took Somerset out the pass where we traverse the shore line, of course our fishing lines were out, but no luck on the fishing front.  But we did get to see 2 turtles mating at sea and 3 whales putting on a specular show of tail slapping.  A final bonfire and pot luck on the beach and another beautiful sunset to say goodbye to a magnificent place.  The next day 4 of the boats prepared to leave for Suwarrow.  As one boat said, it takes three things to make a place:  the place including its people, the people you are there with and the weather.  Maupihaa had all three.  Thank you Maupihaa, you really were a WOW WOW! 

Interlude in Paradise