19.03S 169.55W Friday 6^th June –  Monday 9^TH June  Niue – The name comes from niu (coconut) and e (behold) – this tiny island is 259 km square, has around 1,500 inhabitants and is one of the smallest self governing islands in the world, although it is in close association with New Zealand. Basically it is a lime stone rock with no lighthouse, no leading lights or in fact any navigational lights whatsoever so it is highly recommended to arrive in daylight!  We arrived at the anchorage at 1500 hrs  and had a mad scramble getting tied up to one of only three remaining available buoys (there are twenty all together) and blowing up the dinghy to get ashore before the customs closed for the weekend at 1600 hrs and stranded us on board.   

The day before had been a dream – the sun shone, the wind came steadily from the South East as predicted and around midday we clocked up exactly 12,000 miles since we left our berth in Motril, Spain……..and for the first time we ran out of bread! So I determined a baking day and the whole kitchen area was array with strong white and multigrain flour, yeast, sugar, salt, olive oil, butter, measuring jugs and my recipe book.  Never having made bread before, but with my cupboard full of ingredients, I wasn’t content to make one loaf and ended up with two white bloomers, a huge foccacio with sun dried tomatoes and pistachio nuts, a dozen cheese and walnut twists and an apple with mango crumble! (Bennett’s opportunity to crack open his only packet of Birds custard as I don’t normally make puddings).  

What a scene…….. the sun setting and throwing up a light into the clouds like mother of pearl, a feast of hot breads on the cockpit table with Serrano ham, cheeses, pickles, home made chutney and green salad all completely surrounded  by washing hanging off every guard rail! It made a welcome change from the gloopy bowls of ‘lets eat this up today’ I seem to have been dishing up lately.  With the prospect of all perishables being seized in Niue, with its strong New Zealand alliance, we are doing our best to finish off anything remotely likely to be destroyed.

But the weather turned horrible again with 25 - 40 knot winds, huge swells, following seas and pouring rain – a real disappointment as we sailed past Beveridge Reef and in those conditions were unwilling to attempt the pass, especially with more weather fronts forecast over the next 48 hours.  We could see the breaking waves and the clear azure blue water of the lagoon but it was not to be for us this time. No body got any sleep during the night and it was with huge relief that we finally put our feet on terra firma this afternoon.  But what a surprise to find that the pier wall is a dauntingly high, commercial dock with nowhere to tie up and leave a dinghy as it is surrounded by reefs……the solution is to take the dinghy to a rope step ladder thrown over the wall, hang on to a knotted rope with the other hand, heave yourself up some rough hewn steps and attach a huge hook to a pre designed and quickly fabricated dinghy ‘hoist’.  The hook is attached to an unmanned industrial crane on which you then winch up your own dinghy yourself, put it on a trolley (quite a task with the outboard engine attached and all veering around in the air) and park it out of the way of the next user (the whole episode to be repeated in reverse in the pitch dark on your return trip after a night out!)

We cleared customs, spoke to many of the incredibly friendly residents, borrowed 200 NZ Dollars from Keith the Commodore of the Niue Yacht Club, hired a motor bike, enjoyed a few beers and a vodka and tonic, found a great little Indian Restaurant (of all things to find on a tiny island) and were back on the boat shattered at 20.00 hrs. 

This morning Our Island, Happy Wanderer, Baccus and Spectra arrived and we watched as they all had difficulties grabbing the buoys in terrific swells and high winds.  In fact the dinghy ‘dock’ looked untenable with waves crashing against the steps and we were of a mind to give the whole episode a miss, when Keith on Baccus phoned us on the VHF – Susan, his wife, had sustained a deep gash in her hand whilst trying to tie up to the buoy and the wound was full of barnacles and debris – his dinghy wasn’t blown up, could we take her urgently to the hospital for stitches? It was a real challenge even trying to get into our dinghy and half way across to Baccus the engine cut with the danger of being swept onto the reef – Paul rowed back against the current to Anahi and Alan off Happy Wanderer came to the rescue picking me up, then Susan and taking us to the heaving wharf……. Ernie from the yacht club’s wife Hine then drove us to the hospital.  The original building was swept clean away in the last hurricane and has been rebuilt in the centre of the island.  There we were attended to by a lovely young Fijian doctor who had met her husband, a trainee dentist, in her country and returned to Niue with him less than a year ago.  Four stitches later we were back in the car with Hine and transported back to her house, a gift from Tahiti when her own was also demolished by the weather.  Tea and cakes, on the veranda, overlooking an immaculate vegetable garden and gifts of papayas to take back to the boat………what a day! I even found fresh loaves of soft floury white bread in the bakery and I’m afraid we had another Indian for supper! (Followed by another hair raising journey home)……