Hang your bananas on the right side of the boat

Anastasia
Phil May and Andrea Twigg
Tue 15 May 2012 22:40
14:44.2S 156:05.8W  290 miles covered, 410 to go
 
We are cruising along in 12 knots of wind, making slow but steady progress towards Suwarrow. 
 
Here are some extracts from the descriptions of Suwarrow in  "Charlie's Charts of Polynesia" and the "Moon Handbook of the South Pacific".
  • Many years ago the atoll became infested with termites
  • The clarity of the water makes for excellent diving except for the profusion of sharks.
  • The numerous rats are not afraid of humans.
So why exactly are we going there?  Simply because it is a part of the planned route.  You can probably see from the fleet positions that one boat in our group (Bronwyn) has decided to skip Suwarrow but the other eight are headed in that direction.  It would be nice to get a stamp in our passports, but apparently the park warden who does this is not in residence at this time of year.  Anyway, we can stay there for three days and there will not be any shoreside distractions, so maybe will will get around to cleaning off the weed growing on Anastasia's bottom, if the sharks don't get too nosy.
 
We are continually heading west and so we have been in the habit of hanging our bananas on the starboard side (north facing) so they are in the shade for most of the day.  Yesterday Andrea pointed out that this is having the opposite effect now we are in the southern hemisphere, where north facing means sunny.  Now the bananas are hanging in the shady southern side.