The weather eventually calmed down and the forecasts seemed okay for leaving Maupihaa so we made our good byes with the family, wishing them well in the battle with the political and business interests pressuring them to leave the island. We hope they fare well.

Going out through the reef pass seemed much easier as we had the current with us and and open sea ahead instead of a lagoon of corals. Originally we wanted to go to Rarotonga the capital of the Cook islands and far south in the group. However, we set off for Aitutaki further north as reports suggested that weather in the south would be unsettled and squally. This was a bit worrying for us as Aitutaki has the usual reef pass but the depth, depending which pilot book is read, is said to be anything from 5ft to 6ft and Gryphon 2 draws 5ft 8ins!

The wind was a kind easterly force 3 and the sea although initially swelly after the bad weather was just coming from one direction so very tolerable. It calmed down to wonderful sailing weather - the best, we agreed, since we entered the Pacific which seemed odd after waiting so long to leave Maupihaa. We caught a mahi mahi (dorado), big and flashing its blue, green and gold iridescent colours as Chris pulled it in. He struggled hard to stop it jumping over our trailing water generator line, we've had a hideous tangle from this happening previously which took several hours to sort out. Unfortunately the fish was fresh to the hook and full of power, it jumped over and in the ensuing struggle to prevent a tangle it was off the hook – ah well, the ratatouille was good.

Unexpectedly we received emails for the family on Maupihaa, all in French of course. One was informing them of a date this month (September) for a hearing in Tahiti of their claim to stay on the island where they have lived for ten years. This was alarming as we had no way of letting them know. We emailed their friends on the French yacht back in Bora Bora and put out a call on the radio nets for any yacht likely to visit Maupihaa in the near future. No avail on this but eventually we heard from the French that they had been able to contact the family, we are not sure how but this was such a relief. We shall try to find out what has happened in a couple of weeks.

We saw just one other boat, Pursuit, whom we spoke with on VHF, they were off to Niue, Tonga and New Zealand like us. We managed via the short wave radio to speak to friends John and Chris on Sara 2 who were bound for one of the Northern Cook islands and were also having good weather, they were able to give us tidal information so that we knew when high tide was to assist our entry through the shallow pass at Aitutaki. We couldn't make the morning high tide which meant an evening arrival, not a good idea where reefs are concerned as good light is needed to see them.

This concerned us and we also realised that we would be arriving on a Sunday which would incur ridiculous overtime rates for officials to deal with our customs and immigration procedures. On the spare of the moment and as the weather was being so sea-kindly, we decided to risk any squalls, change course and head for Rarotonga which would take a day longer but satisfy our original plans.

We got the squall but it wasn't serious and weather improved as we got closer to the island. We called up Rarotonga Port Radio to adivise them of our impending arrival and got very excited to hear good old English being spoken, we've been in French speaking islands for months. We arrived in Rarotonga in good daylight at 08.30 a.m. The harbour is not in the lagoon as that is too shallow, instead the coral has been massively excavated to provide a deep, all weather harbour which can accommodate small ships as well as yachts and an inner small harbour for smaller vessels. As we entered we could see 4 other yachts moored Tahiti style out from the rough old wall.

Almost before we had finished tying up, the agricultural health man arrived with a small spray can to check we were not harbouring any bugs. Then off to customs, immigration and harbour control for the reams of paperwork reminiscent of the West Indies! Expensive, time consuming and some unnecessary but we were not to regret coming here.