Aitutaki
Panulirus
CR and KN Williams
Tue 1 Jun 2010 04:17
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18.52S 159.48W
Monday 31/5/10
Everyone, including Cath & Reece who got
married here, says this place is wonderful and they're absolutely right. Weather
a bit drizzly but that doesn't detract from the island itself.
Only blot is a disgusting cruise ship called the
Paul Gauguin whose tender raced by at 20+ kts, 20m from us all morning while we
were anchored outside the reef, and, when we finally came in at high tide,
overtook us in a 10m channel with 5cm to spare. They don't even monitor ch 16
all the time. A stiff letter to the owners and IMO will follow as soon as I can
get proper WiFi.
Today we went on a lagoon trip and C did lots of
snorkelling (alone) plus a lovely lunch cooked by the guy's wife on a place
called 'one foot' island. Our fellow lagooners said they made a film
here 27 years ago! 'The Silent One'.
We now have yet another crap dinghy which deflates
all the time and we still don't have a whiff of a new Navionics chart. I haven't
broken anything today.
K
Coming in through the pass in the reef was quite
exciting. We first investigated in the (only slightly) squishy squashy flippy
floppy dinghy which was lucky as most of the markers had been blown away in the
recent cyclone. We went wrong once and bumped some coral but once on shore the
locals said we would be fine to come in at high tide. The passage was, at
best, about 50 ft wide and the least depth we saw was 1.6 m (we draw 1.4m).
We are now safely parked with a stern line ashore tied to a coconut tree. Keith
declined to swim ashore with the rope in his teeth and went in the dinghy but
had problems landing and ended up in the water up to his neck. From the
safe distance of the boat I was having a private chuckle as I could
imagine his language !
He got his own back by refusing to swim on the
lagoon trip but the other people were very nice.
I waxed lyrical about French Polynesia but I think
the Cook Islands are even better. The lagoon is stunning but sadly the island
has been devastated by the cyclone .The wharf and market were destroyed and lots
of houses. People are living in tents provided by the N.Z. Red Cross but are
still lovely and helpful.
C
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