Suwarrow
Ripple2
Sat 9 Sep 2006 04:23
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Suwarrow Friday 8th Sept.
Suwarrow is an atoll in the Northern Group of the
Cook Islands. Over 600 miles from Bora Bora to the East and over 600 miles to
Samoa in the west And no islands north or south for hundreds of miles.
Pretty much the middle of nowhere (this is a fairy persistent theme in the
Pacific).
Suwarrow is a roughfully circleular atoll about 7
miles across with a handful of small low islets and a deep lagoon inside the
surrounding reef.
This is our 5th and last day here. What have you
two been doing for the last 2 weeks you ask. Well...........
We finally left Bora on wed. Aug 30.
We had mixed conditions (I won't bore you with the
details, you know the drill by now) on the 600 odd mile sail. There was one
week.
We sailed through the pass and anchored in the
rain just after lunchtime on Sun Sept 03. We didn't find a good place to anchor.
There were already about 10 boats in. The wind was in the SE 15 -18 knot so the
small island afforded no protection. There was a 1 - 1.5m chop. The chain got
caught on coral and was jerking hard with the waves. The "snubber" (A line
attached to the chain to take load off the windlass) snapped and an emergency
replacement was needed real fast so as to avoid damage to the windlass (which I
had just spent a day and a half repairing in Riatea). It was too bouncy to
launch the dinghy so we spent the afternoon and night bouncing up and down. Not
what you want after 5 days at sea.
The next morning a boat left so we were able to
anchor in a better spot. I spent the whole day working on a low oil pressure
problem with the engine. A most unpleasant job. At least we weren't
bouncing anymore.
Tuesday we finally went ashore to check-in. All of
Suwarrow is a National Park. The only inhabitants are the Park Warden, John and
his wife and 4 sons. We were cordially welcomed (in English as the native tongue
for the first time on this trip) and set about a filling in two forms. Then John
gave us the do's and don'ts of Suwarrow. It seemed that a lot of them had to do
with sharks. EG. do carry a rock or rocks to throw at sharks when walking in the
shallows.
The Black Tip Reef Sharks here are
numerous, hungry and will swim in water only cms deep. They are generally about
a meter long. They are in the deep water near the boat, they are in the shallow
water right at the shore, they are everywhere. Later that day we saw 9 of
them almost coming ashore at the shoreline. Admittedly they were attracted
to some fish carcases left there. But still. After our check-in we walked the
perimeter (the only accessible part) of the island at low tide. This was good as
at high tide one would have been obliged to walk in the water due to the thick
bushes. And guess what's in the water? BTRSs. There is no beach , just coral
jagged coral rock and loose broken coral pieces. After a while walking we
returned to the wardens house ( we had forgotten to actually pay the
$50 park entry fee) and found the family don at the shore where we saw the
above sharks mentioned above. The kids took delight in throwing rocks at them.
We were informed that a boat that arrived today had caught a few large tuna and
mahi mahi and that there would be a BBQ at 5.30 with all the boats
crews.
It was a nice shoreside barbie with nice and
interesting people and a bright full moon. After awhile Annie and I were the
only ones left(surprised?).
We ended up talking with John for quite a long time
. It was a very interesting chat, mostly about his life, relatives, other
yachties, and his country.
Just after midnight we went home.
Next day (Tuesday) John in his tinny led a group of
6 dinghies to one of the islets about 3 miles away. On the way we stopped at
some large coral heads to snorkel. There were the colourful lipped clams
and tiny fish that you might see at a suburban pet shop. There were a few other
fish but not many. A highlight was a turtle. Annie made me swim very close to
her at all times because of the possibility of BTRSs. After a while I was cold
and got in the dinghy, but Annie wanted to snorkel more. She wanted me back in
the water but I said that she could swim over the coral that was right near the
dinghy and that she would be fine. So Annie swam by herself. But in a very short
time she was back at the dinghy and IN the dinghy in a single bound ( a
feat that she had not achieved to date) barely getting the word "shark"
out. A BTRS had swum right across her at close range.
So then we walked on the nearby motu which is a sea
bird nesting area and had our traditional French picnic under the
barely sufficent shade of a small bush. After lunch we explored some more of the
shoreline (saw large sea urchins and BTRSs in the shallows and
crabs and sea cucumbers and stuff). Around 3pm we dinghyed home and had an
early night as were pretty tired.
The next day (today) is Friday. Its unlucky to set
sail on a Friday so we had a relaxed day on the boat.Annie cooking food for the
next passage and me writing blogs and a couple of small boat jobs (nothing
stressful).
Our next destination is Niuatoputapu (just
pronounce every letter, you'll get it) the northern most island of the Kingdom
of Tonga (the only Pacific nation never to be ruled by a foreign power).
this trip is 640 miles. We may stop at Rose Island (part of American Samoa), 304
miles along the way to break up the trip.
PS. Now Peter Brock is dead. Good Lord . Slim
Dusty, Don Chip, Steve Irwin.......now Brocky.Surviving 2006 seems quite a
challenge.
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