On the way to Suwarrow, Cook Islands
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Wed 21 May 2008 22:53
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15:52.474S 153:54.153W
We are sailing nicely, on our way to
Suwarrow. We expect to arrive sometime on Sunday, and currently have about
550 miles to go. The weather is better than expected - not much in the way
of waves and higher wind than forecasted. Although, the wind did not show
up for duty until about 2am last night. Until that time, we sailed at a
snail's pace and finally gave in and motored throughout the
evening.
We did have one night of nasty weather in Bora Bora
before we left. Bad squalls rolled through last Sunday night with winds up
to 28 knots. Not all that bad, but the worst we've seen while at anchor in
quite some time. A couple of boats had some trouble - one dragged anchor
and nearly went ashore, while a mooring chain broke for a second and they nearly
went ashore as well. Both recovered quickly enough and neither sustained
any damage.
Only about half the fleet is headed to
Suwarrow. The atoll is so small that they weren't willing to host all
36ish boats, so those of us that like the idea of visiting a deserted island are
headed north to Suwarrow, while those that prefer a more lively port are heading
south to another Cook Island, Rarotonga. Rarotonga is known for cheap
provisions (as opposed to French Polynesia, which wins the prize for the most
expensive provisioning known to man). The whole fleet will be together
again in Tonga, which will be a few weeks from now.
A couple of boats dropped out of the rally in
French Polynesia - Farout, a Danish boat, and Candela, the American
catamaran. Now we are down to two measly American boats, ours and one from
Seattle called Maamalni. We two are under pressure to come up with some
type of witty activity or competition for the fleet to amuse themselves with for
the 4th of July. Any and all suggestions are welcome. For St.
Patrick's Day, the Irish boat ran an Irish trivia competition. A St.
Patrick's Day photo competition was also held. Tallulah Ruby won the photo
competition hands down with their now famous photo of their crew (two women,
three men) dressed in nothing but paper shamrocks covering only the most
important body parts. How can we Americans compete with
that??
More tomorrow -
Anne
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