19:03.00S 169:55.00W

 

The weather finally improved enough for us to set off for Niue, another Cook Island but one with a population.

 

The first nights sailing was fabulous, with wind just aft of the beam we were soon trucking along at 9 knots. The swell had been building up from the south where the gale that we had avoided was still howling and the waves gradually built. To say it was a wet trip is an understatement. The only dry place to sit was just inside the spray hood. This didn’t stop until we got to Niue some 500 miles later, even living down below became uncomfortable and with the boat at 32 degrees, very hot.

 

The only place to stop in Niue is Alofi, the capital. There are 1500 people on Niue, of which over 400 work for the Government as there really is nothing to do. The small airport brings tourists in from New Zealand in the summer when the whales migrate and the dive company, there is only one, makes it’s money in the few months that people are on island.

 

We picked up a mooring, put down by the Niue Yacht Club as the water is far too deep to anchor. Because the place is so open to the elements there is a dinghy crane. It’s very simple, you pull up, attach the crane hook to the harness, leap the few feet to the stone steps and then pull the dinghy onto the dock where a trailer makes it easy to park it. It is a health and safety nightmare, waves, electricity, people jumping everywhere – and after several beers at the Yacht Club it gets REALLY interesting!!

 

The other thing that Niue has are sea snakes, by the thousand. These black and white stripy critters are everywhere, but the real concentration is in the south. We went with the only dive company in Niue to see them and when you’re down below it’s almost as if it’s raining snakes. They go to the surface to breathe and then come back down to sleep amongst the coral. They are very poisonous but very docile and as we swam through the underwater canyons I was handed a snake by our dive leader. It seemed to be quite content to be held. Not something I would have normally done!

 

I have never seen such great visibility underwater, and at well over 50 metres it was as if we were floating in space, not swimming in the sea. When the weather calms down the visibility gets to over a 100 metres, which must be amazing.

 

After 3 days the anchorage became untenable, with the boat rolling from gunnel to gunnel it was almost impossible to sleep. We cleared out and left with another beam reach to Tonga.