Tuesday 14 May to 24 May - Niue

Moved to Bora Bora Yacht Club where we picked up a mooring.  Good evening in the BBYC with buffet and Bora Bora dancing - Patrick joined in of course dancing alongside at the invitation of one of the male dancers - did quite a good job! Fabian’s birthday lunch was held in the little cafe in town and then Pippa and Fabian left to catch their planes and start the long journey home.  Alastair and Jessica Speare-Cole joined us and stayed a night ashore with P and F in the Bora Bora Holiday Lodge - 3 star style accommodation but right close to the BBYC.

Then we set off for the next big sail - 1050 NM to Niue.  Settled into a good rhythm straight away with Al and Jess - 2 hours on and 6 hours off throughout the 24 hour period.  No fish caught sadly but good food - spag bol, prawn jambalaya, chicken stew.. usual offshore style.  Everyone took turns to cook.  No bird life, a few flying fish, and very few boats - we sailed alongside World Arc boats Kaja and Navillus 3 to begin with and then we were on our own for mile after mile.  Plenty of wind to begin with.  A chance to use the Code Zero, and Parasailer as well as the usual downwind arrangement of wing on wing.

Arrived in Niue on 24 May where we picked up a mooring in Alofi.  Niue is a totally isolated, single island 264 sq km, self-governing but in ‘free association’ with New Zealand. It stands absolutely alone in the Pacific 560 km SE of Samoa, 386 km east of Vava’u Tonga, and 2400 km northeast of NZ.  Pronounced NEW-way which means ‘Behold the Coconut Tree’.  Beautiful place, with clear, clean water.  It’s an elevated atoll with chasms and caves to explore.  Ate at the Cafe Uga on arrival,  uga means coconut crab which is a land based blue coconut eating crab seen throughout the island.    Then off to  the Niue Yacht Club (for Yacht Club read a bar by the sea). We did promise to send them a burgee when we got home to add to their incipient collection.   Hired a car for a trip around the island, and swam in the beautiful Limu Pools, accessed via caves with stalactites and stalagmites, and enjoyed a great swim although we were rather spooked by the sea snakes with their vertical black and white stripes and grinning