16:31.682S 151:44.688W

Monday 2^nd September 2013

Distance run:  11 nmiles

The wind picked up a little in the south-east anchorage, but the sea was flat and the wind generator was earning its keep topping up the new batteries, so we stayed a few days.  Steve, Rod, Eric & Dee went around the motu to a spot in the reef where there was snorkelling and rays and sharks to feed.  I was quite happy to enjoy a couple of hours peace and quiet on board. 

A catamaran we had first met in Cuba, Banana, arrived one day, and Robert and Sophie invited us on board for drinks.  It turns out that, although they are French, they had actually been living in, and had left on Banana from, Cape Town, and so had a lot in common with Rod and Mary.

Yesterday we lifted the anchor and retraced our track back through the gaps in the reefs, around the top of the island and down to the south-west corner where we picked up a buoy off Bloody Mary’s pier.  The buoys are free for customers of the restaurant, and we went ashore hoping to enjoy lunch there.  Unfortunately they are closed on Sundays – something we didn’t think to check – but no matter, it was a very pleasant spot so we just chilled out on the boat and made use of their free buoy.

When we tried at lunchtime again today we were pleased to find the restaurant up and running, and enjoyed a very leisurely lunch.  Steve felt that, as we were not on bikes this time, it would be okay to try their supposedly famous Bloody Mary.  It was alright, he said, but not the best he’s ever tasted.  His mahi mahi was superb, though, and made up for it.

A bloody Mary at Bloody Mary’s.

Visiting the loo was quite entertaining – Steve found an unusual handle to pull to flush the urinal in the gents, and the ladies had a very unusual washbasin made of rocks, where the water cascaded down upon pulling the ring above one’s head.  And a tiki that probably should have been in the gents...

The urinal flush pull in the gents!

The ladies’ wash basin.                                                                 This little chap had lost his way into the ladies....

Scott-Free & Sheer Tenacity moored off Bloody Mary’s pier.

We decided to walk off lunch, and enjoyed a long stroll around the southern point of the island, turning back when we reached a point looking out over the anchorage we left yesterday.  Feeling thirsty after our exertions we came upon a beachside bar on the way back where we rested in the shade with a cool beer looking out over the white sand beach and turquoise water, spotting stingrays as they lazily wove around in the shallows.

The plan had been to leave for Suwarrow tomorrow, but the weather forecast shows a ridge of unsettled weather in our path, so it looks like we’ll just have to put up with it here a bit longer....