Monday 21st  May: South Pacific Ocean 15 08.0S  163 46.9W  

Today’s Blog by David (Time zone UTC -11.00;  BST-12.00)

Suwarrow is an Atoll in the South Pacific Ocean.  A large coral reef, it has a handful of small islands on it – the largest of which may have been 3 hectares.   

Otherwise uninhabited, It is a nature reserve on which two wardens live for six months a year and it is gorgeous.  There is an anchorage big enough for maybe a dozen yachts.   The seven  boats that were there had a barbeque ashore on Saturday. The Glamorous Galah boys laid a fire for the barbeque and caught a Moray Eel and Coconut Crab as their contribution.  Others were less adventurous (we took along Kebabs)  but we had a good time and when the sun went down (and the insects came up) we repaired to Anastasia for a party – there must have been thirty people aboard a catamaran whose afterdeck is big enough to serve as an impromptu dance floor.  

Some caution was required however because not all of the natives are friendly; this is a Black Tipped Shark  passing by our boat.

Swimming after 16.00 is not recommended. 

We walked round the island on Saturday – out onto the coral reef and posed for a team photo;

Then on Sunday we took the dinghy to Gull Island – where there were perhaps thousands of birds nesting:

We saw  Frigate Birds, Brown Noddys, Brown, Red Footed and  Masked Boobies and Terns (most probably Sooty Terns) galore. Quite a privileged moment.

We got back to the boat at lunchtime yesterday to find yachts abandoning that idyllic place having seen the latest weather forecast that suggested that there will be some unpleasant weather at the end of the week.  As usual, sailing on a schedule as we are, the option of staying in Suwarrow for a few days while it passed was not available so we needed to follow the example set by others and get on down to Nuie before the weather hits.

As of now, we have been motoring south for about 24 hours – the sea is flat – there is no wind ……….. the calm before the storm?

One more picture of Suwarrow

We will miss it.