Sept 27 1 pm The Lost Birthday and Pumice

From Lynne:  after a lot of calculating and worrying, I have determined that I am going to lose my birthday.  It's an important one - 70 years!  Any advice on what to do?  

Barry was sleeping and I was eating lunch in the cockpit when long streams of floating pumice appeared going from north to south more or less.  The streams of pumice have lasted almost an hour and a half so far.  When I figure out the geology involved I'll let you know or you can let us know.  I think it has to do with volcanic activity along the Tonga Trench.

Pumice, not our picture or our location

Skipping Minerva Reef....again. September 23, 2012

We gave up on Minerva because going there meant arriving in the dark and having to wait 8 hrs in 25 knots and heavy seas waiting to get in.  Then once in, we would be missing the only good wind for a week. The wind wins every time (if you are smart).

From Sheryl
On another note, Google maps and their search function for this blog work pretty well. However, today, it says my parents are here. I assure you, based on my minimal knowledge of sailing, geography and my parents' description of their location, they are not in New South Wales Australia. They are instead, according to regular Google maps, in the location noted in the second picture....far more likely, don't you think?

Position :  26 23.32' S, 179 03.52' W

Speed : 6.6 knots,  Course : 187 degree

September 27, 2012 Approaching the international date line

Sept 27 3 am.  Good wind, flat seas, zipping right along fast approaching the international date line at which point we will be a day ahead of you.  I hope this doesn't mean that I lose my birthday in the process.  New ETA NZ: Oct 5.  No birds, no whales, nobody.

Sept 25, 2012 On the way to Minerva Reef

Sept 25  It's a lonnng way from Niue to New Zealand via Minerva Reef.  All the while we are getting farther S (towards the South Pole) and yesterday we had to put on some clothes to keep warm. Our tropical adventure is drawing to an end.  ETA Opua NZ = Oct 7

Niue Memories, Sept 2012

Niue Memories
Monday we went on a forest walk with Jack, a local.  The following is the best we can remember of what he had to say:

Niue was settled by peoples from Samoa, Tonga and Fiji and the political divisions on the island reflect this. The island is divided three ways according to whose ancestors were from Samoa, Tonga or Fiji.  Once land is in your family it is that family's even if all family members live in New Zealand or the US.  Jack does not like the way present day Samoans leave Samoa and send their wages back to the family in Samoa or Fiji.  In Niue, whatever money you make goes to your immediate family and Jack thinks that is the way it should be.  Niue is heavily financed by NZ, some say $4 million/yr, others say $ 5 million/yr and still others say $25  million/year.  It looks to us like about $5 million/yr in the way of salaries, infrastructure repair and new building. If there are land disputes New Zealand sends commissioners to hold a court.  Jack was grateful to the Kiwi's role because they are fair and the locals are corrupt.  His opinion.    Jack was proud of his family of 6 children and following grandchildren. (This pride in having many children was the same 12 years ago.)  His is 48.

The huge trees in the forest have buttressed trunks or multiple trunks because the roots can't go deep in the very shallow layer of soil on top of the ancient coral.  There are many different types of trees on Niue.  Particularly prized is ebony, because of its fine grain, color and weight.  Jack carves ebony.  The ground is very rough due to chunks of old coral sticking up everywhere.  The entire island is riddled with caves from one end to the other, just the way coral reefs are not solid.  There are no coconut trees in the primal forest but there are coconut crabs, uga, pronounced oong ah.  Ugas eat fruits from the native trees at night and hide in the caves or holes during the day.  Coconut crabs can live to be 40 years old and grow very slowly.  The female crab mates, carries her fertilized eggs to the ocean side cliffs and drops them into the water.  They hatch and the crabs go through two different cycles in the ocean looking like krill.  Then they change to being a hermit crab, living in a mollusk shell.  As they grow older, they finally crawl out of the ocean and start living on the land.  They are a prized food on the island, and hunted extensively.  How long the crabs can take the pressure is a good question.

The forest is dense.  Once you get 100 feet from the road, you cannot see it.  You cannot see the sun due to the tree canopy and it is very easy to get lost in the forest.  After the big cyclone, there were no leaves left on any trees or bushes in that forest nor anywhere on Niue.  Many trees were blown over.  It took about 2 years for the surviving trees and bushes to grow back a full set of leaves.  There were no coconut trees originally on Niue because there were no beaches for water born coconuts to land on.  The coconuts were brought by the original South East Asian settlers and planted on the flatter ground above the seaside cliffs.  Agriculture here uses the slash and burn technique.  Taro, casava, papaya and a few bananas are typically planted.  A stick is used to make a hole between the coral rubble.  Can't use a farm tractor here, much less a shovel.  However, dozers are used to clear the forest.  After a few years, the soil is depleted and is allowed to grow back  to bush.  After many years, it will be ready to burn and grow food on.  The brochure declared that the forest walk was not appropriate for the elderly 70 and over.  Silly rule; we did fine.  At the beginning of the forest walk we told Jack we were interested in locating birds. He said we would hear many birds but see few because they are shy.  He said to go to the Matavai Resort  where the birds are more used to people and this is what we did.  We saw many White-tailed Tropic Birds and Jack showed where they nest in hollow trees in the forest.  He didn't find birds but he duplicated their calls and he told in which trees they feed, so he was a big help in finding birds.

White-tailed Tropic Bird, 50
Polynesian Triller 30
Polynesian Starling 20
Brown Noddy 10
Pacific Pigeon 50
Purple-capped Fruit Dove 10
Lesser Golden Plover 100
Jungle Fowl 4
Feral Chicken 100s
Pacific Reef Heron 10
Bristle-thighed Curlew 2
Banded Rail 10
Brown Booby 1 mid passage from Niue to Minerva Reef


We only did one SCUBA dive at Niue this time.  Although the water is very clear, the amount of live coral is minimal so there were not very many fish.  There were only a few sea snakes, all the same.  It will take years for the cyclone damage to be repaired.  They say that on the east side of the island, the sea life is abundant.  However, there are no places to launch a boat and the water is rough, as it is the windward side.  When we dove here 12 years ago, the coral was good, we saw some huge lobsters and the sea floor was literally covered with three species of sea snakes.  Our dive consisted of following a wall for a while then entering a cave, surfacing in the cave, descending again, exploring side canyons before returning  to the dive boat.  I, Lynne, was just interested in surviving the SCUBA dive.  I could barely stand the pain in my right ear after descending  a second time after the cave.  One person, Axel,  was a technical diver and gave us some fantastic photos of us and our dive.  Thanks, Axel on Gudrun.
 

Sea Snake

One of the advantages of being on Niue a while is that we had fun talking with the many Kiwis and Aussies who vacation on Niue - the couple from Cormandel and the couple with the outboard motor in Hervey Bay Australia. We spent much time on Cormandel peninsula about 7 yrs ago so they brought us up to date on the news there.  The couple from Hervey Bay, Kevin & Heidi, said that the it is the whale watching capital of the world and he and Barry talked boat motors.
The night we were stranded in the guest house we talked to 2 men from Christchurch about their earthquakes.  The damage was much worse than we knew.  We asked about the time ball at Lytleton and they said flattened, like the rest of Lyttleton.  Now there are investigations finding things were not right in the building department and enforcement  of building codes.  The insurance companies pay for the reconstruction but change their minds about paying full amount when it comes down to it.  All the time were were chatting, Brian  kept interjecting "mate" (pronounced Mite).  He especially was sympathetic to me, Lynne, saying, "Don't be worried about your boat, mate, your mates will take good care of it. You should try and rest, mate".

Sept 16-21, 2012 Niue

16 September  The supply ship returns in the morning and reanchors.  We hustle ashore and get our dinghy out of the water and onto the wharf.  The rest of the morning and most of the afternoon is spent finishing unloading the ship and loading returning empty containers and fuel tanks to the ship.  

18 September  Only 3 places in the country of Niue take a credit card.  We had become ignorant about the amount of  cash that is needed to live because 95% of what we spend at home goes on the credit card (for frequent flyer miles); therefore, we quickly went through the NZ$700.00 that we brought.  There are no ATMs that work on the island. Therefore we were forced to go to the only bank to exchange our $US 700.00 for the local currency which is $NZ.  The bank is based in Papua New Guinea and nobody in Niue, including visitors, like it.  They pay very low wages, charge exorbitant fees and make 13% profit on currency exchanges.  Normally it would cost  about US$.86 to buy a NZ$1.00 but this bank charged US$.9515!  They can get away with it because it is the only bank in the whole country.  There are three ATM machines in the country, but they have remained in their crates for a long time.  We can understand why the bank would not like to have them operating.


19 September  We spent most of the day touring the northwest side of the island.  There are a number of paths that go down to the sea, often at interesting places.  We did about 10 of those today, although just visiting and taking pictures.  We did not snorkel at any of the sites, as the coral is just starting to recolonize the reef,  8 years after the cyclone//hurricane hit.  At one parking lot, we got high-centered on a rock and just barely got off.  Why they do not routinely put a lift kit on rental cars is beyond me.  This is the second time that we have needed a lift kit on this low-rider station wagon.  We also spent a lot of time looking for and photographing birds.  We finally got some pictures of the Banded Rail.  We have seen a lot of them, but they are very wary and flee as soon as they see a car, or the car stops, or the car door opens.  We finished up our time ashore with a hot shower at the Yacht Clubs facility just above the dock.  It used to be for the fuel tank farm personnel, but the Yacht Club took it over when the tank farm abandoned it.  After  dinner on the boat, it was time to clean out the frig.  EEEW!

Banded Rail

 
20 September  After we bought Sunrise, I decided that it would be useful to have a drain on the bottom of our aft fuel tank so that we could remove any water that might get into the tank.  Sunrise came with a plug on the bottom.  I had about a quart size tank welded up with a hose coming off the side at the bottom that would screw into the drain hole.  Unfortunately, it seeped a bit of diesel.  Well, after adding 15 gallons yesterday, the seepage had increased to a Drip, Drip, Drip.  DANG!  I tried to reach under the tank with a long bar to see if I could turn it a bit.  Instead, it broke off and diesel was pouring out at a prodigious rate.  DOUBLE DANG!!  Although our two 5-gallon diesel jugs were empty, they were in the car on the wharf.  TRIPLE DANG!!!  We had just emptied the water out of three of our water jugs, so we started pumping diesel into the jugs.  We will now have to buy new water jugs, as the diesel taste and smell is probably permanent.  We lost 15 gallons of fuel into the bilges and were able to retrieve most of it for use after we pour it through a filter. There is still a lot of diesel coating the area under the fuel tank and in the bilge.  Afterwards, we went to the gas station and filled the diesel jugs.  Because of all the extra effort to move the container sized fuel tanks after the 2004 cyclone, fuel is about $10 per gallon in Niue.  OUCH! This is a lot more than before the old tank farm was damaged in the cyclone.  They tell us that a new tank farm for fuel has been built, but it is has not been activated yet.

21 September  It is a beautiful sunny day with gorgeous clouds.  We are leaving Niue and headed for Minerva Reefs.  North Minerva is an atoll with no motus (sandy islands).  It has a passage into the lagoon on the west side.  South Minerva is a double atoll with the shape of the number 8 and a passage into the northern lagoon.  You anchor up inside the lagoon in relatively calm water in the middle of the ocean with nothing to see but a reef awash when the tide is out.  We have passed it 5 times before without stopping. This time, we are going for it.

Reef of Minerva

The good and not the bad news.

I found my driver's license!!!  And some $US.  Life is good.  We'll send the bad news later after we finish dealing with the fuel leak/gusher.

Whisker pole

Before the whisker pole broke;
when it was holding out the genoa for wing and wing. 

After, with the butt end hoisted up the track
on the mast where it is stowed and
the other end tied to the life lines.

Sept 12-14, A Very Very Good Very Bad Night

Reef at Niue

Coast of Niue

Lifting a dinghy, found on Google images

Never heard of Niue? Here it is. 

12 September  We are back in Niue, a one island nation composed of a raised atoll.  As an atoll, geologic uplift raised it up about 150 feet.  Therefore, it has near vertical cliffs composed of jagged ancient coral reef called makatea, just a few tiny beaches and an encircling reef abutting the cliff.  This is not a place where you want to anchor, as the water is deep and has poor holding.  A boatless organization called the Niue Yacht Club provides moorings in the bay on the west side of the island, toilets and showers for cruisers by the wharf and a host of services, lots of advice and a place for cruisers to hang out.  During the cruising season, the cruisers bring a significant amount of business to the island.  Without the services provided by the club, very few cruisers would come here.  To go ashore, you take your dinghy to the concrete wharf.  There is a cutout in the wall of the wharf with steps and a rope to grab.  The hook from a crane is about 3 feet above the water.  You attach your dinghy lifting bridle to the hook, scramble out of the dinghy and up the steps and use the crane to lift your dinghy out of the water and onto the wharf.  The yacht club provides a dolly to haul your dinghy away from the crane to a vacant spot on the edge of the wharf.  You then reposition the crane and lower the hook to just above the water for the next dinghy.  It is relatively easy when conditions are benign.  

Wharf at Niue

After arriving right after daybreak, we took naps.  Later in the morning, we arranged to check in with Customs, Agriculture and Immigration.  After dining out for lunch, we spent a while at the Visitor's Center trying to arrange for a whale watching trip (Humpbacks) where you try to snorkel with the whales, a dive trip, a bird watching trip, a forest tour, etc.

Wharf during a storm, to give you an idea.
This is not a picture from this day in the blog.

13 September  The wind has shifted to the northwest and is blowing obliquely toward the shore.  This makes the boat uncomfortable and the dinghy landing at the wharf more challenging.  We pick up a rental car first thing in the morning.  After dropping off our laundry at the home of a lady who does this, we did some sightseeing and errands.  The dive operator insists that we do a refresher training before they will take us out SCUBA diving.  We do it in the pool of the resort next door.  The instructor is very good.  When we return to the wharf to go back to Sunrise, we find that the wind has piped up and is coming directly from the west.  The surge at the wharf is substantial and launching the dinghy impossible. About 10 of us our stranded, unable to get in our dinghies without them flipping over.  Some yachties decide to swim to their boats but most of us are not that young and strong.  Some have to spend the night on shore.  One couple has close friends next to their boat who have a dinghy in the water.  (Everyone else had their dinghy on deck as it was impossible to get it off the deck.) Their friend risks his life and his boat to retrieve his wife and this couple, one by one.  We ask the last person to see if the man will make one more trip to take me out. The answer from the bouncing dinghy as it struggles back to their boat is yelled over the noise: NO.  Doing what he had just done was dangerous and his small dinghy and motor marginal.  We go back to the yacht club, where they arrange for us to stay at a guest house and lead us there.  Later, a yacht club member comes to us with his VHF and says that another cruiser, Karen on Sockdollager, noticed that one of our two mooring lines had chafed through where it passed through the chock in the toerail and the other was starting to become damaged.  As the wind waves passed under the boat, the mooring lines are tensioned and relaxed repeatedly.  When tensioned, they stretch, when less tensioned, they contract.  So the lines were repeatedly rubbing and wearing on the chock, the gap in the toerail through which the lines the lines pass.  The two men who were close friends and made it out to their boat (John on Orcinius and Bob on Charisma)  got on our boat, removed the anchor from the bow roller, tied it on deck, installed their large mooring line through the bow roller assembly, routed our damaged mooring line over the other bow roller.  We are very grateful to them for going out again into the heaving chop and dealing with the wildly bucking bow of our boat and thankful for their saving our boat.  Our remaining mooring line would not have lasted through the night.  We stood on the wharf  a long time looking at our boat until it was too dark.  A couple on vacation in a rental car raised their high beams for us and we see our "bar-coded" mast pitching back and forth.  (Before we went cruising we put reflective tape on our mast in a bar code pattern so that we could find her  with a flashlight in the dark.)  About ten p.m. we drove down to the wharf to shine the headlights of our car out toward our boat.  The reflection from the tape on the mast showed that Sunrise was still there and the mast swinging fore and aft under the influence of the waves.  The waves and surge at the dock still made launching our dinghy impossible.  After we go to bed, I cannot sleep and make another trip to the wharf.  No changes.

14 September  At 5 am, we get up and go to the farmers market to buy some tomatoes, kumeras (yams), a papaya, some Niue coconut porridge and a scone.  When we get to the wharf, the wind has backed off and changed direction back to the northwest and we are barely able to get our dinghy launched, get in and away from the concrete wharf.  We find all is well on Sunrise.  I replace Orcinius's mooring line with one of our own and return it to their boat with effusive thanks.  They graciously responded with, "That's what the cruising life is all about, helping each other."  Charisma had suffered a ding to their outboard when Sunrise's bow came crashing down on it - it could have been their head.

We decide to spend the rest of the day on the boat doing chores.  The supply ship (called the freighter" here) is due in and they do not want any dinghys on the wharf.  Soon after, the supply ship arrives and anchors about ¼ mile off the wharf, with a hauser taken back to the wharf to hold the ship in position.  The locals use a mobile crane to lift an aluminum tugboat into the water followed by a small aluminum barge.  The rest of the day, the tugboat/barge hauls one or two 20 foot long containers at a time back to the wharf to by lifted up onto trailers by the big crane.  Included in the loads are cylindrical fuel tanks in 20 foot rectangular cages.  Before the cyclone/hurricane hit Niue in 2004, there was a small tank farm.  Fuel was transferred from tanker ships by hoses and stored in the tanks.  Now, the damaged tanks are all that remain of that system.  At the end of the day, the ship pulls in their line to the wharf, ups anchor and steams away.

Position :  19 03.20' S, 169 55.44' W

September 12, 2012

We are 4 miles away from the mooring balls at Niue in the lee of the island so in an hour we will be safely attached. Very very nice passage here.  Barry is a great sailor and I am an excellent navigator.  Ta-dah!!

September 10-11, 2012 The compulsion to speed along

Oh, just forget  what  I said about our arrival time in Niue being "just right".  I forgot to factor in Barry being a man.  While I was peacefully reading about the birds of Niue Barry went on deck to "tweak the sails before I go to sleep for the night".  Seems he had a compulsion to take the reefs out of both sails and now we are going 7.5 knots and our ETA Niue is 1:30 am.  I must admit it feels good to be so smoothly speeding along, but . . . I have this nagging rational thought going on.

Sept 11 The day's chore was to clean out the composting toilet - a job we have been dreading.  It was not bad at all!  The thing does its job just as advertised when only 2 people are using it.  We dumped the contents into the ocean, cleaned it and put in new peat moss.  It didn't smell bad.  You would think that one day humanity will determine that it is insane to be pooping into scarce clean drinking water and then flushing it.

We have safely skirted Antiope Reef without running into it.  Now just a short ways to Niue.  Barry rolled up most of the head sail so new ETA is between 3 and 8 am Wednesday morning.

Position :  16 22.48' S, 167 19.12' W

Speed : 6.4 knots,  Course : 210 degree

September 9 - 10, 2012 Going to Niue

We are having a great ride even though the wind is 20-25 k.  That is because Barry is a really good sailor/physicist.  I wonder if the lady with the husband with a short snubber is having a good sail.

Those of you who know Barry well: If he says he is setting about fixing his whisker pole, do you think it is fixed?  We have not put it to the test but it looks like new to me.  From Barry:  After cleaning up the diesel under the table, I decided that it was not continuing to dribble down there.  So after putting everything back under the floor and on top of the floor, I took everything off the settee cushion, and the cushion, to look at the top of the fuel tank.  No signs of a leak.  Wherever it is, it probably only leaks if the tank is full.  Now that we are back at sea again, with the fuel sloshing around in the tank, we may have some more leak out.  We will see.

Here's the news from Radio Australia: the Prime Minister's father died.  Japan and Korea are having a territorial dispute. Australia has negotiated favorable foreign trade agreements with I think Russia.  There were earthquakes in China and troubles in Iran or Iraq, I forget which. That's it!  That is the only news we know!!  Please send news.

Remember that diesel leak that we sucked up with the vacuum cleaner?  We found the source.  Now it leaks more so we have avoided using that tank but we'll need to use it for enough fuel to motor some on the trip to NZ.  This leak in the aft tank is not to be confused with the leak in the forward tank.

Sept 10 From Barry: I just fixed the 2 non-functioning alternators.  The V-belt on the smaller 70 amp alternator had worn to the point that the belt was riding on the bottom of the sheave instead of the sides.  When it wore to the point of being just a bit loose, it could no longer provide the driving power.  The kluge regulator for the larger 100 amp alternator overheated and the waxy potting compound was melting and dripping off.  It was replaced with another kluge regulator.  The third regulator for this cruising season.  What a relief.  The lack of alternators wouldn't have been so bad but it is a dark and stormy day which means no solar power either.  Now we can go back to keeping the radar on, the frig and freezer cold, using the computer, using Sailmail with the SSB, washing  hair and taking a bath (which uses power making the water) and listening to music, The King's Speech, and trying, mostly in vain, to find news on the radio.  And we can charge the iPad and iPod.

If we kept going 7-8 knots we would arrive at Niue in the middle of the night.  So now that the wind is down to 15 knots we have not shaken out the 2 reefs in the main and we left 1 and a half reefs in the genoa and still we are going 5.5 knots.  We expect less wind Tues-Wed. None of us - Barry, Sunrise nor I like sailing more slowly than we could be, but, hopefully, our strategy will get us there mid morning on Wednesday - just right.

September 8, 2012 Suvarov or Suwarrow

Sept 8 With mixed feelings we left Suvarov exactly at high tide with me steering.  It was gnarly on the windward side of Suvarov but the pass was smooth enough.  I call it Suvarov because a Russian found it in 1814 and named it after his ship.  The Cook Islanders want a Polynesian sounding name so they changed Suvarov to Suwarrow.  Now if Suwarrow was its original name I would call it Suwarrow but really the first name it had is Suvarov, as far as anyone knows, so I'm calling it Suvarov.  The mixed feelings come from sadness at leaving the amazing beauty, birdlife, clear water and thriving coral reefs mixed with relief from leaving a cruising style that many cruisers love but we avoid.  There were too many boats (30 at one time), too close together, too much partying and too many rules for our tastes.  The rules came, as most rules do, from people damaging this Eden.  We had to be accompanied by a ranger when we visited any motu but the main one.  That meant we went in groups.  All the anchoring was confined to one small area so that other areas would remain undisturbed.  We are happy to be free of all that.  We'll miss the wonderful people we met.  By the way, I have a Lonely Planet Guide to the Cook Islands and it lists the population of Suvarov as 2. That is an exaggeration because from Dec through April there is no one there.

This is the first passage we have made in the company of another boat, Aquamante, maybe Italian.  53' long and going 8.5 knots compared to our 38' going 7 knots.  The speed a boat goes rises as the length increases (as long as the boat doesn't get too fat).  10 boats left the last 2 days, half going to Tonga and half to Samoa except for us and Aquamante going to Niue.  Aquamante has a AIS transceiver which means we know its name, type of vessel, SOG (speed over ground), bearing and distance from us.  Pretty cool.

We enjoyed getting to know Ants.  He said he was chosen for the job mainly because of his ability to live off the land and sea in isolation.  In his home town of Whakatane, New Zealand, he spends half his time in the bush hunting.  They wanted someone who could get their own food and water, make a fire, put out fires, live outside and deal with the natural environment.  I thought you would have to be a good people person but he said, no, these other things were what counted.  He and Harry, the head ranger, "have their differences".  Ants likes to keep more meticulous records.  Ants likes to eat at the cruiser potlucks but Harry likes to cook his own food and go to bed early.  Ants likes grass and Harry "cleans it up".  They have resolved that issue by Ants and Harry dividing the property.  Ants has a plot with grass and flowers  and Harry has a clean bare plot.  I'll tell you one thing, Ants is no good at his birds.  He kept calling the Masked Booby a Northern Gannet (which they have in New Zealand).  I think he just couldn't believe there is a bird name booby.

I think our closest neighbors in the anchorage were not so happy as we are.  They had a lot of trouble with their anchor getting wrapped around coral and were often out in the howling wind hanging over the bow of the boat trying to deal with the chain.  I said we weren't having trouble and she said, "That's because you have a really long snubber."  She was right.  Barry had commented about what a short snubber line they had out.  One thing about Barry, he has a long snubber.  That, and 3 bouys which kept the chain suspended over (rather than snarled in) the coral heads.  I can't explain a snubber without drawing a picture, so you will just have to google it.

Snubber line, found on Google images for you

September 4-6, Suwarrow Birthday cake, Lazarus and diesel

Sept 4  We have been staying on the boat most of the time doing maintenance projects and financial office work, as the wind speed is still a bit high for going anywhere.  Every time it drops some, we talk about going somewhere.  Then before we get going, the wind is back up and we sit tight.  There was a cruiser potluck on the beach this evening and the wind moderated enough to get a large turnout.  Since one of the ladies was celebrating her birthday, Lynne baked a birthday cake, complete with candles. It was the 4th cake at the potluck but every crumb of every cake was devoured.  We'll blame it on the children.  It was an international celebration with people from Poland, Germany, Norway, France, Holland, Brazil, Sweden, Spain, Great Britain, Australia, Canada and the USA.  All this diversity is held together by the love of the sea and the cruising life.  There are 26 boats here now - the record.  There are many children in our fleet and cruisers of all ages.

Sept 5  We were scheduled to go on an outing to the Seven Sisters motus this morning.  Since the ranger's skiff was full, we would be tagging along in our dinghy.  Well, the wind speed was higher than we anticipated it would be and we forecast a wet and bumpy ride.  So we cancelled.  After lunch, the wind was down and we went a short distance away in the dinghy to a cleaning station for the manta rays.  A cleaning station is a place where the big rays come to have the parasites and other growth removed by small fish.  It works because the small fish get to eat and don't get eaten.  We tied up the dinghy to a mooring and jumped in to snorkel around and look for the mantas.  The water was about 30 feet deep, so looking at fish, coral and other critters was not so good.  Eventually, we were about to leave and go to snorkel in shallower water.  Just then, some other snorkelers spotted some mantas.  The one that I saw had a wingspan of about 6 feet, was all black on top with a white belly having a few black blotches on it.  The cephalic fins on either side of the mouth were silver and were tightly curled backwards, opposite to the direction they are usually curved when feeding.  I was able to get quite close without spooking the manta.  A magical moment, for sure.  Lynne swam over 2 mantas watching the graceful dance below and Falcon and Mike actually physically danced with them. The day ended with a perfect massage for Lynne from another cruiser who is a massage therapist.  I continued working on the mangled whisker pole, cutting off more of the bent tube, hammering on the end of the tube trying to get an oval tube round again and disassembling more of the pole to allow the re-assembly sequence to proceed.  The stumbling block now is an internal sheave that was demolished.  It was weakly made and nowhere near being able to withstand the loads that we put on it flying the whole sail in higher wind speeds.  We have a lot of extra blocks on the boat but none with a sheave mounted on a pin of the correct size that is suitable for this task.  If this whisker pole becomes usable again, even in a shortened form (about 5 feet have been lost due to the fold), its name will be Lazarus.

Sept 6  The ranger, Ants, took us and 8 other cruisers on another snorkeling excursion today to a reef inside the opposite side of the lagoon called Perfect Reef.  We caught several fish trolling to Perfect Reef.  Falcon was with us.  He was conceived, born, raised on a boat and lived all but three of his  24 years cruising.  When we got to Perfect Reef, he went off with his snorkeling gear trolling a lure on a hand line.  Caught himself another fish.  He calls it extreme fishing and was keen to teach his technique to the rest of us.  For a long time all of us including Ants were out of the boat snorkeling in the incredibly clear Suwarrow water with its incredibly healthy coral.  The finds included box fish, octopus, a newly seen puffy pink starfish and many new kinds of coral.  The boat was tied to a mooring buoy anchored to a coral head.  Lynne and I were the first ones out, later joined by two more cruisers and Ants.  After a while, it became apparent that we were no longer in the same place, but were moving across the reef and out into the lagoon.  The mooring line had chafed through.  Since we were in the skiff, no problem.  There were several other cruisers nearby, having come in their own dinghies.  A nice backup today.  But had the skiff departed with the wind, it would have been a long 4-mile swim back  to the anchorage.  On the way back, we made a number of detours past other reefs and around and in and out Suwarrow's pass  trying to catch more fish.  We caught several more nice fish trolling the hand lines.  Only a barracuda was a throwback, the others destined to be cooked for dinner that evening.  All-in-all, another long and fun day  on the water with lots of time to hear the stories of other cruisers all of whom were younger than we are and some much much younger!

Later in the afternoon, I emptied out all of the stuff stored on the floor under the table to get at a box of metal stored under the floor.  Along with the items stored under the floor was a puddle of diesel.  So, besides cleaning the diesel off the floor and all the items stored there, I have a leak to look for, probably in the fuel tank next to the puddle.  Always something to keep me busy.

There are now 29 boats here.

September 3, 2012 Up all night to ensure safe anchoring

Sept 3 News around the Suwarrow neighborhood:
Ants says this is the worst wind he has seen in the 6 months he has been here.  There are 24 boats in the anchorage now, the most Ants has seen since he's been here.  The other boats are on the VHF radio discussing with each other the weather forecasts, how there is too much wind to chance getting the dinghy off the deck and into the water for fear it will take flight and how no one is going anywhere and how they were up all night worrying about the anchor dragging, getting snagged in coral or someone else's boat dragging into theirs.  We were up all night the first night but now we sleep well because the alarm is working well and our anchor hasn't moved an inch.  Barry feels sorry for the birds trying to fly in this wind.  2 people have been injured and called for a doctor and found there are 6 doctors in our fleet of 24 boats.  Amazing!  We wonder what the social dynamics are that put doctors on boats.  So, bottom line, we are in Eden but stuck on the boat for the time being and if we need a doctor we're in the right neighborhood.

September 2, Hunkered down, doing maintenance and paperwork

2 September 2012  from Barry:  It is blowing like stink today!  The wind has shifted to the South-southeast.  Cooler, sub-tropical air.  We are no longer in the lee of Anchorage Island, the motu to the east of us.  Hence, the fetch of the wind chop hitting Sunrise is developing all the way across from the other side of the lagoon about 5 miles away.  At least the reef on the other side of the atoll blocks the ocean swells, which must be pretty significant in this wind.  Directly behind us about 200 yards is the reef on the north side of the atoll.  So our back is toward the wall, so to speak.  We would prefer to be anchored on the other side of the atoll, but the rules say this is the only place we can anchor.  Our anchor is in 70 feet of water, but with 200 feet of chain out, Sunrise is over 100 feet of water.  That means that the anchor is being pulled up by the boat but has to hold on to a bottom going down hill.  If the anchor drags, we will be on the reef behind us within a minute or two.  We are in a tenuous position and are paying a lot of attention to our situation.  If all goes well, will have more days to explorer this fabled place.  If disaster strikes, everyone will  say that we should have left Suwarrow as soon as the wind direction and speed made things dangerous.  It's a gamble!  We will probably never get another chance to be at Suwarrow.  Last night, as the wind varied in speed and direction, Sunrise moved forward and back as the curve of the chain straightened and sagged, and also moved from side to side.  Since the bottom is uneven, the depth of the water under the boat kept changing.  Hence, the alarm on our depth sounder went off repeatedly.  We also have a boundary circle set around the boat's GPS position on our computer's chart program.    Set at a 100 foot radius, that alarm also went off repeatedly.  After I set the boundary radius at 200 feet, that alarm was much less active, but would have been slower to respond if our anchor dragged.  I must have gotten out bed 10 times to silence the alarms and check our position.  Therefore, a very short night!  The couple on our closest neighbor boat have been at the bow of their boat repeatedly all day.  They say that their anchor chain is wrapped around a coral head sticking up from the bottom.  How that will resolve itself remains to be seen.  We could be wrapped also.  We may not find out until we try to pull up the anchor to leave.  We have gotten snagged before and have always managed to get free relatively easily.  Even with the clear water, it is probably too deep to see the bottom while snorkeling on the surface.  Sometimes, I can free dive deep enough to see the situation on the bottom.  We have one SCUBA tank that we carry just for such an emergency.  So today, we are hunkered down, doing maintenance and paperwork.

We are under a stationary front and it is cloudy.  Occasionally, it spits a few rain drops.  We have our clothes lines covered with salty bedding and we are hoping for a downpour to rinse out the salt.  What we do not want is a pile of wet salty bedding.  So the covered clothes lines are now down in the lee of the dodger.  That means that if the downpour comes, we will be out in it while putting up the clothes lines.  It makes us appreciate the washing machine and dryer at home.  Bigger boats (45 feet and up) often have washers, but very few our size have them.  Why?  The volume inside a boat goes up as the cube of the length, that's why!  You not only need room for the washer, but a 110 VAC generator to power it and enough water tankage or desalinator capacity to supply all the water.  Hey, we are doing good  just having a manual wringer!

August 31-September 1, 2012 Asleep before the party started....no surprise there.

You get a picture of a Starry Moray instead of birds because
Sheryl is much more partial to sea life than birds. 

We went to the motus on the east side of Suwarrow yesterday in the ranger's boat.    They are called the Seven Sisters.  The cost to us was 1 gallon of gasoline.  There was a Norwegian family (ethnic Nowegian father, mother of Bengali Indian origin adopted as a child and raised as a Norwegian) with two small children, a single handing Pole and a couple from Washington state with us.  First stop was a low, bushy motu/reef complex with lots of nesting birds.  Lynne says, "Take lots of pictures".  So it soon becomes Clicl!Click!Click!  The brown boobies  build a nest on the outside edge near the top of a bush.  Their chicks are large but still in the downy stage.  The Red-tailed Tropicbirds nest on the ground under a bush.  Their chicks are still very small and downy.  The adult's red tail feather is incredibly narrow, maybe only 1/16" wide and untapered.  Some adults do not have one.  There are eggs just sitting on the sand.  We do not know whether they are from another species or tropicbird eggs incubating in the sun.  We had to be careful where we stepped so we didn't step on any.  The Sooty Tern juveniles were nearly fully grown, no down left, and running around together looking for an adult to beg food from.  The Lesser Frigatebirds nest on very low bushes.  We saw chicks on nests from just hatched to fledgling stages.  Apparently, the frigatebirds to not steal the chicks and eggs of the other kinds of birds.  The Fairy Terns nest in the forested motus in trees, so are not here on the shrubby area.  It was incredible how many birds are nesting here and how close we could get to them without seeming to disturb them.  With little contact from humans and no depredation,  they can reproduce abundantly.  On the reef, we saw about half a dozen Starry Morays about 2 feet long, covered with black stars and speckles much coarser and darker pattern than the Peppered Morays we saw in the Tuamotu reefs.  These morays were again in water several inches deep, hiding under coral chunks or ledges.  None were out feeding at this time of day.  We now know how to find them.  Just look under a "rock".  We have seen about half of the 24 species of moray eels here in the tropical Pacific.

After visiting the bird rookery, we got back in the skiff and headed toward the eastern corner of the atoll to a large forested motu.  During the ride, some of us started eating lunch.  The Norwegian kids, Magnus and Selma, were a lot of fun.  They would offer others food items and shyly accept some of what we were eating.  They were a joy to be with.  We brought grapes and honey roasted peanuts which were very popular except with Ants who really only liked lollies (candies).

First activity was to go snorkeling.  The water was incredibly clear.  It was easy to see at least 100 feet.  The coral looked very healthy with lots of types and also a lot of small sponges.  There was a great variety of small tropical fish with few larger fish.  I saw no sharks but Lynne saw a Black-tipped Reef Shark.  There were many giant clams with a great variety of coloration on their lips - some patterns not seen before.  For example, brilliant blue with black spots on the outer lips while fluorescent green inside.  A couple were at least 10 inches long - monsters for this area of the Pacific.  We think that the "really big" clams are in the Marshall Islands, north of the equator.  It was fun to watch the Norwegian kids.  The 5  year old was swimming, free diving with abandon and taking pictures with a camera.  The two year old wore arm "floaters" but was looking in the water through a mask.

After snorkeling for an hour, we gradually migrated to the beach,  ate some more lunch and wandered around.  This motu with the tall trees provided nests for Fairy Terns and Brown and Brown and/or Black Noddies.  The task to be accomplished was to catch dinner - coconut crabs.  Our opinion was that seeing them was much more satisfying than eating them so we just watched.  Interacting with the other cruisers and hearing their stories was more fun than killing crabs.

We trolled for fish all the way to the Seven Sisters , had several strikes but no fish caught.  On the way back, we had more strikes, hooked three and caught two.  To enhance our chances, we would turn around and troll back through any area that produced a strike or hooked fish.  Part of the trolling was in the entrance pass.  Today, it was as flat as a mill pond, due to the light winds and seas coming in from outside the atoll.  We returned to the coral slab "wharf" about 5:30 and got back to our boat at 6.  A great day and we were pooped.  Lynne downloads the pictures onto the computer.  She says, "You took 478 pictures today."  Aren't the new digital cameras incredible!

The day ended with a potluck/drinking party on the beach.  Fantazia, the large, very fast catamaran with the 3 Aussie and 1 Kiwi men, created a Blue Moon Party and left invitations in everyone's boat.  The coconut crab people prepared their catches.  Was a grand time had by all?  We don't know because we exhausted and were fast asleep in our cozy little bed.

1 September 2012  I spent the entire day doing maintenance!  No weekends or Holidays for us out here!  Or looking at it another way, no five days to rest up between weekends!  The highlight (?) of my day was 2 ½ hours in the water cleaning the fuzz and scale off the prop and lightning grounding plate, scrubbing the waterline and wiping any the fuzz off the hull.  Having 6-foot long Black-tip Reef sharks frequently cruising by to check out the quality of my work provided some extra incentive for me.  I did not want them to "chastise" me for doing a poor job.  Eventually, they were satisfied and did not come back any more.  Despite lots of "stuff" floating by in the current, I could see the sharks at least 100 feet away when they were going away. On the other hand, they snuck up pretty close before I saw them incoming. Suwarrow is noted for having a very large population of sharks.  I would call it "Shark City" here.  Or sharky!

Position :  13 14.84' S, 163 06.76' W

Speed : 0.2 knots,  Course : 221 degree

August 30, 2012 Suvarov

Aug 30
All these bad boobies are Red-footed.

After a very fast, very windy and, at the end, very boisterous 5 day passage we arrived about noon in brilliant sun for the passage into Surrarow/Suvarov Atoll.  There are 21 boats here all in front of the rangers' quarters, the only place you are allowed to anchor in this Cook Island National Park.  The anchorage is not as small as I feared and we are not cheek to jowl.  In the first 2 hours here we had 2 as of yet unidentified sharks and a Green Sea Turtle come visit Sunrise. We took a little walk to the ocean side and saw about 15 White Tip, Black Tip and other sharks patrolling the shore.  Great and Lesser Frigatebirds, Bridled Tern, Black Noddy, Brown Noddy and Sooty Tern.  I took the bird guide book into the ranger's .  No fruit so no Fruit-dove, never seen the Spotless Crake, knew the sounds of the Bristle-thighed Curlew but not its name, no kingfisher.  There are very few species of birds at Suvarov, but what they have, they have in abundance.  No mammals. There are now introduced mosquitoes which have found me already.  As to our check-in, officials are always suspicious when we declare no booze of any kind, no tobacco and no meat.  Here, the officials  are the more serious one, Harry, and the joker, Ants.  Harry is a Cook Islander but Ants was born in Australia (looks like an aborigine) and spent his life in NZ.  He speaks Kiwi.  After we declared no alcohol on board he comes out with 2 Hinanos (beer) and, in the most serious tone of voice, says that they are his 2 last beers but that since we are such nice people he will offer them to us.  Barry says, in an equally serious voice, that we don't partake.  Then I say, "You Kiwis are a tricky bunch; you knew we wouldn't take them", upon which everyone breaks out in wild laughter.

The way our brains work is so amazing.  I couldn't believe how much French came back to me after 25 years.  My brain just popped up with it when needed.  Now my brain speaks Kiwi when talking to a Kiwi.  For instance,  when talking to Harry and Ants I pronounced Z as zed instead of zee.  I was actually surprised to hear myself say it.

Got to go get ready for excursion to outer motus with Ants today.