Suvarov

What a magical place. A short list of adventures:
- whales in the lagoon
- coconut crab hunting
- spear fishing
- trolling
- bonfires and beach bbq's
- snorkeling on the many lagoon reefs - water clarity is to 100 feet
- refurbishment of Tom Neale's coral wharf

Add to that two great park rangers, James and Apii, who are both great hosts and fun people, plus on average about 15 cruising boats with fun loving people. The topper for Jake and Isabelle has been, at the peak, 13 kids ranging from 4 to 13 years of age, leading to great games of capture the flag until 11 pm at night under a full moon.

It will be very difficult to leave, basically running out of fresh produce will one day force our hand........

Rae and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary on Sunday as well. Hmm not sure we can top this one.

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Suvarov Arrival

After a long 14 hours of being hove to, we entered the pass to the atoll of Suvarov at 7:30 am this morning anchoring behind the western side islet. Overall it was a reasonable passage with about the right amount of wind and ok seas. We made a tactical mistake not motoring on Friday night when winds were light and thus messed up the timing of our arrival. Being hove to was not ideal for Nikita and a fair amount of work so we are tired.

Suvarov is part of the Cook islands of which there 15 small islands totaling 93 square miles of land spread over 750,000 square miles in the South Pacific. Basically, you pick one or max two of the Cook islands in the northern or southern group and have to miss the others, just to much sea in between and bad wind angles.

Suvarov is a deserted atoll with two park rangers on sight during the winter months to meet cruising boats and collect a park fee. The island was made famous by Tom Neale a New Zealander who lived on the atoll for a number of years as a hermit, ultimately penning the book, An Island to Oneself.

We have a shark circling our boat right now, seems very interested in Isabelle.

The Crew of Niktia

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Day 5

Well we made it. Sort of. We are hove to about 12 miles off the island. The winds died away last night so we went very slowly resulting in too late of arrival today to safely navigate the coral into the atoll.... so that is for tomorrow morning. Position 13.15s 162.53w

The Crew of Nikita

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Day 4

Well we had a good night with a glorious moon set in the early hours. The winds have died away and shifted to the ESE which puts us dead down wind and slow going. Probably means we will not make it to the anchorage before nightfall tomorrow, unless we turn on the engine..... stay tuned.

The Crew of Nikita

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Day 3

We had a difficult night. First a wind shift of 50 degrees required us to jibe the boat, and with main prevented and jib to windward on the pole we had much work de rigging, switching sides and setting everything back up. I then had a couple of squalls with rain and 30 knots of wind... usually I reserve those for Rae Ann. Today has been a bit calmer with less wind and seas so we have been catching up on our rest. Position 14.53s 158.00w.

The Tired Crew of Nikita

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Day 2 - Suvorov

Well it must be a passage for Nikita, as we have 20 knots of wind and 8 foot seas..... hmm, well at least we are making good time. A little to rolly but otherwise all is well. Position 15.26s 155.30w.

The Crew of Nikita

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Leaving Bora Bora

We have departed and are en route to Suvorov in the Northern Cooks. Conditions are favorable with 15 knot winds and 7 foot seas, we expect similar conditions for the entire trip. Position 16.07S 152.57W.

The Crew of Nikita

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A Way A Birthday Should Be

Well I turned a young 38 on Sunday. The day was rung in Saturday late night over too many beers, a BBQ at the Bora Bora Yacht Club and cards. We then took a convoy of dinghies around to the east side of the island to find the elusive manta rays. We had the tides right and manta rays were in feeding, one with about an 8 foot wing span. We then came back to the west side of the island and went out the pass into the ocean to look for sharks. One of the guys with us speared a puffer fish to chum with. We were rewarded with 5 very large bull sharks and 14 smaller black tip reef sharks. Though none of them ate the puffer, we wonder.... do they know it is poisonous as well??

Back to the boat for rest, cake and some reading on my birthday gift, a Kindle.

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Bora Bora

It has been a busy couple of weeks. We had hauled about 10 days ago to apply new bottom paint as we were getting much marine growth. This was our first time living on the boat well in the boat yard so we were expecting the worst but found it to be a rather easy few days. The work, done at the CNI yard in Raiatea, went very quickly with the yard providing some help on some tasks. The kids did great climbing up and down the ladder to use the facilities. Jake got into the hull waxing thinking it was a great "treat" to be up on the scaffolding 8 feet off the ground with his dad.

After getting back in the water we sailed over to Bora Bora. I hiked the mountain, and if memory serves the first peak I have ever been to the summit of, a grueling 5 hours but well work it. We have been snorkeling on various parts of the reef and lagoon and Jake has been knee boarding until his arms nearly fell off. Other than the cruisers everyone else in Bora Bora is on their honeymoon, which makes for a interesting contrast in the bars and restaurants.

We will likely leave French Polynesia in the coming week, weather permitting, heading towards the central south Pacific, and the widely spread Cook Islands.

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