Arrival in Suwarrow, Cook Islands

We've arrived in Suwarrow!! Without any wind, we decided to run the motor for 8 hours overnight, putting us just 20 milles from Suwarrow atoll at day break. How wonderful to be so close to land again! At 9 am, the radio sparkled to life, and we heard Bernie's familiar voice asking us how far away we were. At noon, as we approached the pass, we were thrilled when Bernie and Yvonne came out in their dinghy to greet us and guide us in.

Bernie and Yvonne dinghy out to the pass to meet us at Suwarrow

We felt truly welcome, as Eric was running down the beach alongside us snapping pictures of our entrance. Both boats have put off their departures, in order to wait for us to arrive. We were absolutely thrilled to see them!

As soon as we dropped the hook, everyone clammored aboard Renova for welcoming cocktails. What a treat it was to share stories of the past weeks' crazy weather, and hear of the great fishing and birding they've been enjoying. They have already planned a beachside feast of coconut crabs for the evening, followed by fish soup for dinner aboard Australia 31. What a treat after a long passage!!

An afternoon picnic of coconut crab and cocktails

Without much delay, John and Eric were in the water with their spearguns, and I was getting the boat ready to be home again. Moving all our gear from the v-berth up front back to its usual hiding places, and setting up the settees to be couches again, instead of our sea berths. After only a couple hours, we knew we would like it here!

Interestingly, Eric has now been here almost a month, and has seen very few other yachts. 3 other boats in that whole time, besides us and Australia 31.

And...later in the afternoon, two other boats made their way into the pass. So here we are - 5 boats in total. Canada, USA, Australia, Italy and France. Wonderful. The Italians weren't up to a shared dinner last night, but the single-handed french sailor, Gigi, joined us. He didn't speak much english, but his french was good. Eric and I have some french (Eric more than me), but Bernie, Yvonne and John didn't speak french. But, Bernie and Yvonne had some spanish, and Gigi had some portugese, so we were a melting pot of languages throughout the evening, enjoying a wonderful fish stew!

Already, it's been a fabulous landfall. And there are more stories to come! We'll save that for a future post. But for now, know that we've arrived safely!

Our position is:
13° 14.94S
163° 06.52W

For those of you interested, here are a few stats:
Total distance: 580 nm (nautical miles - I know, it's been a while)
Distance actually travelled: 602 nm
Time: 121 hours - just over 5 days
Average Speed: 5 knots
Motored: 13 hours
Boats seen: 0
Fish caught: 0

Day 4 - 230 miles to go

Now cruising along at 5 knots, making good time. Still hoping to arrive on
Sunday, but winds will have to be favorable to get in the pass before dark.
Otherwise, we'll slow down and wait to enter in the morning.
All is well aboard Renova. We lost a huge fish yesterday...it almost had all
the line off our reel again, but finally the line (80-lb test) broke free.
Poor thing is now swimming around with a big hoochie and a stainless leader
hanging out of its mouth. There has to be a better way. If only he had come
to the boat, we could have unhooked him, and let him go on his way.
Feeling good enough to read now. At least that helps the time tick away.
At 1335 local time on May 13, our position is:
14 20.4s
159 17.4w

Day 3 - Passage from Mopelia to Suwarrow

Well, if day 1 was too much wind, and day 2 was not enough, today is the day
for perfect winds!! And so far, it has been fabulous. We've got about 13
knots of wind on our beam, and we're sailing at 6.5 knots under genoa alone.
The boat is steering herself, and we're hanging in the cockpit, trying to
eek out a bit of shade.

The going is good... We both have our sea legs back, so we're fishing again.
Hoping that Greg's rod and Murray's reel will have some more success!!

Our position at 11am local time on May 12:
15 15.4S
157 20.7W

Day 2 Passage to Suwarrow

We left Mopelia finally yesterday, and are now on our way to Suwarrow, in
the northern Cook Islands. As of 1030 local time, our position is:
15 52.8S
155 28.3W

Yesterday we had strong winds, forcing us to sail with storm jib and reefed
mail. Last night, wind was all over the map, but only one small squall.
Today, the day started with glorious blue skies, and lovely south-east
winds, but has since turned around to south-west winds. All of this was not
in our forecasts.

All is well on board, we both felt a little green yesterday, but much better
this morning. Neither of us were too keen to eat dinner yesterday, so the
canneloni sits on the stove, and will be an easy lunch today. Crackers and
pretzels seemed to be the best for easing a rough stomach. The swell is
about 2+ meters, and seems to be coming from three directions at once, a
result of all the unusual weather of the last week, I suppose.

Our ETA is Sunday, May 15.

Day 7 - Hoping

Today is day 7. Day 7 of hoping to leave. Day 7 of rain. Yuck.
But...the sun shone for a brief moment this morning, so we are optimistic
that this weather system is moving on, and the typical tropical weather and
typical trade winds will be returning soon.
Of course, when there is no sun, there is no power from the solar panels. So
we have been thrifty. No excess computing/emails. No lights at night. No tv.
We've been reading a LOT. And napping. Exploring isn't too appealing in a
downpour, and we haven't been off the boat in four days.
On the other hand, we've read lots of good books. John played checkers with
me!! But...sadly I won (I didn't mean to), so I'm pretty sure we won't have
another game night for at least 6 months. We've also re-discovered James
Barber's One Pot Meals. Did you know that in addition to being a tv chef, he
also spent a fair bit of time playing on boats? Well...there you have it.
And his cook book that we have onboard has some good inspiration for us to
spice up our usual dinner fare.
When the rain stops...and we shove off...we'll let you all know. In the
meantime, don't worry about the lack of blog posts. No sun = no power = no
long drawn out blog diatribes. But...we still check emails, and love to hear
your news.

We lie in waiting....

Wearily waiting
Relentlessly raining
Continually collecting
Stealthily swatting
Languidly lying
Randomly reading
Hopelessly hoping
Creatively cooking
Ever eating
Patiently putting
Wishfully watching
Wearily waiting

These remora hung out below the boat constantly. An odd looking fish, apparently their dorsal fin has evolved to be a large sucking device...enabling them to latch onto large fish/sharks/etc and perform cleaning services!

Not yet...

A small-ish coconut crab

We have not yet left Mopelia. For two days, we've had black skies and
constant rains, so we've decided to wait until this system has settled down.
Although we're anxious to move along and see our friends who are awaiting us
in Suwarrow, we're definitely not keen to endure this weather while sailing.
So we wait.

Mopelia...

May 3 - Happy Birthday Sooh!!

Our second day in Mopelia was fabulous. After a long rest to catch up on
sleep, we spent the morning aboard Renova. I finally made use of the wedding
tulle Julia gave me in Mexico (thanx), and sewed up some bug screens for our
hatches. The flies here have swarmed the boat, and although they don't bite,
they are especially annoying. We're now fly free!

The afternoon was spent wandering around the motu (island), where we checked
out the reef, where we noticed the ocean was as smooth as glass, and met the
other local resident Monique. After she called off her aggressive dogs, we
had a good chat with her, while she continued her work of digging out the
meat from the coconut shells.

In the evening, we joined Hina to walk to the outside of the reef, in search
of lobster. We've tried this once before - on Toau - and we were pathetic.
This time was no different. While John and I shone our lights through the
water in search of beady little eyes, and seeing none, Hina had collected
three monsters for us in no time! We delighted in cooking them up fresh at
the boat!

Overnight, the wind seems to have returned. So this morning, we will check
the weather, and if conditions look good, we will set sail for Suwarrow, in
the Cook Islands.

We've now left all internet behind and rely solely on our sat phone
connection for emails. We will include occasional photos with our blog.

Labels: French Polynesia, fish, projects

To Mopelia

May 1! (Hurray, Hurray, It's the first of May, eh JOE!?)

An early morning start as we prepared to set sail for Mopelia - about 100
miles west of us. This would be a full 24 hour sail for us, so we prepared
the boat, and ourselves for a long day and night on the water.

After taking on ths supplies that we were delivering to Hina, some water
from the docks, and a quick snorkel we set off across the lagoon.

It was our first overnight passage in many months, and we were pleased that
the weather gods were kind to us. We were making great speed, and were very
comfortable with only about 1 meter or so of ocean swell, and no wind waves
to speak of. During the night, we had a couple short squally patches, that
encouraged us to reef in main and genoa, but we were doing well.
Unfortunately, the wind moved to a more northerly direction, and we found
ourselves tacking into the wind. Yuck. But since we had made such good time,
it wasn't a problem, and we found ourselves outside of the pass, and the
best time of day for visibility, just before noon.

WHAM...a fish hit our rod, and all hands were on deck as we prepared for
sushi dinner! It was a strong fish, and John grunted while reeling it in.
Finally we were able to catch a glimpse of the beautiful silver tuna that
had been fighting so hard. Unfortunately, it was HUGE. Much bigger than we
could eat. And more than we could keep in our new little fridge/freezer. And
we didn't know if Hina had any refridgeration or freezer capacity on the
island. We decided to let it go. In my mind, it really was the fish of a
lifetime. A big beautiful tuna. For the rest of the afternoon, we consoled
ourselves with little statements like: "It was so big, it must have had a
lot of mercury build-up" or this classic "I'm sure it was ok, it swam away
so quickly" and of course, "it would have been a shame to waste it". Sure,
our spagetti was good...but oh...sushi...

But...back to the story. After freeing nemo, we did a couple of drive-bys in
front of the pass. It didn't look good. The pass was VERY narrow. Shallow
coral on each side. No room to turn around if it wasn't going well. The
outgoing current was obvious. The NW ocean swell was directed directly into
the pass. Swell against current = standing waves. Yuck.

But, we had this lady's food!

And so we went. Anchor ready. Yet, it was fine. We've been through much
worse. But at one point we were only making two knots of progress, with our
engine pinned! We had over 4 knots of current pushing against us.

But, we are here, and have anchored in a tropical remote wilderness. Hina
lives here on her own, and there is one couple living at the other end of
the island. They are all copra (coconut) farmers. At one time they also
farmed pearls, but this lagoon did not produce great quality pearls, and
they now rely solely on the copra. They receive supplies by sailboats, like
us, and on the ship that comes to collect their copra (every three months).
Pretty quiety life.

After a good night's rest, we'll do some exporing tomorrow, and Hina has
offered to take us lobster fishing!! HURRAY!

To The Top!!

We decided to hike up to Mt. Teurafaatiu (380m). Not for the weak-hearted
(me), nor the unfit (me), nor the sandle-wearing tourist (me). Ha. But, we
huffed and puffed our way to the top and were rewarded with amazing
almost-360-degree views. What a stunner. We sat on the volcanic rock and
took in the views of the lagoon with our boat settled in the crystal clear,
azure waters, surrounded with small islands surrounding the main island, and
the coral reefs that dot the lagoon. I took a million photos and a video,
but those will have to wait until we reach the land of internet.