Suwarrow (Northern Cook Islands, July 24 to August 11)
It’s only fitting that I start writing this on our one year cruising anniversary, August 6th. Many SF bay area sailors never leave their slip and venture beyond the Golden Gate, so I feel pretty proud that we have crossed one of the biggest puddles on the planet and now have about six to seven thousand ocean miles under our belt. Who would have ever imagined that this city slicker chick now drinks water made from salt water, washes dishes in salt water, and even bathes salt water! For our first year anniversary, we celebrated it on one of the most beautiful island atolls in the world that is only accessible to those with boats. We finally pulled anchored on Bora Bora, on Sunday July 24th for our 700 mile passage northwest to Suwarrow Island Atoll National Park (Suwarrow) and arrived on Saturday, July 30th. This beautiful atoll with aqua marine water is host to a variety of wildlife and vegetation such as birds (frigates, boobies, terns), coconut palms, breadfruit trees, lobster, coconut crab, sharks and an abundance of tropical fish. Additionally, this atoll had an unique figure in its past; for it was here that Tom Neale, a New Zealander, lived as a hermit for a number of years, from 1952 until his death from cancer in 1978. He wrote a book describing his experiences entitled, “An Island to Oneself”.
To get here, we pretty much followed the rhumbline from Bora Bora to Suwarrow. The trip here was a little rough. We experienced 15-20 foot seas, 20-25 knots wind, squalls to 32 knots, with the wind right on our stern. (While on this passage, Dennis caught dorado and tuna but the fish managed to slip away in these rough seas; once we got to Suwarrow, he was able to go out in the ranger’s skiff several times and caught some lovely trevali and tuna in the pass). Fortunately, we had a third reef sewn into the main sail at Raiatea; so we were reefed all the way down for about 500 miles, and still doing around 4.5 to 5 knots. Generally I don’t get seasick, but the seas were rough enough this time that even I got seasick. Lardo handled it all beautifully, and every day we gave the monitor wind-vane (our mechanical self steering device) a big hug. But after 700 miles of this from Bora Bora, we were ready for a break and Suwarrow fit the bill!
Suwarrow is the dream destination of those seeking a remote island with no inhabitants on which to escape the clutches of civilization. The island is open to cruisers only from June 1st to November 1st; then closed the rest of the year during hurricane season. Only those cruisers who are willing to sail this distance get the privilege of staying at this paradise island. It is cruiser haven – just cruisers and two park rangers. There are no airplanes, no vehicles, no cruise ships, no supply boats, no TV’s, no phones, no internet, NO NOTHING!
Somehow when we arrived at this national park with James and John as our park rangers, I had envisioned “white” New Zealander park rangers dressed in khaki uniforms; instead I found them to be big strong Cook Islander Polynesians, bearded faces, lots of tatoo's, dreadlocks, missing teeth and hearts of gold! Both James Mataa and John Trego were so warm, hospitable and went to great extremes to make all the cruisers feel very welcomed. No one wanted to leave – most cruisers come with the intention of staying a week and end up staying two, three, four weeks as it’s so darn hard to leave here – oh well, who’s counting.
Like many other Cook Islanders, these rangers were very religious – before each meal and activity – such as a snorkeling expedition across the lagoon to a reef – we said a prayer. Also, both rangers were very environmentally conscious and went to great lengths to take care of this island paradise. Recycling was encouraged, including composts for the organic garden. John, the ranger with the green thumb, grew the first garden on Suwarrow by creating his own soil out of coconut bark and compost material – his garden fresh salad was quite a savory treat at the potlucks. The park rangers also had fantastic culinary skills and they treated the cruisers to sashimi style poisson cru made out of “island” coconut milk, coconut pancakes and marinated barbecued tuna.
In order for the rangers to get on and off this island, they had to hitch a ride with a fishing boat to get here and then pray that their office back in Rarotonga (Southern Cook Islands) would remember to send a boat at the end of the season to bring them back. Last year, James had to hitch a ride to American Samoa with a cruiser. He arrived in America Samoa with no passport; fortunately the authorities there understood the situation and allowed this Cook Islander native to arrive on American territory without a passport and assisted him with his flight back to Rarotonga. At the time of this writing, James and John had no idea when and how that they would get back to Rarotonga – what faith!
We met many cruisers from all over the world – U.S., Canada, Australia, Germany and Austria, including the delightful family on board sailing vessel “Gromit” - Michael, Cornelia, Zoey (13 years), Maia (10 years), Liam (8 years turning nine on August 17th). This family pushed away from Toronto, Canada three years ago to sail around the world. We especially loved their baked goodies at the potluck’s and the girl’s Tahitian dance performance that Zoey and Maia learned while living at Huahine for a year. While at Suwarrow, Liam taught us how to play bocce ball; we played for high risk stakes and now owe Liam one ice cream sundae at the next port. Both Cornelia and Michael have done an excellent job home schooling their family with an added bonus of sending the kids to school in Huahine for a year ; before the school year started none of the kids spoke French – now all three speak the language fluently. The kids are also learning conservation at sea; i.e., they must first bathe and wash their hair in salt water, then sparingly rinse with only one small bottle of fresh water. Before this family started their world cruise, their sailing experience was limited to what the parent’s had learned from “dinghy” sailing as kids. Now they have mastered the art of sailing and even have a film crew periodically chronicling their global navigation sail (but the film crew could not come to Suwarrow so the family had to take the crew’s camera with them for this leg). They may be cruising for another two to three years and we hope to see them at many ports down the road.
Suwarrow was simply the perfect place just to chill, like cruisers really needed that after French Polynesia. We were blessed with an abundance of activities on “anchorage island” where the rangers lived – potlucks, volleyball, bocce ball, poker. Our days were filled with hiking to observe nesting birds, kayaking, snorkeling, diving, spear fishing, fishing, swimming, and more. But best of all, we could simply spend a lazy afternoon on a hammock made out of fisherman nets and watch the world turn.
Onward Ho to America Samoa for a big shopping spree at Cost U Less – the first discount store since Mexico!
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