#61 NOW June 27, 2005 0253 Zone Time UTC -11 hours at 165 degrees West S13’27.6 W165’00.1, Temp. 80.1, Pressure 1013mb, Heading 251’ magnetic Wind from 160 degrees @ 8 knots, Seas are 3-5 feet, Para-vanes down Miles Completed 115, Miles to Go 337, SOG (speed over ground) 5.8 kts. 1500 RPM Greetings, Suwarrow (S13’15.02 W163’06.45)—as we approached the island I was surprised to see off my starboard bow three sticks rising out of the sea. As we converged the sticks became masts, and the masts became a three masted schooner or perhaps more correctly a barkentine. This old sailing ship, flying a French flag, looked strangely out of place in the 21st century. We were both making for the narrow and challenging entrance to Suwarrow atoll. It soon became obvious that he would beat me in and I backed off to give him more room. However, at the last minuet, he abruptly turned away and I was soon working my way into the lagoon. We dropped anchor in 75 feet of water and had some difficulty getting a good set on the rocky bottom. I set out my 25 foot nylon bridle, and back-powered the engine at 1000 RPM for a minute and felt comfortable that we finally had a good set. With the wind piping-up to 20 knots, we struggled to get the dinghy off loaded and ready to go ashore. Once ashore, we were met by John Samuela and his wife Veronica. They were in charge of immigration, customs, wildlife conservation, in fact, they were the only people on the whole island. With our arrival, we had just doubled the population of Suwarrow. With friendly smiles and handshakes, we were welcomed to the Cook Islands. After filling out a few sheets of paper work and receiving official looking stamps in our passports, Veronica presented us with some warm coconut pancakes. Then picking up a small machete she deftly hacked off the top of a coconut and we enjoyed the cool refreshing drink it provided. John and Veronica live on the island for six months a year and see about 30 yachts. They have four little boys that will be joining them in about a month. Shortly a dinghy pulled ashore with a load of Frenchman from the sailing ship, which had stayed outside the lagoon. I talked with the Captain and he felt that it was just a little too big to negotiate the entrance. I am sure that was a wise decision. There were 17 on board their foundation sponsored “research ship for the study of sparsely populated areas of the world.” Now that is one of the best excuses I have ever heard to cruise the South Pacific. Suwarrow was definitely getting over populated with their arrival. The French left the next day and we invited John and Veronica to join us aboard Done Dreamin’. They were happy to have someone to talk with and we visited for several hours. His HF radio had failed and he asked if he could use mine to contact his headquarters in Rarotonga some 500 miles away. His boss seemed pleased to hear from him and that all was fine on Suwarrow. Before leaving the US, we picked up a bunch of children’s clothing from a welfare agency. We asked Veronica if she would be interested in some for her four boys. It was obvious from the happy look on her face that she really appreciated the gift. Early the next morning we extracted our anchor from the rocky bottom and set a course for America Samoa. It was hard to leave this bit of South Pacific Paradise. http://www.oceandots.com/pacific/cook/suwarrow.htm http://kiaorana.com/suwarrow.html http://www.ck/suwarrow.htm Life is a Cruise, Larry and Carol Larry Rick Done Dreamin' Nordhavn 40 #33 Site: http://gricknet.homedns.org/ Email: donedream@pacbell.net