globe-circling journey, Suwarrow will be the place that most epitomises
Pacific cruising.
We arrived off the atoll at 4:00am in virtually no wind. We quietly
bobbed around until sunrise when a gentle breeze set in and allowed us
to sail into the pass. We were anchored by 9:00am and its was great to
be reunnited with 1/2 the World ARC fleet. Suwarrow is desserted for
1/2 the year. 2 rangers had only arrived a few days before us and
were left here until November, with no supply or relief deliveries
scheduled. They were wtill in the process of setting-up their hut and
equipment, but yesterday was one of their busiest days with about 6
yachts checking in (!)
Yesterday and today has passed in gentle rush of walks around the
islands, swimming (with plenty of sharks - some of which are
dangerous), boat maintenance on Tintin and other boats, helping the
rangers get their generator working to run their freezer.
The spirit of helping each other is so strong on the fleet. Since
arriving in Suwarrow, we received a bottle of win from Danica for
providing a vital plumbing component for their watermaker and stopping
their dinghy drifting away;we donated a bottle to Mango for topping up
our water tanks and tomorrow we're going diving on their anchor to
unwrap it from several bommies, which had been spotted by George from
Cabana. The rangers we immensely grateful for help in trouble-shooting
their electric system - failure would have meant their entire freezer
full of food, which needs to last 6 months, would have gone to waste.
Aurora B provided the replacement line for our lazy jacks; I'm going
onboard tomrrow to provide advice, but mostly encouragement, for them
to learn to use their cruising chute.
Last night, we had a 'pot luck' supper ashore for all crews. We did
our bit by supplying a kilo of tuna to each boat from the leviathan that Pim had caught. The quality and variety of dishes that
emerged was great - grilled, curried, raw with wasabi, and many more.
We were entertained throughout by the hermit crabs scuttling about and
then trying to hide if they though they had been seen.
We only have another day here before heading South West towards Nuie -
we'll be sorry to leave