Mark
May 26, 2012, 4:50 pm, 13 15.11'S:163 06.38'W, Island of Suwarrow, Cook Islands

We have arrived in Suwarrow which is a small atoll in the Cook Islands. After six days at sea and a detour from our original destination of Niue we were very happy to arrive today. The last few days of the trip where beginning to show the signs of the low pressure system which is developing nearby. This low pressure system is what caused our diversion to Suwarrow instead of heading to Niue. Although we had very little wind, there were huge squalls all around us for the last few days of the trip. We even had to wait outside of the passage entrance for most of the morning waiting for a large squall to pass before we could safely enter the pass into the atoll.

Once inside, we were warmly greeted by a dozen or so World Arc boats which were already in the anchorage. Their stay was extended beyond the planned 72 hours in Suwarrow because they have been waiting for the low front to pass before leaving for Niue.

This island atoll has been made famous by a man called Tom Neale. He lived alone on the island for over 17 years between 1952 and 1977. He wrote a book titled "An Island To Oneself" in 1966 which described his first six years living alone on Suwarrow. The book can be downloaded as a pdf from the internet free at www.privateislandsonline.com. It is worth the read and has pictures of the island, which is a territory of New Zealand and a national park with no full-time inhabitants. A care taker comes to the island each year around this time and spends a few months maintaining the homestead of Tom Neale and the island. Though the island is beautiful, I believe we would not be here were it not for Tom Neale and his book.

We will be here for a few days till the low pressure system passes then we are off to Niue which is 525 miles away or a 4 day sail.

Cook Islands

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Mark
May 21, 2012, 3:49 pm, 17 09'S:156 12'W, On the way to Niue, no make that Suwarrow

Everything is fine aboard At Last. We have no wind so we are using the engine a lot for the past day. In our last blog post we said that we were skipping the stopover in Suwarrow and heading straight for Niue. Well our plans have chaged. For those of you who are looking at the Wolrd ARC web site and tracking our position, you will see a course change on Monday 5/21 4pm eastern time after travling 230 miles southwest to Niue. We are now heading northwest to Suwarrow to avoid a potentil low pressure system (storm) that is developing and is predicted to cross our path on Saturday from the northwest to the southeast. We are 465 miles or 3 days from Suwarrow. If the storm does not develop we will change course back to Niue. If the storm does develop, we could stay in Suwarrow till it passes. Don't want anyone to be concerned about the reason for the course change.

Cook Islands

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