I am pretty far behind but will do my best to bring the blog up to speed.

Suwarrow

We left Palmerston around noon on Friday, we never leave for an overnight on a Friday but neither O nor I realized what day it was! As it turned out it was a bad idea. About 10 minutes into the trip I took over the helm while Otis went forward to hoist the main sail. As I was bringing Indy into the wind I noticed she was not as responsive as normal, I yelled to Otis that she was not pointing into the wind very well, something is wrong. After a few small manuveur he agreed something was definitely amiss. So true to form, we turned around and headed back to Palmerston, retied to the mooring we had just left.

Otis had a few theories as to what might be wrong...either the port transmission was stuffed or the propeller was stripped or missing. After tying off and securing Indy at the mooring, O went overboard to check on the prop and discovered the transmission was OK but the prop was not spinning when in gear. After 2 hours of underwater work O dismantled the prop and brought it up on deck to see. The prop hub was stripped and was free spinning when in gear so we were not getting any propulsion from that propeller. Fortunately we had a used spare in the bilge which needed a little work but was operable. O put the new one on and we were ready to leave. We decided we would take off first thing in the morning. We left Saturday morning and had an uneventful 2 day sail to Suwarrow.

Suwarrow and the solitude it provided was a nice change from the previous two Cook Islands and the Societies. Usually a park ranger, his wife and kids are the only inhabitants on the island. However, they leave during cyclone season which started about two weeks ago, so we had it to ourselves. While it would have been nice for Ben & Sam to play with the rangers children, it was really nice to have a deserted island to ourselves. We have not had this since the San Blas in Panama. The island is beautiful with white sand beaches, palm trees and crystal clear water. In the 50s a guy from NZ, named Tom Neal, lived alone as a hermit for 25 years here. He wrote a book about it that is supposed to be a good read; it is called "An Island to Oneself".
The clarity of the water was amazing amazing, the ocean is 30 different hues of greens and blues. BUT there are also a ton of sharks! Within minutes of dropping the hook we had 8-10 black tips swimming around the boat. We did not swim from the boat for the first few days. Even on the beach one day Ben was playing in the shallows and talking to me, I looked up and there was a black tip right next to him in the shallows! I did a great Roy Schneider from Jaws "everyone get out of the water!" I just needed Ray Bans and a whistle Funny enough after seeing the sharks for a while you get used to them and by day 3 the boys were swimming amongst them, even jumping off the boat on top of them to scare them away.

We spent most of those first days just hanging out. Honestly, O was much more taken with the island than I was. He kept envisioning himself living there which made me a bit uneasy. Settling on a deserted island in the middle of the Pacific with no internet or phone even is NOT on my radar. The abundance of mosquitoes furthered my disenchantment, but they seemed to only bother me...lucky me. I felt like a shish kabob when hanging out in the hammock. The boys would have ten on them at most times but did not even blink...never fear though; I was spraying them down every few minutes. I was the Off factory and went through about five bottles.

A few days after we arrived, our friends on Mustang rolled in which was great. We met Blake and Melissa and their three boys in the Marquesas. They have three fantastic boys Spencer 12, Parker10 and Blake 6. The kids ran around the island building forts, chasing coconut crabs, sharks etc; needless to say it was a fantastic playground.

One night we had a bonfire/bbq/overnight on the beach. Mustang has crew so Melissa had her chef prepare lamb chops and baked potatoes for the beach..mmmm. After dinner Melissa, Blake and I went back to the boats while O slept on the beach with the boys. They camped out under a lean too on the beach, tended the fire and told ghost stories about Tom Neale. I bagged out due to bugs...or that was my story.

We stayed in Suvarrov for over a week. Swimming, snorkeling and hanging out at what felt like the edge of the earth. The snorkeling was amazing, the different coral in hues of green, blue and purples. The downside was that there were no lobsters.

There was no wind during the day and the boat was OVERRUN by little black fruit fly like bugs. I am talking THOUSANDS. So, it was hot, the waters shark infested and my boat was swarmed in bugs. However, I was not totally was alone in the frustration because Mustang was overrun with the little fly pests too. The boys hardly even noticed and I think O was annoyed that I was so obsessed...they would even fly into my fridge when I opened it. At night they would hang out on the ceiling and sleep which was when I would douse them in bug spray. need less to say as soon as the sun was up they were back...if there was any wind we had none but there was very little wind.

On the windward side of the islands there were loads of sharks. This is where the park ranger had people clean their fish therefore many of the more dangerous sharks where on that side. O and Blake were walking around there wading in the water and little sharks would swim at their ankles. Boys being boys, they started shark tossing. Not to worry the only one hurt was Otis when he pulled out his back tossing. He wants it to be known that sharks are heavier than they appear in the water!!!

Due to the fact that fuel was 12.00 a gallon in Aituaki we did not take on any diesel. Therefore we simply did not have the fuel capacity to get to American Samoa. Seriously, I would have LOVED it had it not been for the bugs. Again, we would not have had bugs if there had been ANY wind. Plus, we had a fantastic time with Mustang.

We are currently in American Samoa waiting for some packages to arrive. I will write more about our stay here this weekend. We are mulling over spending hurricane season in Fiji.