Ironie's Pacific Adventures

hello to all friends family and ironie affectionados across the universe...today finds
ironie and crew making last minute preperations for the passage to suvarov island in the
northern cook islands group....suvarov is a large atoll,(a low lying ring of coral with small
motu(islands)dotting the coral ring like a necklace)lying at about 163 degrees west and 13
degrees 14 minutes south.it is aproxamately 700 miles to the west northwest of bora bora.
suvarov's claim to fame is the book "an island to ones self"written by a guy named tom neale
,from new zeland ,who lived a hermit-like life on suvarov for 10 years or so.the reminints of his shack
and a few belongings still exist on the island intact.the lagoon is beautiful with clear,
clear water and lots of fish and black tip reef SHARKS!!the sharks are suppose to be a bit
on the aggressive side so i don't think we will be spearfishing in the lagoon...ya never
know though, evan is a bit of a wild card...lol....the passage should be dead downwind
meaning the wind will be directly behind the boat giving us lots of speed but a rolly ride.
wish us luck!!
bora bora has been lots of fun.we've been hanging out with our friends john and amanda on
"gingi" and brian and claire on "cetacea".they will be sailing to suvarov as well ,as things stand
now...all plans are changeable in the world of cruising boats as we all know...ironie has also
met up wth an old friend liz on "swell".i met liz in panama in 2007 when we were both plan
ning passages.liz is a surfer and a sometimes solo sailor.she was up in the kirabati islands
,christmas and fanning ,(almost directly north from us)surfing for 3 months or so.i was talk
ing to gingi on the vhf radio and
reconized liz's distintve voice calling the yacht club.we chimed in that "the yacht club does'nt answer the radio,can
we help you".she said she was approaching bora and it would be dark when she came in could we
tell her a good place to drop the hook....we told her there was a mooring next to us.we gave
her our position and helped her moor up.she had been on a very rough 16 day solo passage to
weather(into the wind).we hot some pasta and wine in her and listened to the big passage
stories from the small but powerful woman that is liz...she was in 50 knot winds and hove
to for a day or so getting set west losing her easting.she ended up beating back into the
wind for a couple of days to make it to bora bora....go liz!!! GURRRRL POWER FOR SURE....well here we go on our
first big passage of the year....i'm posting a few more photos from bora bora before we
leave...we wil be out of internet contact for the next few weeks but i will
post the next blog as soon as possible ...love you all ....sail ho!!ironie's on the wind...
peace,captain steve ironie..