After writing our last entry at Beveridge reef, the winds started howling even harder so we decided to leave when the four other boats anchored there took off on Sunday morning. We really wanted to stay a couple more days, but felt it was the safe thing to do. We were the last to leave since our anchor had gotten stuck in a coral head - we had to maneuver all around it from all directions until it finally popped loose. We were in clear sand when we dropped it, but the strong winds and the snubber breaking must have conspired against us. Thank goodness for a strong windless!

They say whenever one boat is out on the blue its just sailing - when there's two... it's a race! Well, you can imagine how it was, then, to have five boats out there heading for the same finish line... especially when no one was sure if there were enough empty mooring balls left for all of us (and one of the captain's was the "I'm not competitive, Glen!")! It was about 140 miles, so we sailed all day and night - a wonderful sail according to Glen and an extremely fast and very heely trip for me! We arrived at the island of Niue (not first - there was an Oyster in the fleet, but not last, mind you!) on Monday morning and there were six mooring balls (out of 16) left so we all made it in! Yeah! Anchoring here is very difficult and most boats that can't get a ball just keep on going towards Tonga.

Niue is a wonderful place. It is the world's smallest independent nation, but they are very strong people. Almost the entire island was wiped out with the devastating cyclone Heta back in 2004. It is reported winds got as high as 300km (about 185 miles) per hour and it sent waves of up to 30 meters (almost 100 feet) crashing over Niue's cliffs. (Aren't you impressed we're using metric now! :) They have rebuilt most of their homes and buildings and are making great efforts to encourage tourism back to "The Rock of Polynesia!" They call it that because most of their island is just that - a big limestone rock! There are no areas that slant down to the beach - steep cliffs surround the island from all angles. To get ashore, we dinghy in to a big concrete pier (sticking out from a cliff) that has a crane on it. One person (me) has to try to get up the side of the wall (much easier at high tide!) while the other person (Glen) waits in the dinghy. I get to be crane operator and lower the hook down so Glen can secure it to the bridle he had to make on the dinghy. He then gets to climb up the wall (in a lot more difficult position) and we raise the hook until we can swing the dinghy over (by pulling on a huge rope) to the pier. Luckily, they have a dinghy "sleigh" that we can use to move the dinghy away from the edge and park it while on shore. Imagine what a small pier with 16 dinghies and a crane must look like! (Pictures to follow if we ever get internet!)

On Monday we got checked in through customs and their local police department. We walked around a bit and then crashed early since we didn't get much sleep on the crossing. Tuesday, we rented bicycles with Alan and Kristen (Charisma) and went for a wonderful ride along the coast. It was a lot of fun and we saw some amazing views from the cliffs. We hadn't taken suits with us, but it was so hot that when we got to the end of one Sea Trek (hiking trail down to the water) that had such an inviting pool, we all had to jump in and cool off. I don't know how tri-athletes do it because cycling back in wet clothes wasn't much fun! Luckily, it didn't take us long to dry out and we even found a great place called "The Sails" (hmmm, haven't I heard that name before!) restaurant to stop and have a beer. They are the home of the "World's Hardest Golf Shot!" It's more of a joke than anything, but there really is a shot from the back of the restaurant to the tee pin on the next cliff over - a hole in one earns $500.!!! At the end of our ride, we stashed the bikes behind the Niue yacht club (not much crime here!) and limped back to the pier! After a quick rinse on our boat, we headed off to a 29th b-day party for Dr. John on Night Wind. (I hope you can understand why I haven't had time to do more entries lately!) It was a fun party and we got to meet several new cruisers.

Tuesday, we dinghied in, but the crane wasn't working so we had to leave the dinghies (tied to extra long painters) bobbing and crashing into the pier. We hiked up the hill to the yacht club to reclaim our bikes (which were now almost impossible to sit down on!), and rented a car from the same place we had gotten the bikes. Glen now has a Niue drivers license to go along with his Cook Island one! We split the cost of the car with Charisma and we had a great time circumnavigating the island. We went in a clockwise fashion (the highly preferred direction by locals!) and visited many different caves and chasms along the way. That is where the title of today's entry comes in. I had mentioned most of the island is limestone. Well, in many places along the cliffs, there are hiking trails that lead to gorgeous caves cut into the limestone cliffs. We had visited a couple before the catastrophe happened. The third hike was much longer and treacherous. We were heading to the beautiful Talava Arches. We hiked and hiked, then hiked a little more to get to the caves - then we pretended we were mountain goats to scale limestone cliffs to get to the bottom where there were enticing pools of cool, fresh, spring water running out to mix with the salty sea. We had such a wonderful time in all the pools along the way. Where the fresh water rushes to meet the salt, the waters blurs in such a way that it looks as I would imagine a Monet painting of the underwater world to look. Everything goes softer - colors fade and features go a little feathery and dreamy. Well, we had a nice refreshing swim in the pool at the end of this trek and were heading back up the goat trail when Glen's shoes, now wet from swimming (when not wearing our flippers, we keep our shoes on because of all the coral and other sharp stuff) decided to slide out from under him. He did a great job of not falling off the edge, but did a face plant right into an extremely sharp limestone stalagmite (I think - those are the ones that go up, right?!!). Luckily he missed the actual eye by a fraction of an inch, but got a nasty gash along the left side of his eyelid. The worst part is that his nose went full force into the limestone and laid it wide open. It didn't break the nose (although it sure sounded like it!), but he will end up with a nasty scar. He will definitely look more like a pirate after this! He was such a trouper - I would have been screaming to fly me back to the states to a plastic surgeon, but he wouldn't even go to the local medical clinic (that would have been going anti-clockwise!). We hit other interesting places along the way, including Uluvehi Landing (a perch on another cliff!) where slave traders in 1860 stole hundreds of Nuieans to go work in guano factories in Chile (although now used for lowering dugout outriggers), and we did another very long hike to Togo... the only sand "beach" on the island. It is called the "Pocket Beach" because it looks like a lovely white sand beach complete with coconut palms, but it is really land-locked below a forest of limestone "sand castles" (really - that's what they looked like!). You had to climb down a 30' ladder (my knees had given up so I couldn't do it, but bloody nosed Glen was the first one down!) to get to the small sandy oasis (about 30' x 75'). That was after hiking a good 40 minutes or so through the limestone forest. There was a huge collection of broken shoes (from the limestone) stuck in one of the walls enclosing the beach. It was beautiful, but boy were we pooped after that! We had a great dinner at the only "resort" on the island (we had the only choice on the resort menu - bratwursts with onions!). After turning in the car, we hoofed it back (over a mile) to the pier and had to basically jump down off the pier into the dinghy (where was this listed in the brochure when I signed up for this cruise?!!!!) Of course, nothing can be that easy... both Charisma's and our painters had gotten stuck behind the big tires hanging off the pier used as bumpers (it was a lower tide when we went in than when we got back). It took a while of tugging and pulling, but we finally got the lines unhooked and made our way back to our boats.

Luckily, the birthday boy from the day before, Dr. John (Night Wind) is a real doctor (even though he was born the year I graduated high school - yikes!!!) and was kind enough to check out Glen's wounds and "glue" then back together. The cut by his eye glued closed nicely, but the gash on his nose was gaping too much at the bottom and the glue wouldn't hold, so Dr. John had to use the sticky strip things to hold it together (instead of putting in stitches). He said stitches would make it look even worse in the long run because you would be able to see the cross hatches in addition to the actual scar. I can't believe Glen didn't even flinch while having his wounds squeezed closer together - again.... yikes!!!!

Today is Thursday and due to several horrid weather forecasts, we have realized we now have to leave Niue before we would like (we were going to stay at least 5 more days). The forecasts are for 30 - 50 K winds and up to 6 meter (18') seas. This is to hit by Saturday. We would rather be in deep water under those conditions than tied to a mooring ball, so we will be leaving first thing in the morning. We did have a pleasant day ashore, however, getting checked out ($30. NZ each!), buying a few provisions, and attending a wonderful barbecue at the Niue Yacht Club (it's interesting how quickly news spread... Glen is now known as the "guy with the nose!"). We will be leaving by 7:00AM (11:00AM CA time) for the Vava'u group of Tonga. We will be crossing the International Date Line along the way - meaning two things... we'll now be dragon backs (as well as our shellback status for crossing the equator) and we'll lose a day. Sometime late Friday night, it will all of a sudden become Saturday night (and with no alcohol required!)!

We are so excited that our dear friend, Ray, has now booked his ticket and is coming in to visit while we're in Tonga. He should be here on September 10th (that's the 9th for you guys!). We keep hearing how gorgeous Tonga is - we can't wait! Just like with Denise and Pete & Karren, we have put in our wish list of things for Ray to bring us. In addition to more Crystal Light (you just can't get drink mixes here!), our biggie this time is a new battery for our laptop - it is now down to about 3 minutes of use if not plugged in! We so appreciate everything that has been brought to us from home. We will never, ever, take American stores for granted again! I can't tell you what an hour in a Walmart would mean right now! :) We would also love some current photos from home - if you would like to send some, let us know and we'll give you Ray's address!

This has been a weird week emotionally for me. It was the first week back to school at North Broadway, and although I am having the time of my life, it feels so odd to not be a part of my family there. It really feels strange to not have a class that is "mine!" For those of you reading this that are "in the trenches", please know I think of you often and miss you tons! I am also sad that I am going to miss the first day of school for my niece, Jennifer. I am so proud that she will have her first class of first graders starting on September 2nd. She was such a big help to me on so many 1st days, I wish I could beam myself back to help her out. I know she'll do great, though, on her own!

Great news regarding Glen's niece, Laurie. She went through a long, but very successful, surgery and is now deemed "cancer free!" We were so happy to hear the news and we wish her the best as she recuperates.

We were not able to get internet here on Niue and the propagation on the radio hasn't been so great during the times we're ready to transmit (have been off the boat at peak times!), so we haven't been able to get much mail in or out lately, but love getting your messages when we can. Glen's niece Cindi asked if it's okay to ask us questions - YES! We'd love to hear what you guys are thinking and would love to answer anything we can about what we're doing (not that we always know!!!). If you're not already in our address book, feel free to leave a comment on the blog (thanks Glad for e-mailing them to us!) or if you know you're in our book (sorry, winlink rejects anyone not already in it!) you can e-mail us directly at kg6ssw@winlink.org (We just need to ask that our address not be included in any type of bulk mailings (you know, all the fun stories and jokes!) and there can't be attachments (pictures, etc...)). Hearing from friends and family is a very special part of our trip - thank you so much for that! :)