Alas we need to move on and leave this little paradise in our wake albeit reluctantly. It has been a spectacular experience visiting this Atoll, the last one in our line SW towards Tonga. Of the 12 boats here right now, 6 are departing tomorrow for various parts of the South Pacific, ourselves included. Four departed a couple of days ago and have had some pretty lively conditions so far and we are expecting the same for the first couple of days if the forecast is at all accurate. The "plan" and it is always good to have a plan, that way you can change it, is to head for Niue the worlds smallest independent Nation, (an Island) where if conditions permit we will take a mooring and tour the island and all it ha to offer for as long as conditions hold. That is how it works at Niue, if conditions change, you bug out! So you are in a perpetual state of readiness while there. You con not anchor off Niue, but there are moorings provided for a fee of course and you can not land a dinghy there either. The drill there is to bring the dink alongside the concrete wharf, scramble up the slippery stairs after hooking your dinghy lifting straps to the crane so you can electrically hoist the dink out and up onto the high jetty about 20 feet above sea level where you deposit in a rolling cart and "parallel park" alongside the others. Seems a pretty cool thing to do and I have read about it for years so experiencing it should be fun. Most folks rent a car and tour the island and see some really awesome sites. We intend to do the same. More on Niue after we arrive. For now preparations for sea will consume today with making meals for watches, hoisting and deflating the dink onto the foredeck, loading the outboard onto the rail, running all heavy weather sail sheets and blocks etc.. running the water maker all day so we have abundant fresh water, stowing everything in the interior for heavy conditions so stuff does not fly around the boat and general chart plotting and route planning etc... A full day for sure. Plan is to depart mid morning in order to have sufficient sun light sort of behind us to be able to eyeball it across the lagoon again through all the bombies and coral heads and semi- submerged pearl oyster floats to gain the scary shallows that lead into the pass so we can run the gauntlet again. With good timing, the current should be manageable, if you call manageable steering like hell as the current does what it wants with you and you shoot out the serrated jaws of the narrow gap like being flushed down a toilet, only to swiftly arrive in the standing waves and washing machine seas created by current against wave and swells at the exit of the pass before getting spit out past the slop and into the breakers for a roller coaster ride before meeting beam on with the long established SE waves and swell pattern of over 3 meters all built up and aggressive after days of sustained winds over 20 knots. Sounds pretty typical and you could only hope for big winds and rain to make it somewhat more interesting. Many have done it while we have been here and no one so far has had any problems. And so we will tremble with anticipation as we cross the lagoon and hold our breath as we rocket out, then instantly switch to offshore mode both vessel and body as we bank away and set a course SW. Incidentally regarding those sharks under the boat, I just had to get back in there and tackle the bottom. After all the set up again, and some real psyching up on my part, I hopped in and just like faithful dogs they were there to greet me. It took several minutes of just watching them and letting them check me out on their circuits before I could relax a little and start the job. They would cruise by 10 feet away and then circle down below me about 20 feet down then repeat for what seems 30 minutes then sort of lost interest and let me focus on the work. Oh yes, I looked around a lot for the first hour then accepted they were not out to attack and I spent over two hours down there but only got about 2/3 done before I was out of steam and had to pack it in for the day. The sharks remained down about 20 feet and every once in a while I would see one on the cruise doing that shark thing again. Not something one gets used too easily. I will have to finish now in Niue where there are no shark reports but Humpbacks and calves in the harbor, along with one of the higher concentrations of sea snakes to swim with. Whales, great, super cool experience to be had! Sea Snakes, ahhh, not so much!