Movin' On
20 September 2008 | Northern Cooks
Janet/Polynesia breezes
Sept 20
This is day 2 of our 450 mi crossing from Suwarrow (Suvarov) to American Samoa. We again are having the perfect sail, a downwind run with 15 knt winds, flying the asymmetrical headsail, 1 m seas, and cloudless azure skies. Fair winds and following seas!
Our time on Suwarrow is a memory that I will keep at the top of my life list! We truly had a fabulous time there. John, Veronica, and their 4 boys are the National Park caretakers of Suwarrow. They excelled in their hospitality making us feel a part of their family, serving us in love. They took us to Bird Isle to see the nesting frigates, tropicals, terns, red-footed and mask boobies. The whole isle was covered with birds on their nests. It was amazing to walk among them. I felt like I was filming a Planet Earth segment. The baby boobies were too cute, all fluffy white, fuzzy little prehistoric looking goof-balls.
John taught Abbey how to hand-line fish behind the dinghy. She caught a big 10 lb. spotted grouper! John and his family shared fish with us everyday: grouper, barracuda, trevalli jack, red snapper. We bar-b-qued on the beach over an open wood fire under a full moon. We had group meals with our Italian cruising friends. Massimo is from Rome. He is very charismatic. Giorgio enjoyed being able to speak his own language with Massimo, Andrea, and Marco. It was fun hearing them and watching all the hand gestures!
When we first sailed through the pass and into the anchorage, as soon as we put down our hook, we were literally encircled by about 15 black-tip sharks! Talk about shark-infested waters! After watching them for about 10 minutes, Joel, Abbey, and I decided that we were going to go for it and jump in! They were teasing me cause I kept freaking out each time I got ready to get in. I would slap the water with my fin and a couple of sharks would come charging instead of scattering away! We all made the plunge and chased sharks. Joel would free dive down to the bottom at 60ft. and have to swim up to the surface through the sharks. It was freaky snorkeling on top of the water because there would be a layer of sharks swimming around you right at the surface, another layer would be about 10-20 feet below you, then up from the depths every once in a while a shark would make a b-line right toward your legs! The best thing to do was dive down and charge right back, then they would veer off. We made it a routine a couple of times a day to swim with them. One night I rinsed off some fresh fish down the sink drain while Abbey and Joel were in the water. In seconds about 20 sharks were cruising around them. They thought it was great fun!
There were sharks all over that lagoon. Clint, Abbey, and I went snorkeling with John and his family and saw many black tips and gray shark at the drop off. When you fish it's a race to get the fish to the boat before the shark gets it.
We got up at 5am one morning when it was low tide and walked the reef between two motus looking for lobster. We didn't see any lobster probably cause it was a full moon and they are best found during a new moon. The reef was fantastic though. There were tons of stranded fish in coral pools, eel, octopus, sea stars. The colors were so vibrant: purples, greens, yellows oranges, blues, pinks, they were literally living colors, pulsating with depth and movement! We watched the sun come up over all of this beauty and it was rapturous! It was probably the most exhilarating thing I have done in life in a long time. I remember a similar thrill when my Dad used to take us to Oceanside Beach back in the 60's to catch grunion when they came in with the tide. It was so exciting to be around a beach fire with the moon shining on the waves and the little silvery fish dancing on their tails.
We wished we could have stayed on Suwarrow for a long time. John taught Abbey how to climb a coconut tree and husk a fresh coconut. His boys showed Joel where to get big coconut crabs. John and Veronica shared much about their Maori culture with us. John's father is the chief of his island, Mauke, in the Southern Cooks. We loved their hearts for their people and their island and take that with us as we go. What a gift! What an experience! We will never forget this time.