Brian's Travels Index
We had a great time in Bora Bora anchored off Bloody Mary's of South
Pacific fame, the board outside lists some of the famous people who have
dined there, it goes on forever.Bora Bora was a nice place but so expensive.
The only tourists we saw were all honeymooners but really the place seemed
empty.
560nm south west lay the cook Islands we were making for the island
of Rarotonga. The weather was not behaing and so we had to do a lot of
motor sailing. There was plenty of rain clouds and squalls which we kept
clear of by altering course at the appropriate time, isn't Radar great.
Rarotonga is lovely everyone speaks English and the currency is NZ
dollars, for the first time since leaving Panama we van afford to eat and
drink!!! I even played tennis at the Edgewater Resort on a very good Astro
turf surface. There were plenty of internet places and not too expensive.We
had some good nights with local dancing and reasonable food at various
restaurents. With live music at Trader Jacks.
Rarotonga was a place we all fell in love with and all too soonit was
time to move on, having felt that we would like to see more of the C ook
islands.
As often happens when preparing to leave for sea problems appear. This
time it was a split batten pocket that needed re-stitching, not my favourite
job.
Our next destination was a unique corral atoll with no trees no land
just a kidney shaped corral reef with a pass into the lagoon where you
can anchor and be surrounded by waves breaking on the reef. It was Beveridge
Reef500nm south west. We intende anchoring overnight doing some snorlelling
and diving befor moving on to Niue 185 further on.
We were getting the largest swell since arriving in the Pacific about
2 metre +. We dedided it was because we getting into the more southerly
latitudes of 20 degrees south. The Southern Cross was now high overhead
each night whereas it had been low down on the horizen, now it was the
Plough that was low on the northern horizen.
Fate took a hand 3 days out. the wind dropped and we started the engine
as the turbo kicked in it started missing. We checked the fuel filters
and they seemed ok. We could still motor at 2000 rpm and that gave us 6kts,
the worry was that we would not have enough power to take us thro the pass
in the lagoon the current often runs at 6kts plus, or worse the motor might
stop at a crucual time. We decided to head straight to Niue.
We arrived at Alofi bay Niue at 12.00hrs Wed 12 June. The bay on the
west side of Niue is quite exposed to anything from the west. We picked
up the last mooring buoy thankfully because the alternative was to anchor
in 30 m,etres of water.
Niue is a flat saucer shaped island only 60mtrs high with no beaches
and the coastline is cliffs. To get ashor in the dighy you have to climb
a ladder and then lift out the dinghy on a mechanical hoist. It can be
quite rouch and I leave you to imagine the pantomine after a night out.
The island is very charming and last night we were guests of the Niue
Yacht club they did a BBQ for us. It is Friday 14th June and we plan to
leave tomorrow for Tonga 240nm away.