Sailing to Suwarrow

 

Only boat we saw in six days

One of our calmer sailing days

Sailing to Suwarrow

This passage has started out as our slowest to date. With light winds we sailed where we could which was northwest towards China. First day was squally with no wind in between, and the second day we even had winds from the west. Spent half the time motoring which we hate to do. Today is day 4 of what looks like a 7 day trip and we have good wind. The trouble with these downwind trips is you can't get the right wind angle to your target. At least we are getting a lot read about upcoming places. We also spend a lot of time sleeping to make up for the nights awake.

We have just heard that this is now an El Nino year, the strongest in 120 years. It doesn't usually start this late. One of the effects is lighter and more variable tradewinds. Another is drought in India which has already begun. The rain carrying southwest monsoon is late arriving. We will have to be careful to get regular weather updates.
Another thing we read on the news was one of the volcanos on Isabela Island in the Galapagos erupted on May 28, 30 years since the last one.

Our destination this trip is the tiny atoll of Suvarov (or Swarrow) in the Cook Islands. It is a National Park with only a warden living there and we had to write for permission to stop. It is one of the endangered islands of the South Pacific due to rising water levels so wanted to talk to the warden about that. We hope the conditions will be ok for getting through the pass and anchoring inside. There is a good swell and wind from the south coming from a winter storm in NZ this week. Apparently they are getting snow in the alpine areas there.

This afternoon we crossed the border from French Polynesia into the Cook Islands. It is still another 800 nm east to west before Samoa. We saw our first boat today, a freighter that passed within a mile of us. The BPO fleet is expected in Vavau, Tonga, June 18. We are all taking different routes there. Once a day we are sending our positions to Rally Control and also to Zeke on No Regrets. He is then emailing them with any comments back to us.