Our sail over to Suwarrow was the complete opposite to the journey from Maupiti to Rarotonga. Approximately the same distance we had the wind from the South East as it should be, the boat was heeled over on the opposite side and we made good progress as the swells were with us also. The other difference being is that it was Katie who felt crook this time. Pretty much from when we set sail Katie was fine as long as she could remain on deck. If she was to go below deck and the boat started rolling from side to side it would be only minutes before a rather transparent and green tinged wife would reappear. I don't think this rated as Katies favourite point of our sailing experience.

After 4 days at sea averaging around 7.5 knots we arrived at Suwarrow and sailed along the outside of the reef to the one and only pass to get inside the group of islands. We dropped the lures in as we reduced sail and speed and cruised through gap in the reef and within seconds of them hitting the water we had caught a fair sized big eyed tuna. We get the 3 foot fish aboard the boat as we carefully sailed towards our destination. Again Leigh decided to fillet it there and then with the least amount of delay. In seconds he had lopped of Mr Big Eyes head and the cockpit of the boat was covered with pumping blood from the headless fish and we had 5 decent sized meals of tuna fillet to show for it. We kept the head on board to use as bait when we had dropped anchor.

The official published population of Suwarrow is 4. The main island (which can be walked around in about 15 minutes) is home to a caretaker and his family. Suwarrow is a protected national park belonging to the cook islands and the caretakers job is to make sure that no poachers come in to the lagoon to hunt the plentiful fish supplies, help themselves to the pearls or plunder the lobster and coconut crab populations. The family lives on the island for 6 months using the famous house of the Kiwi Hermit Tom Neale. Tom escaped to Suwarrow in the late 50's where he lived entirely self sufficiently. Tom would welcome passing yachts to the island for a brief respite from the sometimes turbulent South Pacific. Sadly in 1975 he was taken from the island back to Rarotonga when he was suffering with cancer where he died.

As previously mentioned the area is now a National Park and the current caretakers extend the same courtesy for passing yachties that Tom did those many years ago. We had brought gifts of a couple of banana stalks, some tomatoes, taro and various other veg for the ranger and in return he waved the 50 dollar mooring fee and said that we could accompany him on his visits to the more remote bird island within the lagoon. Myself and Katie made ourselves scarce from the boat for the rest of the day just enjoying some time to ourselves with no one else around. On returning later that afternoon we decided to get rid of the tuna head and scraps over the side of the boat to see what our fishing chances would be. Within seconds of the fish hitting the water we were surrounded by black tipped reef sharks. Over the week that we stayed around Suwarrow these sharks would regularly appear at the first sign of anything hitting the water outside the boat and they seemed to eat anything. More keen on the bones and meat that we would threw over rather than the papaya and lime skins but if that's what was on offer they would hoover them up without delay.

The next day we headed out to bird island with the ranger. Luckily he had a nice meaty outboard motor to propel him the 3 miles across the lagoon. The island is home to many breeding pairs of sea birds and their offspring. Notably the rare Masked Booby who simply scrapes away some of the crushed coral that makes up the island and lays its eggs there with no nest. We therefore had to tread carefully! The island was swarming with birds from skinny, partially feathered chicks to angry parents that squawked and threatened a dive-bombing if we got to close. It was a rare treat to be able to get close to these birds but our time on the island was to be limited. Apparently if you get too close to the chicks or the parents can a waft of human near the nest they kill their chicks by carrying them up to a decent height in their beaks and dropping them onto the rocks below. We didn't want to be responsible for mass avian genocide so back to the boat we went.

On awaking on morning Leigh asked if we had anything planned for the day. We stupidly said "no, not particularly". We were asked if we wanted to help out by cleaning one of the portholes on the boat. How hard could this be? Two days later we had finished wet sanding 2 brass portholes and our hands had turned into strange green prunes. We decided that Leigh could do the other 12 himself as he seemed to get a lot more out of it than us. But, all in all, the transformation from turning a Verdi Gris brass porthole into a shiny brass mirrored surface is rewarding but in small doses.

The rest of our time was spent sunbathing, reading and getting some of the best snorkelling ever around the huge coral bommies with the sharks fish and rays. When the time came to leave Suwarrow toward American Samoa the weather had taken a turn for the worst bringing driving rain and stronger winds. Apart from us getting wet this meant that our crossing time would be greatly reduced.