Suwarrow – An Island to Oneself

The passage from Maupiha’a to Suwarrow was beautiful.   We had perfect winds that filled our sails all day and all night.   Seas that were gentle and no rain or squalls to deal with on our moonlit night passages.   We sailed in the company of Freya who stayed right beside us as we flew our two big jibs, until their spinnaker halyard broke at midnight when they had to scramble to retrieve the waterlogged sail .   To start with we were reminded of the heady days of sailing with SY Ruffian where our boats were so perfectly matched we finished beside each other after a multi-day passage.   With Freya severely handicapped with one sail down, we pulled ahead and were soon out of radio range as we sped towards Suwarrow.  

Suwarrow was, until the 1970’s, named Suvarrov after a Russian ship that “discovered” the atoll in the 1700’s.  It lies over 500nm north of Rarotonga and is part of the Northern Cook Islands territory.   In the 1950’s a New Zealander named Tom Neale chose to live on the island for six years in complete isolation, cut off from the outside world. His book, An Island to Oneself, has become a South Seas classic as it details the trials and tribulations of his solitary life in this beautiful, wild and unforgiving place. Two rangers now live on Suwarrow for six months and are responsible for looking after the atoll and making sure visiting yachts conform with the strict regulations while in the isolated National Park.

At 1pm, when we were four miles from the entrance into the atoll, we radioed the park ranger to ask permission to enter the pass.  Usually this is just a formality so I was very surprised to get a response saying access was denied due to the limit of yachts anchored in the bay being reached.    We were asked to wait outside the atoll until the morning when boats would be leaving.   This was not welcoming news as we were tired after a four day passage and had been looking forward to our arrival.    The wind had dropped to nothing at this point and trying to heave-to with no wind was impossible.   We dropped the sails as they were banging in the swell and this made our rolling even worse as we drifted in the windless ocean.   By 4pm Freya had joined us and we talked about how we could handle the swell and wait!   At 4.30pm the radio burst into life and the ranger informed us a boat leaving so we could now enter the lagoon.   Amazingly, and very kindly, our Australian friends on Matilda had heard of our predicament and decided to bring their morning departure forward to the evening to allow us entry into the anchorage.   Sadly, this meant we left Freya rolling in the ocean on their own, while we sped towards the atoll and into the flat, calm seas of the lagoon.   A dolphin welcomed us as we made our approach, battling 3knots of outgoing current as we tried to avoid large eddies on the way in.    As the sun set, we dropped our anchor close to several friends boats, and heaved a very grateful sigh of relief while still feeling guilty about Freya who were rolling around outside the reef. 

Suwarrow is everything you would expect an isolated tropical paradise to be.  The only way to visit Suwarrow is by private boat, so the privileged few of us are able to enjoy its clear warm waters, thousands of nesting sea birds, beautiful coral and, once again, whales in the lagoon, playfully passing in front of the anchorage.   If there was any island you would expect to find Robinson Crusoe, it is here – it meets all the described and imagined personas of a castaway island, it is uncanny, yet here we were taking a few days out of “civilization” to enjoy time in a place that time seems to have forgotten!  

Harry and Teina are the current island Rangers, responsible for keeping visiting yachties in check and being the guardians of the National Park.   They live on Suwarrow from June to November and are responsible for counting and monitoring seabirds and turtles during egg laying season.   They are kind, helpful and modest people, sharing their passion for traditional Cook Island customs as well as their love of nature.  The only time we saw them unhelpful was when they felt their position was disrespected when a yachtie didn’t ask permission to enter the pass or ignored their instructions and rules, but once they felt included and respected, their initial officious manner softened.

We were surrounded by friends in the anchorage and between snorkelling sessions, boat hopped as we all soaked in the incredible beauty of the place.   I celebrated my 60^th birthday in Suwarrow, surrounded by new friends at a pot luck dinner organised on the beach.  We feasted on a variety of food and dishes that, although lacking a lot of fresh vegetables, was a luxury many of us hadn’t experienced for some time!  

On the morning of my birthday we collected our friends, Lee and Tamara on SY Athena in our dinghy and headed to the pass – our mission was to find the elusive but documented, manta ray cleaning station which come into the lagoon to get cleaned by wrasse fish which diligently nibble off dry skin and parasites as the rays patiently stay still for long periods – it’s like a day spa for mantarays!    We had heard of other cruisers having wonderful experiences close to the pass and, with Lee egging us in his persuasive, adventurous, enthusiastic way, we ventured further and further into the fast flowing waters.   At first sight of a ray under the boat, Lee leapt into the water leaving the rest of us glancing at each other wondering if anyone else would follow.   Tamara and I lowered ourselves into the fast flowing current and tried to catch up with Lee as he followed the mantaray back into the lagoon.   On seeing large grey sharks below us, we again looked at each other and returned to the dinghy.   A couple of days earlier a cruiser had been attacked by one of the sharks who took exception to being pushed away and circled around the swimmer, charging at him and biting his ear.   Another cruiser came to his rescue and, with blood dripping from his wound, he was hauled into the dinghy.   Tamara and I did not fancy a similar interaction so retired to safety!    Once out of the current and pass, we all jumped into the water again and waited.   Lee was freediving below us when I suddenly saw his movements change and he started frantically swimming in the opposite direction.  We all turned, unsure what was behind us, as a large shape came into view swimming fast towards the pass.   It was a humpback whale with baby, swimming silently beside us – quite amazing to have such an unexpected close encounter!    It turned out not to be the only encounter we would have as, later that day, a humpback, possibly the same one, came into our anchorage and swam around the boats for about 45 minutes.   Those lucky enough to have paddleboards had an amazing experience with the whales swimming underneath them numerous times before heading back out to sea.  

We had planned to leave the next day for Niue where our good friend, Kim, was joining us.   As we prepared to depart, we talked again to our weather router who had warned us of potentially bad weather to the south.   We discussed, studied, discussed and decided to follow our weather routers advice and stay north.  This was a hard decision to make as it meant letting Kim down and missing out on a place we really wanted to explore with her.  Kim was wonderful and, although deeply disappointed, understood our decision – one that later proved to be the right one as we heard of other cruisers who were unable to get ashore during the same period due to high winds.   

Instead of heading south, we sailed west and set our course for Apia in Samoa – a place we had not had not intended visiting or researched, so spent the passage learning more about it.   We left with a number of other boats heading in the same direction which made for good company at the start of the 500nm passage. 

At around midnight on the last evening, we crossed the dateline so we missed out on 15 August all together, another huge milestone reached and significant point in our journey. We were now just one hour time difference from NZ and home felt so much closer.