Memories through Pictures
2010- WESTERN SAMOA
2010- FIJI
10/3/2010
We set sail about one hour ago and are on our way from Fortuna to Savu Savu, Fiji. We expect this trip to take us roughly 36 +/- hours depending on the winds, seas and weather. So far we are enjoying a great beam reach, the wind being just off our bow with fairly calm seas, we are healed over and sluicing along at between 6.5-7.0 knots. Just finished enjoying a lovely sunset and will start our night watch schedule soon. (Position: 14:27.565 South/ 178:13.94 West)
10/4/2010 – We had a excellent night of sailing with pretty steady winds, calm seas and only a couple of squalls. Very pleaseant:) The sun is shining and starting to heat the boat up. We’re now at 15:33.097 So/ 178:43.971 W.
10/5/2010 -John writes: The Sailing Vessel Raynad arrived safely in Suva Suva (Lat 16.46 Long 179.19), Fiji 4pm today from Wallis and Fortuna Islands bearing its two intrepid explorers who surprisingly coped rather well with the expedition being the salty hands that they now are. As always, the forecast weather was DEAD WRONG RESULTING IN A WONDERFUL SAIL FOR THE FIRST 16 HOURS MAKING RECORD SPEEDS IN FLAT WATER, FOLLOWED by a day and two nights of beating, even motoring against the seas and winds right on our nose. Right now we are swinging a mooring buoy in a pretty little town in north west Fiji that caters for the yachties that love this place. We are on a river estuary so there is no ocean swell. As a result we have both enjoyed a shower where the water actually falls from the shower rose on the top of your head and not on the opposite wall. And at last we are heading south again and away from the fierce heat and humidity of the tropical convergence zone where 20 minutes turns a blue sky into a HUGE big brown and black thunderhead storm with winds that blow your sails off and rain the comes down like a fire hose and bounces off the ocean, flattening the waves and completely obscuring the bow of your boat. Next minute the sun is out again and the air is 110% humid making you bake in your own sweat. Sleep was impossible and clothes were damp with sweat right after you put them on. Now we have 10/10 cloud cover that is 300′ off the water with cool light drizzle – reminds of those wonderful cool damp days in the temperate rain forest of Sitka. I never thought I would miss that.
This trip we were the Lame Duck Support Vessel. Our cruising buddies have a bad luck boat that has the most amazing list or problems. One gets solved to be replaced with two others. Their engine quit half way through the trip as their diesel turned to Dr Seuss’s Bubbly Goo so we stood off with tow rope ready through a blustery night close to the reef and today escorted said stricken vessel to this harbor with our trusty 300 meter 1″ close woven nylon tow line at the ready but the wind blew us to our safe harbor and the diesel mechanic has promised to be there – Fiji Time. Touch wood, Raynad is a fine vessel that remains trouble free so long as you spend 23.5 out of available 24 hrs rearranging its victuals.
Tomorrow we explore our new island with its Hot Springs Hotel (three 40watt light bulbs on right now in a hotel with 20+ rooms), its Ghost Village where everyone simultaneously decided to go to California to play golf, vote for Schwarzenager and collect IOU’s in their paycheck, and its burning forests as landowning families burn the natural forest to make room for the junked cars, outboard motors and used washing machines that they all seem to collect. The center of their new cleared land will be a concrete shrines to long dead relatives that they regard as the highest and the best use of the land since they install a concrete mummified Grandma right in the middle of the front lawn complete with gazeebo for shade, ornamental plastic gardens for a stroll around the shrine and night lights in case you have any doubt where the local stray dogs spend their nights out of the rain and away from the stray cats. . They have a subsistence lifestyle which today was illustrated by no less than three fishermen sharing the same waterlogged log that floated them into mid harbor with all their gear. There they sat with the log half sunk and invisibly supporting them while they cast for small fish amongst million dollar yachts. It makes a great picture for my super Nikon digital with spiffy lens. It is difficult not to capture the sense of the place without photographing the poverty which is really to insult these wonderful, happy people so most of my vacation pictures go unrecorded, except in my minds eye.
Off to bed after another of Kris’s wonderful steak dinners. No wine, we both prefer natural sleep, well earned to a snooze from the bottom of a bottle.
10/12/2010
We have moved out of Savusavu at last and are in Nandi Bay.
It’s quiet here and calm which is good since the winds and rain have arrived. Good night for hot showers, happy hour (of course), dinner and maybe even a movie:) Our buddy cruisers are on their way too about one hour behind us. We’ll keep making our way to the Yasawa Group tomorrow.We came into a lovely little bay yesterday afternoon, however, the rains have really come down, so we didn’t even get off the boat. We tried during one break in the weather, but the reef extends out so far from the beach, we needed up raise the outboard and try to row around the coral heads and it was starting to get dark. The family living here looked disappointed that we didn’t make it to their beach – we must be their one source of interesting entertainment as there is just one house out on this little spit and massive mangrove swamps between them and the mainland. Forecasts for Fiji and rain and almost no wind for the next few days, so we’ll be motoring most of the way and hope that the skies clear more when we get to the Yasawa Island group as they are supposed to be really lovely and one of the cruisers favorite destinations. So far, we’ve seen lots of jungle and mangrove swamps – very few beaches. No shortage of fresh water here!
10/16/2010
We have at last arrived in the part of our cruising that matches all of the glossy brochures and great expectations, but of course this also means that we have to SHARE our space. At present we are in the Brooke Shields famous Blue Lagoon with three other sailboats and TWO cruise ships!??! It really is lovely, yet we are not thrilled by the off-tune singing from the beach, nor the generator sounds of the ships. 
Nonetheless, the crew of Raynad have just enjoyed a steak dinner with Reserve NZ wine after a snoopy dingy ride past all of the hot spots around the resort beaches. I really do wish they would quite singing and whooping….John and I are going back up on deck (after he has dutifully washed and stored the dishes) to enjoy the first clear starlit night for several days. We are looking forward to hopefully waking to a clear and “quiet” morning with a good strong cup of coffee and some great snorkeling before moving southward to other lovely “Hollywood” places. 
10/17/2010
After a lovely morning finally enjoying sunshine and blue skies so we could truly appreciate the turquoise waters against white sands of the infamous Blue Lagoon….Raynad set sail southward by about 15nm to Naviti Island which is renowned for it’s “Honeymoon Beach” which is were we are – of course:) Beginning to threaten a change in the weather as predicted, however, for now it is baking hot, sunny and the white sand beckon us off the boat. Wish you all were here to share it with us.
10/18/2010 
We had the most perfect sunset and quiet evening out on the deck last night – only us with no other boats, really calm and pleasant (calm before the storm I said???) – we were awakened by howling winds and thundering rain – nasty because we had to close the boat up and lose all ventilation….about 3am the rains stopped, I opened the hatches and we awoke to glorious sunshine and good winds for sailing. 
With great visibility the navigation up to 
Waya Island was much less stressful (gray skies are not good for seeing reefs) and after motoring through a couple of options, we chose a nice anchoring beneath a hillside with views over some rather dramatic volcanic rock formations and a great view out to the open sea and a lovely sunset-again:) 
Tomorrow we are planning to make our way back to civilization and the port of Lautoka to check-in/get fuel, etc and check-out for Musket Cove and plans for watching to get a good weather window for sailing back to New Zealand. We are making great efforts to consume all beef and wine prior to landing in NZ since they like to take these things away for quarantine reasons?!?! Lots to eat, drink and enjoy:)
10/19/2010
We got up early this morning and went to visit the village on Waya Island. As always, everyone was very welcoming – Bula!! We left a few gifts of kava for the chief, fish hooks and some food items – John came back with a book from the Jehovah’s Witnesses missionary along with his rather discouraging words for the future of the world. Odd to hear him talk like that with such doom, when he’s there trying to spread the word in one of the most scenically beautiful villages that we’ve visited!?!? Can’t imagine how inspiring those revival meetings must be for the residents. 
Our sail across today was great with ave 15 knot winds, calm seas and clear skies. Because the harbor in Lautoka is right next to the sugar factory with lots of black soot, we chose to anchor in a bay about 10 miles south of town and walk/hitch a ride to the port. That proved to be quite an experience since this bay wasn’t as close to the road as we thought and we were really lucky to get a ride from a construction supervisor into town and then find a wild taxi driver to bring us back. It’s quieter and cleaner here, but we have no internet, etc.
We’ll leave later today for Musket Cove and some of the other islands. There is a rally of boats leaving from there for Opua, NZ on about Nov 4th and we’ve signed up to sail with that group, although we may leave earlier if there is a good weather window. Since I have a ticket to fly to Colorado via Portland on Nov 18th, we’ll need to make sure that we don’t leave any later than Nov 4th.
TRIP JOURNAL – FIJI to NEW ZEALAND
10/22/2010 – S/V Raynad at 19:20 South/176:42 East COG 181 mag
John and I headed out at about 12:30pm yesterday from Lautaka with terrific NW winds and seas for sailing in the first 4-5 hours making headway to the pass out of Fiji at ave 7.5 knots. Immediately after exiting the waters of Navula Passage we hit gusty 30 knot SSE winds and raucous seas. Anticipating higher winds we had already put a reef in the main before coming through he pass and taken in the Yankee leaving the staysail. Weather continued to build with new squalls nearly every 30 mins, so we put a 2nd reef in the main and settled in for a rowdy night on the ocean. Despite the squalls, we only got light rain and no thunderstorms. Fortunately the seas are now more consistent and the winds are steady 20-25 knots, still hoping for the waters to calm a bit, but reports are that we are in the middle of a low. Boats 4-5 days south of us are experiencing very light winds and the reports are for 15-20, so we’ll be optimistic for some more comfortable and speedy sailing in the days to come.
We are well, managed snatches of sleep, we’ll probably shake out a reef soon and pull out the Yankee.
10/23/2010
We had a much more restful night and even got some decent sleep. The seas calmed down quite a bit yet the winds were strong enough to keep us at speeds of 7.5-8.2knots which was great. Unfortunately they’ve cranked up again this morning with quite a bit of chop making the ride much less comfortable, but we are still holding on to good speeds using a bit more sail. Had a lovely full moon last night and the sun came up about 5am – so my 4am – 7am watch was very nice:)
10/24/2010
We’ve made good time overnight having had winds between 20-30knts – a bit rough and certainly causing great efforts to move around the boat, but all is well and we are happy to be closing the gap between us and Opua. Two position reports have been filed since my one earlier this morning did not go out. We’re having trouble getting connections with the radio winlink sources.
10/25/2010 – 26:0.2 South/ 175:38.6 East.
Our speed is 7.5-8.0 knts, our magnetic course over the ground is 190degrees. Winds have been steady 20-25kts with gusts to 30 kts. We estimate that we are about 540 nautical miles from Opua. All is well onboard, except we both long to do something, even sit, without having to continuously brace ourselves. It’s an expedition just to go from one place in the boat to another! John and I share watches 7am-1pm/1pm-7pm/7pm-11pm/11pm/3am/ 3am-7am and “hot berth” our sleep on the sea berth in the companionway which gives us a good wall to lean against and good lee clothes to keep from rolling out. John grazes away at ginger snaps, granola bars, and re hydration drink mixes between eating through the fajita-buritoes, soup, bean salad, etc that I pre-made for the trip. I pretty much stick to the prepared foods and water/diet soda. We just made first contact with another boat, a catamaran called “Christina” which is sailing near the horizon on our starboard (right) side.
We just realized that the link between our GPS and the reports wasn’t working right and I’ve been resending the same report with a different date! Sorry, and I’ve been so diligent too. I’ll manually enter the data and keep posting at least once per day. A reminder you can go to: winlink.org and click on position reports and our call sign: KL1ZM and you’ll get a map showing our position and a little comment:) Hope this helps.
Yes we continue to sail along at great speed, reaching 9.0kts last night and averaging 8.0kts using winds of SSE 20-28kts. Near full moon last night after a lovely sunset and now we’ve just had another great sunrise. It’s always so good to see the sun come up and especially this morning since we also see a nice patch of blue sky perhaps coming our way from the SE. Surprisingly we are now sailing parallel to another sailboat! Cristiana is a catamaran that was anchored near customs in Lautoka at the same time as us. We invited them over for happy hour(ha!) We’ve not gotten that close of course and we thought they’d be long gone by morning, but about 5am I spotted their tricolor mast light, so they are still just over the horizon on our starboard side. Kind of nice to have company. Seas continue to be a bit rough but Raynad does a great job keeping steady on the water and throwing off the water. We’ve had a few big ones come over the top and annoying spitters hitting from the side, but have not had to put the boards in which is great. Crew are all well and getting along:)
Position is: 27:47.27 South / 175:24.33 East on a course of 169 magnetic. We measured 448 nm left to Opua.
10/26/2010 – Difficult to type with the boat bouncing around. These are great winds for making good speed and we are ahead of schedule,unfortunately, the the sea state has grown making our ride in the boat physically challenging – it’s a real workout just to brush your teeth:) This weather system has grown to be more than we’d counted on, but there is still hope for a smoother ride as we near NZ where the winds are supposed to drop back to 15kts or even less – a bit of motoring wouldn’t be bad if we’re able to walk without looking like a couple of drunkards! We are really looking forward to our arrival and the ability to be stationary for a bit and get a full night’s sleep.
10/27/2010 – S/V Raynad continues to make good time sailing in 15-20kt winds this morning with a boat speed of 7.5. Although raucous for us, the squally stuff we endured yesterday and last night (winds 20-30kts, seas 2-3meters,) sped us along at 8-9.0kts with an average of 8.5 so we definitely took a chunk out of the distance to Opua. All are well onboard, still married, no injuries, no happy hour though so we’ll have to make up for that on our arrival in Opua – might need a bottle of champagne for this one!
Position- 30:40.38 South/ 174:55.32 East, winds SSE 15-20kts, speed 7.0-7.5 kts, COG 1890
10/27/2010 –We only have 110nm (about 14-17 hours) left before we reach Opua. Land will look and feel SO good:) It’s great that we’ve made such good time, because we’ve both had enough and are looking forward to our arrival in New Zealand. We had some company last night by way of a large fishing boat which literally crossed our bow- wouldn’t acknowledge any of my radio calls, nor slowed down, nevertheless we took a sharp right and they zoomed on by. There was another fishing boat in the distance and three sailboats. This is quite unusual since we’ve done most of our passages so far without seeing a single boat. The winds have continued to blow between 15-35kts, although they started from the SSE and have now moved around fully to NE, so we are on a broad reach (downwind run) into the Bay of Islands with speeds mostly 7.5-8.5kts. Several times we clocked over 9.0! Sorry to say that we have had some fatalities on this trip -flying fish! Last night John was smacked in the face by a flying fish and this morning there are several more decorating the deck-big fat ones too:) Michael and Suzanne still hold the funniest flying fish story, one flew over Michael’s head and kept going right on down the companionway – if he’d had a frying pan down there, it would have landed ready to cook! If we were in a survival situation we’d eat them, but they’re just chum for the other fish or birds this morning. As always, the sea birds have been lovely to watch as they soar gracefully past the waves or dart around like fighter jets, these birds have always been great company and amusement for long watches. I’m off to bed now. We did longer watches last night so each of us could get a solid 6hrs or so of rest and my watch started at 11:30pm. It’s 8am now so I’m ready to snooze…even had lentil soup for breakfast:)
10/28/2010 – Well we are on our last 50nm into Opua, the finishing mark of our first trip around the Pacific. Upon leaving the protected waters of Fiji, the going became really rough and I got sick for the first time on Raynad, probably part queasiness/part anxiety since we hadn’t expected such extreme weather. But we just reefed down and let Raynad do her thing plunging through the waves and fighting the slop – that was the worst part and each day it got a bit better. We’ve had strong winds 15-25kts throughout the trip and seas up to 4 meters, yet the boat soars on ahead making a super fast passage between Fiji and NZ. We reached 9.2kts several times and are averaging about 7.5kts. This is also the first trip where we’ve encountered much traffic. Just now we have a sailboat about 2nm to the right of us. We had the fishing boat last night and two other sailboats on other days. Lots of people are heading to Opua as this is the end of the safe season for cruising in the islands. We will finish our passage with a lovely downwind sail, the seas have calmed over the past few hours so with only 12kts of wind we are still making 7.5kts of speed. Now I must worry a bit about NZ customs seizing my food. Because I over provisioned the boat, plus we left early, we have several packages of steak, mince and schnitzel in the freezer, some packages of cheese..etc. I’m hoping that they’ll let me keep it since it was all purchased in New Zealand. We’ll see. We have no fresh fruit, veges, etc left on board. Our expected arrival time to the quarantine dock is about 1am, so I’m assuming that they’ll board our boat about 8am tomorrow morning, but they may have 24hr staff due to the high volume of boats coming in.
John just called out “Land-Ho!!” So it looks like we really are nearly there:)
10/28/2010 1:30AM
WE MADE IT!!!!!!!
One thousand and twenty six nautical miles behind us. We picked the perfect weather window and did an 8 day trip in 6 1/2 averaging 170nm per day!! with a best daily run of 196nm. Better than that, our marriage survived the storms and we’re more in love with our boat than ever:)
Champagne, champagne, champagne at 2am on the “Q Dock” (Quarantine) and a 7am rise to face the customs team who will likely confiscate all of our remaining food supplies including steaks, popcorn, nuts…..argh!!! I’m trying to steal myself for this – should have left it with the poor islanders, but then we didn’t realize that we’d be back quite so soon. The only good news here is that they will also take our garbage because it might contain “hitch-hikers”.
It was a great trip – would we do it again? Ask us tomorrow. Off to bed ~ John and Kris
2010- WALLIS & FORTUNA – French Jewels
Ile Uvea: WALLIS ISLAND
After a rather long voyage, we have made it safely into a true paradise. No joke. We slowed down last night and then hove-to so that we could find the passage through the reef in the daylight and also pass through at slack low tide. THAT was incredible!! We couldn’t really see where the opening was until we were pretty much directly lined up – this is an island that springs up out of 2000+ meters with almost no warning and is totally surrounded by reef. Adding to that stress, the guidebooks all said that the island was actually 3 nautical miles east of where it’s shown on the charts!?!? A bit scary, but good ‘ole CMaps (the software that we use on the boat) was bang-on and after all of our double checks with paper charts, measurements, our eyes we found the first markers and with me on the bow and John at the wheel, we navigated through no problems. Amazing though to just come in through a narrow break in the reef! Being French, we should have known that things would be well marked, and all of the markers were very clear once we came inside. The passage was something else. I couldn’t stop trying to take pictures back over the crashing reef that we’d just passed through and the unbelievably beautiful islands we were passing inside the reef.
We navigated around various coral, all very well marked from the south passage up to the northeast side. Unfortunately we have anchored in the wrong bay and must move around the island a bit more in order to clear customs. Too bad, it’s lovely to be here and we’re really tired.
Well-it’s now morning and our “naps” turned into a LONG night’s sleep. We’ll move along to customs after coffee and hope they understand our derelict French and won’t be too cross with us for not coming around yesterday. We almost literally just dropped anchor and went to sleep for about 20 hours! John just exclaimed that a ray jumped out of the water right next to our boat!! This is a super beautiful place and I’ve already taken LOTS of pictures. Indescribable really. We can’t wait to explore – too bad we don’t have dive gear because it would be incredible. We’ll see what options are available, but even snorkeling will be great and the beaches are truly touches of paradise:)
9/28/2010
We’re planning to set sail at about 2pm this afternoon for Fortuna, which should get us there between 10am-2pm depending on the winds. It’s about 125 nautical miles from here so we figure about 20 hours +/- of passage making. Should be fairly calm, although we’ll likely get some horrific rain squalls. Right now it’s absolutely lovely outside and the boat is gently bobbing on the waves. It’s a beautiful spot we have here with a view over a long narrow palm treed island with white sandy beaches and lovely multi-hued turquoise waters and the sounds of the surf pounding against the surrounding reef outside the lagoon. 
We are really enjoying the snorkeling here, there are so many different corals – big brain corals, fans, branches with some very vibrant colors of yellow, orange or purple against striking white. Thousands of tropical fish surround each coral head -some super tiny with strikingly bright colors and of course the parrot fish and angel fish and lots of different basic yellow, white, blue fish. I had a small white and black striped fish following me the other day trying to bite at the moles on my legs!?!? He was very aggressive and funny. He’d stop every time I turned on him and then continue nipping when I swam on:) John and I found an octopus and that was lots of fun to watch and try to harass out of his hiding place. Our friends swam with a turtle yesterday – unfortunately I didn’t see it. We’ll go for one more swim and snorkel before we leave today on the slack low tide.
9/29/2010
After snorkeling, walking the beach and then my swimming back to the boat(25 min swim,) we’ve all decided that it’s just too lovely to leave this place – today. So, we are now looking toward leaving at slack, low water tomorrow for the same trip to Fortuna. It really is idyllically beautiful here and we have the entire outer island of Faioa and the lagoon that we’re anchored in to ourselves. I had everyone over to our boat for Mexican food last night, so Michael and Suzan are on for steaks tonight:) Life is good in paradise. Wish you all could share it with us too.
ALOFI/FORTUNA
We just dropped the anchor among sand and coral at the small anchoring spot on the uninhabited island of Alofi. It’s once again very beautiful here, although we’ll probably switch into the bay nearer town on the main island to anchor for the night. This spot is full of coral heads, currents and unpredictable swell. Lovely to just rest for a bit though:)
Another lovely spot, although not as magical as the last place and because we’re anchored just beside a major channel between two islands, the boat really gets to rocking during the tide changes and also there is quite a current in places when out snorkeling/swimming. I’m trying to do a bit more open water swimming to get in shape – which John accommodates by trolling the skiff near by in case I need assistance. So far, no problems, but I really appreciate the peace of mind in knowing he is there should I hit currents that are too strong – sometimes they are such that I hardly make any progress despite my efforts. A good workout though. Need to start getting in shape for skiing- right?
2010- AMERICAN SAMOA
Pago Pago, American Samoa….as I write we are moored beside the fuel dock waiting for permission from the Harbor Master to have moved our boat from anchor to the fuel dock, apparently ALL movements of the boat must first have written permission from the harbor master who is of course several blocks walk from any public docks. John is on foot now trying to acquire the required paperwork. Yesterday we had to speak with the district governor of the Manu’A Island Group to get a letter granting us permission to visit Ofu and the other islands just west of Tutuloa. If you arrive without these documents, they will call the police to evict you! Samoa is very protective of their culture, at least what is left and not only do they not really encourage tourism or provide any great resources, but the outer islands are restricted.
Of course being a US territory they still have McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut and lots of the less healthy USA products in the stores. Obesity, heart disease, diabetes and alchohol are real problems here. We had a delightful visit yesterday with Misa, the district governor of Manu’A, and he has granted us permission to visit their islands and to be escorted on our tours while there by his nephew. I’m really looking forward to this. We plan to leave early Friday morning, the trip takes about 10 hours by boat and we’ll stay 2-3 nights. The beaches of Ofu are described as the most beautiful in the world:)
Being an extinct volcanic crater, Pago Pago is a fantastically beautiful natural harbor which has become sullied by also being an industrial capital for tuna processing. There are several huge fishing boats the size of large cruise ships, docked along the shoreline with massive derricks to hoist the miles of fishing nets – I can’t help but think that these must be the nets that are referred to as the “curtains of death” by conservationists. 
Tuna has been an $800 million+ industry for American Samoa primarily because the USA does not charge import tariffs on tuna which has been processed here, so boats will travel hundreds of miles in order to offload their catch here. The newspapers are filled with the recent news and controversy over the fact that Starkist tuna has plans to close their plant here causing a loss of 300+ jobs because the workers were demanding minimum wage and controlled work hours – note that min wage here is only $3.00 per hour (not the same as in the USA.) Starkist had threatened that if the workers organized and made demands, they’d move their plant elsewhere. So capitalistic bullying is alive and well here in Am Samoa – very sad. In the meantime the pollution in the harbor is toxic to everything and the noise and smell are quite unpleasant. 
The island of Tutuloa is absolutely gorgeous with towering cliffs draped in vegetation and sculpted peaks rising out of the beautiful green and turquoise waters. Driving around is a constant experience of hair raising roads steeply climbing up and down like a roller coaster with barely enough space for two vehicles to pass and terrifying drops below! You REALLY have to trust the brakes on your vehicle here! In September last year, there was a huge tsunami that hit this island and its devastation is seen in many of the villages in scattered bays and and sections of Pago Pago. They are still in the process of rebuilding, yet many families are living in brown army tents. Some sort of US welfare system exists however which provides food stamps, housing, free public education and even Medicare and Medicaid. The emergency medical services are impressive and very busy.
Tonight we’re going to a traditional Samoan feast with about 14 other cruisers. Should be fun.
2010 – NIUE: A Fantasy Island
NIUE – A Fantasy Island
Niue – Latitude 19.03 S Longitude 169.55W
20 Aug 2010
Niue is a very interesting atoll – the largest in the world. The water is crystal clear. There are no natural harbors and depths around the island are over 50 meters, even near shore, so it’s nearly impossible to anchor. The Niue Yacht Club has installed about 24 mooring buoys which all the yachts must use. During the months of August through October, whales frequent the area with mother and calf pairs even swimming among the moored yachts! Unfortunately, we missed seeing any whales while we were there.
There are only 1500 inhabitants on this island which is the smallest nation in the world with its own laws, banks, etc. It also has the highest per person density of politicians – every third person! We walked over a reef and met a fisherman who announced that he was – yes – a politician!
He was beach casting into HUGE breaking surf and catching snapper using coconut as bait with the odd scrap of sand crab thrown in for flavor. As always here on this friendly island – he was ready to drop the fishing pole and chat for as long as we liked.
We rented a car and did some island exploration today. Two hikes – one to the Magata Chasm which was really gorgeous and reminded me of “Jodie’s” island at Shelikof in SE Alaska where she and I had taken the dingy out and rowed through the chasm between the cliffs, except this was warm clear water and we were able to swim in the pools between the rocks.
The water is a crystal violet color and it sparkles like topaz. The water temperature is about 27’C so you can stay in as long as you like.
The other hike was long and ended with our climbing through a cave out to the ocean to some arch formations – pretty spectacular.
We also visited a Noni fruit plantation where they produce a natural medicinal juice that’s made from this fruit. It tastes pretty bad, but is full of antioxidants, etc. so we bought a large bottle to help “cleanse our livers”.
Ended the day at Sailor’s bar for sunset drinks and a sausage roast.
All in all a wonderful day.
22 Aug 2010 SCUBA DIVING
We had a absolutely amazing dive yesterday. The island of Niue is one of the top ten dive destinations in the world. We swam with dolphins who are such curious creatures. The visibility was 100 meters which is huge and so we could see their antics like it was a circus. Our first dive was among the layers of coral – there were so many different beautiful fish and of course sea snakes. Sea snakes followed us on the deeper dives where they curl up in crevices on the bottom, often intertwined with other snakes, and take a nap till they need to resurface to breath 20 minutes later. They are reptiles so they have no swim bladder and naturally sink unless they swim. The snakes are really funny, one of them was just swimming along right next to our friends while she was in front of me. It kept looking over at her just like some sort of pet – the funny part is that she wasn’t even aware of it because the snake was a bit behind her line of sight. I also got go hold and play a bit with a couple of them. Although they are reported to be one of the most poisonous in the world, their mouths are very tiny and there are no reports of anyone ever being bitten. In fact the local kids often play with them. Some are shy and swim away, but others are quite curious and come swimming up to you. These snakes are black and white stripped. They are venomous but with small mouths so only a danger to small appendages! We counted our appendages after the dive! 
We dove both into a cavern and into a cave, all filled with shafts of sunlight through the coral above and huge lobsters (actually Cray Fish – they have no claws) residing on ledges or cracks in the rock and getting fat by catching unsuspecting prey that swim by – a low calorie way to fish. They were very pretty and quite funny to watch as they tried to defend themselves against our intrusion. The amazing visibility, clarity of colors and detail make diving here truly remarkable. We wore full wet suits and dive boots, about 3mm, and I also wore an inner vest. I still came up shivering with colorless hands after a 50 min dive-I should have worn gloves for the extra warmth. It didn’t take long though to be super hot after getting back to our boat!
On Saturday, we lucked upon a local village fair including traditional sport competitions, art demonstrations, a market and we were delighted to watching the school children perform dances with their classmates. A perfect finish for our visit to Niue.