Cruising Rarotonga - Blog

It’s been another long motor-sail all through the night with the wind dropping all the time. The seas are calm, the sky clear and we’ve been lucky enough to have bright moonlight all week, the full moon at the weekend now on the wane. We see shooting stars all around; some you just catch out the corner of your eye, others drop as in slow motion, staying bright all the way down until…they’re gone!

We pass our first Cook Island at about 1am. It’s only 4 miles to port but try as we might (and despite the moon-light ),we cannot make it out at all. It’s obviously very flat and everyone’s in bed! At 5am we can make out Atiu in the distance, also very flat but one light visible. Ian studies the paper charts in the hope they can give us more information about possible anchorages. It’s not looking good; although there are numerous landings marked, there’s no anchorages - nor does there appear to be any shallow water and it’s very deep all the way round. As dawn comes we motor to the North side and round the North East coast. There is thick vegetation all round the rocky coastline with tiny little sandy inlets. We see a small jetty, and a small local boat heading out but our depth is still off the scale and we’ve no choice but to carry on towards Rarotonga. As we motor away and set our course to 232’, we watch the sunrise over the Island . Apart from a slight swell, the sea is now like a millpond. There’s very little wind and what there is is right on the nose. Hopefully a good day for wildlife spotting and catching fish! As the day goes on it get’s extremely hot , there’s few clouds and the sea is silky calm with a huge , gentle roll – as pleasant as it can be while motoring along. We see a few flying fish and boobys, and watch tropic birds diving . They’re all few and far between, however, and sometimes it takes a while before we spot anything at all. We all agree that we don’t want to arrive in Rarotonga in the dark so we knock back the revs and motor slowly into the night…..

- Jus'Do It 3 - World ARC

Woman at market day in Rarotonga:

Yacht: Graptolite - Rarotonga

21:00.41S 159:29.67W 01:00

Aitutaki had to be missed as the winds were not all that keen on taking us there so we sailed for the island of Atiu instead. After timing our arrival to first light on Saturday we found a fairly impenetrable fortress of cliffs and surf with no obvious landing place. Atiu is supposed to be one of the last bastions of the old Polynesian way of life which is not all that surprising given how difficult it is to get on or off.

Giving up on Atiu we continued on towards Avarua, Rarotonga. We should arrive there at first light in the morning. As it will be another Sunday in Polynesia, it means that everything will be closed. The practice of eating missionaries should be revived.

M

Graptolite UPDATE: Avatiu, Rarotonga, Cook Islands - Rarotonga, Wear The Fox Hat?

Rarotonga brings us back to the English speaking world once more. A bit of Maori is also useful but not essential to get by. As we approached Rarotonga early on Sunday morning the temperature fell and we had some drizzly rain just to make us feel really at home.

First impressions of Rarotonga are that it is a really nice place. The natives are very friendly, the cost of living high on the hog is much less than French Polynesia and the beaches, reefs and mountains are as good as anywhere else in the Pacific. There are some quirky things about the place though, one of them being that most houses seem to have gravestones of ancestors in the front garden. Also every second building seems to be a church of some denomination or other. Strangely, the churches don't seem to be all that popular for burials.

Some new T-shirts were commissioned today as boat tropical uniform. The design is based on Colin's tattoo. The title of this blog was taken from another T-shirt we saw in a beach bar. Antipodean humour is so refreshing.

We rented a car for a trip around the island. Heike always drives in true German style at high speed on the right-hand side of the road. This makes for a white-knuckle ride for passengers when everyone else on the road drives at small-road speed on the left. She claims she never has accidents but the trail of destruction that must be going on all the time behind us makes it hard to believe.

M on Graptolite