Cook Islands to Tonga    July 2004 - October 2004

We left French Polynesia for  Raratonga in the Cook Island and the passage took about 4 days.  A really nice Trade Winds passage.  Just what all the cruising books tell us it should be. We hoisted our downwind sails rigged the pole on our genoa (no hernia for Peter this time) and let it fly for four days. Sunny days and star lights nights.

After 9 months of trying to speak Mexican and French  for checkins and day to day living  it was a joy just to speak English again. "Stern tie anywhere along the dock, mate" a great response to a VHF hail. Easy.  And the Cook Islands were great!  just easy. And not too expensive either - at least after a six dollar beer in Tahiti.

Raratonga was really enjoyable, lots to do and see, and terrific people. The island dance competitions was on while we there with troupes from all the outlying islands competing. Some times the whole village would be on stage, the little kids in front and the Maramas whooping it up on the sides. Every one having a great time including us in the audience.

Peter went on some jungle hikes and did a cross island trek. Hot, sweaty, muddy, bush and mosquitos. Lots of fun just the way Pete likes it. We rented a scooter for about a week which was a fantastic way to see the Island. It is quite cool here (probably only 75 - 78 degrees) which is not surprising as it was their Winter.  The place is so friendly and the shopping is much cheaper than French Polynesia.  It is not breaking the bank!!!!  Our Canadian dollar is worth $1.38 for every New Zealand dollar (Cook Islands is a New Zealand protectorate).

After two weeks we decided it was time to leave Raratonga and head for Aitaki another atoll in the Cook Islands where we have been told that bone fish had been sighted.  One of Peter's dreams was to catch bone fish in the South Pacific and he did manage to have two days fishing in the Tuamotos but another few days would have been a fantastic treat for Peter!

We left the Cooks and headed North to visit Aitutaiki and Palmerston Islands but didn't manage to stop at either, going aground in the pass to the lagoon at Aitutaiki (quite exciting for a while!!!)and being forced to anchor out in the roadstead off the reef. Knew it was shallow but not THAT shallow!!!. Tears about the bone fish expedition oh! it was not to be.  Perhaps another time and place.

We hung in there for a night then had to put back out to sea as a big tropical depression was tracking our way from the Fiji area so we beat north again to try to avoid the worst but got smacked still 50 miles out of Palmerston. Battle stations all night as we ran west in 40/45 knot winds and brutal cross seas.

After the front passed we were left becalmed in a nasty heaving chop. Ugly. We spent the next three days working back North west and stopped at Beverage Reef for two days waiting for the wind to fill back in. Beverage reef is an almost circular 3 mile diameter coral atoll with all the reef completely awash except for odd bits that show at very low tides. There is one small pass into the lagoon on the west side. The only thing you see as you approach is a line of surf  that grows as you get nearer. Not a place to get close to at night or in bad weather.

We found the pass OK and anchored in 15 feet of water inside. A most eriely spectacular place, anchored in the middle of the ocean in flat water completely surrounded by booming surf and of course totally exposed to any wind. Water two miles deep outside and the nearest land being the island of Niuie 150 miles away. Naturally we were the only boat there.

We left there after two days and set course for Niuie and had good passage until we were closing the island when we got hit by another cold front and big winds, as usual in the middle of the night, wrestling with sail changes in the pitch dark is quite exciting and very wet. Oh yes.

So we couldn't close Niuie either because of northerly winds and had to press on to Tonga where we made land fall a few days later. Just after dark to make sure we wasted another night hove to 10 miles off. We were happy to get into port after a very trying trip. Two weeks with out getting off the boat for what in normal conditions would have been a pleasant 5-6 days running before the South East trades.