.: We are in the Cook Islands

The sky during our passage

Coming to you from Aitutaki, Cooks Island.
Temperature 24 degrees, sunny, nice gentle breeze, humidity 78%.

Yeah.....making landfall in the Cook Islands

We survived the crossing, although it was a rough and exhausting one. You can see the previous “daily crossing posts” above if you are interested in talking yourself out of every making a crossing. It was wonderful to make landfall, although we had to stay out in the rough seas outside the entrance for a few hours while we waited for high tide. It was great to reunite with our friends Scott and Cindy on Beachhouse, who we met last year. Scott came out with his dinghy and guided us through the narrow and shallow unmarked channel. They don’t recommend any boats that draw over 1.5 metres to come in. We draw 2 metres, but like living on the edge!

Hoisting the Cook Island and the Quarantine flag

We made it in without incident, but the little harbour was full with 3 cats (or double-wides as we monohulls affectionately call them) and one sloop. We tied up to a barge at the mini-pier, but it turned out they were painting it, so when I jumped off to tie up, I got some nice fresh black paint on my sandals. We spent just one night there, and enjoyed a wonderful dinner aboard Beachhouse, and then we had to move the next day because of a freighter arriving, which requires the use of the barge. So yesterday, we went out to another area, that has minimal depth and it took us over an hour to anchor with both bow and stern anchors, and a lot of help from Scott in his dinghy acting as a bow thruster. The currents are strong here and they win over the winds, so it makes for an interesting, and unsecure holding, amongst lots of coral heads, which doesn’t make our Captain happy. We stayed on board for the afternoon and had Scott and Cindy over for dinner. So great to have outside social contact again.

Scott and Peter making the dry run through the pass

This afternoon we will assist Scott and Cindy and another boat that is leaving on the high tide. Then we will move in to the harbour and stay until next week or however long the mood strikes us. We will rent scooters this afternoon (very affordable at only $20 a day) and then we are going out for dinner with Rob and Ruth from Albatross (a South African couple) who have sailed from South Africa and going to New Zealand to immigrate. The big rugby game (tri-country tournament) follows dinner and tonight it is South Africa against New Zealand. Apparently the New Zealand team has one Cook Island player on it, so it should be quite lively in the bar.

Scott and Cindy from Beachouse onboard QuickStar for the sunset

It is fantastic to be in another country and it seems like we have entered another world. The Cook Islands is part of New Zealand, which means that the locals all speak English in addition to their local language. They are warm, friendly and welcoming. It seems surreal to hear English spoken (with a Kiwi accent). That means that now I can get back to my Spanish lessons, as I couldn’t do it while in the French speaking countries, as I was totally confused!

The little boat harbour

As I write this, we are sitting on the bottom (sand), with the lowest tide in about two weeks. Once we get floating again and get moved over, we’ll head to the major hotel so that I can get internet access and send this. We expect to be here till next Wednesday or Thursday and then we will have a two night crossing (joy, oh joy!) to Palmerston Island, a remote island of the Cook Islands. I will do the next update while underway on the Ham radio.