| Date: | June 25, 2014, 10:27 p.m. |
Tried to leave Suwarrow today but our anchor chain is firmly wrapped around a "bommie" (giant coral head) some 80 feet below the boat! Our friend Steve is a rescue diver, and he is going to brave the sharks with a giant spear gun tomorrow morning in order to free us. Thank god he's here and willing to try, otherwise we'll have to cut the chain, sail to Pago-Pago, and wait for new chain to arrive from the US. Keep your fingers crossed for us!
Suwarrow gets a black mark in Privateer's logbook.
| Date: | June 22, 2014, 10:25 p.m. |
| Position: | 13 15.00 S, 163 6.00 W |
At Anchor: Suwarrow Atoll
Surrounded by coral reefs and SHARKS! They pursued the boat immediately when we entered the anchorage. We threw a tuna carcass off the beach on the island (motu) here and the sharks actually came out of the water and onto the beach, heads snapping it down in 3 seconds flat. Got soaked from the spray, as 6 or 7 sharks tore the carcass into pieces, with dozens approaching from the depths. Then a really big shark ("that's the bad one", said the caretaker) came up and started biting the smaller sharks. It also has a reputation for biting people too... SCARY!! The bay is infested with them and they circle relentlessy below the dinghy.
We've had excellent sailing conditions and had a great 700 mile passage to here. We will take our next weather window and sail another 500-700 miles for Tonga, Samoa, or Nuie depending on how the winds blow us :)
| Date: | June 21, 2014, 10:24 p.m. |
| SOG (kts): | 6.2 |
| Position: | 13 15.00 S, 161 37.00 W |
We're on our final approach to Suwarrow, running before the wind with poled out jib and single reef. Good combo as we can run deep without shadowing the jib, and shorten the sail quickly by roller reefing. Another "autopilot" day. Playing Scrabble belowdecks each afternoon during siesta. We set a timer to go off every few minutes and whoever's turn it isn't goes up to check the horizon and sail trim.
All set to arrive in daylight tomorrow at (theoretically) LW slack for the pass into the atoll lagoon.
13 15' S
161 37" W
| Date: | June 20, 2014, 10:21 p.m. |
| SOG (kts): | 5.5 |
| Position: | 13 51.00 S, 159 38.00 W |
We're about 200 miles from Suwarrow and have slowed the boat down, in order to arrive at an optimum time to enter the atoll pass. Even running reefed in light breezes, Privateer wants to race across the ocean! Might double reef tomorrow or heave-to for a few hours.
Sighted one ship on the horizon last night (my guess is Japanese trawler) on the high seas. Two more on the horizon tonight! And our first night out from Bora Bora had a close encounter with an aircraft carrier. We don't expect to see anybody out here so it feels a bit crowded...
Rolly sail today, and I cooked a dinner we called "counter-top curry". Managed to spill some of the curry on the counter which I quickly scooped up and threw into the pan, but the majority went all over the galley, into little crevices in the foot pump, and somehow all over the top of my head.
Billions of stars tonight: 3-D technicolor twinkling and streaming meteor trails...
| Date: | June 19, 2014, 10:20 p.m. |
| SOG (kts): | 5.4 |
| Position: | 14 43.00 S, 157 38.00 W |
Made 150 miles on our noon-noon. Haven't had to touch the tiller or adjust any lines for the past 24 hours, Privateer is just sailing herself across the ocean! Lazy day today, a game of scrabble and deviled eggs for lunch, napped, read some books. Life is pretty easy on the high seas
| Date: | June 18, 2014, 10:19 p.m. |
| SOG (kts): | 7.3 |
| Position: | 15 34.00 S, 155 16.00 W |
Barreling along in the SE trades today--made a solid 148 miles in the past 24 hours. Sighted Motu One this afternoon--a string of palms in the middle of the ocean. Feeling good about our decision to take a Northerly route through the Cooks as there are several lows above NZ that are spinning associated fronts out south of us. We're sitting pretty, jib on the pole, wing-on-wing in 17-18 knots with Monitor supplying expert helmsmanship 'round the clock. Spent the day cooking, resting and reading.
| Date: | June 17, 2014, 9:21 p.m. |
| Position: | 16 31.59 S, 151 44.46 W |
Departing Bora Bora