Arrived in Rarotonga
Wed, 12 Sep 2001
We arrived in Rarotonga Cook Islands on Saturday 8 September after a five-day passage from Bora Bora. Pretty good trip, started out motoring the first 24 hours but by early Wednesday morning (3:30 a.m. on Suzette’s watch) we all of a sudden got 25-30 with gusts to 35, 10 foot seas and cold rain. Took turns drying off and putting on our foul weather gear (not used while sailing since the coast of California) before we dealt with getting a reef in the main as we were quickly getting really cold. It was actually nice when the waves would wash into the cockpit as the sea water was so much warmer! Things settled out with winds 15 to 25 the next 3 days. Altair and Sir Monte did an awesome job but it was a trip for reading, no projects and very quick easy meals. Drew and Vernita and S/V Layla were doing the crossing at the same time and it was fun to have someone to talk to and compare notes, once it got windy we were checking in with each other every three hours. We are very glad we have the SSB with ability to send and receive, a great piece of gear. First order of business when we got here was cleaning all the salt off the boat as we had lots of blue water over the decks on the trip, seemed like there was at least a ¼ inch of salt on every surface. Hook up for water on the quay which made the clean up much easier. They also have showers which is a nice treat, but currently it is out of propane for the one demand hot water system so the showers are a bit chilly but the unlimited water it certainly great. We will be here until Monday 18 September or Wednesday 20 September, at least that is the plan at the moment.
We are on the quay here in Autavri with nine other boats and another four anchored on the side. It’s a fairly small harbor and it’s different being on the quay and being 5-10 feet from the boat next to you, makes it a real feeling of community very quickly. Last night we all went out to dinner together and then to see the movie "Pearl Harbor", the first movie we have seen in a movie theater in about two years. It’s also great to be some where with reasonable prices after French Polynesia. Dinner last night was NZ$10 each and the movie NZ$5 and with the exchange rate about US$0.50 to NZ$1.00 things seem really cheap. But it’s just that Tahiti etc were so expensive so we are saying that we need to be careful or we could spend a lot of money in this "inexpensive" place.
They have black pearls here also and if anyone would be interested in some please let us know. They range in shape from round to irregular and from pale gray to dark black with some giving green tones. Pearls were so incredibly expensive in places like Moorea and Bora Bora but now we have heard they are inexpensive again so let us know. Haven’t checked prices ourselves yet but think they should be under US$50 for a pendant or cheaper. If we got anything we would charge it, let you know how much and have you send a check to Paul’s parents. We would then send the pearls back to the US with Suzette’s parents when they visit us in New Zealand in February 2002.
More later, miss you all, hard to believe we have been gone from Seattle for a year (one year mark was 6 September last week) time flies.
Love – Suzette and Paul