13:25.8S 163:04.5W
We have just left the beautiful island of Suwarrow, headed for Niue. Suwarrow is everything you would expect of a desert island. It has the most crystal clear waters we have seen so far, and they are teeming with sea life.
Yesterday evening we had a barbecue on the beach.
After the barbecue nearly everyone came back to Anastasia to carry on the party, and we danced until midnight. There were 27 people onboard, but the saloon and foredeck were fairly empty, so we estimate that Anastasia's party-making capacity is about 50 people (although we had to limit the trampolines to eight people at any one time).
This morning, before setting off, we went to visit gull island, a nesting site for frigates, boobies and terns. Then, after one last snorkel we headed out of the pass to continue our journey.
Suwarrow is apparently 9000 miles from London 503
Tom Neale wrote a book called "An Island to Oneself" which is all about his life alone on Suwarrow 504
The reef is teeming with life. This 8 ft manta ray was just cruising around the reef when we jumped in to go snorkelling 505
We found a shallow section of the reef which was a shark nursery. Even sharks manage to look cute in their infancy. Here you can see a very young shark, only the size of Andrea's foot 507
The barbecue on the beach was a great success 508
Then back to Anastasia for a bit of singing... 50A
... and dancing. I think Ted and Andrea are doing the "eel", a dance movement invented to commemorate the BBQ 50B
Gull Island was, not unsurprisingly, an island covered with nesting gulls. Here a patch of frigates looking threateningly in our direction. (Well, probably looking warily in our direction, but a full grown frigate can't help but look threatening.) 50C
The baby frigates, on the other hand, are little bundles of fluff 50D