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Free & BrEasy - A Boat of One's Own



After 4 days of the easy life on the ocean waves we approached the deserted coral atoll called Suwarrow which is one of the northern islands of the Cook Island archipelago. The passage was a bit too easy and we were forced to decrease our speed overnight so that we arrived in the daylight and could make a safe entry through the pass into the coral lagoon. The only option was to take down all the sails as there are no brakes! Surprisingly, Free & BrEasy was able to make 3 to 4 knots with a 15-20 knot wind behind us, thanks to the "sail effect" of the large cockpit enclosure that we spend all day under sheltering from the sun. Worth knowing for the future! As we approached in the dark we could see a small village of lights despite Suwarrow being uninhabited. This turned out to be the anchor lights of other Wolrd ARC boats! Roger made a good job of skirting around the reefs and we were soon safely anchored in the lagoon with 15 other World ARC boats just off an idyllic looking coconut tree covered coral island.

Suwarrow is famous for being inhabited by a New Zealand hermit called Tom Neale. He wrote a book of the first years of his habitation called "An island of One's Own" which details his struggles with finding food, illness, depression and mishaps including capsizing a dinghy in a squall which hit the lagoon and the salvage of a visiting boat that sank in the lagoon after breaking away from its mooring. His passion for creating order out of the coconut jungle on his tiny island and satisfaction in solitary survival comes over very clearly but the book is interesting for what it leaves out. He makes no mention of the wife and two children he gained during the 7 years between his first 2 year and second 3 year isolation on the island. He lived in a building that had been erected by Second World War "enemy spotters" and created a vegetable garden and chicken run to supplement the never ending supply of fish. Even his only companions, two cats, tired of fish, and he recounts the challenge he faced not to eat a duck that he tamed despite dreaming of roast duck for supper!

His island was called "Anchorage Island" and we had parked the boat just by, so a visit was essential! The island is tiny measuring 100 yards across at its narrowest and not much than 1 mile long. His original home is still there with signs of the garden but a more recent wooden building is used by a warden who spends half the year there. We set off to walk around the edge of the island (circumnavigate Suwarrow today, tomorrow the world?) which did not take long and then lit a fire on the beach, attacked the coconuts and tried to imagine Tom Neale's life as a hermit in the very same place. Could we do it or would we want to? Interestingly, he never satisfactorily explains in the book why he wanted to become a hermit here. Was this not the same as our stumbling attempts to explain why we had deserted family and friends for the 15 months circumnavigation?

The attractions of Suwarrow to the cruiser are obvious. The water is astoundingly clear and the many reef sharks swimming under the boat were close enough to stroke. Tom Neale and the singular pilot book "Charlie's Charts" describe the sharks in the lagoon as being aggressive but that had no influence on Alejandro who dived in regardless! In fact the sharks seemed to delight in coming with us on our snorkelling trips like well trained dogs hoping for a treat. Perhaps spear fishing would not be a good idea! We were rewarded by at last snorkelling with Manta Rays one of which posed for a selfie with Alejandro. These enormous graceful creatures effortlessly fly through the water and can tell the time as they only appear between 10-11am!

On the passage over we had put our watches back 1 hour to keep up with the sun, and this was to have embarrassing consequences. The crew of Lluiton invited us over for lunch at 1.30pm and of course, we turned up an hour late despite a radio call from them saying the lunch was ready! Roger was out of contact snorkelling so we could not speed up. We only realised our embarrassing mistake half way through the meal and it is a testimony to our generous hosts that we all enjoyed a delicious Paella and great conversation. Sorry and thank you Xavier, Alberto, Juan and Tau!

When we up-anchored the next morning we were lucky to avoid problems with our chain catching in coral heads - the scourge of coral lagoons. We were off to Niue, a large rock 520 miles south west of Suwarrow. Within a day the wind strength had increased and the seas become mixed up and lumpy. Under these conditions the boat jerks, rolls, heals, and bounces as she is hit by waves which come from all directions. Making a cup of tea becomes a herculean task! Catamarans also have a foible in that the waves constantly smash into the bridge section between the hulls with a loud bang and the whole boat shudders. This makes sleep nearly impossible! Added to this breaking seas force water through even closed hatches. Poor Alejandro's bunk got a soaking! What did we say about an easy life on the ocean waves? After three days without proper sleep we are all wondering why we chose to circumnavigate. However, the conditions could be much worse and may be so during future ocean passages.

During this we heard about the presumed loss of the four crew from Cheeki Rafiki in the Atlantic, reminding us of the risk we are taking. At least we have a few other World ARC boats somewhere near so as long as we could ask for help we should be OK. 

So why are we doing the circumnavigation? I wonder if in a very small way the attractions of isolation on the ocean are not the same as drew Tom Neale to live on a deserted coral island. Survival in a hostile environment away from the rat-race. Perhaps we need to combine aspects of "Three Men In a Boat" with "An Island to Oneself".


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