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Friday 23rd May
It’s been another long motor-sail all through
the night with the wind dropping all the time. The seas are calm, the sky clear
and we’ve been lucky enough to have bright moonlight all week , the full
moon at the weekend now on the wane. We see shooting stars all around; some you
just catch out the corner of your eye, others drop as in slow motion, staying
bright all the way down until…they’re gone! We pass our first Cook Island
at about 1am. It’s only 4 miles to port but try as we might (and despite
the moon-light ),we cannot make it out at all. It’s obviously very flat
and everyone’s in bed! At 5am we can make out Atiu in the distance, also
very flat but one light visible. Ian studies the paper charts in the hope they
can give us more information about possible anchorages. It’s not looking
good; although there are numerous landings marked, there’s no anchorages
- nor does there appear to be any shallow water and it’s very deep all
the way round. As dawn comes we motor to the North side and round the North East coast. There is thick vegetation all round the
rocky coastline with tiny little sandy inlets. We see a small jetty, and a
small local boat heading out but our depth is still off the scale and
we’ve no choice but to carry on towards Rarotonga.
As we motor away and set our course to 232’, we watch the sunrise over
the Island . Apart from a slight swell, the
sea is now like a millpond. There’s very little wind and what there is is
right on the nose. Hopefully a good day for wildlife spotting and catching
fish! As the day goes on it get’s extremely hot , there’s few
clouds and the sea is silky calm with a huge , gentle roll – as pleasant
as it can be while motoring along. We see a few flying fish and boobys, and
watch tropic birds diving . They’re all few and far between, however, and
sometimes it takes a while before we spot anything at all. We all agree that we
don’t want to arrive in Rarotonga in the
dark so we knock back the revs and motor slowly into the night…..