Kasuje - Kasuje log 30th May

Hi from Skipper Steve,Jim and the girls.
We made landfall at the tiny Pacific Island of Niue at 20.00 GMTon the
28th.It is one of the worlds smallest self governing states and boasts 1
MP for every 64 inhabitants (nearly as bad as England). Captain Cook tried
unsuccessfully to land here being beaten off by spear throwing warriors.
Our welcome by Commodore Keith of the Niue yacht club was slightly more
cordial. (I don't think he gets a lot of visitors). We all are well if a
little tired after the crews first experience of ocean passages and are
pleased to have made landfall.
This trip from Raratonga via Atutaki to Niue (approx 720nm and 110 hrs)
has been reasonably demanding due to the fickle, and changeable
conditions, coupled with a novice crew. It feels as though there has been
hardly an hours run that did not require some change in sail plan or
decisions to be made over the best course or wind angle. The Southern
Pacific trades that should be running at this time of year at a nice
15knts from the south east, have failed to appear and so we have a mixture
of troughs, lulls and tropical storms. All of which make for interesting
sailing!! Fortunately we have ''Bruce'' our Aussie weather router who is
in constant contact with routing suggestions to miss the worse of the
storms and advice on the best course to run.
So we are pleased to make this rather bumpy anchorage for a couple of days
R&R before our onward passages to Tonga and Fiji. For now...it's a clean
of the yacht, some sleep, maybe a beer or two, then off to explore the
wonders of Niue.
And what best way to do this than in the "Bongo mobile". Family outing
with Jim the driver playing Dad, Kate aka Mum navigating our route, kids
in the middle (Jen & Ruby), and Grandpa Steve nodding off in the back.
Despite there only being two straight roads on the island, one around the
outside, and the other through the middle, we still managed to get lost on
our way to the first 'must see' sight, Togo Chasm. After an hours treck
through the forest, where we did at times think perhaps someone was
winding up 'the tourists', we stumbled across a 15m drop to a beautiful
hidden beach, only accessible via a worryingly rickety ladder, which some
definitely needed encouragement to climb down. Successfully at the bottom,
and after a scramble through several caves we discovered the chasm, where
the kids Ruby and Jenny, almost had to be discouraged from a potential
suicide mission, involving standing on the edge of the the chasm as 10
foot waves crashed in to the cave.
Our next trip led us to a place not dissimilar to the set of 'Indiana
Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark' - more trekking through forests and
scrambling through caves as we followed the promising sound of water ahead
of us. Finally after working up a sweat, it was on to a freshwater pool to
cool down. Unfortunately having walked through another rainforest to reach
this pool, it was then discovered that certain bikini's had been left
behind in the 'Bongo Mobile'! Decision: trek back and become even more hot
and sweaty, or just jump in, we'll leave that one to your
imaginations...?!?

Exhausted after our Niue land adventure we're now ready for the 240nm
passage to Tonga and more water based activities.

Love Mum, Dad, Grandpa Skip and the kids xx