Monday, 20th September 2010
We had a great nights sleep even though we were rolling slightly in the swell.
We had a slow morning, and a light breakfast and then moved the boat closer in towards the beautiful sandy beach, nibbling our way through the reef's and eventually dropped anchor again near the other boats and well in from the swell.
Our first impressions were great, this place is another Paradise on earth, Paradise X 12. It resembles those beautiful glossy photo's in the sailing magazines of sandy beaches, blue skies, warm crystal clear turquoise water, palm trees, with the boat tied to the palm trees and all the crew swimming and sunbathing................ well, this is it... and a nice stiff breeze to keep us cool....
There are 27 Islands in this group, only 2 are inhabited, and we are anchored under Direction Island which is the only Island that is safe for yachts to anchor. A number of other yachts arrived during the night, indicating that the strong winds of yesterday will keep the fleet close together.
09.30hrs We all went ashore to meet the Customs and Immigration on Direction Island, this was organised by the WCC or otherwise known as Rally Control. All this did not take too long, perhaps 1 hour in total and we returned to A Lady and did some tidy up stuff, plus washing clothes in Aileens magic washing machine.
Then we all went for a swim off the back of the boat. This was interesting insofar as we were swimming with our NBF's, 5 black tipped sharks. These cream coloured sharks were only about 5 feet long and very friendly, they looked like something you could have as a pet, and the tip of their dorsal fin was black, hence the name.
We spent the day recovering from the trip. Naps, snacks, swims and stroll's ashore.
17.00hrs We got into the rib and headed to Home Island for dinner in a Malay Restaurant, now this was different, like in Niue it was a dry restaurant, mainly because the Island is Muslim and they don't drink alcohol (well in public). The food was different too, and confirmed yet again that our own cooking is top of the pops.
It was dark on our way back to the boat, and the tide was low, so we had to be careful with all the reefs, and the wind was honking so we got soaked just for good measure. Anyway we had a few night caps on returning to the boat and then hit the scratchers for another good night sleep.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
That's it from Paradise.
Signed :- Stephen Hyde (Skipper)