Namani at Sea

Picked up a mooring here at Niue at 1400 local time today (Friday), exactly 96 hours after we weighed anchor at Suwarrow on Monday. Sailed a total of 562 nm, making this one of our fastest passages (5.9kn average). The wind stayed with us all the way and we could sail right up to the mooring field. Only a few boats here (including Gudrun V, Black Dog and Saltbreaker). We'll go ashore tomorrow morning to clear in and get a first taste of the island they call "The Rock". All is well aboard, stay tuned...

The wind filled back in today and after some good progress it looks like we will make landfall in Niue tomorrow (Friday). Until this afternoon we had sailed about 10° south of the rhumb line to build some buffer in case the wind would start to head us. At 2pm this afternoon we "turned the corner" and started spending that southing credit by sailing a more westerly course (255°T vs 220°T). Victoria is about half a day behind us, followed by Aspasia another 24 hrs behind. All is well aboard, stay tuned...

Sometime in the next 24hrs we will cross the "opposite" meridian of our home town's longitude (Gelting in Bavaria, somwhere between 11° and 12° East if we remember correctly) and thus be truly on the far side of the world. Reason enough for a little celebration aboard Namani ;-)

Changed ship's time yesterday to 11 hours behind utc...

Making good progress, averaging just over 6 kn, beam reaching under double reefed main and 1/2 genoa. Currently steering aboiut 10 deg south of the rhumb line to get some southing in the bank while the wind direction is favorable. Victoria was abou 11 nm behind us this morning and Aspasia were getting ready to leave Suwarrow, also heading for Niue. All is well aboard, stay tuned ...

Weighed anchor at 3pm local time in Suwarrow this afternoon and are now sailing towards Nuie (about 475nm to go). Sailing on a beam reach in ESE winds and making good progress. Hope to arrive by Saturday. Victoria left with us but is currently out of sighjt. All is well aboard, stay tuned...

Today marks the end of our first week on Suwarrow which has quickly established itself as one of our favorite landfalls.. Healthy and beautiful coral, lots of fish and an island only for the cruisers anchored here (admittedly quite a few at times) - plus Anthony ("Ants") and Harry, the two National Park wardens on the island. We spend our days snorkeling and diving (plus some school work and boat maintenance/repairs, as always...), usually followed by kids' playtime on the beach, and occasionally followed by a potluck dinner.

Went for a day of diving today with Anthony ("Ants", the Assistant Park Ranger), Helena and Kari from Merilelu, Iris and Alex from Aleris, and the crew of Gypsy Blues (who went in their own dinghy). First stop was "Avatar Reef" at the southern end of the atoll (named so by us because diving there feels like flying through the 3D-scapes in the movie Avatar). We had snorkeled there before but scuba diving there was simply wonderful.

01SEP - exactly one year ago we dropped off our friend Laura at the airport in Portland, ME and started sailing on Namani again in earnest. Nice to celebrate our anniversary here in Suwarrow - in a spot that is probably as far away from "things" as we may ever get in our lifes (other than being on passage somewhere in mid-Pacific).

Read in some other boat's blog: "When cruisers go to heaven, they go to Suwarrow". We arrived here after a 6-day passage at 09:00 local time (1900 utc) this morning (Friday, 31AUG) and can see why someone would say so. Suwarrow is a big atoll (about 11 miles across), with some small islands scattered mainly along the northern part of the reef. The atoll was named after the Russian ship Suvarrov (named in turn after a famous pre-revolution Russian general) which arrived here early in the 19th century (the name was later officially changed to today's spelling "Suwarrow").

About 45nm to go to Suwarrow (Thursday, 22:00 local time / Friday 08:00 utc). Wind has finally started to decrease this afternoon. Seas have started to go down as well and, more importantly, have become more regular. A nice change from the jerky-rolling motion of the last few days (we had some things flyi through the cabin that up to then had happily sat in their spot since we left Maine last summer....)..

Should be making landfall at daybreak tomorrow, All is well aboard stay tuned...