Talofa!!!

What an experience!! We have about a thousand miles under the keels (this being a catamaran and all) since our arrival in Papeete, Tahiti. This is a very comfortable boat to begin with and the location is spectacular. We only spent a little time in Tahiti before getting off for Morea where spent a few days then off to Ta'aha for some days then Hauhine (my favorite) then Bora Bora (might also be the most Boring Boring) covering about 225 miles in the process. Truly though none of French Polynesia is awful or anything... there were highlights at each place and lots to discover. We did some provisioning along the way but it turned out not quite enough in some instances.

The jump from FP to the Cook Island group covered about 600 miles and we made the incredible stop at Suwarrow. My hat is off to this unbelievable atoll with Anchorage Island; it's a National Park for the Cooks. The caretakers there, John and Veronica Samuela, are amazing and their four sons live on the island for six months out of the year. The island has a history of hurricanes and its highest point might be ten feet above the water so it is not safe to stay there during big storms. There are tons of sharks there, mostly black tips but with a number of grays in evidence. Our first day there was fairly warm so with boat chores done I jumped in the water for a quick cool down; we are talking a very quick in and out here. By the time I came up the swim ladder three black tip sharks were swimming by the transom!! We walked to the other side of the island at sunset that night when we went in for a party the caretaker's hut and they fed the sharks on the side where the pass through the reef is (away from all the boats). The sharks came to the shore and everyone was clicking away on the cameras like crazy. The sharks were there within seconds of the first "chum" hitting the water.

This is where you should jump over to Sandy's blog if you haven't already and catch up on the wedding, first ever on Suwarrow, and all that. When we came in through the pass this island looked like the ideal of what you think a desert island should be. We were looking for a place to hold a wedding and this so perfectly fit the bill that we announced our intentions at the party that first night after checking with John to be sure it was possible. What a commotion this caused immediately. At that point we we also thought that the wedding would be in about two day’s time. The weather changed that plan the next several days however... we only managed a bachelor/bachelorette party the next night then the wind kicked up with 45 knots gusts and all the boats lost any semblance of sleep for a couple of days as we had anchor watches and a sort of Chinese Fire Drill going on as boats tried to be made more secure. It was a lot of work for some because they had gotten wrapped on coral heads and such. All this also gave people more time to plan things when they weren't half crazed from lack of sleep. The whole community jumped in as more boats arrived. John commented that by the time the wedding did take place it was the most boats ever at the anchorage at one time to be recorded (25). This combined with the fact that the first ever wedding was to take place made both he and Veronica exceedingly happy.

Finally the wedding happened and all but the crew from one boat participated.

The next day we had to hustle to get going to make a weather window work for us. We still managed to get thank you cards distributed and such before leaving but it was a challenge.
At the moment we another 350 miles down our track in the port of Apia in Western Samoa. We have done a bit of exploring so far and expect to do more in the next few days. There are lots of blog entries to follow while we have internet but some of mine may have to wait until we get back to Portland around the first of October (we booked a flight this morning). This is a little earlier than we had planned originally but it helps calm us in thinking about all that HAS to be done on Faith when we get back to Mexico!!