(continuation of the day we arrived in Suwarrow) We were excited to be on land and decided to walk around the island. Like the Tuomotus, some of the shoreline was dark, jagged lava rock, some was rocky broken coral and shells. There were a few small stretches of white sand with the small bits of shell and coral. The foliage was thick and went all the way to the edge of the water in a lot of spots. We spent most of our time walking in the water, sometimes as deep as Christi’s mid-thigh.

Along the shallow water of the shore we saw a half dozen baby sharks, two of which were chasing a potential meal that was almost as large as they were.

We saw a school of fish jump out of the water in unison several times. There were lots of little lizards around. The views of the ocean, lagoon and motus were spectacular. Even though this is one of the largest motus in Suwarrow, it is very small and we were done with our walk in an hour.

As we finished our walk, Veronica asked us if we would like to go to Bird Island in a little while. We said yes. People are not allowed to wander the motus freely here. You must be escorted by the caretakers. You also need to ask permission to go diving and tell them exactly the spot you will be at. We have heard cruisers complain about the policy, but we know they are just trying to protect this unique and fragile environment.

We went back to Kosmos to make lunch. On both the ride to and from the motu, the outboard motor definitely wasn’t working properly. Eric will have to look at it later. On board, Christi was horrified to discover that in the wind her cute haircut turns into the bride of Frankenstein’s hair.

After lunch, we went back to shore to meet the caretakers for our outing. We were accompanied by four other cruisers, and the caretaker family. We were told not to go into the bushes, since the sterns lay their eggs in the bushes. As we approached the small motu, we saw dozens of birds flying around it. We anchored the boat and trudged to shore. The presence of people must have scared the birds, because suddenly the sky was filled with thousands of birds. No exaggeration. Thousands. Some were way up high, most were close to the ground. It looked like Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds”. We walked around the perimeter of the little island. It was all lava rock with a number of bushes. Even with thousands of birds in the sky, there were still several hundred birds sitting contentedly on the ground.

There were a lot of frigates, including many males with their red chest puffed out in hopes of attracting a female. We were able to identify brown noddy, sotty sterns, and petrels, but there were definitely more varieties. We saw a number of baby chicks. We saw a number of nests in the bushes, as well as stern eggs lying on the ground under the bushes without a nest. Neither of us have ever seen anything like this before and we found it to be amazing.

Eric miraculously managed to escape without a single bomb on him. Christi was hit with a small one to the left shoulder. We think that we were pretty darn lucky, given the odds.

Back at Kosmos, we passed out pretty early. It had been a very long and exciting day. We’re hoping tomorrow is just as good.