Day 2 at sea — After a miserable 45 hours, conditions began to ease some. Not a lot, but some. The waves dropped to 4 to 8 feet. The frequency and forcefulness of the nasty beam rolls lessened a little. The ride went from being super miserable to uncomfortable. Most of our days at sea have been uncomfortable, so we have learned to live with uncomfortable.
One of the things about Niue is that it is difficult to anchor. Continue reading
When we woke up we noticed a big pot of gold on the bow of the boat. We were baffled as to where it came from until the guy from the boat next to us dropped off this picture.
Well that explains the gold! Continue reading
We had a decent passage from Bora Bora to Suwarrow with seas at a rocky 6 feet when we left, working and slowly mellowing out a little each day to nice 3 foot seas by the last day. Up until that last day we were running at 1600-1700 rpm and doing about 6.4 knots. The last day the wind and current both picked up in our favor and we had to slow down to 1400 rpm to keep our speed at 6.4 knots. Why slow down? So we could arrive at daylight in Suwarrow. Continue reading
This morning we checked the outboard engine motor as soon as we got up. Eric washed off the outside of the engine, then opened it up. He checked the cylinder and it was dry. Good sign. He pulled out the spark plug and dried it. He drained the fuel from the carburetor. Then he tried starting it.
This morning we started the day with a snorkel in our newly discovered location. The water is really shallow in this spot, as well, but the snorkeling was nice. There were some pretty coral formations and some nice color to the coral. There were a lot of sea anemone stuck to the coral, which are pretty to look at. There were still a lot of sea urchins around. There wasn’t a ton of fish, but a decent amount, though not too many colorful fish. There were small Parrotfish and Trigger fish. There were a lot of angel fish. The fish are obviously used to being fed and have no fear of getting close to people. They wouldn’t let us touch them, but we got within inches. Continue reading