Zefiro at Sea: COOK ISLANDS

Lat: 13 15.0S / Long: 163 06.5W

After Bora Bora we had three quite intensive days at sea with high winds. Brave Zefiro ploughed her way through the waves, which were house high and made good speed. We sailed an average of 13 knots, even 19 knots in the top. Seaman Gerhard even reached a personal record: in 24 hours he had sailed 305nm! That’s an average of almost 13nm/h.

Cases of seasickness were inevitable. And there was drama as well: Our crew member Peter injured himself while dealing with the winch. A rope came loose with such force slashing off nearly all of Peter’s thumb-tip along with the nail and cutting his index finger quite deeply.

Luckily just a few hours before the whole thing happened, the wind had subsided and the waves had gone down quite a bit.

Our bosun Aye Mint being the best to mend our sails was declared to do the stitching. Yet before the operation began we contacted our friend Dr. Robin Tattersall for some advice; he is not only a plastic surgeon but also an experienced sailor. We reached him at 2 a.m. at home in bed in Gloucester close to Boston.

What followed was indeed a joint operation: Aye Min did the stitching, Jerry (our Dutch mate new in the team) gave Peter the necessary syringes, Regine looked to the required hygiene, helped with the bandages. Gerhard meanwhile sailed the Zefiro leaving Aung the chef to hold the “operation light”. Throughout the whole time Peter indeed was very brave and kept his good humor.

Operation aboard Zefiro

Arriving in the lagoon of Suwarrow we heard a lady doctor having a conversation over the radio with another boat. We radioed in asking if she could have a look at Peter. So Dr. Pat Gans from Colorado Springs, sailing with her husband and 14 year old pug dog on 39 ft SY Rose, came over and checked the results of our job. She took off Peter’s now blood encrusted bandages and was quite content with the surgical team’s job.

Dr. Pat cleaned the wounds and bandaged them anew.

She was quite optimistic that Peter can keep his thumb tip.

Suwarrow is really THE Robinson-island par excellence, a place of solitude and peace. The only way to visit the remote atoll is with a private yacht or by chartered expedition from Rarotonga, the main isle of the Cook Islands.

The atoll was uninhabited when discovered by the Russian ship Suvorov, which reportedly followed clouds of birds to the island on September 17, 1814. During World II the writer Robert Dean Frisbie lived as a naval observer on the largest islet, called Anchorage. Frisbie wrote about his experiences in The Island of Desire. He left Suwarrow in 1942 after a hurricane washed away 16 of the 22 of the atolls islets.

From 1952 to 1977 New Zealander Tom Neale realized his dream of a hermit’s life on Suwarrow - with the occasional visits of some sailors. He described his experience in An Island to Oneself and became a legend within the sailing community.

Monument in honor of Tom Neale

The white building is the former cottage of Tom Neale.
In front: the “Suwarrow Yacht Club”.

Only two rangers live on Suwarrow during the hurricane-free months.

Ladies, you should have seen our clearing-in-process (had we already thought it was special in Cuba): Here the half-naked ranger whose ID card was dangling on the side of his swim suit, met us in his wooden hut where the lamp shades were made of coconut shells and an from old hard hats for construction workers, lined with aluminum foil.

Harry the friendly ranger left us a mountain of forms to fill.

In 1978, the island was declared a National Park of the Cook Islands due to the plentiful marine and bird wild life it supports.

On the atoll you can still find the Coconut Crab, the biggest living crab, which has become scarce in the Pacific and has ceased to exist on all inhabited islands.

The Coconut Crabe lives in hollow logs and cannot be caught easily.

It is considered a delicatessen, because its meat thanks to the coconut meat from which it feeds, is tender and tasty.

A full size coconut crab is known to attack humans when feeling threatened.

Thousands of seabirds inhabit the island to nest, incubating the eggs and caring for their young until they are able to fly.

Pictures which reminded us of the Alfred Hitchcock thriller “The Birds”.

Luckily they were not camera shy.

The only predators in this quite and protected place are the black tip sharks, which swim inside the lagoon. Unfortunately we had to refrain from our beloved daily 10-laps-around-the-boat-swimming-routine as up to eight of them were constantly circling around the Zefiro. Although they are said to be friendly, we couldn’t overcome the feeling of not wanting them as our swimming companions.