15 May - Suwarrow at Last

Sorry this didn't get posted on 15 May. My sat phone email manager
indicated that it transmitted properly. Apparently it did not.

0600 position 13-15S 163-07W. At anchor in 32', sand and coral bottom.
Suwarrow Atoll

The first two thirds of the passage were lovely. Last third, not so much.
We are both glad it is over.

A huge squall nailed us at 0800 this morning. That's happened a lot in
the last few days, but after this one passed we were left wallowing for an
hour in the vacuum behind it. We knew we were cutting it close making it
in to Suwarrow before the sun got too low as it was. Removing an hour of
sailing time being becalmed just added to the tension and uncertainty. We
were not going to give up though, so we worked as hard as we could to keep
the boat moving until the wind filled in again. Steady winds never did
fill in again. The gribs said we'd have sixteen knots from the east, but
wind strength varied from three to thirty knots and the direction swung up
to forty degrees all day. That squall was the first of many we had to
deal with. For ten hours it was jib in, jib out, head up, fall off, reef
in, reef out. I didn't sleep after the squall hit, and we were never
certain until about 1500 that we'd make it in time, but we did.

We arrived at Anchorage Island, Suwarrow Atoll at 1600 to find two other
cruising boats moored here, a forty foot catamaran and fifty foot sloop.
No sooner had the anchor gone down than we were surrounded by about a
dozen four foot long black tipped sharks. Deja vu all over again, and we
weren't even cleaning fish this time! The sharks have stayed with us.
Even after dark we could see them circling the boat. Looks like "man
overboard" here would have more dire consequences than if it occurred at
sea.

We cleaned the boat up, popped a couple of beers, played a game of
cribbage, had some dinner, and went to sleep. Dinghy launching,
socializing with our neighbors, and checking in with the authorities (if
any are here) can wait until tomorrow. Now it's time for some overdue
sleep.

Rocky adds the following: "Today was a special day for me. Some of you
are quite familiar with the talent of Bill Leary others not so much. I
got to witness and help out a little bit with a sailing force. To explain:
We estimated anchoring at Suwarrow tonight. Well the wind and squalls
were playing havoc with those plans. When we sailed out of one squall with
all the wind sucked out we were down to two or three knots. This was
severely messing with the plan. Bill's (Noodle) eyes became steely and
mere slits. Noodle has moved from cruise mode to race mode. He was not
going to let the clock beat him. For the next ten hours he rarely sat
down. There were adjustments to the sail trim at least every few minutes
more and more as we came in and out of squalls. He needed to do all
himself so as to save time, rather than explaining just how much he wanted
the sheet to come in or out; It was just a thrill for me to watch the
focus and intensity studying the sails constantly for any wrinkle or
bubble that should not be there for maximum performance. It is easy to see
why he had such a successful racing Career. At a go Noodle."