Worrall Wind Update - Day 6 to Suwarrow, Two more days

UTC/Local Time: Tuesday, August 24 0100/Monday, August 23 1500

Latitude: 13 58.150 S
Longitude: 160 32.643 W

Course Over Ground: 4.0 knots
Wind Direction: ESE 14 knots
Sea Swell: 1.5 meters from the east, 2.5 meters from the south
Sky: 30% clouds
Barometric Pressure: 1014

Update: It's another beautiful day. Two more days to go.

If we could maintain a speed of over six knots we could get to Suvorov by late tomorrow, however, this is not the kind of pass we want to come into unless we have good lighting. It is usually advisable to enter waters with coral heads just before noon. In order to time a morning arrival we are slowing our speed down. We cannot get there by tomorrow morning in any case, and we don't want to arrive late tomorrow or in the wee hours of August 25 and heave to until sunrise.

Suvorov or Suwarrow (Lat: 13 14.381 S; Lon: 163 05.921 W) is the Cook Islands' only national park and is reportedly a nature lover's paradise with colonies of seabirds and marine life (including a lot of sharks, so don't know about snorkeling). Originally named Suvorov, after the Russian explorer Lazarov's ship the Suvorov in 1814. When the Cook Islands gained their independence, the name was changed to Suwarrow so that it more closely resembled the sounds of Cook Island language. Most cruisers seem to call it Suvorov. When we pronounced it as Suwarrow, we have been corrected by people who say, "You mean Suvorov?"  If the Cook Islanders don't call it Suvorov, I don't know why cruisers continue to do so.

Other than the two caretakers that seasonally reside here (population of 2), there are no other inhabitants. Suwarrow is an atoll that is 4 sq km of land but 11 miles across (the reefed lagoon) in the middle of the Pacific and is the southern most island of the northern Cooks. Tom Neale, a New Zealander - hermit lived on Suwarrow off and on between 1952-1977. He wrote the book of his experiences in the book An Island to Oneself.

Since this is not an entry port, we will not be subject to New Zealand's rules and regulations regarding food products brought into their agricultural jurisdiction. We understand the meats, produce, flours, grains are confiscated and destroyed. I have a lot of non-gluten flours. grains, and meats (even canned) on board that we are not yet ready to surrender, so we are taking this northern route to Tonga and will bypass the other Cook Islands for now. The trade off will be to visit the islands of American Samoa and Samoa to which we are looking forward.

We have had lovely sailing conditions the last two days and are finally doing some reading, napping, and lounging about. Pretty nice.

All is well on Worrall Wind.