Update: Days 6-10 in Paradise
It is Thursday evening, September 2, and we are still in Suwarrow. We had intended on leaving today, but the call of the Perfect Reef captured us for one more day of snorkeling. So we are thinking tomorrow, but the gribs look a little rough for tomorrow, so now it might be Saturday before we leave. The wind in the protected anchorage is blowing 20 knots so it must be really rough outside. Good thing we are not in a big rush. Here's a little back tracking since Monday.
Monday, August 30 - Day 6
Russ and I took the dinghy to shore about 2:45 in the afternoon. With instruction from James we found just the right coconuts to husk for coconut cakes. The coconuts have to have germinated with at least three stems protruding. This means that the inside of the coconut has converted the water into a thick pulpy core as nutrient for the germinating stem.
James shows Russ how to husk the coconuts. The coconuts we get in the grocery store are already husked. To husk the coconut, one has to use a piece of sharp re-bar or a stick to stab the husk and then peel it away from the hard coconut shell. Once the coconut is peeled down to its shell, you take a machete and wack at it across the middle until it breaks in half.
The pulpy center is removed and grated into a large bowl. One cup of grated pulp, one cup of flour (I used a non-gluten flour mix), and 1/4 cup sugar are the proportions. Add enough water to create a batter that holds a mounded shape on a spoon. James heated about an inch of cooking oil in a skillet until it was very hot and then spooned and flattened the coconut mix into the oil to make cakes about four inches across and about 1/2" thick. When the cakes are golden brown on the bottom he flipped them until both sides were golden to dark brown. He removed them from a the frying pan with a slotted spoon and tipped them vertically in a deep dish to drain off excess oil.
These cakes are delicious. I don't even want to think about the fat and cholesterol. As a thank you for showing us how to make the cakes and simply because we know how much he enjoys soda, we made up some cola with our soda machine and took James a liter bottle with ice cubes.
Tuesday, August 31 - Day 7
With Gene and Gloria from Pincoya and Claudia and Brian on Skylight, we took off on an expedition in our dinghies five miles across the lagoon to go snorkeling on a reef close to Motu Taou on the eastern side of Suwarrow. We left at 10:00 and got to the reef an hour later. We took two dinghies with three in each dinghy. There were big swells and and windy conditions as we wove our way through some huge corals heads to the more protected area where we went snorkeling.
The coral heads extended downwards of thirty feet into beautiful blue canyons with white sand. The topography was beautiful. I would float over a submerged coral head two or three feet under the water out over a canyon. It felt as if I was flying. We snorkeled for about an hour enjoying the fish and the coral. As we were approaching our dinghies, there was a school of hundreds of yellow tailed mullets. The average mullet was about 1 foot long. The school let us swim right with them and through them. This was pretty fun until we noticed that we had some reef sharks eying the mullet and because we were right in their midst, it made us a little nervous to see these twitchy sharks moving towards us. Some of the sharks were four and five feet long. We didn't want to get in the middle of feeding frenzy or be a part of the feed.
Our collective minds decided simultaneously to get out of the water. We had lunch in the dinghies, dried off and and started the engines....or at least Brian got his engine started. We had some difficulty getting ours going. Finally, Russ got it going and we didn't have any problems getting back to Anchorage Island, but it reminded us why we didn't come out here all by ourselves in the first place.
Tuesday evening, Gene and several of the more adventurous hunter gathers left at 6:00 p.m. to dinghy to Turtle Island several miles away to hunt lobsters on the exposed reef between the motus. This was difficult walking when we had gone a couple of days before crab hunting during the day. Both Russ and I had gotten some foot wounds on the slippery coral and declined to go lobster hunting. The hunters were going to be out until midnight or longer...far past our bedtime.
Instead, we lay in the hammock with a soft breeze caressing our skin, listening to Master and Commander with our headphone jacks and watched the stars pop out into the night sky. The southern cross was brilliant. We just couldn't think of a better place to be.
Wednesday, September 1 - Day 8
Russ and I spent the morning in the water cleaning the bottom of the boat. I used a snorkel and concentrated on the water line and as far down as I could reach. Russ used the hooka snuba and did the deeper keel work. It took us a couple of hours. While under the water we enjoyed watching the fish gather under the boat as we scrapped off barnacles and other crusty things that the fish seemed to enjoy eating. Where there are fish, there are also sharks. There were a couple that cruised under us, but they didn't swim at us like the ones on the reef and they were only about 3 feet long.
We spent the later part of the afternoon visiting with James and Appii, doing our checkout paperwork. We brought in some more cola and ice and photographs of Suwarrow, us and them. We thought this was a goodbye as we planned to leave Thursday.
Wednesday evening, we had another potluck this time featuring 8 huge lobsters caught the night before. They were sweet and delicious. Right after we said our goodbyes to everyone, we decided to stay one more day. Oscar on Zenitude was telling everyone about the Perfect Reef and his day of snorkeling there. Perfect Reef is about 4 miles south of the anchorage. It is basically a reef within a reef. Shaped like a crescent, it is very shallow on the east side and open on the west although you have to dodge some coral heads to get in. He claimed it was some of the best snorkeling he has ever seen. That did it. We scrapped our plans to leave on Thursday and go snorkeling instead.
Thursday, September 2, Day 9
This time we took three dinghies out to Perfect Reef. Claudia and Brian were taking their diving gear and tanks, so we needed an additional boat. The wind was blowing 15 to 20 knots all day and there was a squall behind us and one in front of us. Fortunately, we were in a patch of sunlight all the way out to Perfect Reef. Unlike our trip to the western side of the island where we surfed down swells coming from the east, we were now moving south and those eastern swells were on our beam, often splashing into the boat. It was a pretty soggy bottom ride.
It took us about an hour to get to Perfect Reef and thread our way in through the coral heads on the eastern side of the crescent. We anchored the dinghies in about 10 feet of water close to the reef edge. Within 2 minutes of being in the water, Russ and I were glad we had decided to come to Perfect Reef. This snorkel went to number 1 in our book. Wow, wow, wow. The living coral of greens, pinks, purples, coral, whites, yellows was amazing. There was apple green brain coral with amber striations, popcorn coral, leaf rosette coral, tree coral, all types and textures.
We saw lots of fish from big parrot fish to the tiniest of little tetras in every color of the rainbow. Huge ruffle lipped clams, big lip-smacking oysters, eels, and puffy pink starfish basked on and in the holes of the coral heads. Claudia and Brian were able to dive down into several of the deep grottos. The water clarity, particularly in the shallow areas was incredibly clear. It didn't look as if there was any water. After an hour, we ate lunch, and after lunch we went back in for another go around. It was spectacular. Best of all...we didn't see one shark!
The wind and clouds were really whipping up when we returned. The ride back seemed wetter than our snorkel. About three quarters of the way back, Gene and Gloria's propeller started to act up and their forward propulsion was almost nil. Gene started to paddle at one point. We all slowed our speed and finally, Brian and Claudia got a hold of the dinghy's painter (bow line) and towed them home. Russ and I had some major de-salting to do of our gear. Everything was soaked in salt water. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and the evening on Pincoya with our snorkeling friends, recounting the day's adventures.
Friday, September 3 - Day 10
We may or may not leave. The wind and seas are higher than we like. If they calm down, we may leave in the afternoon. If they don't, we won't.. Could be Saturday or later before we weigh anchor. I the meantime, we're having fun.
All is well on Worrall Wind.
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