Suwarrow Atoll

I didn’t know how many shades of blue there actually are in the world until we turned into the pass through the reef on Suwarrow Atoll. I took my sunglasses off and put them on again so many times just to be sure it wasn’t a trick of the polarized lens. It’s not. 

Suwarrow Atoll is a national park of the Cook Islands. It’s a perfect stop over from Bora Bora to the Samoan Islands. Visitors may only stay 14 days, which is definitely not enough for the visitor. We planned to stay the full 14 days, thinking that we would probably find ways to amuse ourselves on this “deserted” atoll. We stayed 15 days and it wasn’t long enough.

We made it through the pass easily enough, picked our way around the reefs extending from Anchorage Island towards the anchorage. Even before we dropped the anchor we were greeted by another cruiser who filled us in on some details. Namely that you can’t do anything on island, that the rangers are great guys (even if one could be called a “loose cannon,” his words, not ours) and that the boaters all gather for a sundowner cocktail on the beach. We dropped our hook among the 12 other boats and again we were welcomed to the atoll but this time by some other friends John and Nat from Millennium. We had first met them in Nuka Hiva, way back in the Marquases, and had met them on different stops for short visits on the way here. They climbed aboard and as we chatted, they re-affirmed our hopes that this atoll is something special. 

As we began to put away some of our passage gear and sort ourselves out a little, a guy in aluminum skiff was coming straight for us. This was Charlie, one of the two rangers tasked with caring for the island and dealing with all us cruisers. Charlie pulled up to the boat and told me he was coming aboard to spray. He jumped up and began to chat. He had his spray can and it was empty but he winked and told me that he would just stay for a bit. He told us a few of the things that the other cruisers had told us and that we should go in before 4:30 to check in. Then he asked me if I knew Tom Neill. The other cruisers had mentioned that Charlie has no respect for Tom Neill. Tom Neill was a New Zealander who, for a disputed amount of time, made Anchorage Island his hermit home. He published his journal from the time, “An Island to One’s Self.” The Cook Islanders don’t like him, according to them he ditched his family, which is frowned upon in their culture, to live on a deserted island. I played dumb politely, said I didn’t know much (we had read the book) and listened as Charlie dismissed him as a “stupid uncle.” This conversation was the beginning of a great friendship between us and Charlie. 

We anchored in clear water, gathered our papers, prepared the dinghy and headed ashore. Harry, the second ranger, is in charge of all formalities and also imparts the rules of the atoll. Namely, don’t take anything off the island, don’t take coconut crabs to eat as there is rat poison about and don’t dump your fish guts into the anchorage because of the sharks. Holy cow! Talk about SHARKS! They are only the black tip reef sharks but when a dozen or more are circling your boat, you feel hesitant about jumping in. My brave captain jumped in each day for a cooling dip but my brave captain only jumped in while I stood on shark watch. Fish cleaning is to be done on the far side of the island, the ocean facing side in an effort to keep the sharks in the anchorage to a minimum. But these sharks aren’t stupid. They know that all us first world yachties have come to Suwarrow with fridges and freezers stocked with provisions and will wash meaty/fishy juice down our sinks and will inevitably dump compost overboard (though Suwarrow is a pack it in-pack it out kind of place). 

Fish cleaning on the far side of the island is quite the spectacle. The sharks slide in on the incoming waves as soon as they smell the blood and guts. 15, 16 , 20, just a huge amount of them. Brad would sit on the rocks, fillet our fish and collect the carcasses for the feeding frenzy fun. Apparently it’s both thrilling and super fun to grab some poor little sharky by the tail and let him thrash about. It must be a guy thing because Charlie would laugh right along with Bradley. I, on the other hand, had no interest in pestering these fish (jeez, maybe they talk and plan ambushes!). Gray sharks would also come for a fish gut feed and these are big, ugly looking sharks which are supposedly more “bite-y” as it was described to us. Harry had also informed us that earlier in the season a tiger shark had come into the lagoon and torn apart a manta ray. Tiger sharks are nasty. 

There is more to the marine life in the lagoon than sharks. It’s like floating in an aquarium. The manta rays are fascinatingly beautiful. A short ride from the boat is a reef marked by floats to which you can tie the dinghy to. It’s at this reef that the manta rays gather to get a cleaning done. They come by a couple times a day to let the little fishies nibble the bits of marine growth off them. We went almost everyday, mostly because we kept missing them but finally we saw them and it was fantastic to float on the surface while the mantas slid slowly beneath us getting all cleaned up. It was so easy to get a long look at them as they were in no hurry to get away and completely undisturbed by us. Again, the sharks liked to come around too and once, we were swimming around and I got startled by a white tip reef shark. I am total ocean ninny and promptly climbed on Bradley’s back and this bugger of a shark came straight at us again. Seriously straight at us and close! Bradley scared him away and I scrambled back into the dinghy. That was enough of that for me. 

An atoll is a wonderful creation of nature. The reef is an incredibly effective barrier against the south Pacific ocean swell. As we walked along the reefs, the swell would crash and slam along the outer edge, gush over the table top of the reef and slow to the point where it barely causes a ripple in the lagoon. All the reefs and the coral in Suwarrow Atoll are healthy and thriving. Pink and purple, blue and green. Taking photos with our point and shoot camera really doesn’t do it justice. The coral sometimes looks like a paint spill, other times it blooms into a brain looking thing. And there are little fish everywhere. Striped ones, yellow ones and flat ones. They have to pick their moments to swim around on the reef. They get trapped in the softball size holes in the reef and need to wait for the water to wash over so they can swim to the next one to join up with their pals. Parrot fish are an arresting colour blue. Each time one would swim past, I would have to stop, just to watch him swim away. I will mention here the differences between my experience walking the reef and Bradley’s. If we had photos, you would see that he’s always ahead of me. That’s not because he doesn’t want you seeing his handsome mug but it’s because he’s always way ahead. While I pause and marvel at all that is going on at my feet, he’s hunting. Yes, Bradley’s always on a mission and on the hunt. Here, it was lobster. Brad’s research told him that lobsters surf on the incoming tide and that it’s easiest to hunt them at night with a flashlight because their eyes light up, making them easy to spot though you can maybe catch them in the daytime. We went hunting a couple times and we had no luck. Yet one of the other cruisers in the anchorage was catching them whenever he felt like dining on them. Brad had chatted with Peter many times. becoming friendly with him, friendly enough that Peter showed up one morning and asked if we would like to go lobster hunting. While we didn’t catch any that day (we missed the tide), Peter taught Bradley the finer points of lobster hunting. Where to look exactly and even more importantly, how to lay in the surf and not get tumbled. Peter’s lessons were ones Brad absorbed and sure enough, a few days later... 3 LOBSTERS! Those rock lobsters must be one of the finer things in life. Absolutely delectable. Imagine all the good things from the sea that you’ve ever eaten, put that joy into one mouthful and you have rock lobster. Lobster love wasn’t the only thing that developed on the island. Crazy for Coconut Crab also happened. There are some stories better told in person, be sure to remind us to tell you about coconut crabs when we get home. 

Lobsters you catch by hand, Jack Trevallys you catch on a hook as you troll along the reef. During our guided tour with Charlie, after visiting Seven Islands and drift snorkeling among the “christmas tree” corals, Charlie took us fishing. Imagine my excitement at catching the first and second fish! I thought they were something quite special - a pretty little snapper and a sweet platinum and blue Jack Trevally. And then it happened. Bradley put on his slayer hat and bang, bang, bang. It was a JT slaughter show. I am a good sport, we were catching fish for an all anchorage bbq that night and with Bradley’s fish market on board and my contribution, we had plenty. So blah blah, everyone enjoyed the fish that night (Charlie chefed it up - YUM!). But now we needed fish for our own freezer. A couple days later we loaded up in the dinghy and for those of you who know these things, Brad packed his mooching and drift rods. I don’t know much about these rods, but I like the little wine coloured one. We chose our lures and started trolling along the reef. Bingo! I got a bite. In it comes - another little JT! Just so you all know, Jack Trevallys are DELICIOUS! I always claim that halibut is my favourite, but oh wow, JTs are tasty! So I am pretty pleased with hitting the first fish and just as I am basking in this glory, Bad Ass Brad starts shouting “FISH ON, FISH ON!” He’s got this big rod and he’s working on it pretty hard. Up and in the dinghy comes another JT - the biggest yet. It looks like the big papa to my baby JT. But we’re not done. It’s way to much fun. We continue to troll, discussing our luck when my line gives a mighty jerk. “REEL REEL REEL!” Bradley yells and I start reeling and holy shit, my rod begins to bend and bend some more. Big Brad yells more and more instructions and I am convinced I’ve got a shark and this little drifter is going to snap and give me a bloody nose. My rod was pointing straight up but the tip was in the water and what was on my line was dragging us way away from the reef. And then I saw it, no, it wasn’t a shark, I had something better on the line than a Jack Trevally, I had a GIANT TREVELLY! Brad starts cursing excitedly that he doesn’t know how we are going to get this monster in the boat but all those years guiding paid off because in one pull, whoops - into the boat came 20 pounds of Giant Trevally. I’m not just calling it that because it’s was SO big, but that’s  actually what they are called. I don’t know if I have ever been more proud of something before in my life. He was beautiful. After my fish slapped Bradley around the ankles (because they always do) and he killed it, I couldn’t think of anything better to do than show it off. We drove first to Peter and then into shore for some more showing off and gutting. Both Charlie and Harry were very impressed and I don’t think these guys impress easily. Charlie said he wasn’t giving out any more fishing tips. 

Our time on Suwarrow was incredibly well documented. We couldn’t stop snapping photos. And then we had a first world disaster. Our hard drive, with all our photos and movies “shit-the-bed” as Bradley so eloquently puts it. This post was going to be littered with glorious photos and we were going to attempt to post the movies this time. We were disappointed for one whole evening but we got over it, we just wish we could have shared them with you. 

Some photos!

We met up with our friend Jack on Kulkiri again in American Samoa and he had a few photos of Suwarrow to share with us...

Dinner on our last night on Suwarrow. Charlie is the one who's got me in a vice grip!

"Ranger station"

Ocean side of Anchorage Island where we would go to clean fish.

Charlie and Harry with the anchoring area behind.