Aitutaki Passage & Visit

Passage & Visit to Aitutaki

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Passage from Rarotonga to Aitutaki & Our Stay in Aitutaki
DAY 35 We left Rarotonga on May 17, 2004 about noon under hot sunny skies with full sails set for Aitutaki, another Island of the Southern Cook Islands. We only had about a 4 - 5 knot wind to push us along with main & headsails flying full. The smooth sailing allowed us to finish stowing supplies that we picked up just before leaving Rarotonga. We got hit with a squall that carried some stronger winds & seas late in the evening. The stronger winds pushed us along at about 6.5 knots.
DAY 36 Our cruising friends from Starlight Express left Rarotonga just after us heading in the same general direction. They were going to Penrhyn, one of the Northern Cook Islands & carrying on from there back to British Columbia, Canada. They passed us sometime in the wee hours of the morning.
Land HO!!	Outer reef off of Aitutaki
Getting closer & searching for the mooring buoy	Waves on Aitutaki Reef
Aitutaki Reef	Waves breaking onto the reef
Looking at the reef & Aitutaki Harbor from the boat	Aitutaki Harbor
We arrived to the mooring buoy just outside the reef of Aitutaki Harbour by 3 pm, about 27 hours after leaving Rarotonga. The mooring buoy is used primarily by the supply ships delivering goods to Aitutaki, but we knew that the ship would not be there for at least a week. The Captain was very nervous & anxious about approaching the buoy & grab the eye with the pole. She was more than happy for me to take the helm & Will's job would be to catch the eye & tie us up. We have had a lot of practice doing this in our own boat in the Gulf Islands so this task went very smoothly. The entrance into the tiny lagoon is narrow & very shallow with a maximum depth of about 6 feet at high tide. One also has to navigate around coral heads on the way in. Given these "obstacles" & taking into account that we draw about 6' 8" we were restricted to mooring outside the reef.


Because it was mid afternoon when we arrived & everyone was quite tired from lack of sleep from this past passage we decided to take care of small repairs, have dinner & get rested up. We would go to the Island the next day to begin our exploring. While tied to the mooring buoy, Will took advantage of calm water to attach the BBQ to the railing properly. We discovered on the passage from Rarotonga to here that the Auto Pilot had failed once again! Upon another inspection, Will decided that the auto pilot was not worth the effort to troubleshoot again given that it did not hold our course close enough during the previous passages. This was also our first opportunity to make use of the block & tackle for lifting the outboard motor up & down to the dinghy in the water. After watching the Captain struggle to use the setup, Will discovered that it had been installed upside down! No wonder it didn't work properly! Never ending repairs it seems.
Coral & Volcanic shore	Looking across lagoon to reef - Aitutaki
DAY 37 We awoke after a windy night to cloudy skies in the morning. We were alarmed when we looked at the rope that we were attached to the mooring buoy & discovered that we were only being held on by our backup rope. With all the wind & wave action, the large rope wore right through. After much discussion with the Captain about how the ropes should be attached in this situation, Will secured our mooring with the anchor chain & another backup line. Once that was done, it was time to get the motor onto the dinghy in preparation for our going ashore. What a breeze it was to lift the motor down to the dinghy with the block & tackle system installed properly. Will attached the motor to the dinghy & attempted to start it. And he pulled on the rope, and pulled & pulled. NO GO! The little motor would not go! Ok, use the block & tackle again to lift the motor back up & into the cockpit to troubleshoot why it won't start.
Sigh, sigh - and yet another thing that does not work. The dinghy was our only means to get onshore & rowing to shore would have been next to impossible given the distance, waves & swell of the water where we were sitting outside of the reef. First things first - try the obvious. Seems like it isn't getting fuel - take off the fuel line, do a visual & then blow into the line. Plugged!! That seemed easy enough - just a plugged fuel line, so cleaning it out was all that was necessary this time. It had been sitting for so long without being used that sludge built up & consequently plugged the line. After cleaning the line & reassembling everything, Will put the motor back on the dinghy in high hopes that that was all there was to the problem. Pull, pull, & then it took off. Wonderful, now we can go to the Island to begin our exploration.
It was afternoon when we were finally all arranged in the dinghy with our packs laden with snorkel gear & cameras & sunscreen, etc. We would have to get a move on to start seeing the local sights & get back to the boat before dark. We would have liked to have been able to see the local dancers but with no lights on the dinghy & the passage being quite difficult, we had to enjoy daytime excursions. Will & I set off in one direction with the Captain going her own way.
Aitutaki Superstore	Bank complete with ATM machine
Massive tree	Noni Tree
Exploring with our motorbike	Aitutaki Hill
Aitutaki College	Marilyn in front of Old Church in Aitutaki
We discovered the most awesome place ever!!! This is indeed a Paradise found! The people are wonderful & friendly. The vegetation is brilliant green with bright coloured fragrant flowers everywhere. We picked star fruit & papayas that grew along the roads. Do you recognize some of the plants in these pictures as domestic plants that lots of us have grown in our homes? And to think that they grow wild in these parts!
Star Fruit	Papaya growing wild
Philodendron	Pineapple

Bread Fruit Tree	Banana tree
Chilies	Another type of philodendron
Palm Nuts
Yes, we have no bananas!	Garden of pineapple
DAY 38 We were up & at it bright & early in order to get to shore by 9:30 am so that the Captain could catch the boat for a snorkeling day trip. We were then on our own for the rest of the day. We took the dinghy out to some small motus & luxuriated on the white sand beaches & did some snorkeling in the lagoon. The lagoon has hundreds of coral heads scattered throughout so we had to be very careful in dodging them. We went very slowly across the lagoon out to Honeymoon Island with the white sand beaches. We beached the dinghy & luxuriated in the warm waters & beautiful clean white sandy beaches.
Aitutaki Reef & Lagoon	Will on white sand beach at Aitutaki
Aitutaki beach	Aitutaki Lagoon & motus
There were hundreds of white birds nesting on the Islands. They lay their eggs anywhere under any scrub of tree or bush & then set on their eggs. As soon as anyone would get close to their eggs it seemed like the whole flock of birds would take to the air & squawk loudly in unison to try to discourage the intruders from getting close to their eggs & newly hatched babies.



After spending the whole day relaxing in this South Pacific paradise it was time to slowly wind our way back through the coral heads to meet the Captain & head back to the boat before dark. We took advantage of the makeshift showers in the Sports Club washrooms to get cleaned up. We had to take advantage of the fresh water while we could as it would be very limited once we started out again on the next portion of our passage. The temperatures were very hot & humid here.


DAY 39 Today is my birthday!! What a place to spend a birthday! I could not think of any other place in the world I would rather be on this day! Peaceful & tranquil are two words that best describe this Cook Island. Although Aitutaki is a small Island, it was too big for us to carry our backpacks & walk all over so we decided to once again rent a motorbike to continue our tour of the Island. White sand beaches, crystal clear waters & a huge lagoon strewn with coral heads is what we discovered. The water is as warm or warmer than your bathtub. Five days was definitely not enough time to spend here. Once again the Captain went her own way & left us to do our own thing. With the motorbike we were able to explore just about every road on the little Island. We had dinner out in a little cafe (Blue Nun) in the harbour in celebration of my birthday.






The Captain met us back at the harbour just before dark again & we went back to the boat. During the last night the Captain decided that too much power was being used so she turned off our anchor light as well as the fan that we had going above our heads in order to sleep at night. The climate was so hot & humid that is was difficult to sleep without some sort of air movement. As well as turning off the anchor light & fan, she decided that the propane detector drew too much power also, and turned that off!! So much for concern for our safety! We decided it was time to charge the batteries again & also use the water maker - so, Will got it set up to go & guess what? Oh yeah, you guessed right. It would not work!! Groan....Not again! What is it this time? Will determined it was the motor this time. It was not a surprising conclusion given that the water maker had been mounted upside down! But he decided that he would leave it until the morning when there was better light to do the troubleshooting. Another set of problems presented themselves again. The engine was not working properly while charging batteries & the battery charging system was not registering proper charge either. Without the proper information about the type of batteries & the type of alternator that was on the engine it was impossible to do a calibration. It ended up being a guessing game as to how much charge the batteries had taken. The engine not running properly was more of a concern though. The salt water pump in the galley sink was also very loose & would need to be tightened. We ran out of propane in one of our bottles today also. That was easy to rectify - we just changed out the bottle with a full one we had on board. What a beginning & ending to my birthday! It is one I will never forget.