Suwarrow, also known as Suvarov, is a National Park in The Cook Islands. It is uninhabited except for a Park Ranger who lives there during the summer to manage all of the visiting yacht traffic. It is the only island that we visited in The Cook Islands, so I don’t feel like we really visited The Cook Islands. It is a low-lying atoll, like the Tuamotus and Mopelia, and we thought it sounded amazing from the writeups of South Pacific cruisers who visited in previous years.
However, this year it was getting some negative press, mostly from our friends on Lady Carolina, who were there just before us. Based on their input we were strongly considering skipping it, and we probably would have if the weather had cooperated. Basically, the national park rules have become a lot stricter and are being actively enforced by Harry, the Park Ranger. Here’s a little insight into the rules as written up by Lady Carolina:
“1) No going to ANY other motu in the atoll except the one just at the anchorage.
2) No going to ANY other anchorage
3) No spearfishing allowed.
4) No coconut crab hunting (see #1)
5) No composting within 12 miles of the island. (Even the pass that always has an out going current)
6) You can lobster hunt all you want on the closest island. Only problem is there are no lobsters according to the ranger who has walked the beach for months and has finally given up. Apparently biologists are coming in to investigate as there used to be many lobsters.
The stories of the Ranger who would take you around in his skiff for fishing, lobstering and crab hunting followed by cruiser pot lucks are long gone. Pot lucks are still allowed on the beach however these must be organized by the cruisers and permission must be granted before you can have one.”
Well, at least we had the heads up and we knew what to expect.
When we finally got anchors down, we were exhausted, but it was fun to be greeted by other cruisers who were already there. Chris and Sarah from s/v Tulu let us know about the potluck on the beach later that evening (hmmm…) and Stephano from s/v Novae stopped by to say hello. We were tired after the passage, but we wouldn’t have missed the potluck for anything. I made something really simple (like a salad and beer bread) and we spent the evening meeting new friends. We had been pretty isolated in Mopelia, so it was fun to be social again. There was one other kid boat there, Ui, with a German family that had two young girls. The next day Tim bribed the boys to go pick up the girls in the dinghy and take them dinghy surfing. It’s too bad that after all this time we still have to bribe them to do stuff like that. We love that they get along with each other so well, but that fact sometimes means they are content to just play with each other and have to be “forced” to reach out to other kids. Whenever they do, they are happy about it, but even now, they still have to be “forced” sometimes. They played with the girls on the beach most afternoons, with one of the popular activities, at least for Brenden, being constructing “Crabitats.” That’s short for Crab Habitats, and with the many, many, hermit crabs they were never short of occupants. Brenden called his a “crab sanctuary.”
Our second evening we took advantage of not being the biggest (or only) catamaran in the anchorage, and instead of hosting one of our usual potlucks or happy hours, we happily joined everyone over on Novae. What a great evening.
Our third evening, there was another potluck on the beach, but this one with desserts and snacks to celebrate a fellow cruisers’ birthday. A few new boats had pulled into the anchorage since we had arrived, so we had fun making even more new friends. Harry, the Suwarrow Park Ranger, and his wife joined us for both beach potlucks so far, and had even brought dishes of their own to share.
Tim did a fair amount of snorkeling at Suwarrow with Stephano from Novae, both inside the lagoon and in the pass, even though he couldn’t spear fish. He said it was amazing, with great visibility, and he may have “accidentally” gone ashore on one of the other motus to have a look around. As a family, we had a snorkel day and swam around the Manta “cleaning station.” Basically, this is a spot where the manta rays frequently come to be cleaned by little cleaner fish. Sometimes, you can see many mantas there, but our day we saw just one big one, and how majestic and graceful he looked slowly flying around. I also got the opportunity to be towed behind the dinghy for a sped-up tour along a coral ridge.
One of our last nights there we had yet another potluck on the beach. This time someone brought a guitar and Harry played and sang for us. Apparently, he forgot his guitar this year, and he really misses it, so he enjoyed the opportunity to borrow one from one of the cruisers. I used Harry’s performance as the musical track for my Suwarrow youtube video, so if you missed it, be sure to check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjwaB4vlF96bR_F0DJbUhQQ
In summary, Suwarrow wasn’t anything special in and of itself. I can see that for people coming straight from Bora Bora, which a lot of cruisers do, that it would be much more of a novelty. However, for us, coming from Mopelia, there was nothing that Swarrow could offer that Mopelia couldn’t one-up, with the possible exception of the manta ray. We are glad we went, though, because it was a fun time for us getting to know some new friends.
Gresham Family Exodus 