S/V Encanto underway to Suvarov Reserve
(Cook Islands, New Zealand)
September 30th 2007, Sunday
(22:06 utc/12:06 local)
First Mate: Pulled up the anchor in Bora Bora, near the Bloody Mary Restaurant
Motored out of the lagoon and into the blue waters. Time to move on and bid farewell to the remaining five cruising boats we know still in the Society Islands. Most have made their way to points west or south. With sadness in our hearts, we wave as boats go on whom we know we may never see again. After all these years, it is still difficult to describe the surreptitious meetings, intense moments of fostering friendships and then the all too soon, farewells. We feel it at every juncture, but more so at moments like now when so many more head to Niue, Tonga, Fiji and New Zealand. We are one of a small, small (we count two other boats) handful heading to Suvarov-Cook Islands and then the American Samoa. We know no one heading beyond American Samoa or the Marshall Islands.