Just a quick update..... still here on Suwarrow....

Hello Everyone,

Well we are still here on Suwarrow. We have been here since last Wednesday. We were all set to leave for Tonga Saturday when we took another look at the weather and decided that if we stayed here another week then it would be a much more comfortable voyage down to Vava'u Tonga. So here we are. Another factor is that Tristan's birthday request was that we weren't on passage for his birthday. He really wanted to be on an island and have his friends with him. So as luck has it... we still have shine with us and also convinced another boat named Por Dos to stay as well. They are another Catamaran that has twin boys age 14. The kids have been having a blast running around snorkeling, playing ghost in the graveyard on the beach at night, flying kites, swimming with the sharks..etc.. just what kids should be doing.

We have been having a lot of pot lucks on the beach with all the boats that are in the anchorage. For yesterdays pot luck the boys on family circus and shine (and xesca) decided to go fishing in the pass to see if they could catch anything. Just as they were about to give up Tristan's line takes off and almost takes him over the side of the dinghy with him. Chris had to jump in and help him reel in this rather large fish. It turned out to be a big eye tuna that we shared with everyone. It was about 15 and 20 pounds and really fat. When Tristan held it up it looked like it was about 3 feet long. Needless to say we now have tuna to share and wahoo still in the freezer.

We went snorkeling yesterday on the other side of the lagoon and it was amazing. The clarity and size of the reef fish here are just crazy. The parrot fish are huge along with all the groupers, snappers, and sharks.... it always seems that they find us and within 10 minutes of snorkeling they are just hanging out on the perimeter. These sharks definitely have a little bit of a different attitude than the ones that we have been used to. They are way more curious and less afraid... so it is a little unnerving when they turn and swim at you quickly from behind and then when you kick at them they just keep swimming through your bubbles at you.... this happened to Tristan and I yesterday with a black tip that was about 6 feet long... it just really wanted to come and check us out... finally it went away but then we looked around and there were about 8 sharks black tips, white tips and a gray that was swimming around us... we decided it was time to go and quickly swam back to the dinghy. Before the shark episode... the highlight of our snorkeling adventure was a turtle that swam right through us and was just tootling along. It didn't swim away until we tried to get a little closer to take pictures.. and then it just picked up its pace enough to out swim us... but was just beautiful.

Anyway... there are worse places to be stranded and we are really enjoying being here in Suwarrow and hanging out until our next passage of 5 days to Tonga.

Hugs and Love to everyone,

Heath

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