Aitutaki, Cook Islands

We spent five days on Rarotonga, a couple of them just waiting for weather. A bad weather system came in on Monday and has hung around for almost a week now bringing cold weather, rain and lots of wind. We are not used to complaining about the weather. The nights temperature was getting down to about 15° c. We had to dig out some warmer clothes and jackets. Sadly, it was just too cold to go snorkeling in the lagoon here so we busied ourselves with other things instead. We rented a scooter for a couple of days and toured the island. Very scenic and it looks like an ideal vacation spot. Plenty of fine dining, shops, beaches, golf course, diving, hiking and night clubs. They even have a movie theatre.

We had planned to sail out on Wednesday, but the weather was not great so we left on Thursday. Actually, it turned out to be really gusty on Thursday as well. But we sailed out anyway and I promptly got seasick. The worst ever even though I took some tablets. I crawled below leaving Jens to manage the 30knot winds and swells so big and so many it reminded me of the movie, The Perfect Storm. It was not a good day. Trust me. It was really not a good day. Oh, we weren't in any danger. Not at all. This boat can handle the weather. And Jens will say it was not so bad. But I felt like I was dying and couldn't help wondering "What the Heavens Am I Doing Here".

Twenty-four hours later we arrived to Aitutaki and entered the calm waters of the lagoon. It was a bit tricky as the pass is narrow and shallow and the entire map is off by about 300 meters as you can see in the picture below where the yellow line is our track and the green bits is coral reef. So after a bit of hesitation and indecision as to whether or not we would give it a go, we finally saw a catamaran coming out which showed us the route in. We set anchor just at the end of the pass and breathed a huge sigh of relieve.

As soon as we were in calmer waters on the lee side of the reef I immediately felt better and once we were anchored I prepared a good breakfast for the Captain who had pulled an all-nighter and was exhausted. The wind continued to howl together with intermittent rain showers so we spent the day on board recovering from our short but intense journey.

The wind and rain has continued. We hope it clears up soon as the lagoon here is said to be really beautiful with plenty of reef life. We made a short visit to the island today. Everything is closed as is typical for Saturday afternoons and Sundays. But we found some wifi and checked the weather forecast. It should be good for a departure on Monday.

We discovered the water temperature in the lagoon is a very brisk 22°c, much colder than the usual 29° we have been used to. I don't know why the temperature would be so much colder inside the lagoon than outside. But if the sun comes out today, I am determined to do a bit of snorkelling. Hah! Let's see. Those who know me know that I am a chicken when it comes to jumping into cold water.

And, yes the sun came out so off we went in the dinghy to do a bit of snorkelling. The water was refreshing :). Really. It wasn't so bad especially wearing our wetsuits. The visibility was excellent and the coral was in great shape. And we saw the hugest giant clams ever. Oh, they were magnificent. I wish I could have taken a photo. They were at least a foot in length and many of them were not embedded into a coral as we usually see them, but were on the sand bottom. Very cool. And that together with a purple starfish and a turtle made it a good afternoon of snorkelling.