Rarotonga, Cook Islands

It is about 540 nautical miles from Bora Bora to Rarotonga. We had hoped to stop in Maupiti for a day or so, but when we got there the swells were high and the waves were crashing into the pass. We don't know how good we are at surfing and although we thought it wouldn't be too difficult to enter, we weren't so sure as to how easy it would be to get out again. We weren't in the mood to be stuck in a lagoon for what could have been a week or more waiting for the seas to calm down, so we just continued on and headed for Rarotonga, the largest of the Cook Islands.

We had good wind for the first two days, zipping along at about 7 knots an hour which is about 13 km per hour. On second thought perhaps zipping along is a bit of an exaggeration since you can ride a bike faster than that. Anyhow, we were making good time and thought we would arrive late on Friday. And as is typical of sailing, as soon as you start to take the wind for granted, it just goes and blows itself right out. The wind slowly died and we reluctantly took down the stay sail and the genoa and finally the main sail and started the engine. There's not much point in being halfway there and just bobbing in the ocean like a big plastic cork going nowhere. We pretty much had to motor the rest of the way and arrived early Saturday morning.

First business has to be taken care of. We met with the Harbour master, Saungaki Rasmussen. Imagine that, a Danish Harbour master. Seems his great grandfather was a Viggo Rasmussen, but it certainly isn't obvious to look at him that he is of Danish ancestry. He has never been to Denmark but has travelled to Germany.

We did a stern tie which is a bit complicated. It means we drop the anchor and back up to the pier pulling the anchor tight. Then we throw two lines to the pier and tie up there. The swells are too big and the pier too high so we can't put a bridge across to get to shore. Instead we have to use the dinghy even though we are only three meters away.

We couldn't leave the boat until the Health Inspector came aboard. He did a spray of the boat, (actually spritzed this bug killer a couple of times), filled in some paperwork, collected $25 and told us we could go to shore as the Customs guy likely wouldn't come by till Monday. Ok. Didn't sound quite right but what the heck.

It was recommended that we visit the Saturday market which was just 100 meters from the city dock. I think the whole island was there selling souvenirs, baked goods, food, vegetables and island tours. They also had a performance with singing, drums and dancing and ukuleles. And as we walked around we realized Rarotonga is very much a tourist destination for Aussies and Kiwis.

We proceeded to the Police Station to get our Cook Island driving license so we could rent a scooter for a couple of days. They took our passport and drivers license, snapped a photo and voila, we both now have an official Cook Island drivers license.