Day 134 Suwarrow Island

Bird sanctuary
We arrived at the pass as planned at about 0730 and navigated into the lagoon without incident. At the urging of Eaio, we flew the South African flag instead of the American flag. They told us to do this by radio after they had left Suwarrow but we never asked why.
To our surprise, there were four other boats anchored just off the caretaker's motu. Three of them had South African flags. One boat, Double Dutch, was from Capetown and when Mark talked to the captain he learned that they had lived just a few miles from where Mark grew up. Yes, it is a small world.
Just Desert (Mike & Dawn from New Jersey) had been here for 3 weeks. They have been sailing for a total of 7 years having spent almost 3 years in the Caribbean. Mike told us that the fishing just outside the pass is the best he has seen in all his cruising. He has a hard-sided dinghy with a 15 HP motor and we look forward to going out with him to bring in some sushi makings.
As we arrived, he caretakers John and Veronica and their 4 kids were picking up passengers from two other boats for an excursion to the other side of the 11 mile wide atoll. He asked us to delay check-in until he returned.
Mike came over from Just Desert to pass the time and talked for almost 3 hours. It was easy to have a conversation with him because you did not have to say anything. His New Yorker manner and accent were very familiar. One thing he told us was a bit curious. He said his wife always gets seasick. How is it that they have been cruising for 7 years? We want to meet her and ask.
In the afternoon the caretakers returned and we took the 7 boxes of supplies ashore. They seemed very happy to receive them. They are both from Rarotonga but it seems that HQ does not provide very well for them. No government ship from Rarotonga has been here for months. Curious. John said the only time they come is to attempt to stop the illegal removal of wildlife from the island. Suwarrow is a national park and a bird sanctuary. The birds, lobster and turtles are all protected but poachers occasionally come from Rarotonga. All John can do is notify the authorities on Raro and let them take appropriate action. It seems that not much is done.
Suwarrow has seven major bird species and several sub-species.
We saw the first frigate bird when we were still almost 100 miles from the island. They fly very high and never seem to flap their seven foot black wings. Any sail plane pilot could take lessons from these guys.
We saw black tropic birds with their long tails as we got closer to the island. They are smaller and more sleek and fly closer to the water.
Our favorite birds, the boobies, started to follow us when we were about 20 miles away. They did their classic figure eights around the boat coming up alongside, turning away from the boat and crossing our wake to set up for their turn on the other side. They fly very close to the water, almost touching it and acrobatically changing altitude just in time to avoid the waves.
The white fairy terns become visible as we got to the pass. Flying rapidly in pairs a few hundred feet above the ground, they mostly stay just over the trees.
The black sooty terns come overhead in groups making a loud squawking noise - almost parrot-like. John said there are so many of them on one of the motus that when you are close to them their combined noise is like rushing water.
Mike said there are a few beautiful herons that hunt in the shallows but we have not seen them yet. John also referred to several types of sandpipers but they live near a different motu. Perhaps if we stay for a few days, we will get to make some excursions to the rest of the atoll.