Tall Ship Soren Larsen New Zealand Sailing adventure for all ages

Tall Ship Soren Larsen 2007 ~ South Pacific Sail Training Adventure for all ages

COOKS ISLANDS TO SAMOA 2007

SOREN SETS OFF FOR REMOTE PALMERSTON & SUWARROW
Cook Alison Gemmel reports in:

Soren Larsen, the two masted brigantine, is currently half way through its
2007 South Pacfic Odyssey. While berthed in Rarotonga, in the Cook Islands, crew have been treated to sights of humpback whales breaching just outside the reef. And many crew have taken advantage of the fine sunny weather to explore both the beaches and tropical rainforest of Rarotonga.

When the ship weighs anchor tomorrow, Tuesday, it plans to visit the remote coral atolls of Palmerston & Suwarrow, en route to Samoa.

Today, Monday, the crew have been loading essential stores for residents of Palmerston. With no scheduled passenger or cargo ships stopping at Palmerston, friends and family based in Rarotonga have been quick to take up Soren’s offer of free cargo delivery. Voyage crew have pitched in to help load, book cases & desks for the school; a chest freezer for the church; around 20 cases of food – flour, rice, tinned goods and a few luxury items.
Plus a canoe and 10 x 40 gallon drums, which will be used to store water on the island. And of course the Kitchen Sink (yes really)....

It will take Soren Larsen around 40 hours to sail from Aututaki, in the Southern Cook Islands to Palmerston, 200 miles away, where the ship plans to spend the day meeting residents and exchanging gifts, before heading off into new waters...

After Palmerston the ship will sail off any tourist maps and on to Suwarrow a further 295 nautical miles North. Suwarrow is a nature reserve managed by the Cook Islands Department of the Environment and as such offers pristine waters and and idyllic network of atolls around a central lagoon.

Soren has been granted special permission to visit the island group. Suwarrow has not been permanently lived on since the 50s and 60s when Tom Neale, a New Zealander lived alone on one of the atolls for years at a time. His memoirs “An Island to Oneself” offer a fascinating insight into the physical and mental challenges of living entirely dependant on one’s own resources.

The crew were honoured when Stella Neale Kenyon, daughter of the eponymous Tom, visited the ship, reminisced about her father and ‘his’ island. She also took time to teach the crew a traditional Cook Islands dance. And its hoped that the crew can squeeze in enough practice, and in some cases develop rythym, to be able to perform the dance on Palmerston.