Today at noon we reached Vostok, another uninhabited island of the Southern Line Island group. Vostok lies 5 nm ENE from the position that is shown on the charts–but we knew that from satellite pictures beforehand. It’s tiny, just half a mile wide and roughly triangular-shaped. It’s a beautiful island with a white beach all around and high Pisonia trees growing inland (it doesn’t have a lagoon, but also isn’t high enough to be a raised atoll…). Apparently this island was never touched by human settlers and looking at the 4 m high turquoise breakers smashing against the island even today in calm conditions, it’s rather obvious why nobody ever tried to live here.
We sailed around the island, going in as close as we dared taking pictures while hundreds of boobies, terns and frigate birds circled curiously around the boat. We saw 3 green turtles checking us out as well… While we’re sad that we couldn’t stop, we’re also happy that this little islands also remains inapproachable to others with less environmental-friendly plans than ours 
We keep on sailing towards Tongareva (also called Penrhyn, Cook Islands) and we still have 310 nm to go!
