Who Says There Are No Kids Out Cruising?

Not Heather Tzortzis of the San Francisco-based Lagoon 470 Family Circus. Not after taking this photo of 14 kids from cruising boats on Suwarrow, a low atoll in the Cook Islands 502 nautical miles from Rarotonga.

Although currently just two caretakers live on the island during tourist season, over the years Suwarrow has been occupied by a succession of loners. The most famous was New Zealander Tom Neale, who lived alone on Suwarrow for a total of 16 years in three periods between 1952 and 1977. He wrote about it in a book titled An Island to Oneself.

One of the reasons the island is not permanently populated is, as some loners have discovered, there isn’t enough food. Another is tropical cyclones. In 1942 a tropical cyclone washed away 16 of the 22 islets. All that were left were wild pigs and chickens. Cats were later introduced on Anchorage Island in an effort to control the many rats.

Too busy to care much about the history of the island was Tristan Tzortzis, as it was his 14th birthday. Heather made a video showing what Tristan does these days: gets in water balloon fights with girl-kid cruisers, climbs coconut trees, free dives with big rays, hangs out with friends on the cat’s lower spreaders, slides down the headstay, skim boards behind the dinghy. You know, the typical stuff American teenagers do.