*SIGH* Oh Carol - - HOW ABSOLUTELY AMAAAZING!
This IS for real, right?! You aren't pulling our legs are you? Girl, you should write a BOOK! You have the flair AND you have the experiences.
My husband has often talked of doing something similar...maybe not QUITE as "full out" as you guys did but to just get on a sailboat and go. Hablo espaniol pocito! MUY pocito! ha ha
Tell us MORE, Auntie Carol! TELL US MORE!
OT - Texas hoya nut goes to Hawaii!
OK, I'll be home about 5:30 my time, give me a few minutes to grab a cup of tea, and settle in....then PLEASE continue......
Still speechless. This is the best book I have ever read! Is there anything you can't do. Don't tell me, I like to think you are perfect! Lol!!
Heather
Agree with all the above.....especially about writing the book!!!
A bedtime story in the middle of the day!
Looking forward to more....and thanks for sharing this with us....I know it can get monotonous to sit at the keyboard and 'peck away'....but you know we appreciate it and we're 'hanging on' your every word!
I can't say you missed your calling (you seem to be good at WHATEVER you do), but man....you shoulda been a writer!!
You are good at keeping our attention on this wonderful story book life you led.
If any producers are reading along, they just well make you a movie offer. I love the piece about little Fred. I sure hope he found his way home.
Marcy
Carol you are a truly amazing and wonderful person....what a gift to us all on the forum...
More....I need more....I've become as addicted to your story as I am to these hoyas...
Sue
Everyone comfy?
We left the coast of Chile early in evening in order to make our arrival at Robinson Crusoe Island in daylight 4 days later...HA! The wind picked up and we FLEW through the waves . We had a rough and ready 4 wheel drive boat - a Westsail 43 with an extra tall mast and they have a reputation of being slow as they are very heavy. We made the trip in 3 days...averaging 8.5 knots (our normal was 5.5-6) and no one slept!!! The big excitement was when one of the 50 gallon barrels we carried (we carried 2 thru that part of the ocean as fuel was scarce and it is a BIG ocean) strapped to the mast broke lose and was sloshing up and down the boat!! The side it was lose on was the leward side....the one almost always underwater in that weather...so I watched as Bob went out on deck and literally wrestled this 50 gal. barrel to a stop before it smashed up that side of the boat. I watched this match thru one of the portlights....and was sure it was going to be ADIOS BOB...but he got it handled and tied down to the deck where it wouldn't move and didn't unbalance the boat. Landfall was blessed...we could sleep!!! and survey the damage (not much). Later we went ashore for a couple of hours...took a hike...saw the "cave" where 'he' lived.... RC Island belongs to Chile, so there were a few research type folks there and the always present Chilean Navy. 2 days later we took off for Easter Island - Rapa Nui to the Polynesians. I kid you not...we made landfall on Easter Sunday in the middle of the night! We had friends in the anchorage who, with mast lights, led us into the bay to a safe (but rolly anchorage).
Easter Island is a largish rock in the middle of the ocean. There are NO protected places to anchor...one can only hope to get out of the wind (which can put the boat on the rocks) but often we were at the mercy of the seas which can continue to roll in and make the boat rock and roll....sleep is impossible. But, EI was important...so we spent 9 days trying to get ashore to see the sights...and 7 times we pulled the anchor up and moved to the OTHER side of the island to be better protected. Not fun. In those 9 days we got ashore for 4 hours!!!
This is what happened: We had moved to Hangaroa, the 'capitol' and anchored offshore.... a dicey anchorage. (Lots of stories of cruisers anchored there who had to leave in a hurry - wind shift - who lost their anchor because the bottom is so foul. Later the locals find the boat and sell the anchor and chain back to that boat for...say...400$. Great business. The navy sees/does nothing) There was a very small bay at right angles to the rolling surf where all of the fishing boats tied up. Picture this....a line of surf rolling into the beach, OK? And at the end of the swell, just when the wave is about to break, there is a small 'door' to the left that one scoots into and it is flat calm. This is what we were told...no experience.
So...Bob and I, after checking weather for the gazillionith time, decide to go in. We get our 4 horse engine on our little hard dingy (better in surf than the rubber duckies) and head in. The surf picks up as we are heading IN and we are surfing down 10' faces scooting to the left of the wave and suddenly whip into the harbor. Flat calm. Almost made me seasick. We leave the dingy (8' long, mylar/teflon little boat), find a car to rent and we drive the island. The Navy later told us they had bets on whether we would make it or not..... swell.
Imagine! An island without trees....wind swept and desolate where once it was forested. A hill with those magnificent Moai (the big heads with the long noses and big ears) some half buried, some whole, standing sentinel over the land. An eerie quiet.... THEY know what happened... We passed huge Ahu (large stone structures with the Moai atop looking inland on the coast....NOT out to sea....why? We went to a site where a bunch of "believers" were building a reed boat they thought they would take to proove some Thor Heyerdahl (sp?) theory (it sank 12 hours out to sea).. dropped the rental jeep off and headed for the harbor.
WHOA...the surf was HUGE...and we had to go OUT into/thru it to get to our boat and out of the area fast as the wind was picking up and the seas were rough. A big Chilean ship had come in and was ferrying their people back and forth from the ship to the little harbor...in big fiberglass boats with macho honking engines...HMMM. The surf was too large and our little boat too light/small (with the 4 hp engine) to take Bob (170lbs) AND me (nevermind) both thru the surf....so I managed a ride in one of the Navy boats who would drop me at our boat and Bob took off in the dingy. I can't tell you my feelings watching him in the bow of the little boat, an extension on the outboard's steering so he could keep his weight forward in the boat...head out and crash thru 12/14' breakers. Eventually they dropped me off at Elyxir; Bob had the engine on, the anchor ready as the Navy approached our boat....with swells taking us 10' UP and then 10' DOWN...one pass by Elyxir and I had to jump....Bob there to (?) laugh or catch me....whatever. I made it, we hauled anchor and decided to head to Pitcairn.... enough with the Gods of Easter Island...they didn't want us.
The boats that arrived the next day had 2 weeks of calm weather, days spent on the island.... Oh well, win a few, lose a few.
That night we broke records for flying fish on deck during the night. 49.
Should I start a new thread....this is getting to be really long?
If you start a new thread, mark it well - I don't want to lose this story!! What an awesome adventure - gives me ideas about our 27 foot cruiser. But I'm only brave enough to take it out on a lake (barely). Please continue, this is fascinating!!!!
If you do start a new thread, please keep it in the Hoyas forum! I do not want to lose track of 'your story'! 8>)))
Yes, start another thread, but please keep going with it. Also, do you have a picture or so to pop in from time to time. I would love to see this boat ...now that I've lived on it in my imagination, swaying with the swells of the sea.
I have a new admiration for you two thinking how you delt with the riggers of the sometimes merrciless sea.
Marcy
Carol
If you kept to the same tread others will have the story from the start.....Sandyc
Unless, of course, you copy/paste the previous 'story-bits' into a new one.
lol!! Just curious, Carol.....how big has your head swelled so far? (j/k you!!) You've become even more 'popular' than you already were!!
Please do start a new thread. I went and bought motion sickness pills, glad I did, that was a rough one. And then......
Hey...finally managed to get my head thru the door to my computer!
Big Master Gardener Plant Sale tomorrow....so I won't have a lot of free time....but Sunday will get things going if I can't tonight and Sat. Have thought about digging out some pictures....
Have a Happy One or More...
Carol
ooooo.....good luck at the sale. I love plant sales. Ha. Be sure to tell us what ya get.
Marcy
PLANT SALE?!?! Did someone say PLANT SALE?!?! ;O)
Now WHAT could be better than a Plant Sale in Hawaii?!?! Sheesh!
Okay Carol - we'll sit tight and wait for you to do your thang.
When you start with your next episode, I'm popping popcorn! Man, this is even better than the MOVIES!
I moved everything (isn't cut and paste wonderful?) to a new thread....OT Talking Story...Perhaps a big publisher will read the whole thing and present me with an offer.
NOT!!!
I want to tell you all that writing these adventures, YEARS later is so wonderful. They are as real to me as they were then....but the details are not as important as the impressions, feelings, observations etc. Thanks for indulging me. :>) Carol