This story is posted about our sailing adventures in the S. Pacific....requested by a forum member. I have transfered the beginnings of thisstory from another post...and will continue it here.
Yep!...except we didn't get around the world...OH Heck...might as well tell it here.
We left Seattle April 15, 1994 and followed Spring up thru British Columbia, Queen Charlotte Island, Alaska (the OUTSIDE...not the windless Inside Passage) up to Glacier Bay. Then we sailed across the Gult of Alaska to Prince William Sound, the Kenai Penninsula (we managed to sail across a morain into a bay with 7 calving glaciers and we drifted with the ice for a wonderful hour with Brandenberg Concerto full blast on the Stereo...)...then to Kodiak island. This was now August and with all the Fishermen's warnings...we left by the 15th of August and sailed to San Francisco. The only bad weather was off the coast of Oregon!!!
Alaska is just to magnificent for words!!! Especially when seen and experienced off the beaten path (if you can imagine there IS one up there). The fishermen are all kind and helpful, the wildlife extraordinary...eating freshly caught crab and fish, clams, mussels every day...yes...cold a lot of the time. In May we had snow on the deck!! Biggest thrill was daylight at 3a.m. with a Sei Whale cruising alongside the boat within 20'...we just hoped that he wasn't falling in love. After staying with us for about 1/2 hour he swam off...but it was a close up experience.
From SF, we day sailed down the coast of California, putting into a bay or cove everynight to anchor. From San Diege we sailed down to Baja California where I had my first experience with dolphins....especially early in the morning they would play with us, scooting up along side the boat, reaching 10' in the air....sometimes hundreds of them.
Well, Mexico was Mexico...crowded bays full of cruising yanks creating their little subcultures there....we passed on down to Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and then Panama where we spent some time (weeks) getting ready for our long trip down to Chile with a few stops in between. Panama was interesting...I crewed on a couple of boats, helping to take them thru the Panama Canal...a fascinating trip on a sailboat all locked into a space with tankers, tugs, cruise ships...talk about being dwarfed. I had read a couple of books on the Panama Canal (The Path Between Two Seas) and the whole adventure had real meaning to me.
Our last ADVENture in Panama was sailing up the Darien Region...on a river. Now...the first thing about sailboats is that you don't take them up very tidal rivers. We did! No charts...just reading the river...finding a hole to anchor in at night and then taking the dinghy at low tide and finding the chanels. We knew big boats/ships went up there...so we were going too! The town was so small that we were asked to move our boat, anchored just off the airstrip....they were afraid the planes would hit our mast. We ventured up the river 40 miles with 2 other boats... Never again!! We sailed down the coast...alive...to Ecuador. Always, when we could, we traveled a lot from larger ports like Guatemala and Ecuador. A pressman at the company where I worked before leaving Seattle had relatives in the town where we stopped (Manta) so we saw some wonderful things and had a home. The great adventure was traveling to see friends of friends. It took us: 3 bus rides, a ride in a milk truck, another ride in a pickup, crossing a river and a 4 hour hike to get to them...way out in the boonies...but beautiful!!! Toucans flying overhead, swimming in the headwaters of a large river...and yes, snakes.
OT - Talking Story
OK...heheheh...glad I have some audience. I am a sucker for audiences, as you may have noticed!
Anyway, half the year the wind blows across Manta and out to sea, the other half it reverses. We were there when the dirt, grime, oil, animal/human waste dirt was blown across the harbor. Our white boat was black, our lines, halyards (all the ropes) were black (on one side)...it was horrible. Our last day in port we spent the day tied up to the rickety old wharf filling buckets with fresh water to dunk everything in....(the port water was simply sewage so we couldn't use that)....and we left on a 2 hour trip to an island off the coast where we would clean up the boat and REST! From THAT little bay we sailed down to Chile... 29 days at sea.
OH...we saw life... First a Colombian navy vessel hailed us in the middle of the night (my sleep time) and demanded to know why we were in THEIR WATERS without authorization. Smiling sweetly in my best Spanish I told them we were just silly stupid Americans and please forgive us.... They claim territorial waters 300 miles offshort. That was scary. Then we went thru a Colombian fishing fleet all sleeping...boats bobing along, no one saw us but we saw them on the radar....and in the morning a huge outboard fiberglass boat with 3 tough dudes and 'cargo' came alongside 300 miles offshort and wanted cigarettes. I whispered up to Bob how to say "bugger off" in Spanish as I handed him the shotgun.... they peeled off out to sea...never heard from them again.
We had beautiful idyllic weather...couldn't have asked for better. We made landfall JUST where we wanted to and managed to catch the beginning of the flooding tide thru the channel into the southern channels of Patagonia...its a good thing, too...as the current runs at 9 - 14 knots (a little less in mph) in AND out...
Landfall. The sweet SWEET smell of land, grasses, trees. Southern Chile could be Devonshire, England, with the hedgerows and sheep and cattle grazing on rolling green pastures.... We were enthralled by Chile, the Chileans and eveything about this wonderful area - after Alaska, one of our favorites! We spent 18 months in Chile sailing thru Patagonia in their summers, meeting local folks who became good friends and enjoying our life there. I could go on for hours about S. Chile!!! Suffice to say we knew it was time to leave when we considered buying an island (cheap!!!), 400 acres, BIG FAT trout in the streams and only 6 hours by boat from civilization which is a euphemism for 300 people and a church.
Our families in Chile were the fleet of Cod Fishermen who warned us of bad weather when the official forcase ignored it, brought us fresh fish. We acted as medical consultants to isolated people (called the Chilean Navy for help) and dispensed what medications we could. We traded applesauce bread for tons of crab...spent a day pressing apples to made moonshine on a small island...
While in Chile we land traveled to Peru and Bolivia... And we left Chile in February, reluctantly...on our way out, just off the coast, we came upon a Blue Whale, basking on the surface....surprised us both. Next landfall would be Robinson Crusoe Island, Easter Island, Pitcairn and finally Mangareva in the southern Australs.
Gotta make dinner.... TTFN.
Ah...tune in...isolation was no problem...none at all. Storms...well, avoided them when we could but sometimes old Nellie Nature has other ideas. We had a saying "whether it's cold or whether it's hot we're going to have weather whether or not". True...true.
Will talk about storms later....but isolation was curious:
I left a successful job in sales. 3 days before we left, I landed the second largest printing account in the Pacific NW...no one could believe I walked away from all the commissions (headaches, middle of the night press checks, acid reflux etc.). Money...not important. Me? Very important. But out where God left his flipflops, on a boat where DH called the shots and I cooked and cleaned...I felt very ..."pink" (pink jobs and blue jobs). It bothered me. I had no recognition (commissions, clients needing me etc.) and no sense of ME. So, Bob put me in charge of the Weather. Right!!! BFD! So, I started a crash course, self taught, on reading weather maps, talking to boats, ships etc. about weather....and I got rather good. I made the decisions about where we went and when...(power...a heady drug). So, I listened to single sideband radio and VHF a lot. This was my connex with the world.
In the meantime, listening to radio (singlesideband and vhf close at hand) I made friends. Out in the middle of the ocean I could call up Max in Sebastapol and he would patch me in to my son in Bellingham, or my sister or my friend in Seattle. I listened to fishing boats talking....'nets' (like a forum) would have radio schedules and we would talk to eachother every day, exchange information, stories etc. It was family. We were never alone.
I remember one day sitting in the cockpit in the vast middle of the ocean en route to Chile...not a breath of wind. We were motoring ...there wasn't a mark on the water, yet there was an ever so quiet and subtle movement to the sea...as far as the eye could see. I thought to myself...'this ocean never sleeps, she is breathing'...the water only changed heights of about2" but it was obvious. Except ;for the motor...it was still. When I am feeling harrassment or crowded, I go back to that place.
Another time in some bouncy seas with a lot of wind, a tiny yellow finch was blown onto the boat...we were 300 miles from the Galapagos and he dropped in. He hopped about the boat, totally unafraid of us or the boat, went below, looked for insects, and came out again. He slept in my lap for about an hour and tried to fly off ....and soon was back again. I felt so badly for him...obviously he was blown off course and was trying so hard to get back on schedule. Finally he left for the 3rd time and we never saw him again. We named him Fred.
I, the gregarious salesperson typeA personality drank in the isolation and quiet like a parched camel at a river. It was exquisite!
One place in Chile we were in a cove, inside a bay, inside another bay, tied down with 2 anchors out and 4 lines ashore tied to trees while storm after storm after storm came thru. After the 2nd day we stopped talking and just read our books, after the 6th day the paints came out and after the 10th day, I hid anything pointed!!! HAHAHA...just kidding. But we really didn't need to talk...we played music, we rread and we went crazy. It's very simple. After day 12 the wind stopped and we went out in the dingy for a tour around the place...no where to land, no where to walk, 100' cliffs all around...back to the boat, back to 14 sq. ft. of floor space. Life was simple. I would call up the Chilean Navy guys on the radio who were as bored as I was (they were on radio duty) and we would exchange recipes, tell jokes.... We visited an isolated Lighthouse on the coast once...amazing. After a horrendous trip thru the bay to the dock...we had to walk 5 miles to the lighthouse...the Oxen couldn'tget thru because of the landslides.
I learned how blessed we are to have what we do and to live where we do. I learned how blessed they are with no TV, no traffic, no commercials. Life without commercials is so REAL....better than drugs/wine/coffee, any day!!!
Isolation...? I learned who I AM and I learned to like myself (not much choice...I was all I had!!!). I also learned to beat my husband at Scrabble which made me delighted! We went places in Chile and in Fiji where no boats had ever been....we found beautiful places to anchor that we told the Navy about and we were able to give them names: Caleta Snibs (Bob's Mother), Caleta Elyxir (our boat), Estero Capt. Jack (my father). In Fiji we got special permission from the President of Fiji (thru the Chilean Ambassador to NZ whom I met at a bank in Tahiti and we all became good friends) to sail to the Lau group...a group of islands speaking their own version of Fijian, with their own history and very protected by the government. We sailed into villages never visited before...became part of the island life, were never asked for anything but were given everything. If I got bored I would go ashore and 'hang' with the women who wanted to know all about my life like I wanted to know abut theirs...their kids were terified of me at first. We would go to the cement wash area and wash clothes (BroshieBroshie in Fijian)....a cement slab, a stiff bristle brush and lots of harsh detergent....whites were WHITE. They were the top choir in all the country wide competitions so we washed clothes singing "Rock of Ages", 'She'll be Comin around the Mountain" and other old hymns in Fijian!!! Their harmony was natuaral...no instruments. We were invited to church and sat up at the altar with the preacher and given hymn books to sing from ....in Fijean...and they all thought we spoke the language. How can you miss? Onward Chrisian Soldiers in a monosyllabic language....we really impressed them!!! Everything was so simple. So uncomplicated. So basic. So real.
OH, I edited this to say that my FAVORITE was Amazing Grace....I still get chicken skin when I hear the remembered voices singing in perfect harmony...and when 4 or 5 would start...the whole village would join in....and it was Amazing Grace.
The first big supermarket we went to was in Panama and I had a list and off Iwent. I came home with nothing. I couldn't decide. Too many choices. I just wanted (for instance) olives and wanted the olives on the shelf...not a choice of 4 sizes, 16 brands, 5 colors....you get the picture.
Off to bed...TTYL
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.
I had read what I could about Pitcairn Island. And, of course, knew the history of the Bounty and had seen the movie (ies) (Mutiny on the Bounty) and gorgeous Fletcher Christian and the intrigue. Capt. Bly, for me, will always be Peter Ustinov... So visiting Pitcairn was/is one of the real biggies of our trip. Here, on this tiny island in the middle of the lower S. Pacific a bunch of Crew from the HMS Bounty mutinied...so that they could live in Paradise without the whip of the English with their polynesian women and children. A few learned how to brew liquor from the roots of the Ti plants...became drunks, ruined Paradise by killing most everyone. The few that survived stayed on and their families still inhabit the island. They receive supplies from New Zealand perhaps twice a year as well as the odd visit of a yachie and visits from Cruise Ships. When we visited, there were only about 23 families on the island - and we had spoken to Merelda on the radio and she was expecting us.
We sailed into Bounty Bay (where the ship was burned and her anchor is visible if you dive in the bay) around noon...and were guided into the very rolly anchorage by someone on the hill above us with a radio. He told us when to drop the anchor (on the only spot of sand within 50 miles) and we waited for the boat to pick us up and we rocked in the swells.
The fellow who came to pick us up was Bryan Christian...direct descendant of Fletcher....and he looked like Tom Selleck (sp.?) with that beautiful smile. We charged in towards the shoreline and it was another Easter Island landing: right at the shore break was a wall and an opening to the left....we coasted down the waves, hung a left and into a calm little harbour....waiting for us was Merelda. She had a honking ATV and drove both of us up the hill, through the town to her house. She was, as well as public citizen, sherrif, customs, immigration and bee keeper. She took us around the island...we saw all of the historical sites...saw the hills and hills of Lantana which grows wild there (and the bees that pollinate these fields make the BEST honey I have ever tasted), we met a few of the other locals who were out (one woman, Auntie 'someone' had a pet Cormorant on a post in her front yard which looked like the bird of death). The whole island was a total 'trip'.
When we left, Merelda and her mother sent us off with fresh loafs of bread, papaya, pumelo, breadfruit, banana....we got back to our boat, stowed the fresh treasures, weighed anchor and were away towards Mangareva in French Polynesia.
We sailed slowly north...leaving Pitcairn being slowly enveloped by evening clouds....and in the dimming light I thought of a lovely excentric old dowager wrapping herself in a mauve colored kind of fluffy shawl to cuddle down for the night. Pitcairn disappeared as she appeared....quietly and from/into oblivion.
It was quite a surreal experience: Pitcairn was not real (to me), it was a living piece of frozen history....trying to keep its' pulse strong enough to be self sustainable. The cruise ships buy trinkets and oogle and gogle at the antiquity....but the Pitcairners are more than children of mutineers....they are trying to live some kind of life on a rock in the middle of the ocean isolated by choice and by design. Wierd.
Time for Bed. Nigh' Please forgive the mis spellings and probably grammar....
This message was edited Nov 18, 2005 8:24 PM
And then..........(was going to try to talk DH into a movie tonight, but think I'll wait for the next installment of this!) LOL Karen
Ohhhhhh Carol,
We're waiting for more. It's like feeding baby chicks, you give us a grub and we start clammoring for more. :-)
An
Ok Ms Noel, give me your autograph now, cause I'm not waiting in any line to get it, once you become famous!
Blessings,
Awanda
PITCAIRN TO MANGAREVA
It was a gentle overnight sail to Mangareva....a small group of islands in an atoll with one main island which had been 'settled' by the French way back when. Approaching the islands was something out of a sailing novel....clear sky with a formation of clouds over the islands, indicating they were there. T he rings of surf on the atoll...the lighter green/blue of the entrance (shallower than surrounding waters either side of the reef)...thrilling.
There is a beautiful white church/cathedral built for a reigning Cardinal by local laborers who carved all the building blocks out of Coral. There were many stone watch towers around the bay....and evidence of cannibalism in the mountains (Bob while hiking came across some old human bones in a cave). Not many foreign boats got that far south in French Polynesia, so we were somewhat of a novelty....and were offered fresh fruit and information where we could buy vegetables locally. We arranged for a local family to make us a big local style dinner on the otherside of the island...under some HUGE wild Hibiscus trees....we had wild goat in coconut milk, a type of ceviche, parrot fish, taro, rice....it was just wonderful eating with the hibiscus blossoms falling on us/the table/all around us as they do at night. That day we had all gone out to a sand island on the edge of the atoll, dived on a black pearl farm... We had a big day.
We were a very mixed bunch of boats. We were three American boats, a Brazialian Trimaran about 56'long and almost as wide, and a Polish boat with a strange bunch on board: the owner who knew nothing about sailing but had a contract to research for a Polish Encyclopedia, his crew (only one who could sail) and a 'captain'. He was required by his contract to have a captain aboard....you will learn more about him later.
One night, we were all anchored out by the reef, where we had snorkeled all day, and we decided to have a Pizza Off! We were just the American boats and the Brazilians....so it was agreed that the Brazilian Boat would have the dinner there...and they would make the
Pizza dough. The rest of us were to bring our favorite toppings and a sauce. GREAT! We always carried exotic specialties for special occasions....black calamata olives, capers, sundried tomatoes, good olive oil. We all sailed on our stomachs!!! All was arranged....and the Polish boat came into where we were anchored. Fine...we would include them too (even tho the Capt. had a habit of drinking everyone's booze and getting so drunk we all had to leave early). Nevermind....
Bob and I went over to the Polish boat and invited them...their only comment was, "GREAT, we will come. What is Pizza?"
"Well, we explained, you put your favorite meat and other toppings on a crust of dough, with your favorite cheese and tomato sauce and it is baked in the oven". Their eyes lit up...(3 hungry men...women cooking...what could be better?). So at the magic hour we all went over to the floating palace that was the Brazilian boat....they had a full bar set up (we all brought wine)...and we started making our Pizzas while one of the Brazilians played the guitar and we all sang Brazilian Songs (none of us spoke Brazilian, but who was to care?). The Polish boat arrived....beaming from ear to ear..... they brought
Spam
Sardines
Pickles
Craft American Cheese
Catsup
We had no choice. We made their Pizza! I even ate a slice, tho' it reminded me of cheap cat food.... THEY thought it was fanTAStic!!! The Captain guzzled all the bottles down (without a chaser) and fell overboard. At that moment the wind came up and it was late and we decided to exit stage left....before it became dangerous to get back to our boat...
(Believe me....this is not a slam against Poles...they happened to be from Poland...could have been anywhere...).
This was an evening to remember!!!
The next day we all went ashore again and caught some 3spot crab which we boiled up....Mangareva was wonderful. After a couple of weeks everyone went their own ways....some up thru the islands to the Tuomotus, some off to Papeete...we headed for the Southern Australs....a 3 day trip. Both of us got the flu en route...we hove to (a means of backing the sails so you simply hold your position and don't go anywhere) for 3 days. I don't remember anything about it!!! We arrived in Raivavai a bit later than expected....that will have to keep for another day.
Ewww. Are you sure it was wild goat?
You sure it was the FLU and NOT FOOOOOD POISONING?!?!?!
Ketchup, spam, goat = some kind of flu!!! Please continue.....
OH NO...the goat was wonderful! Besides, we didn't eat it all the same day!!!
The pizza on the other hand.....:>(
And then?????
This message was edited Nov 21, 2005 7:40 PM
No No....goat tastes like lamb/mutton...gamier tho.
OK...we arrived in Raivavai, a small island about 15 miles around (how do I know?...we WALKED it!!!), checked with with the Gendarmes and looked for fresh vegies and frozen chicken. French Polynesia is very susidized by the French...and we could sometimes pick up a frozen chicken (for the price of a Poultry Farm!). We learned about a Frenchman on the other side of the island who grew vegies... and we were offered Pumelos (a wierd kind of Grapefruit) by the locals....
We were also in the land of Ciguetara...a toxin carried by some fish that does wierd stuff to your body. After the aches and pains and other flu like symptoms, any alcohol makes one ill and there is a reverse temperature thing that happens to the extremities: cold feels hot like fire, and fire or burns feel cold. Ciguetara is not carried by all reef fish, but it IS carried by some pelagic fish who feed on the fish who feed on the reef fish. So, off we went to the local Clinic to talk to the French Doctor and try to find out information on which fish were safe and which were not. It so happens that the Doctor and his nurse went fishing almost every day...and since it was so complicated, they offered us any fish we wanted and that we could be sure it was safe. OH, super...! They gave us some vegies so we were good for a while.
We were befriended by the local outrigger paddling Coach and former champion (so he said) and his family...a lovely group of teen agers, parents and grandparents. Only the daughter spoke English (she had lived with relatives in Bakersfield, CA!!!) so I spent doubletime translating for Bob...and for the family who had all kinds of questions about us. We ate almost daily with this lovely family...
One day I proposed that we start walking around the island....and when we got tired we could just hitch a ride with one of the many trucks running around the island. Right!!! We got a ride with our family for about 4 miles...then we set out on our own. Certainly there would be a car by soon?... or maybe not right now, but sometime? NOT! We walked the whole way...no cars passed us at all!!! Tired? I could have slept a week!
So...the next day we went to the Clinic and asked for some fish, on our way back from buying vegies at the farm. The Dr. wasn't there, but his wife gave us a piece of frozen fish...said it was something I hadn't a clue about and we fixed it for dinner. Now, I am not wild about really fishy fish....I like YellowFin or Albacore, Salmon and Mahimahi...and this fish was dark fleshed and very strong....so I had a tiny piece....Bob had all the rest.
Within a very short time I felt kinda 'off'...and Bob felt terrible!!! Yep...Ciguetera!!! We delayed our departure a week while Bob worked thru the toxin...and he had terrible temperature reversal sensation....it was agonizing for him to carry the large sacks of ice from the markets to the boat until our refridgerator was fixed..... With our friends on the beach waving good bye....we set off to Tahiti. When we raised the sails, we were relieved to find that the ratguards we put on the anchor chain were effective...no rats had eaten large holes in our sails as they had done on another boat in the harbor. There were water rats in the harbor...who would swim out to the boats, scurry up the chain and make themselves at home!!! I can (and have) deal with cockroaches and even a mouse....but rats? No thanks.
We had an unevenful approach to the south entrance thru the reef to Tahiti...and we could smell the island long before we entered the pass. It was early morning...the land was heating up and the on shore winds hadn't kicked in yet...so the offshore winds were carrying the scent of the land out to us: green smells, gardenia, fruit...mixed in with the lingering smoke from the morning fires in the kitchens that burned wood. I shall never forget those moments as we entered the pass, breaking waves on either side of us and our air full of the scent of the South Pacific!!! It still gives me goose bumps.
The capital, Papeete, is on the other side of the island, and we really couldn't enjoy anything local until we signed in with the Gendarmes...so we prepared to leave the next day and motor around the island inside the reef. We did go ashore and saw some fresh watermelons being sold out of a truck. To our disappointment...they were asking $40 for one watermelon...too rich for our blood!!! Food is expensive...especialy if you are American!!!
Patiently waiting in Illinois.......
And Minneapolis, I even had the day off. Comfort clothes all day, lots of coffee, fresh pack of smokes. Now, has anyone seen Carol?
Heather
She has me hooked. I don't ever read any books but darn this is good reading;
Darn I had popcorn for tonight...
French Polynesia is a HUGE area...various groups of Islands from the mountainous Marquesas to the low mounds of sand of the Tuomotus to the mountains of Tahiti, Moorea, BoraBora and beyond. The French are basically incharge...whenever there is a vote for independence they ship alot of troops for "special deployment so naturally the votes are not balanced. But...why would they want to be independent? They are heavily subsidized by the French, paids bunches of money for each member of the family in the home (families are HUGE) and yet they get to keep their traditions. '
We were there for Haeva (Haiva?) Days...a week long celebration where all the islands come together and compete in dancing, music, art, paddling etc. and the city is full of absolutely drop dead gorgeous young male bodies wearing only a Pareo (like a skirt) and sporting beautiful tatoos. Yes...the tatoos are magnificent...graphic rather than monsters and eagles...and mostly depicting something spiritual (for instance, a stylized eye on the outside calf of a fisherman who wades into the water up to his knees). More than once I went up to a tall, sleek, brown, hairless strapping dude and told him how beautiful he was. It was always accepted with grace..
We spent a week or two in Papeete and prepared to take off for the less populated less busy islands when our rudder fell off! Our saving grace was that we had just fueled up and were not out beyond the reef....we quckly dropped the anchor and Bob dove on the rudder. Well...it hadn;t 'fallen off", but it was completely disengaged from the wheel...giving us no steering! We called the Boat Yard who came to tow us in...and they put us up on the "hard" (out of the water) so we could fix it.
Picture this: the boatyard is off where St. Christopher left his shoes...miles from town, directly in the path of the taking off international flights which screamed over us, (clearing out mast by 3 ft. I swear) at 2 in the morning. I could count the bolts that held on the wheels!!!! Bob worked feverishly rebuilding the rudder...while I made friends with all the other yachties (French). A Dentist next to us gave us a beautiful dinner party on Bastille Day...table set up under the hulls of our boats as we watched the fireworks....
It was sad to leave...there is a jaded yet fresh feeling in Papeete. OH, one day, in the bank exchanging some money, I was in line with a fellow who turned out to be the Chilean Ambassador to New Zealand (and the S. Pacific) en route to his new post in Wellington. I helped him with some French translations...you will meet him again a couple of times.
We left Papeete with Bob's daughter, Jennifer and boyfriend (now husband) Doug...as we sailed on to Moorea, BoraBora where they left to go home. Bora Bora is beautiful....good snorkeling!!! After Bora Bora we went on to Fa'a, Raiatea and then our last stop in French Polynesia, Mopelia. Bob had been in Mopelia years before with his son Mark...and in the meantime a hurricane had leveled the island (highest point on the island is probably 5'). But Titia remembered him...Titia being a young Polynsian who raised 'spat' (the baby black pearl oysters) that are later raised on another island. A couple of other boats were in Mopelia...and we often had PotLuck suppers at Titia's house- Titia would supply the Lobsters or Coconut Crab...and one of the other 3 people on the island would join us, along with all the dogs and cats. The guitars would come out and we would all sing....3 German boats, 3 American boats and the Mopelians!!!
One morning Bob and I went ashore to take a walk on the exposed beach on the other side of the island (not in the lagoon so it had lots of good flotsom to search thru) and there on Titias beach was a HUGE Polysian, opening the black oysters and inserting the little plugs that would become pearls. As we walked up the beach, I said 'Bon Jour"...as did Bob...and this fellow said, "Eh, Madame. You were very beautiful before, right?".
I was shocked! I said..."Yes, and I still am"...(trying to make a joke)....and he said, getting up, coming over and giving me a big hug, "yes, of course you are, but it's different, isn't it?" He meant no malice...it was simply an observation.
Titia gave us a farewell dinner of Lobster with the other boats...gifted us black pearls and we were off to Suvarov - a World Heritage Site in the middle of the ocean...a 29miles across atoll...and more adventures!!!
Glad I stayed up for this.. You have really had some great adventures.... Ewww and black pearls, very nice gift.
Carol - I remain AMAZED at this adventure!! Karen
Girlfriend you are something !!! What a life -----Had not been on DG since last time We talked, so what a wonderful surprise to see the new thread with the whole story together....Sure wish I knew who to send it to !!! I am with Karen" I AM AMAZED"
Sandy
My SIL is from Moorea. My husbands's brother, Aleks, married her, Ravahere, in Tahiti. The wedding pictures are amazing. He is very into polynesian tatoo. Each one tells a story. If you look closely at the tatoo's, you can see different animals, faces, sun, moon. He is now tatooing over here, in Minneapolis. He will only do polynesian art work. Pretty cool. When Rava's family comes to visit, there is like 12 people who come over. Their favorite thing to do, Walmart. They buy hords of clothing and supplies, then ship it back to Moorea.
Heather
I love the Marquesan forms.... But I must say, I love them on slender muscular hairless bodies but there is something different about hairy beerguts!!! I was tempted...you know, a little one, under the ear or something...but it would have caused WWIII at home!
http://www.tahititatou.com/gallerypolynesia.html
Interesting link to Polynesian tatoo's. There's even links to temporary tatoos. I need a fish!
Come visit Minneapolis, I'm sure I could get you a sweet deal. The business runs in the family!
Heather
With Thanksgiving here...I am thinking about Thanksgivings we had on the boat...mostly in port or at anchor, but one was in the Patagonian Channels...in a tiny anchorage we named Caleta Elyxir. We didn't have a freezer, and the refer section was iffy at best...so we made do with fresh or....
Thanksgiving Dinner was a Turkey Loaf made with canned Turkey, waterchestnuts, onions etc., cranberry sauce, coleslaw (cabbage keeps beautifully) with shredded carrots...and Bob made a Cherry Pie for dessert. Not too bad for being 500 miles from civilization!!!
Other Thanksgivings it was roast chicken as we had a tiny oven. Not ALL the trimmings, usually, as washing dishes used alot of fresh water and the galley was small.... We did celebrate, tho!!! If we were with other boats, it was usually a pot luck...everyone even brought their own plates and cuttlery to wash back on their own boat!!!
Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!!!
We left Mopilia with lots of sad feelings, looking forward to more adventures....we made it out of the pass (the opening in the coral reef) with no problem.
NOTE: The area of the pass is where the current runs very fast IN and OUT...and a favorite hang out for sharks. Some folks think it is fun to get in inner tubs and 'run the pass' and get picked up quickly at the other end by a boat. NO THANKS.
Suvarov...our destination, is owned/run by the Cook Islands and is a World Heritage Site....an atoll in the middle of NOWHERE with pristine islands along the perimeter...and an achorage for visiting yachts in safe weather. In rough weather (i.e. cyclones) it is not fun. There is a caretaker appointed by the Cook Is. Government who oversees the maintenance.... When we were there it was Margaret, her husband Tommy and their two boys.
Tommy had been a Navigator when all of the South Pacific Islands send sailing/voyaging canoes to Hawaii and back to their islands...with only local navigators who read the waters, winds, stars etc. It is a very old custom/science...and very precise. Tommy took their sailing canoe (with 14 people) back to the Cook Islands and landed within 1 mile of his destination. It is interesting how they read the waters...totally different from our GPS etc.
Anyway...we sailed through the pass at Suvarov....the water was like Gin...it was so clear. You could see the fish, sharks, coral heads... it was amazing. We had many friends in the anchorage...we reported in to Margaret and signed up for the nightly potluck on the beach. During the day, Margaret taught us how to weave baskets out of palm fronds ... cooking was up to the yachties. NO stores on Suvarov...just folks.
One adventure was when another boat, Margaret and Tommy and family and 'us' took off to another set of islands during a full moon. The 'guys' were going to get lobsters for a big cook off!!! OK...sundown...guys, Margaret and Tommy on the beach walking along the exposed reef in the moonlight. Sounds of st umbling... They returned with BAGS of lobsters - Margaret and Tommy had found nearly everyone...they knew what to look for!!! The next night we had a Lobster Cook Off....each boat took what lobsters they needed (hey, they caught nearly 50) and each boat prepared them in a different way: with bacon on skewers, in butter, whatever. We went in with M&T and steamed them on the beach. Ever eaten too much lobster?
With the 'innards" we tied them all up in old rags, hung them off the boat and watched the sharks come for them. It was vicious!!! NO...these weren't BIG sharks...just little white tipped reef sharks...4-5' long. Hungry.
Did I swim off the boat?
Do I look crazy?
You may not look crazy, but you got some guts girl. I wouldn't lasted more than one day on this voyage you and Bob took. With sharks make that more like 10 minutes. However, I would stay for the lobster, lol!
Heather
Heather, I am so terrified of sharks it is pathetic!!! In Fiji, while my visiting son was qualifying for his PADI license, another woman and I hired a diver to swim the reef with us, literally holding our hands to get over (?) our fear of sharks. The fellow was half my size and I clung to him like a drowning cat...and we snorkeled the reef looking for sharks. We saw some white tipped reef sharks (generally known to be not agressive but...?) who swam away from us. My heart was in my mouth the whole time... It was a cool trip but it didn't cure my fear! I was once snorkeling with Bob in about 3' of water and saw a small (2') white tipped reef shark and I nearly bolted!!!
Then there was the 5' long Moray Eel who came out of a rock and swam around us...followed us for about 5 mins. Have you ever seen two humans swim 100mph?
Eels?!?! Oh man, there'd be more than "chum" in the water if I saw THAT!
Fascinating stories, Carol.........thanks for taking the time to share. Please, tell us MORE!
And then........
:0 Shark.... Took me years to get back in the water after I watched Jaws. Now I'm liking the lobster part.. Yummmy
I just watched a show last night on great whites. A new theory in the scientist realm thinks sharks might be attracted to certain peoples electromagnets. It was a really interesting special. Get this, one person on the show was attacked by two great whites at the same time while surfing. They only got his hand, scratches. Poor fellow goes out a couple of years later, again gets attacked. Now his leg is a little scratched up. Then yet another attack on him, caught a wave or something, and the shark attacked someone else. Can you believe that?
Heather
After this entry....I am going to start OT...Talking Story Part II. This is getting long....
Imagine the feeling if being in a large swimming pool (L.A.R.G.E.) 27 miles circumfrence where the walls of the pool are below the water and there is a vast ocean on the other side. Every so often, along the wall of the pool there are islands... Well, that is Suvarov! No place you want to be in a hurricane (friends of ours lived thru one, but the reef is littered with skeletons of boats)...but reall surreal. Margaret and Tommy have a little boy, he was about 5 when we were there...beautiful kid. He went sailing in our sailing dingy with Bob and grasped the concept immediately....sailed all over the place without an accident.
Tommy and Bob went off looking for Coconut Crabs. Now, these critters are awesome!! They live to ripe old ages and are HUGE when they are mature...and they feed on coconuts! Their HUGE claws are so strong they can cut thru the husks and the shells to scoop out the meet. To catch one, first you find them....then you stick and sturdy stick between their awesome claws and they latch on and NEVER let go!!! They get to be about the size of a soccer ball!...and the meat...OMG...juicy and tender and so rich one crab is too much for one person. So, while there, we ate from the land and sea...
Great Story.... When we were off hunting lobsters with Margaret and Tommy and another boat, we had a small picnic on a little island where the Red Tailed Tropic Birds were nesting. Now, these beautiful white birds have a long LONG tail (2'-3') of one or two red feathers....and I mentioned to Margaret (Warden of the Atoll, protector and police of same) that if she ever found a red Tropic Bird Feather, to please send it to me.... She nodded, got up, went into the bush. There followed a squalking and todo and out she emerged with a red Tropic Bird Feather. "Margaret...what did you DO?" I cried. "No worries, she will grow another one!". So much for Guardian of Nature!!!
It was sad to leave....but the season was getting short (we had to leave those latitudes before the cyclones started and still had a ways to go)...so we headed off towards American Samoa. It was an idyllic sail...during which we had to stay awake because of the fishing fleets operating out of PagoPago (pronounced 'Pango Pango') Samoa...and we sailed into the big bay in search of a mooring. Pango Pango has a large bay which is layered with plastic bags on the bottom. It is IMPOSSIBLE to get your anchor to grab as it can't get thru the 1-2' of plastic bags on the bottom....so the Government (ours) has set out big moorings with huge truck engine blocks on the bottom to hold them in place...hopefully they aren't on top of the plastic bags. Anyway, we had to tie up with 3 other boats...one on either side. The boat on our right side was a trash heap and the cruisers fought 24/7....our other side were friends so that was OK.
PagoPago is a crowded little city. Buses are really Pickup Trucks converted with a large cab and 1 person seats per side...which hold 2 people of Samoan Dimension! I wear a size 9 shoe and it is SMALL in comparison to the stock in the stores. Samoans are BIG people!!! Not much fresh food...some fruit and always the cabbage. We rented a car with another couple and drove to the other side of the island. We went to PagoPago to send off boxes of 'stuff' we had collected...and to receive mail. With relief we left and went south to Tonga....our first stop Nuwitoputapo - known as New Potatoes to the cruisers.
Later.
Why the plastic bags - poor trash service, or do they serve a purpose?
And, whereever the story goes, I will follow!!! Thanks for taking the time to write this - it is AMAZING!!! Karen
Does this mean eating more cabbage will make bigger kids....or feet? LOL.....loving these stories of your adventures.
Marcy
PS ...do you still have the feather?
Karen....good question. The third world is carpeted in plastic bags!!! Guatemala was especially bad...everyone travels by bus and throws EVERYTHING out of the windows!!! Plastic is what is used for everything....and they throw it out...fields are white around the highways with plastic bags!!!
Same in Tahiti...very hard to anchor in the harbor for the plastic bags that have found thier way into the ocean...people just dump their garbage into the sea.
It was explained to us that plastic is fairly recent....and until plastic, the islands wove carriers out of Pandanus, palm etc....and of course, that was biodegradable....so they have not made the transition yet. It will take generations!!!
Marcy...yes, I still have the feather. We collected feathers on our trip...I have one of a Giant Condor too!
RE: diet... Paul Thoreaux, in his book "The Happy Isles of Oceania" draws a correlation to those countries that eat a lot of Spam were Canabalistic at one point, not so long ago and that Spam is the confort food going back to the 'other' days. There is a Spam Cookbook in Hawaii....YUCK!