Living & Learning Aboard the Good Ship Learnativity

LTY UPDATE: Sunday, July 25th, 2010 Niuatoputapu, Tonga

** Photos added July 29th  see below

 

LTY UPDATE: Sunday, July 25th, 2010
11:30 LTY time (UTC +13) = 22:30 (Sat) UTC
Location: Anchored by village of Falehau, NW lagoon of Niuatoputapu Island, North Tonga
Position: 15 56.485 S, 173 46.180 W (cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)

TERRIFIC TIMES in TRUE TONGA

** See photo album at http://picasaweb.google.com/wayne.hodgins/NiuatoputapuTonga# for more pictures

As usual I’ve extended my stay in yet another spot, this time the northernmost island of the Kingdom of Tonga, Niuatoputapu Island where I’m anchored in a nicely protected lagoon on the NW side near the small village of Falehau. I arrived last Wednesday (21 July) and yet again the whole experience of the past 5 days has been serendipitously super, and so I wanted to get you a brief update on some of the details that made this adventure so memorable.

It is these situations when I really miss having an internet connection sufficient to add photos to these postings, but since arriving in Tongan waters last month, internet connections ashore have been few and far between and even when I do find them they have not been good enough to support uploads the size of photos or Skype calls. I am however taking lots of photos and will do my best to post these, likely next month some time when I get to Fiji I suspect.

* July 29th: photos now added to this and several other posts

This has me rethinking and reexamining my budget to purchase one of the new stabilized satellite based broadband options so I could have broadband internet wherever I roam, but that will have to wait for another day yet. In the interim, I’ll do my best to use my limited writing abilities to paint some pictures for you.

As I’ve mentioned and as you can see above and if you have checked the lat/long coordinates on a map or Google Earth, this is the northernmost of the many islands that make up the archipelago of the Kingdom of Tonga and is apparently the most remote and least visited of all of Tonga. There is actually “Tin Can Island” of Niuafoou which is a bit further north yet but it is completely inaccessible by boat so can’t call there. Here on Niuatoputapu from what I’ve read and experienced this is about as close as you can get to what “true Tongan” culture is/was like, and I’ve been so I’ve been very warmly welcomed into a group largely unaffected by external forces, other than natural ones. They were for example hit by the tsunami I was in last year and are still busy rebuilding homes, roads, etc. But I've been very fortunate and pleased to be invited into their homes and lives and will be heading ashore in a few minutes to join in a Sunday Tongan feast that Cici and Niko are putting on. There is now one other boat that came in on Friday, “Navire” out of Wellington NZ with a very interesting couple, David originally Canadian but grew up since he was 13 in NZ and Janet. We had a fun afternoon hiking up to the highest point here on the island (some great photos to follow) and we've had each other over to our respective boats to enjoy the last 2 sunsets, some wine and good food. (she's an ex chef!)

Everyone ashore, population about 800 are a bit shy but very much want to engage and talk, the children especially. They speak their native Tongan language of course but all but a few are also extremely fluent in English and so the conversations are deep and rich. I’ve been able to barter some of my skills and tools for all their kindness helping Niko diagnose a poor V6 that was running as about a V2 and then pull the camshaft and crank pulley on a diesel van that has blown a timing belt. Fortunately I’m a bit of a travelling tool shop and tools are one of the biggest limitations here. The monthly supply ship came in yesterday and so it was a big day on the island for everyone to get their various supplies from food to building materials to diesel. Several large pallets of building supplies from the Red Cross also were unloaded as part of the ongoing rebuilding after the tsunami. The locals explained how the government workers who are here are busy repairing the roads, which are actually in quite good shape while most of the people are still living in tents or with tarpaulins over the remains of old buildings! Seems to be an all too typical mismatch between what the officials think priorities should be and what the local inhabitants do. Some things are rather universal in this world aren’t they!

I’m now just back from a delectable Tongan feast compliments of Cici’s long hours and ably assisted by Janet who was able to spend most of the morning, after church of course, learning some of the tips and tricks of Tongan dishes and cooking methods. We had a veritable feast of fish and pork (Iots of domesticated pigs running around here) that was done up in coconut milk wrapped in papagayo leaves then in banana leaves and cooked in a fire pit, along with tapioca root and breadfruit that was simply cooked as is in the fire pit as well. And then plenty of a papaya and coconut dish to add even more flavor and color. We ate this all, Cici, Niko, Janet, David and myself with some of their boys coming in and out, on the floor of the excellent new first part of their new home which Niko has built from the wood and other materials they were able to salvage from what was left behind after the tsunami waters cleared away.

So as you can see, I continue to lead an unexpectedly and undeservedly charmed life and am doing my best to wallow and live within each of its moments. But now it is time to head out for the next adventure, I’m leaving in about an hour to sail up to another small remote spot of a pair of island groups known as Wallace and Futuna, about 14S and 176W if you want to hunt them down. These are French overseas territory tied administratively to Noumea, New Caledonia with a total land area of about 93 sq. miles and a total population of about 15,000 spread out over many islands. One interesting thing about them is that the people of Wallis, or Uveans as they are called after the main island, are descended from Tongans, whereas those of Futuna originally came from Samoa. It will be most interesting to see the differences as I visit each one as they are equally different geographically as well apparently. I’m leaving late this afternoon (Sunday here) as I don’t want to get there and go into the rather tricky pass at Wallis until daylight and it should take me somewhere around 36-40 hours depending on the winds and currents. Forecast looks very good for the next few days with wind and seas mostly behind me and little chance of rain, so the window is open and I’m jumping through it.

Hope you are enjoying an equally great weekend wherever you are and whomever you’re with. I’ll post some updates while underway as usual and report back to you about my experiences in Wallis as they happen. I gain a day and lose 2 hours in the process due to the odd fact that Tonga uses Fijian time zone but I’ll likely head for Fiji later on as well so it will wall work out.

Wayne & Ruby the Wonderdog
Aboard s/v Learnativity
15 56.485 S, 173 46.180 W
Falehau, NW lagoon of Niuatoputapu Island, North Tonga

Email: wayne.hodgins@gmail.com
Email @ sea: whodgins@ocens.net
FaceBook page for updates @ www.facebook.com/wayne.hodgins
Learnativity blog @ www.learnativity.typepad.com
OCOT blog @ http://waynehodgins.typepad.com
Skype: whodgins
Twitter: WWWayne
Send (short 140 character Text msgs via Email to: 881632510270@msg.iridium.com

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LTY UPDATE: Wed, July 21, 2010 anchored at Niuatoputapu, Kingdom of Tonga

 
Wed, July 21st, 2010
17:30 LTY time (UTC +13) = 04:30 UTC
Location: Anchored at Niuatoputapu, northern most island of Kingdom of Tonga
Position: 15 56.485 S, 173 46.180 W (cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
Wind: 15-20 SE
Seas: bit of wind wave inside harbor
Air temp: 85.2 F 29.6C
Sea temp: 83.3F 28.5C
Humidity: 76%
Barometer: 1019mm

NORTHERNMOST TONGA

** See photo album at http://picasaweb.google.com/wayne.hodgins/NiuatoputapuTonga# for more pictures

I finally finished up all the repairs in Vava’u. The weather was back to being gray, overcast and rainy so it was a good time to be down in the engine room and I spent two whole days down there doing a number of jobs that I’ve been meaning to get to for a long time. Of course I finished installing the newly welded SS exhaust pipe and then tracked down a small exhaust water leak that had been avoiding me for months. Turned out to be some small pinholes on the welded seam of a SS 90 degree elbow that goes through the aft bulkhead. After trying some spot repairs I ended up just cutting the whole thing out and replacing it with a new fiberglass elbow and some new 3” exhaust hose I had on hand. Then I tracked down a transmission oil leak that had also been eluding me for months and finally found it on the hose to supplies pressure for the shaft brake that keeps the propeller shaft from turning when sailing and the engine is off. A very weird problem as it appears that there has been a fitting missing all along and the maintenance guys that did the overhaul when I bought the boat had somehow just threaded the hose into the transmission case. The proper fix requires a new fitting and hose which I don’t have but I was able to repair it with some epoxy “steel”, some SS wire and a hose clamps to be holding well so no more transmission fluid dripping into the bilge!! At the end of the day I was a greasy grimy mess from head to toe but an hours worth of scrubbing with lots of citrus hand cleaner had me back to being clean and smiling, though I was sure rather beat up with lots of scrapes and cuts on both hands and my upper body from squeezing into the transmission and exhaust area. Will be good to get back to sailing and beat myself up in different ways!

And so yesterday, Tuesday here, and as per the other updates you can see, I released the mooring ball lines and motor sailed out of Neiafu and out the NW pass into open ocean. I used the motor to give it a good run and be sure all the leaks were gone, which they were, and then shut it down and settled in for the sail up to Niuatoputapu, the northernmost island of the Tongan archipelago.

As we left the lee of Vava'u the wind picked up and continued to build the whole trip. The forecast had called for 15-20 but in the end it was up to gusts of almost 35 knots by the time I got to Niuatoputapu. I had sun for leaving Vava'u but the clouds continued move in and by mid-afternoon it was fully overcast and looked like rain storms up ahead to the north and west of us. The wind and seas continued to build all night, nothing too bad but certainly a fast, wet gray ride with wind over 25 most of the way. This speed had us arriving in Niuatoputapu just about 13:30 which was what I had hoped as I wanted to have good light overhead for the entrance through what is a narrow and shallow pass but I was a little bit concerned as the weather really closed in with rain and low visibility as I sailed up the eastern coast of this tiny island. However as if on cue, a long blue patch of sky came along just as I was approaching the NE corner and stayed around for the rest of the afternoon and made for perfect lighting as I negotiated small but well-marked little pass on the NW corner. The small natural harbor offers reasonable protection from the SE trades that are really blowing right now, but the land is mostly just coconut jungle and so not too much height and the wind is blowing quite strong where I'm anchored, but we are well protected from the seas and the wind is all the better for the wind generator. With my new bank of solar panels (now have six for a total of 780Watts) plus the wind generator I only ran the generator once since leaving Niue almost 3 weeks ago and so my new energy setup is working very well.

Once inside the harbor here at Niuatoputapu Island, I motored over to the very small concrete dock that some of the guides said you could tie to while checking in but it was too small and the wind was too strong to tie Learnativity up there so I just anchored in about 35 feet to a nice sandy bottom. This is a VERY small island with only about 800 total population and they lie off the beaten path for most cruisers with Western and American Samoa off to the East and Vava’u to the south and I wasn’t sure what they would have ashore for officials. I tried to call them on my VHF radio but didn’t get any response so was busy tidying up the cockpit from the passage when someone called “the big sailboat in the harbor” and it was a gentleman who introduced himself as “Nikko” and could he help me with checking in? So ashore I went in the dingy and Nikko picked me up in his 4x4 and took me into “town”. It was a big help as it turned out for the official building was about 4 or 5 kilometers away and would have been a bit of a walk. There really isn’t a town per se, just a lot of people living along the one main road here in small houses and shacks with lots of pigs, horses and dogs about. The official buildings are all grouped together including the school buildings for about 400 students apparently, and I had a great conversation with the people who were looking after immigration, customs and health and soon had both my check in and check out papers all done and my passport stamped for leaving Tonga. Not sure how long I’ll stay here, will depend on how the weather up ahead but you can’t check out on weekends so I wanted to get my exit papers looked after today and be able to go, likely either Friday or on the weekend.

As he was driving me around Nikko mentioned, not that he needed to, that his truck wasn’t running very well. Basically it seemed to be running on about two of its six cylinders and he wanted to know if I knew anything about motors or if there were other cruisers headed this way that might. After all the checking in was done we stopped at his house and I had a look and was able to find out that his distributor cap and rotor were a real mess with only two electrodes left showing inside the distributor cap. I cleaned it all up as best I could and wrote down the parts he would need and he will try to order these and have the next supply ship that comes about once a month bring them for him.
During this time I met his wife and three teenage boys. They try to help look after the yachties that arrive here; only about 100-125 annually he says and they try to help find some local fruit and vegetables if they can some well water and also offer pot luck on Sundays at their house. As I said this is a VERY small and remote spot so no stores or services to speak of. But tomorrow Nikko offered to take me around to the other side of the island where his plantation is and get some papaya and bananas. He assures me he has more than enough for him and his family and if that’s true I’ll take some on board for the next passage up to Wallis and Futuna islands.

Well, I’m a still feeling aches and pains and bruises from the repair work down in Vava’u and the raucous passage up here so I’m going to head down below for a quick diner and then off to bed with Miss Ruby. Will explore here more in the next few days and enjoy what is apparently one of the only genuine Tongan islands and population left. Great to be back underway and I’ll be back with more after explorations here and when we take off for Wallis, another very remote and rarely visited country island NNW of here.

Wayne & Ruby the Wonderdog
Aboard s/v Learnativity

Email when near shore : wayne.hodgins@gmail.com
Email @ sea: whodgins@ocens.net
FaceBook page for updates @ www.facebook.com/wayne.hodgins
Learnativity blog @ www.learnativity.typepad.com
OCOT blog @ http://waynehodgins.typepad.com
Skype: whodgins
Twitter: WWWayne
Text (140 character max) messages to: 881632510270@msg.iridium.com

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The Wonders of Niue and Friends

OK, back to my time ashore and learning more about Niue first hand.

SWISS SERENDIPITY & SYNCHRONICITY:

As wonderful as Niue certainly is, one of the best things of all was that I got to explore it with my dear friend and fellow single handed sailor Philip, who is from Zurich Switzerland on his very fast and sleek OutReemer catamaran “Blue Bie”.  Philip and I first met when we both sailed into Salenas Ecuador at the same time and were waiting outside the entrance to the marina to go in.  We had lunch together while waiting for some of the officials, really hit it off and have been kindred spirits and stayed in close touch with each other ever since.  We went our separate ways after leaving Ecuador but found ourselves together again in Polynesia and ended up anchoring near each other in Papeete, Morea, and Bora Bora as we explored that area for a few weeks.  Philip decided to go north for the hurricane season so he headed up for Hawaii while I went west to Suvarov and American Samoa and then turned south with stops at Nuku’alofa in the Kingdom of Tonga and a surreal few days (see Oct.2009 LTY blog entry) in Minerva Reef on my way to Whangarei New Zealand. 

Philip and I stayed in regular contact via Skype, Twitter, Emails and our blogs, and I knew he had changed his plans from going further north in Canada to heading back to the South Pacific, but I hadn’t been able to reach him for the past month.  However when I was able to get online here in Niue I got some of his automated Tweet locations and knew he was heading further south and west through Penrhyn, Fanning and Cook Islands.  With my delays for repairs and weather in leaving Whangarei I figured that the serendipity and synchronicity factors were rising for us to meet up again and sure enough, on Thursday afternoon as I was out on the deck working on the boom fitting, I heard Philip’s unmistakable voice and accent on the VHF radio as he called in from off shore with his approach to Niue!  Spotting Blue Bie as she rounded the south west corner I jumped into my dingy and went out to welcome him, and his crewmate Loly, to Niue.  This is one of the best things about this sailing and cruising life is forming such serendipitous friendships and then synchronistically having our wakes cross as we get to share yet another anchorage and time together.

Philip has a lovely lady from Paris France, Loly, who started crewing with him in Hawaii and the three of us rented a car for the weekend and spent all of it driving around the 65km circumference and inner roads and trekking down the many small pathways down to coastal caves, pools and arches. 

It is impossible and would take me far too many words to try to explain and tell you about all we saw so I’ll instead let the pictures below tell most of the story for you. 

 

The short version is that with the help of a well detailed local map, Philip’s Lonely Planet book, and Loly’s expert navigating, we were able to find these all but hidden trails that led us down to some of the most amazing sights.

Below is a photo album so you can hopefully get some sense of just how magical this place is.  You’ll see magnificent limestone arches carved out by the waves, freshwater pools to reward a challenging vertical climb down inside a cave, other world like coastal areas covered in jagged peaks of worn away coral, spectacular stalagmite and stalactite filled caves and just generally nothing but unique and awemazing sights. 

View Full Album

Some of the hikes were short and easy with steps, ropes and pathways.  Others were much longer and more strenuous as we barely found our way through barely discernable paths hacked through the jungle of growth including lots of overhead roots running down into the ground all around us.  We needed to mark our way in with leaves and other markers in order to find our way out, but this one lead us to the underground freshwater cave that Philip and climbed down to and went swimming in to discover some of the other underwater caves below.

 

 

We spent all Saturday covering all the points around the south and eastern coasts from Alofi where we are moored and then all day Sunday doing the north and western ones.  Two VERY full and fun days and I certainly slept well after each one. 

Hope the pictures give you a better sense of what this was like and you may want to fire up Google Earth to fly around and see more that way.  In any case do enjoy!  We sure did.

Busy Work Week in Niue: A Recap

A week has flown by already as Learnativity, Ruby and I enjoy the wonders of this small island country called Niue, snuggled next to the western shore safely tethered to one of the excellently maintained Niue Yacht Club mooring balls.  The week has been very full with a combination of looking after some of the repairs required from the fast and furious trip up from New Zealand and some time to explore ashore.  Here is a quick recap for you:

* Note: My net connection here is very tenuous and am not able to upload pictures right now, but I'll keep trying and WILL get them here for you ASAP

We arrived in the wee hours of Monday morning June 21st, which seemed fitting for it to be solstice, winter in our case so the shortest day of the year.  I actually had the good fortune to have two of them as we crossed over the international date line and had June 21 on one side and then again on the other when we reset the clock and calendar.  For those keeping track we are now on UTC –11  However I’ll loose that day again when I leave here and start heading West again and cross back over the date line so I guess it all equals out and a day is a day here for me where calendars and watches are not used very often.

The sail up from Whangarei New Zealand was great, both just to finally be back on Mother Ocean and underway, as well as to have such fast and furious conditions with wind never under 20 and up as much as 40 but all quite favorable with it behind me for the first half and then just far enough off the bow to let me sail pretty much the heading I wanted into Niue.  I set several records for sailing with my first 200nm day (24 hours) which means LTY averaged over 8 knots!  Amazing and with a following sea and winds for most of it, it was all very comfortable as well, at least for me.

Mary, who as you may recall joined us for the sail to Niue after the two other boats she was supposed to be crewing on fell through, had a rough start and didn’t see much more than her cabin for the first three days but recovered very well for the remainder of the crossing to Niue and was able to fulfill her goal of completing a long sailing passage.  Although she has had extensive marine experience and time on boats of all types, much more than I, this was her first long passage on a sailboat and so was quite an experience for her.  Once she recovered her sea legs (and stomach) Mary took over the galley with a flourish and was a great chef, able to whip up some delicious meals in the galley no matter the conditions and I was thoroughly spoiled with Mary’s great cooking and recipes with a delightful new range of spices and ingredients which I thoroughly enjoyed and were much different than what I would have made.  Ruby was even more pleased to have another person to snuggle with and be especially spoiled with some of the dishes she got to lick clean.  So it was a lovely luxury of not having to do all my own cooking and made the passage all the better. 

Once we reached Niue, Mary decided it was time to move on to her next adventure and so I took her ashore on Thursday and the next day she was fortunate enough to get on the one the few seats on the flight each week from Niue to Auckland, which is booked solid for the next months. 

Thanks for joining us Mary and may fair winds and following seas be with you for all your future voyages.

As usual I learned a lot from the whole experience, and having someone on board for a long passage showed me just how different single handed sailing is and how much I enjoy it and it seems to just fit me right.  After having three very different passengers in three very different situations over the past two years, what I’ve learned is that I prefer sailing single handed with two exceptions; friends and family who come to visit and my soul mate when I find her.  Having friends and family aboard several times in the past two years has been a wonderful experience and added immeasurably to my overall experiences by being able to share and enjoy them with this company.  Usually we don’t do much actual sailing as most prefer to just enjoy the environment of the boat, pull the plug on the rest of the world and just kick back and enjoy our time together in what are always great locations and cultures.  I’m forever thankful to all my family and friends who have made the significant effort to get to Learnativity and join Admiral Ruby and I for part of this grand adventure and I look forward to many more.

When I find my soul mate it would be wonderful if she likes sailing too and wants to come aboard and continue the voyages ahead together, but when I meet her we’ll let serendipity and synchronicity guide us as to where, when and how to make our way through life.  Oh, and if you meet my her before I do, please give her my contact info and let her know that she can contact me with anything from a knock on the hull to a Tweet so we can get started! <g>

Meanwhile, back on the good ship Learnativity the job list was calling my name VERY loudly and it has been a VERY busy week attending to the top priority items on that list.  There is a saying I heard years ago that cruising is the art of sailing your boat from one exotic repair destination to the next, and that has turned out to be quite true AND thoroughly enjoyable and part of what makes this all fit me so well.  While there are certainly moments that are frustrating, overall it is an intense, deeply satisfying and rewarding feeling to have the total dependence I do upon my sailboat and her total dependence upon me to keep her ship shape.  As each day passes and as figure out how to solve each problem that comes up, I understand a little bit better that special bond that sailors speak of between their boats and themselves.  Another one of those things which you can only truly understand and learn experientially and I am SO thankful for this new understanding and learning which Learnativity brings to me each day.

This week’s top priorities of things which need fixing before we set sail from here, included welding the broken boom goose neck fitting (the joint that attaches the boom with the mainsail to the mast), fixing the bent and detached jib sheet T-track and repairing the jib sail tears and bent brace.  The boom fitting repair is a story in itself so I’ll tell you that one in a separate post.  The port side jib car track is an aluminum T track that lets you adjust the fore/aft position of the pulley for the lines from the forward sail and it had pulled four of the bolts that fasten it to the steel deck right out and bent the track quite badly trapping the car/pulley in that spot.  I hadn’t noticed this at the time it happened but was likely a combination of some of the very strong forces on this sheet (line) in some of the strong winds in the second half of the trip up here and my error is positioning the car too far forward for the conditions and putting on too much tension in the line such that the force was pulling straight up and not at an angle.  Not a difficult repair, just lots of hours to remove it and  the 22 bolts, grind and repair the spots where the adhesive sealing the track bolts pulled away the paint and then refastening and bedding it all back in place.  With the help of my dear friend and fellow single handed sailor Philip on Blue Bie (more on him later) I was able to bend this back into place and fasten it all down and got that all finished yesterday (June 28, 2010), exactly one week after arriving in Niue.  Today the wind is down and so I should be able to attend to the jib sail (forward most sail) which has two nasty tears in it from a bent aluminum brace on the clew (bottom rear corner of a sail) which I also need to bend back in place and file all smooth so it won’t tear anything in the future.  I should be able to get this done today (Tues 29th) and that will have me ready to sail on to the next adventure, which look likely to be tomorrow or Thursday with the way the wind forecasts are looking.  Next port of call will be Vava’u in the northern end of the Kingdom of Tonga.

After such a busy work week and the arrival of Philip, I decided to take the weekend off and head ashore to discover the wonders of this little hunk of up turned coral called Niue and I’ll post those stories and amazing pictures next.

w
a
yne
=====

Wayne & Ruby the Wonderdog
Aboard s/v Learnativity
19° 03' 289"S 169° 55' 438"E
Alofi, Niue

Email:    wayne.hodgins@gmail.com
Email @ sea:  whodgins@ocens.net
FaceBook page for updates @ www.facebook.com/wayne.hodgins
Learnativity blog @    www.learnativity.typepad.com
OCOT blog @ http://waynehodgins.typepad.com
Skype:    whodgins
Twitter:  WWWayne

Busy on the Bow

It has been a busy time up on the bow of Learnativity since I returned from the USA last Thursday (April 15th).  As you may recall the bow railing was one of the casualties of doing the tsunami tango in American Samoa last September so I’ve been working with the good folks from Absolute Stainless here in Whangarei to fabricate a new railing.  They are also working with me on a new mounting bracket for three new solar panels I’m adding on the rear and hopefully I’ll also be able to get them to make up a new dual anchor roller assembly and bow sprit I’m designing.

New Bow Railing

Maurice (from Absolute Stainless) has been here the past few days working on the bow railing and here is what it looks like so far:

These are actually photos from yesterday, today we got the front two tubes added and tacked it all up and Maurice has taken it back to the shop to weld it all up and add in the lower cross bars.  I’ll post more photos in a few days when it is all done.

 

 

Bigger is Better When it Comes to Anchors, but ……..

Once Maurice left I headed ashore to go pick up the shiny new Rocna anchor I had ordered last month and which arrived while I was back in the US.  Quite a story behind this anchor and here is the synopsis:

I decided to buy a Rocna while I’m here in NZ and have ended up with quite a good deal on several fronts I think.  I’ve been thinking about upgrading my anchor for some time.  The 33Kg/75lb CQR I have up front has served me well but in the last few months of cruising and anchoring before getting here it had been a bit difficult to get to set a few times and I don’t have the greatest confidence in it in a big blow.  Given my cruising style and preference for small out of the way places I anchor most of the time and so having a good solid anchor really helps with being able to sleep well at anchor and could possibly, hopefully not, be a big advantage if I’m ever caught in a really big storm while at anchor.  I keep hearing and reading rave reviews about the Rocna anchors from other cruisers who have them on their boats and have talked to many of them at length while we’ve been anchored together in various spots over the past few year so I wanted to look into them more while I’m here in NZ where they are made.  The Manson Supreme is a very similar anchor and also gets good reviews in the tests but it is very much not liked here, even though it is made here, as it is a copy of the Rocna and not as well made apparently.  So I decided to go with the Rocna.

However when I just went to order from the local marine store I ran into an interesting problem as the one I want, the 55Kg/120lb model is out of stock and they are shifting their manufacturing to China now and won’t have any new ones till at least May, more likely June or later.  I checked all over NZ and there is apparently no 55Kg models in any of the distributors as most of them just order direct for these larger anchors.  So was left with deciding on either the 40Kg/88lb model or the 70Kg/155lb.  They had one 70kg left and offered it to me for less than the price of the 55kg model, plus it is apparently the last Rocna anchor manufactured here in NZ.  So the question was to go down one size or up one size.  The 55Kg was already on the high end (see Ronca chart here if interested) but after thinking it over I decided to go ahead and order the 70Kg because when it comes to anchors bigger really is better and everything I’ve ever read says the same.  Physically these Rocna’s are already very large mostly due to the big roll bar on the top so any size takes up a lot of space up front and when I checked the charts on the Rocna site the physical size differences between the 40-55-70 didn’t seem to be too much, the big difference is the weight.

While I was away in the US, the big new Rocna anchor arrived at Stanley Marine, the great little marine store and surplus shop right beside Town Basin Marina where I’m moored..  When I went over to check on it for the first time a few days ago, I got quite a shock.  It was HUGE!!!  Probably made worse by the fact that it was on a wood pallet and standing up vertical, but my gosh this thing is simply enormous any way you look at it. 

And so today I went ashore, took along one of the dock carts from the marina and with the help of the marine store owner, we got it into the cart.  It wasn’t too bad wheeling it over to the marina, only a short block away and I’d waited till high tide when the ramp down to the dingy dock isn’t at too steep an angle and was able to wheel it down the ramp without it running away from me.  A little help from a friendly fellow sailor at the dock and we soon had the galvanized gargantuan safely nestled into my dingy and away I rowed back to the bow of Learnativity and you can get a bit of a sense of the size of it laying on the floor of the dingy in this photo.

I’d removed the CQR anchor that I’ve been using the past few years and had just the anchor chain hanging down from the bow roller and was able to attach this to the new Rocna while it was in the dingy and then hoist it up into place on Learnativity using the electric windlass.  I needed to spend a few hours fixing the bow roller that the chain and anchor roll over at it too was badly bent up from the tsunami, but once the roller was back in operation the windlass easily lifted it out of the dingy and up onto the bow of Learnativity.

Here are a few photos as I lifted it into place on the bow: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once I had it in place it didn’t look as badly out of proportion as I thought it might and even though I’ll be making up a new bow roller assembly to accommodate this new anchor better, it actually fit the existing roller without a problem and the point of the anchor didn’t hit the bow as I feared it might. 

In the photo on the right here you can see it compared to another boat in the foreground and see that it really isn’t too badly out of proportion.  With Learnativity being a steel boat and having so much tankage (fuel & water) it is also MUCH heavier boat that most any other of its length so the added weight and size of the anchor will work very well. 

 

There’s no question it is BIG, but I don’t think it looks too out of place and catches the eye too badly.  What it will do is catch the bottom VERY quickly and well and I can probably offer to be the local mooring point for the whole fleet of other boats in in harbor I’m anchored in the future!

Rocna anchors are renowned for setting very quickly compared to any other anchor and many owners tell of their shock the first time it sets as it is like they are tied to a solid concrete dock and the boat stops with a sudden bang when they back down on their anchor the first time.  I’ll be sure to back down VERY slowly on mine the first time and all those thereafter, but I think I’ll be able to sleep very soundly from now on when I’m at anchor.

 

Hopefully my time and funds will hold out long enough while I’m here in NZ to get the new anchor roller assembly built and installed and this will help the anchor fit in even better.  I’m also designing the new anchor roller to stick out about 60cm/2ft further in front to provide me with a small bow sprit where I can attach my asymetric spinnaker and get it out into the wind a bit more and help out even further in light wind situations.  I’m most likely heading up through the Solomons, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia this season (intentions rather than plans for me remember) and these areas typically have weeks with very little wind so I’m likely to get lots of use out of my spinnaker.  Yesterday I took the spinnaker to the local sail loft to get them to inspect it and give me their evaluatoin of my repair job and I may get them to restitch it so it is solid and dependable for the upcoming season.  As you may recall the spinnaker blew out on the way down to Easter Island and was then part of the whole dingy dunking experience when I went to take it ashore there to fix it.  I did manage to repair while I was on Easter Island, a whole adventure in itself that you can read about by looking back to my Easter Island postings here from May 2009.  I also sewed in another patch while underway to Samoa last year and it has served me well ever since, but with a lot of use for it coming up I thought it best to get the experts at Calibre sails here in Whangarei to check it over and give me their advice.  I’ll let you know how it all turns out when I get it back.

So that’s the update from the good ship Learnativity for today, April 21st, 2010.  Great to be back home, back with Ruby and back to writing to all of you!  More to follow, stay tuned.

Wayne & Ruby the Wonderdog

Aboard s/v Learnativity
35°43'24.04"S 174°19'29.98"E
Town Basin Marina
Whangarei, New Zealand

More Magical Moments

LTY UPDATE:
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Arrived in Bora Bora after sailing from Huahine

Location:        inside the reef, anchored in Baie de Povai, on the SW coast of Bora Bora
Position:        16 31.405S 151 44.336W (cut & paste into Google Earth to see for yourself)

Wind:             gusting to 20 knots at times inside the lagoon
Sea temp:       79.7F            26.5C
Air temp:        79.3F            26.3C
Humidity:        63%
Barometer:     1017
Weather:        mostly cloudy & overcast, threatening to rain but never quite does.

Today was very special for me with one of those magical memorable moments in life.  But before I get to that, let’s start by bringing you up to date with the most recent sail and Learnativity Update:

After a very rolly, fast and blustery overnight sail from our anchorage at Huahine (shown in the four photos here), Learnativity arrived in Bora Bora at first light this morning.  Julia, (my sister Wendy’s daughter from Comox) successfully completed her 2nd night watch and did great.  She’s very observant and a quick learner and it is a nice treat for me to have someone else on board to take over for a few hours while I catch a few more winks than usual on night sails.  Didn’t get too much sleep last night though as the wind was up quite high and shifting directions and we were sailing with just the jib as the main sail is still in being repaired back in Papeete. 

 

We had spent the past 2 days on the North side of Huahine, a small island to the NW of Tahiti and Moorea, anchored near the only village of Fave.  We were joined by our good friends Philip and Moni on their Outreemer catamaran Blue Bie and though the weather was overcast with a few bouts of rain, we enjoyed some time ashore and snorkeling inside the lagoon. 

With Julia’s time starting to run out (she flies out on Sunday August 6th) and wanting to have her see Bora Bora, we pulled up the anchor last night (Sat) just after sundown last night figuring that would put us at the pass into Bora Bora at about first light, which is around 6am local time.  However in spite of having only the one smaller jib to sail with,we made very good time, too good in fact, as the wind was quite strong for the beginning and end of the approximately 50nm trip. and we were at the pass just after 5am this morning.

Julia had made up supper just before we weighed anchor and so we enjoyed her tasty stir fry with “fragrance de poulet” as soon as we had cleared the easy exit out of the pass at Huahine.  The “fragrance” comment comes from a pretty funny story.  Near the marina Tahina where we were last week in Papeete there is a fabulous French grocery store I recall from France called Carrefour where the food selection is unbelievable and the prices are about as low as they get for French Polynesia, meaning not quite as expensive.  We stocked up on food supplies for the next two weeks and Julia purchased a package of what appeared to be the better part of a whole chicken and put it in our freezer onboard.  Last night, just as I was about to bring in the anchor, she called me down to the galley where the delectable smells of roasted chicken had been wafting out and across the harbor, and asked me what was wrong with the chicken as she couldn’t seem to get any of the meat off?  This was a bit puzzling and upon closer inspection it turned out that this was a stewing chicken!  Would have been great for soup but not much meat on those bones for the ginger stir fry Julia had planned!  However, we scraped off what meat we could and the stir fry was delicious, plus we had yet another story to tell!

Back to sailing, the wind continued to build as we sailed northwest toward NE corner of the island of Tahaa and by the time rounded that corner we were doing over 6 knots in the 20+ knots of wind coming out of the SE.  We turned westward headed for the SE corner of Bora Bora and the wind died down considerably as we got into the lee of Tahaa.  With less wind and sail adjustment to worry about, I got Julia up for a few hours watch from about 1 to 3am during this lull and she completed her 2nd night watch with no problems while I got a bit of sleep as we sailed through a rainy night.   As we left the protection of Tahaa and worked our way west to Bora Bora the wind picked returned and was back into the mid 20’s for the rest of the trip. 

The wind continued to build and by the time I rounded the SW corner of Bora Bora and headed north towards the only pass in, Passe Teavanui, I had the jib furled all the way in and we were still doing 4 knots with just the bare poles (no sail up).  All these islands are surrounded by coral reefs and there are also many coral heads scattered within their inner lagoons, so goo visibility is critical, especially when navigating into a new location.  Not wanting to head into this unfamiliar pass in the dark I kept our speed down as low as possible up the west side and waited just off shore of the pass until the sun was up enough to light the way in.  The wind was on our nose and up into the 20’s all the way in but the pass was very well marked and presented no problems.  I found a nice protected spot in Baie de Povai down on the SW corner of the mainland of Bora Bora and easily anchored in about 70’ of water with a sandy bottom.  This put the stern right up against where the bottom rises up very quickly to a coral reef along the shore but we held well and this location makes for a very beautiful anchorage.  

We are sitting right at the base of the famously changing Mt. Otemanu with its set of very different shaped peaks you can see in some of these photos here.  Mount Otemanu is what you see in all the postcards and movies which has made Bora Bora such a well known location for so many years.  In addition to be quite spectacular, these varying peaks give Mt. Otemanu the fascinating characteristic of appearing to be a completely different mountain as you make your way around the island and your vantage point changes.  And I know this from my first visit here almost 15 years ago when Diana, Lia and Skyler and I were here on one of our many sabbatical holiday adventures (thanks Autodesk!).  Diana had done here typically spectacular job of planning yet another fun 2 month travel vacation and had chartered a sailboat (with captain) for a week, followed by a week here on Bora Bora where we stayed in one of those pretty Polynesian round palm roof huts.  Which brings me to the magical memorable moment I mentioned at the outset.

Not that I realized it at the time, but as best I can trace it, this is where the sailing bug first bit me and hence the title of today’s posting.  The infection remained latent for a long time, but as I’ve looked back and tried to answer the question for others as well as myself as to why I’m out sailing the world, I can see the symptoms gradually emerged after this family vacation and our time aboard that chartered sailboat inside the lagoon of Bora Bora, gazing up through the cabin hatch at the peaks of Mount Otemanu and watching Lia and Skyler jumping off the boat into the almost bath temperature azure lagoon waters. 

Try to imagine how very special this morning was for me as I sat off shore of Passe Teavanui and watched as the rising sun lit up this special set of peaks as if I was watching the beginning of a classic movie where the opening scene slowly fades into view.  For this is a grand adventure movie and it is just beginning and it is now so very real!  It therefore struck me that in a figurative sense this morning marked my completion of what could be called a “cognitive circumnavigation”.  Here I was about to enter the same Bora Bora lagoon where we had anchored as a family lo so many years ago.  But this time I was not sailing as a passenger on a chartered boat from nearby (40nm) Raiatea but as captain of my very own sailboat, having sailed over ten thousand nautical miles from Victoria where Learnativity was built!  How special is that??

Now you can see just how true it is when I say that I jumped into the deep end of the pool of ignorance!  I did not grow up around boats, sailing or the sea.  I can find no trace of mariners in any of my ancestry.  In one sense I’m completely unprepared and in another I’ve been preparing for this all my life.  As with all my previous milestones in life, I truly don’t know what led me here and this has taught me to trust in and use serendipity and synchronicity as my strategic guides.  What I do know is that this grand new aquatic adventure just seems to fit me better every day.  The complete independence and freedom coupled with equally complete self dependence and reliance upon equal parts head, hand and heart.  The human kindness and generosity.  The bonding with other cruisers you’ve only just met.  The teachings of local people who speak, think and live so differently and yet with whom you discover so much in common if you open up, listen and learn.  The learning that seems to increase exponentially as I’m humbled every day by the teachings of my new mothers; Nature and Ocean.  How truly paradoxical it is that the more you learn the better you understand how much you don’t know what you don’t know! 

All of this merely reinforces what I’ve long believed; that life is for living, loving and learning and I’m trying to do each of these a little bit better every day. I remain as excited, as humbled and as awestruck by this grand adventure movie I’m in, whether its the one which began here in Bora Bora over 15 years ago or the one which began just this morning.  It is GREAT to have you for an audience.  Stay tuned for the next act!

Wayne & Ruby the Wonderdog,
Wandering and pondering the planet, one nautical mile at a time.

LTY Weekend Update: Hao, Tuamotu’s June 12-14, 2009

17:300  LTY time  (UTC-10)     03:30 UTC
Days #10-12 Otepa, Hao
Location:    docked just outside Otepa, on the Hao atoll in the Tuamotu's
Position:    18 05.937S 140 54.721W

Wind:        0-5kts (true) SW
Seas:        flat (inside the lagoon)
Sea temp:        84F        29C
Air temp:        84F        29C
Humidity:        62%
Barometer:    1014

With Kestrel and Learnativity snuggled safely in what feels like our very own personal harbour, Isolde, Gabor, Ruby and I were able to use our feet instead of our dinghy’s to get into town.   We headed over to Tina & Manu's house for yet another warm welcome.  Isolde and I spent the morning plugged into their WiFi connection.  Skype call quality seems to always be a coin toss and this morning it went our way so we even got in a few phone calls.  Meanwhile, Gabor headed into town to pick up our baguettes and then he went back to the boat to get some work done there.  Must admit this is when you realize the challenge of sailing singlehanded in that you need to do EVERY thing yourself and so you just don't get as much done as those who are couples or more onboard.  I've tried my best to get Ruby to take on cooking or washing or rust repairs, but my training technique must be lacking as she asserts that Admirals simply don't do that kind of work and goes back to minding the boat.

Back on Learnativity I was busy working away when I became aware of three young kids milling about and trying to get Ruby's attention, which really only takes their presence for her to be madly wagging her tail and wanting to be with them.  I invited them aboard and we spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening chatting as I showed them the boat and they helped me with my French.  Jean-Jacque is about 7, Angelique is about 5 and Gaston is about 10 and they we had a wonderful time for the next few hours.  Much to her delight, all three kids discovered that Ruby loved to play keep away and chase with her toys.  What a joyful symphony I was treated to as the sounds all mixed together of the three kids giggling and shrieking as Ruby yelped and jumped from toy to toy when each child grabbed one and threw it or held it away from her.   Later, I was very impressed with their reading and geography knowledge as we they looked through one of my cruising guides of the area and they immediately recognized the neighboring atolls and passes.  Gaston stayed on the longest and wanted to know more about programs I had on the laptop and then I sent them off to their homes which were but a few hundred meters away and I finished up some writing, Emails and made diner.

About 5:30am I became aware of some faint whispering and whistling that seemed to be coming from the cockpit and right above the hatch above my head as I lay in bed enjoying the first morning light as is my habit.  So I poked my head up through the hatch and was greeted by the sheepish grins of Jean-Jacque and Gaston who were sitting in the cockpit and doing their best to call Ruby to come out and play again!  They were quiet as mice in their bare feet so I had not heard them as they crept on board, but I quickly made it clear that they were not to come on board the boat unless they were asked.  We reached an agreement on that and then they and Ruby had fun getting the morning off to a good start.

And what Saturday it was!  As promised yesterday, Tony, Manu, Simon, Tina and the girls all showed up about 10am out at our boats with the pickup full will table and chairs and a full complement of Polynesian food.   Table and chairs were soon setup on the concreted pad next to Kestrel, and a VERY FULL complement of traditional dishes were laid out and being prepared!  The featured item which had got this whole lunch date happening was the very traditional marinated fish dish called "Fafaru" and it was indeed quite the production and specialty.  Tony did the honors and explained the whole thing as he prepared it down by the water at the end of the pier where we are docked.  The key to this dish is the marinade which needs to be prepared about two weeks ahead of time, but is pretty easy to do.  You take some fish parts of tuna, bonito and others and put them in clean sea water, seal them up and leave them to "cure".  After 10 days or more you strain the liquid through cheesecloth and that's your marinade!  When you're ready to prepare the Fafaru you take a fresh tuna (or other fish too) and cut large thick pieces and place them in the marinade about 1-2 hours ahead of serving to let them soak up the marinade.  These are then served sashimi style (raw), usually with a bit of coconut milk or just plain.  And yes, they smell just about how you are imagining they would having been marinated in 2 week old fish "juice".  We all tried it and they tasted pretty much like they smelled!  Not much to either of our very unsophisticated tastes but everyone else loved them.  Tony in particular.  I think it is likely an acquired taste, no different than something like blue cheese, which I now absolutely adore, but initially turned up my nose at such "rotten" smelling and tasting cheese.

Ahhh, but the Fafaru was but one of many dishes and the large table was groaning under the weight of other traditional dishes lovingly prepared by every member of our gracious guests.  Toni had managed to find some breadfruit which is not yet in season and prepared that, Tina made up some Taro, and Manu's mother had made us a dish I did not catch the name of but is made by combining ground coconut meat with flour and then boiling the mixture which produces large pieces a bit like dumplings.  Slightly sweet and very much coconut meat tasting.  Tony also made up some poison cru with small 6" long bonito, slices of a white fish, lime juice, vinegar and something called "Gout" which is apparently a Chinese condiment that looks like tiny granular strands of salt but isn't salty tasting.  I provided some fresh tomatoes, onions and cucumbers which we diced up and added in to the mix.

What a feast!  All the dishes, with the exception of the poison cru perhaps, were very filling and we three skinny white folk certainly weren’t able to keep up with our Polynesian friends when it came to helpings, but we all kept up very well with the conversation and laughter.

After a few hours of this we "retired" to the cockpit and salon on Kestrel.  The girls had a fun time trying on all of Isolde's various sun hats.  Some went below to learn more about charting and GPS and Tina, Simon, the girls and Simon and I sat up in the cockpit under the shade of the tarp as Manu serenaded us with his hand made ukulele.  Tina's laugh is infectious and what I'll long remember every time I think of my time in this little bit of paradise called Hao.  She often joined in to help Manu with some of the singing and accompanied him on the spoons as they went through song after song telling of the history of the islands and this wonderful world of theirs. 

Before we knew it, the afternoon was gone and so we all helped to clean up, load everything back into the pickup and all but Tony headed back home.  Tony stayed aboard Kestrel and Gabor helped quench some of his thirst for learning more about using GPS coordinates to chart your way anywhere you want to go by boat.  Isolde and I worked on getting her laptop back working again after some problems with her touchpad and getting iTunes which we had just installed, to work properly and synchronize with her iPod.  Then the four of us ended up gathered around the salon table for coffee, tea and cookies and more conversation about our mutual interests and different backgrounds.  People, more than anything else, are the true magic and gift of this new lifestyle.

Up for another sunrise this morning (Sunday) there was not a breath of wind and the water mirrored the sun as it rose on yet another great day.  I took advantage of the weather and the fact that this is Sunday after all, to get out my lounge chair which I keep strapped to the aft railing and has not been off for several months.  A liberal injection of magic juice (aka WD40) on all the many joints, hinges and slides soon had this recliner working again and I set it up on the back deck, put together a playlist of a nice variety of soothing piano artists from Glen Gould to Keith Jarrett and Oscar Peterson, clicked shuffle, dialed up the volume and reclined with my breakfast, my coffee and my Kindle for a fabulous few hours of reading and relaxing as I welcomed the start of another wonderful day.  Wallowed in those moments until the boat chore list was calling my name too loudly to ignore and spent the rest of the day finally attacking the growing collection of rust spots and bubbles on the boat.  I should have probably put on Neil Young's "Rust Never Sleeps" in a loop, but I went with a shuffle mix of slightly more upbeat but still soothing rhythms, Charles Mingus, Stanley Turrentine, Sado Watenabe and many others and while it was dusty with the grinder and Dremel tool running for the next few hours, I was able to get a good start at some of the rust areas that I've let get away from me.

It has actually become quite embarrassing every time I approach poor old Learnativity and see her streaked with the stains of dark orange oozing out of the many wounds she's acquired in the last two years of very steady and heavy use.  Seems that every time I go to patch up one of these paint scrapes some other urgent matter trumps it and the rust has clearly been winning the battle as a result.  Nothing structural, pretty much cosmetic more than anything else, but several spots are getting quite seriously corroded and she just doesn't look ship shape which is disappointing and a bit embarrassing for me as her captain and caretaker so today was the day to start to turn that around.  One of the benefits of staying put for a while here in Hao will be that I can tackle a few more spots each day and get on top of this "feature" of steel boats that truly does never sleep.  Given that she has not been painted topsides for over ten years she is actually in great shape, but I'm planning to get to all these spots and then do a complete paint job this hurricane season in New Zealand.

Gabor and Isolde stopped by this afternoon and we caught up with each other's progress.  They think they are now going to head out on Wednesday when there will hopefully be a bit more wind to help propel them North to the Marquesas.  I'm hoping our paths will cross again in the Society Islands after I return in August or perhaps some common points we are headed to west of there.

Now it is time to rustle up some diner, check out a bit of recorded video and then off to bed at the end of a wonderful weekend.  Hope yours was at least as good and I'll be back to you with more updates later in the week.

Wayne & Ruby the Wonderdog

LTY Mid Week Update: Hao, Tuamotus June 8-11, 2009

20:00  LTY time  (UTC-10)     06:00 UTC
Days #6-9 anchored @ off Otepa in Hao
Location:    anchored at Hao atoll in the Tuamotu's
Position:    18 05.937S 140 54.721W

Wind:        15-20kts (true) N
Seas:        up to 1m (inside the lagoon)
Sea temp:        83.1F    28.2C
Air temp:        82.2F    27.9C
Humidity:        70%
Barometer:    1014

Hao great can it get?  Fresh Baguettes and our own personal harbor!

Not to worry folks, all is well here on Hao, more than ever really, and
I've not sent out an update since Sunday as it's been busy but also just
one day blending blissfully into the next and not as much to write about. 

One significant update is that I've decided to stay here in Hao for the
rest of the month and leave Learnativity here while I fly back to
California to look after some things there and of course Lia and Brian's
wedding!  After many Emails back and forth with many marinas on the
islands of Tahiti, Moorea and Raiatea it turns out that there is little to
know spaces available as this is truly the busiest time of the year and
July in particular is THE time when not just tourists flock to Tahiti, but
so too do most of the people from everywhere else in French Polynesia. 
This is their big holiday season so kids are returning home from the
schools on the other islands where they board for most of the year and all
the outlying islands send their very best singers, dancers, drummers,
rowers and many other skilled folk to compete in the big annual finale of
all these sports and games in Papeete.  Even if I could find a spot, most
of those who are already there say it is extremely crowded and the usual
problems that come from lots of people being in the same area at the same
time, and it is very expensive, even for French Polynesia which is already
très cher!

Rick and Sherry Cooper, my dear friends from Vancouver who Diana and I got
to know when we were living and teaching in Germany with them back in the
early 80's are going to be flying over to Tahiti the last week of July and
then spending two weeks with me upon my return in August, along with my
niece Julia.  So we've been having some Email exchanges on where it would
be best for us to meet up on Learnativity and we now are putting all our
plans into place to meet up here on Hao.  Rick and Sherry fly into the
main airport of Papeete and maybe spend a few days there on their own and
then take the short flight over to Hao,  live aboard Learnativity and get
to know Hao on their own.  Then Julia and I will fly in after Lia's
wedding and we'll all meet up aboard Learnativity on Hao on August 6th. 
Right now we plan so spend a few days here getting ourselves and
Learnativity all ship shape and then take our time island hopping our way
from lagoon to lagoon as we make our way through the Tuamotu's and the
Society Islands.  We'll end up in Papeete at least a few days before Rick
and Sherry need to return all too soon to Vancouver on August 18th and
then Julia and I will continue on for a few weeks after that till she has
to head home to Comox on Sept. 8th.  It will be SO much fun for me to be
able to share some of these experiences with these wonderful friends and
family.

And speaking of friends, I had planned to leave yesterday and sail up to
Tahanea, another motu/island/atoll NW of here to attend the "diner for
one" aboard Traversee III that Marry Anne is putting on to celebrate
Larry's 61st birthday, but the weather has made that rather difficult and
so it looks like I'll have to unfortunately take a rain check on that fun
event this year.

Kestrel and Learnativity continue to be the only non local two boats here,
and there aren't many local boats either!  We, Isolde, Gabor and I
continue to enjoy the wonderful people here who have been treating us all
with great kindness, generosity and openness.  Gabor has been getting lots
of boat work done while Isolde and I have been ashore for several hours
each day.  We try to be ashore by about 9am so we can get to the bakery
and pick up our daily baguettes, fresh out of the oven,  before they are
all gone to the other islanders.  The French influence is on full display
when it comes to food and the one bakery on the island produces a batch of
baguettes and some larger loaves of bread twice a day at about 8am and
noon.  At those times almost every man, woman and child you pass, and say
"Bonjour" to, is carrying one to six of these heavenly gifts of French
tradition.  Many are walking, some are on bicycles and many are riding on
motorized scooters often with their small children standing between their
legs or on the back, holding on to the baguettes.

If we're lucky, well if Gabor is lucky, some of the baguette makes it back
to our boats as Isolde and I continue around the island.  And when there
we slather these soft inner dough with the ready supply, mais très cher,
of Roquefort, Brie or Camembert cheese, or out of this world New Zealand
butter (canned) with marmalade or jam.  Delicieux!

We stop and chat with our friend Tony, who speaks excellent English as his
father is from Massachusetts and is a wealth of knowledge about Hao,
everyone on it and most other topics of interest to us.  He's truly been
one of the highlights of our visit.  We also often go to the home of Manu
and Tina, Tony's friends, who have welcomed us into their home every so
graciously as per my previous postings, and readily share their WiFi
connection with us!  Other times when Tina's not home we wander over to
another spot beside one of the three of four grocery stores on the island
where a fellow has a great WiFi setup and let's us sit out on his deck and
use his WiFi connection for a very reasonable fee.  And then some of the
time we just wander around the small village of Otepa to learn and see
more of this fascinating spot.

Everyone we pass makes eye contact, smiles and says "Bonjour".  The
younger ones, kids in particular often say "Hello, how are you?" or "Hi,
what's your name" as their faces light up with the chance to practice the
English they are learning in school on some real English speaking people. 
Tony tells us that all their English teachers in school are from France
and so they teach the kids to say things like "I go to ze store" and other
heavily French accented versions of English, whereas he knows the more
"proper" English pronunciation.

Today was a particularly busy day as we moved both Kestrel and
Learnativity into what essentially amounts to our own personal marina! 
Thanks to the French military and their time here during the 60's and 70's
when they were doing all the nuclear testing and Hao was the main supply
base, there are some amazing amounts of infrastructure on what otherwise
appears to be a very small, very remote atoll.  I've mentioned the truly
amazing airport with the 7km long runway, but there are also all the
buildings from the military population of about 4000 apparently, which are
now abandoned and being torn down and cleaned up by French military crews
which are flown over to do this work.  These buildings include row after
row of barracks and other housing, offices, large hangers for aircraft,
repair facilities, and helicopter hangers.  There is also a full
desalination plant, a power plant and the list goes on.  BUT, best of all
for us is that there are several facilities that were put in for supply
ships and other marine based infrastructure. 

When we arrived, we anchored in front of the very new modern concrete pier
and marina that fronts the center of the village of Otepa where everyone
lives and contains the city hall, church, Post Office, town square and so
on.  We have been anchored there ever since and it was as short dingy ride
ashore to the very protected marina inside and behind the big concrete
pier for the monthly cargo ships.  But we have a bit of a storm that is
passing through the past few days and is forecast to continue and worsen
through the weekend.  Nothing much really, winds up to 25-30nm predicted
and some rain, but all very normal as this is the rainy season here and
July is the peak.  However it has made for some chop which the wind whips
up as it comes out of the North in particular right now and down the
length of what is one of the largest lagoons in all of French Polynesia. 
Compared to what we've experienced elsewhere this is nothing, but why be
uncomfortable and loose the peace and quiet we've been spoiled with
recently if you don't have to right?

So when we went ashore this morning, we spoke with Tony and he suggested
we move to the small harbor/marina that is less than a mile north of where
we are anchored.  Turns out Tony's family actually owns this property now
that it has all be returned by the French to the locals and he had shown
it to us previously when we took our first big tour of the island with
Tony, Manu and Tina.  Just to make sure though, Gabor and I took the dingy
and my depth sounder and went over to check it all out before we moved the
big boats.  The wind was up to 15-20 knots so it was a bit choppy, but a
short ride and we reconfirmed that this little spot was truly ideal.  It
is about 150 x 250 meters, has a single small entrance to keep out almost
all waves, has a clean, flat sandy bottom about 5m deep that extends right
up to the bottom edge of the concrete walls which have been poured all
around the edges.  These concrete walls extend about 2-3' above the high
tide mark and have a good supply of large rings and bollards for our
lines, tires hung along most of their length for protection and very
smooth sides for our fenders to rest on.  We could hardly have designed a
better place to dock if we had designed it ourselves!
    **  Cut and paste the new lat/long coordinates of 18 05.937S 140 54.721W
into Google Earth and zoom in to see what this looks like yourself!

While we were gone, Isolde went to the bakery to pick up our baguettes and
was chatting with Tony when Gabor and I came back.  We invited Tony along
and he and Isolde got into the dingy and we headed back out to
Learnativity to move her to our new location.   We took the time to
inflate the nice new round fenders I'd brought back from my last trip to
the US, fired up the engine and started to haul in the anchor.  This took
a bit longer than usual as the chain had managed to wrap itself around
some of the rocks below, but with the help of Isolde at the helm and Gabor
and I at the bow, we managed to maneuver around and get the chain and
anchor back aboard and motor the short distance to the marina entrance. 
No problems getting in, made a short U turn, brought the starboard side up
to the shore side concrete wall, Tony and Gabor stepped ashore and secured
the lines and Learnativity was calmly resting in her new home.  Back into
the dingy and out to Kestrel for a repeat performance and we soon had
Kestrel securely tied to the opposite, lagoon side, concrete wall. 

We spent the next few hours aboard Kestrel, showing Tony around and
enjoying coffee, tea and our daily baguette with some jam and pate as the
light dimmed with the passing storm clouds and rain.  Feels so great to be
safe, dry, warm and calm as you enjoy time with great people and good
food.  Later that afternoon we had invited Tony to bring Tina and Manu out
to see the boats and they showed up in Manu's new Toyota pickup about 4pm
along with Vanessa (not quite the right name, but close) one of the girls
from the college who stays with them on the weekends.  We had coffee, tea,
juice and delicious fresh chocolate cake that Isolde had just baked as we
showed them around Learnativity and then we moved over to Kestrel to show
them a different sailboat. 

I don't think I'll ever cease to be marvel at the whole experience of
being with and getting to know an eclectic mix of new and interesting
people (aren't they all?).  I drift back and forth between being deeply
immersed in the conversations to stepping back mentally to take in the
whole setting.  We are nested into the galley and salon of Kestrel, the
rain is drumming lightly overhead, the inside is filled with the humid
warmth of the steam coming from the  boiling kettle for more tea and
coffee, and our slightly rain spattered bodies (from the walk over from
LTY).  Ruby is having a great time teaching Tony the game of keep your
hands away from me if you can.  The three ladies are huddled around
Isolde's computer as she shows them some pictures of their home in Nakusp
and their children, the men are all sitting around the salon table as Manu
is describing his favorite and very historical fish dish of Fafaru-faro.  Or
at least that's about how it is pronounced.   I'll get it spelled out for
me another time and I'll save the description of this very unique way of
preparing a form of sushi until after we have eaten it as Manu is going to
be making this special dish and has invited us all over to his place on
Saturday to try it.  Trust me, it will be interesting!

And all of this is happening in multiple languages, simultaneously; French
mostly as that's what Tony, Tina, Manu and Vanessa speak and I do my best
in, English which Isolde, Gabor and I resort to with Tony's assistance to
translate into French, and some German between Isolde and Gabor from time
to time for more specific and descriptive things and which I can sometimes
keep up with.  Yet these are truly but the tools we all use to accomplish
the deeply shared mutual goal of learning more about each other, our
customs, or families our lives and our dreams.  And what a dreamy
afternoon and evening it was as we continued on for several hours and well
after dark. 

Now we've all dispersed to our respective homes for the evening and this
remarkable day nears its end.  Just yet another in a seemingly unending
string of great days of learning experiences I'm ever so grateful and
fortunate to be experiencing of late.

I'll be back to you with more tomorrow or on the weekend.  Enjoy YOUR time
with friends and family and with living the life you love and loving the
life you live.

Wayne & Ruby the Wonderdog

LTY Morning Update: Monday April 27, 2009

Location:    anchored @ Hanga Roa, Rapa Nui (Easter Island)
Position:    -27d 08.625' S    -109d 26,087' W
Wind:         8-12 kts N True
Seas:          swell = ~ 1.5m @ 8 secs  N
Weather:    early AM showers and cloud, burning off for another clear day
Sea temp:    78.9F
Air temp:    76.8F 
Humidity:    74%

Had a very good day ashore yesterday afternoon and evening.  Met up with Charlie and Elaine, two of the people I’d been introduced to before getting here. Charlie is an archaeologist/geologist who has been coming here to Easter Island for over 30 years and Elaine is a retired high school teacher who is here for 3 months teaching science in the local schools.  I met up with them at the beautiful hotel Otai and we spent the whole afternoon getting to know each other, talking about Easter Island.  They had a WiFi connection at the hotel so I was able to get connected and start the long process of downloading all my Emails from the past 2 weeks, updated weather reports and otherwise catching up with things online.  It is a very slow connection, I believe there is only one line into the island and being Sunday afternoon my guess is that everyone was online and so it was slow but it was a connection!

Charlie and Elaine are both from Wyoming and I also met up with some of Charlie’s students who are here doing various projects on the island.  Four of us went out for diner to round out a very good day ashore.  The stars here are quite phenomenal.  Both because there is so little light anywhere near here that you get no interference and the stars are all very bright and contrasted against the blackness of the sky, but also because these are very different stars being down here below 27 degrees South of the Equator.  The famous Southern Cross is very visible for example and I need to get out my various star charts and programs to learn a bit more about all these new stars and planets that I get to see from this vantage point.  One of my major and fun areas of learning (one of thousands) on this adventure is understanding the whole set of spatial relationships between the earth, moon, sun and stars. I’m working on learning to use my sextant as part of this and as always I continue to enjoy and be fascinated by the fun combinations of the very very old with the new.  In this case here I am, about as wired up and high tech as it gets with GPS, sat phones, chart plotters and the like and yet balancing that out with celestial navigation, sextants and sight reduction tables.  Fascinating stuff and so much to be learned and understood in the process.

After diner Ruby and I went back to our dingy and headed out to Learnativity which continues to be solidly anchored off Hanga Roa and spent a bit of time when we got back to admire and study the night sky a bit more.  However it wasn’t able to focus on those incredible stars for too long as unfortunately I seemed to pick up some food poisoning from the meal and started to feel strange shortly as I was leaving the restaurant.  As I got back to LTY, my eyesight began to go all crazy, no peripheral vision, seeing lots of purple lines like broken safety glass overlaid on everything I looked at and a very upset stomach.  Got rid of some of it out one end but didn’t vomit and it eased up a little, but then a fever like condition set in, making me very cold and shivering.  So I drank a lot of water, dug out my long unused comforter and went to bed early.  The fever continued all night alternating between cold and hot but I was able to get some sleep and kept drinking lots of water and by 6am the fever had broken and it had all passed and I feel fine again now.  Guess I need to stick to my own cooking! <g>

The anchorage was very rolly last night as the swell is now coming in from the North and the wind is more from the East so it puts us broadside to the swells and the boat rolls back and forth from one side to the other, sometimes heeling us over 30+ degrees.  When you’re laying down it is quite pleasant and like being rocked to sleep but certainly makes moving around a challenge. 

This morning it was a similar weather pattern with light showers and cloudy skies about 4-6am and then it starts to clear off as the sun rises.  So I’m back up in the cockpit, doing this morning update for you and enjoying the sun as it breaks through the remaining clouds.  I’ll head ashore later this morning for more exploring and also to start checking out facilities here.  If possible I’m hoping to find things like a Laundromat, some car batteries to replace my failed starter batteries and ideally a sail maker or even a sewing machine that I can use and try to salvage and resew my large spinnaker sail that blew out shortly after leaving Galapagos.  Fortunately the wind was good and strong the whole way from Galapagos to here so I didn't need or miss the spinnaker too much until the last day.  But it will likely be lower winds and more downwind sailing for the next month on the way to Pitcairn, Mangareva (Gambier) and French Polynesia so I’m very much hoping I’ll be able to find a way to salvage the spinnaker and have that to help keep us sailing in these conditions.

Charlie and Elaine and some of his students are all very intrigued by the notion of traveling by sailboat and so I’m going to bring them out to see Learnativity late this afternoon.  And I’ll be looking into tours and renting vehicles or horses to get out to some of the sites on the other parts of the island. 

I’ll be back to you with an update tomorrow to see how successful I was at finding the various facilities on shore.

Wayne

LTY morning UPDATE: Sunday, April 26, 2009

08:15 local 14:15 UTC

Location:    anchored @ Hanga Roa, Rapa Nui (Easter Island)
Position:    -27d 08.625' S    -109d 26,087' W
Wind:         8-15 kts SE True
Seas:        swell = ~ 1 m @ 8 secs
Weather:    early AM showers, late sunrise with clouds, clearing off to be another blue sky and sunny day
Sea temp:    78.9F
Air temp:    76.9F 
Humidity:    74%

Spent the morning cleaning up the boat after two weeks of non stop living/sailing.  The outboard motor on the dingy has been acting up so cleaned out the carburetor and spark plugs, checked the fuel tank for water and got it all back together and seems to be running better.  We'll know for sure next run ashore.  I also climbed the mast to inspect all the rigging and found the starboard halyard block (pulley) at the mast head had lost its bearings.  Spent half an hour at the top getting the old one off and then when I got back late in the afternoon, replaced it with a new one and got the halyard reeved (fed through) and all mounted up at the top of the mast.  Otherwise everything else appears to be none the worse for 2 weeks of wear and tear of non stop sailing.

 

One of the most common questions I get is "What do you do with all your time?".  I don't have a great answer, and sometimes I ask that question myself in terms of where did the day(s) go, but they go amazingly quickly and are filled with a great variety of never ending things to do.  There is certainly never any boredom (not that I really understand the concept) or lack of things on the list to choose from on what to do next and that's just the way I like it. 

 

 

 

Ruby and I spent the day ashore and mostly just did one of my favorite things in an area, wandering around wherever my feet, nose, eyes and serendipity lead me.  We walked quite a stretch of the coastline here and a large part of it turned out to be a national park area that was a long series of Moai (the famous stone face statues) and the large platforms they are built on.  It has been particularly interesting for me to now see these things myself after reading so much about them and having just finished Jared Diamond's "Collapse" which has a long chapter devoted to Easter Island, the events that led up to the almost complete collapse of the island's society and what caused it all.  

It was a perfect day, sunny but not too hot nor humid and it was great to be able to be out for a long walk with Ruby as well.  She was able to be off leash for most of it as were were usually the only ones around.  There are lots of other dogs here, mostly wild/stray types, which has been typical most places we've been but this doesn't seem to cause either side any problems.  Occasionally Ruby will find one that wants to play and they will chase each other for a bit, but mostly they just seem to greet each other, have a couple good sniffs and be on their respective ways.

We also spent some time walking more of the small village here and getting a feel for it and the people. It's quite nice as the tourism part is not too pronounced given the very small numbers and that the town and overall island and population (about 4000) is so small. 

After a lot of walking I stopped for a late lunch at about 2pm in a nice restaurant on the waterfront road and treated myself to a very full meal of salad, ceviche and fresh pescado (Mai Mai) with a mango juice to top it off.  It was quite a surreal experience as I sat there, enjoyed this great meal, looking at and past the carved figures on the road side and out over the water where Learnativity is anchored, listening to the crashing surf, and spending a few relaxing hours reading on my Kindle.  What a wonderful mix of cultures, old/new, history, technology and senses.  The place became very busy about 3pm so I offered to share my table with a couple who came in when there were not tables and they turned out to be from Holland.  We chatted for a bit, in English as my Dutch is almost non existent (sorry Erik) and they were here visiting for two weeks.  She was particularly interested in my Kindle as she had seen two others with them in their travels and so I let her play with it for a bit and we talked about it, technology, traveling and more.  Added to the extreme eclecticness of the whole experience and I just loved it all.

After that I stopped by the hotel where the people I'm trying to meet up with are staying but was not able to find them in on several tries.  I wandered up to 3 different internet cafes trying to find a net connection but after waiting over an hour I decided to let it go for the day and we headed back to Learnativity for the evening.  A bit more cleaning up, a light diner and just to add to the eclectic nature of the day, watched some TV shows that my generous friend John has recorded tons of for me.  I have to just laugh at the whole scene.  I hardly watch any TV or get to see any movies, so I don't know any of these shows that he's recorded but it has been great fun checking them out and finding some fun stuff to watch.  So there I am, anchored off Easter Island and getting to watch & learn about shows like "Dr. Who", "Top Gear", "Dirty Jobs", "Eureka" and of course get to see (after reading the book) Master & Commander.  I just LOVE these kinds of mashups of old and new, low tech and high tech, foreign and familiar. 

Then it was off to bed for Ms. Ruby and I.  AND we got to sleep in a real bed and for a real long contiguous time!  Life doesn't get much better than this I don't think.

Today (Sunday morning) I've been enjoying the sunrise as it burns through all the storm clouds that have been here since about 4am and the day warms up, the sounds of the waking village drift out to us a bit and we roll back and forth with the swell coming in and around this side of the island now from the NE.  Right now I'm using the time to also get this note typed up and sent off to you and then will finish my coffee, do a few more chores. 

Intentions (vs plans) for the rest of the day include going ashore to see what Sunday in Hanga Roa is like, trying for a network connection, exploring a few more parts of the town, meeting up (hopefully) with Sonia, Charlie or Elaine the people here I've been communicating with via Email) and then maybe try some snorkeling in this unbelievably clear water (apparently up to 300' at times!)

Whatever it ends up being, hard to imagine a better Sunday, or any day.  Hope yours is equally GR8!!

Enjoy,

Wayne