Living & Learning Aboard the Good Ship Learnativity

Kava & the Simple Joys from Nothingness

Friday night I had an extremely special experience when Isikelli one of the guys on my Fiji paint crew from Baobab Marine (left front behind Ruby in this photo) invited me to his home for a visit and some kava.  Kava as you may know from my previous posts over the past two year’s I’ve been in Fiji, is the ceremonial drink here in Fiji and many of the other Southern Pacific islands.

This Kava drink is made from the dried and aged roots of the Kava tree which are then pounded or ground into a fine powder and mixed it with fresh water. Kava is part of a ceremony and historic cultural tradition called “Sevusevu” which is what I experience each time I first anchor off shore from one of the small inhabited islands here in Fiji. 

As soon as I have my anchor down and inspected so I know Learnativity is secure, I put the dingy in the water and row ashore to meet with the chief and ask for his blessings and permission to be there. When I arrive ashore I am usually greeted by a gaggle of giggling children and seek out an adult to ask to take me to their chief.  I bring with me about a pound or half kilo of kava roots which I have purchased previously in one of the bigger city vegetable markets and keep a stock of onboard.  Usually my adult guide takes the kava from me and talks with me as we walk to get a bit of background on me, where I’m from, where I have just sailed from, how long in Fiji, and so on.  They introduce me to the chief and give him a summary of from this conversation and I am then invited to sit across from the chief sitting on a large hand woven mat.  I present the chief with the kava and he places it in front of him as we sit cross legged he then says a prayer in Fijian, we clap three times when he has done so and the then welcomes me to his island and we chat for a bit more before I take my leave and return to the boat. More informally, Kava is also the traditional drink that Fijian men usually have at the end of the day when they get home from work and is similar to having a beer or wine after work.  Several times while anchored for longer times off one of these islands I've been invited ashore to join them which has been a great gift and treasured experience.

On Friday however I had a whole new and even more intense experience with kava and the Fijian people and their way of life when one of my regular Fijian paint crew and friend Isikeli invited me to join him at his home for such a drink of kava. I was not sure what I could bring as a gift of thanks and appreciation but I remembered that I had about 2lbs/1kg of kava root still on board in my stores from sailing here last year and so I wrapped this up with ribbon into a bouquet like form that is the tradition here and took that along with me. Moreover, he had expressly invited Ruby to come along as he had been telling his daughters about Ruby the Wonderdog for months and she is also a "gift" for most people we meet. 

 

 

 

Isikeli lives with his two daughters Vani (2) and Marica (4) and his wife Salome who unfortunately was not able to join us as she works nights at the neighboring First Landing resort which is next to the Vuda Point Marina where I’ve been since September.  They live only a kilometer or two away and he and his oldest daughter, Marica (Fijian for Martha), met me at the marina and we walked over to their home. They recently moved into a new rental property that is situated in the middle of a large set of sugar cane fields and it was a perfect evening and just starting to cool off as the sun was starting to set (about 6:30pm).  Their home is an adjoining half of the landlord's home and he joined us for the last half of the walk to the house where Ruby and I were introduced to the kids playing in the houses and yard and Isikeli's sister in law. 

The kava roots need to be pulverized into powder and they fetched a large tall cast iron or steel urn that they used for this purpose. It needed to be cleaned out of rust and water so they wiped it all out and then lit some newspaper on fire inside it to burn off the remainder, wiped it clean and it was ready to use.  Isikeli, his older son and the man who owns the houses where they live all took turns in pounding the kava with a long heavy steel rod that was about 4cm in diameter and 2.5m long until the kava roots were transformed into a fine powder.

 

 

My offers to assist were politely declined as the men took turns raising the rod high overhead and then bringing it down as hard as possible onto the kava roots inside the urn.  This process took quite some time, almost an hour or so by the time it was fully pulverized and was a significant and sweaty effort in the hot humid night air.  All the while I was invited to sit on the woven grass mat, enjoy a tea and some biscuits as Ruby and I played with the 3 young girls who came and went from inside the house to the covered porch we were sitting on, and the yard.

 

 

As has been surprisingly common, the kids and even many adult men are quite fearful of Ruby at first as they have never seen anything like her. There are LOTS of dogs here but they are mostly roaming free and not in very good health as the concept of having domestic pets is not common in Fiji. With her strange curly black hair and small size many think she is some kind of wind up or electric toy! It took a while for the little girls to get closer and closer to Ruby, reach out and touch her and finally end up sitting with her, petting her and their initial wary squeals were transformed into that joyous giggling of little girls.

 

Kava has a very distinctive smell that is hard to describe but has a very earthy, spicy smell much like you might expect from a root. They were very pleased with the kava I brought as apparently it was very good quality and this was a very large quantity for them as it made enough kava powder for several months of drinking. Isikeli then brought out his kava bowl and his son put a few heaping tablespoons full of kava powder into a cloth bag which he then kneaded in the large bowl of fresh water. It is a bit like making drip coffee or tea in that you do not want the kava powder itself to be in the water you just want to extract all the flavour out of the powder into the water. Isikeli continued to knead the bag in the water for about 10 minutes to extract all the flavour from the powered kava.

 

Once it was all mixed to his satisfaction, Isikeli brought out the traditional kava “cups” which are hollowed out halves of a coconut shell and offered me the first drink. You accept the bowl with both hands and while the other guests toast you and clap three times you then drink the kava in one steady go and when you are done they all clap three more times and you pass the bowl back to the “chief” of the ceremony. In our case it was just Isikeli and myself and once we had both had a cup Isikeli would place the lid back on the big bowl and we would talk some more and then he would serve another round about every 15-20 minutes.  Kava is apparently mildly intoxicating but I have never had enough to feel any such effect and it just makes your lips, tongue and throat a bit numb. The bowl is then filled and passed amongst all the guests and then you usually sit around, chat for a while, and then repeat the whole process. It is a very old tradition and very special to be a part of.

I had my pocket camera with me and the girls were all quite intrigued with it and wanting to see pictures of themselves so that along with Ruby provided lots of fun for all of us throughout the evening as the girls got closer and closer to Ruby, petted her and worked up their courage with this very strange creature. 

Isikeli had even brought out a small can of tuna and some crackers for Ruby which Vani (the brave one of the two) served to her as you can see in this photo.  I also used several bites of soda crackers to entice Ruby to perform her full repertoire of entertaining tricks like standing on her hind legs, sit, down, dancing and giving High Fives all the accompanying music of giggles and laughs from the girls. 

 

And so this most wondrous and simple time passed with Isikeli and I talking, sometimes just the two of us, sometimes with his two girls and older son.  Fijian families usually speak Fijian in their homes and with their kids and then they learn English “immersion” style once they start school, which is usually when they are about five years old and start half day Kindergarten classes.  So the young girls don’t speak much English yet but as usual it was no problem to communicate these simple pleasures of looking at pictures and playing with Ruby.  The time passed in that oxymoronic way where it is all luxuriously slow and peaceful and yet in the end seems to go by in a blink.

 

We stayed until almost 9 o’clock, which is quite late here, and then walked back to the boat. Isikeli and Marica walked us out to the end of the sugar cane fields and then Ruby and I walked the last km back to the boat under a beautiful starry sky. The moon is rising and setting very early now so it was not in the sky at all so the sky was even darker and the stars shining even brighter than usual.  It took a while for my eyes to adjust to the darkness and find my way along the dirt roads but the road is quite wide and not a problem to walk along as we made our way back to our little nest in the trees.  I was not sure if we would be eating as part of this visit and I had been so busy with all the painting that I had not eaten since breakfast so I made up a quick snack back on the boat and was soon nodding off on the settee as I was pooped from a hard hot week of painting. I awoke a few hours later and stumbled my way into the aft cabin and was soon fast asleep in bed with Ruby curled up at my side and we were off to dream land here in this magical land called Fiji.

While it fails miserably to capture the magic of the evening, I have done my best here to describe what this evening was like.  As with all experiential learning, this is not something that can be explained well in words and as the saying goes, "You really had to be there".  It may sound to many like a very simple and even "boring" evening where “nothing” happened.  Yet for me it was truly magical and memorable time.  To be invited into the home and lives of these simply beautiful people, to have even just a few hours to become part of this moment in time was such a deeply authentic and Oh so real moment for me.  I seem to be blessed with gifts like these all the time out here on this grand sailing life adventure and you can see why I say that I lead a truly charmed life.

Many of you ask what the heck I do with all my time out here “doing nothing”.  It is a very reasonable question and one can fully understand as I often wonder myself where all the time has gone.  But as you read more and more of my stories perhaps you can begin to understand just how full my time “doing nothing” is!  I’m actually fascinated by the whole concept of “nothingness” and is why I have been devouring books like Stephen Hawking’s “Universe in a Nutshell” and Lawrence Krauss’ “A Universe from Nothing” that I am reading now.  Turns out that as best these physicists and cosmologists can figure out, everything from our very selves to the entire cosmos around us has been created from "nothing” and how over 90 percent of the energy in the cosmos exists in the “nothing” that is left when you remove every atom, electron, proton and quark of visible matter.

In a similar way, I live a life of profound joy that seems to be similarly created out of “nothingness” with the eclectic range of activities that include sailing from one magical destination to the next, experiencing the wonders of Mother Nature, endless boat repairs and maintenance juxtaposed between equally endless sunrises and sunsets, and then truly living IN life’s moments when snorkeling or laying under a full night sky or sitting with some of the local people I meet along the way.  To badly paraphrase Al Green’s “Use me” song, If this is what it feels like to do nothing, then nothing me up please!

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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Non Stop Novelties on Niue

After an early morning arrival in Niue (June 21, 2010) I ended up putting in a very full Monday to Friday work week looking after the priority boat jobs that needed attending to after the fast and furious sail up here from Whangarei NZ and this was just much too dangerously close to resembling a regular work week so i decided to take the weekend off to explore the wonders of this small island country.  As it turned out I needed to get back to work on LTY to get a rest as the weekend was non stop hiking up and down coral trails, trekking through dense jungle growth, climbing up and down caves and snorkeling in pools and coastal caves. But more on that in a separate posting to follow.

NIUE INFO:

Niue (see this link for a good overview and map) is referred to as the largest uplifted atoll in Polynesia and is about 260 square kilometers in area and about 65km in circumference. 

Niue is absolutely gravid with fascinating facts and places to explore.  For example, Philip and I have been discussing and pondering just how this island formed and how to account for the very unique “ground”, which consists of nothing but broken up pieces of very sharp and rough old coral. Some of these pieces are huge boulders, some are the actual island base itself that makes up the whole coast and some are smaller sizes down to fist size or so.  This coral is literally ALL there is everywhere; every trail, every cliff, every jungle floor and every part of the coast. 

If you are interested in more, I was able to find some of the answers on a fascinating and extremely informative web site at http://www.seafriends.org.nz/niue/geo.htm which included this graphic of the most likely scenario.  This site is extremely informative and I’m still in the process of learning from it.  Did you know for example that the surface of the ocean is far from flat or even and has very large dips up to 10m depending on what is below it?  This is apparently caused by the difference in the gravitational pull between the water and the earth in different locations.  From the site here’s what that means:

 

One of Seasat's instruments was a radar altimeter, able to measure the ocean's surface from an altitude about 500 miles up, with a precision of 5-10 cm. Surprisingly, the surface of the ocean proved to be curving and dipping, often by as much as 10m up and down (for 5000m bottom relief). When mapped, the dips corresponded to dips in the sea floor and the bumps to sea mounts and ridges. The precision of the measurements allowed computers to make precise and detailed maps of the entire world's ocean floors.
The reason these dips and bumps occur in the ocean's floor, without ships ever being able to notice these, comes from the force with which two substance attract one another - the heavier earth's crust attracting the lighter and fluid water. Thus undersea mountains pull water towards them, resulting in a surface bump, whereas ocean trenches have the opposite effect.

  Who knew? And how cool is it that “we” can measure and map, in part, the ocean floor by measuring these dips and changes in level of the ocean by satellite.  NOW do you understand why I called my boat Learnativity and how seriously fun it is to be learning a living?!!

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

Marvelous Monday

WOW!  What a Monday and start to my week here in Pago Pago, American Samoa.  Hard to believe that it has been a week since fateful tsunami Tuesday.

It was slow start as I awoke early only to find that our Wi-Fi was still out, having strangely disappeared last night.  Ever the optimist I leashed up the very happy to be going for a walk Ruby and headed over to the McDonalds ashore which had just opened on the weekend because they used to (B4 tsunami) have a great set of Wi-Fi signals, both their own network plus a super strong BlueSky signal which is the other network I bought time on when I first arrived.  I ordered an espresso, opened up the trusty laptop and Voila! we have a net connection!  It was on and working better than ever and since the tsunami they've made it open and free for all.  So I got all my mail from last night out, picked up some new ones, checked on flight options and then headed into town to see if I could book my flights for the upcoming trip to the USA, call NZ for a conversation with the authorities there about importing Ruby, see what was up with the state telco Wi-Fi we use in the marina and pick up some supplies.

Ended up taking me 4 hours on the phone to look after all my flight reservations, but they are now done and I'm all set, along with Ruby, to fly back to MCO on Nov.3rd.  Next, over to the state telco office, have them check and yes their Wi-Fi is down and they have someone working on it.  No ETA for the repair but ASAP.  Back to the phones for more calls, pick up some food supplies and finally, about 2pm walked back to the marina.

As I approach LTY what to my wondering eyes should appear?  A big stack of boxes which to my eyes brought a tear! 

I figured that Murphy's Law or some postulate would apply and there would be some packages still missing, but low and behold ALL remaining boxes were there!  From Saint Paul of West Marine there were 5 boxes: 3 solar panels, a bicycle and a box with windex, port LED light, and hand held depth sounder.  And from Santa John were two boxes with stove burners, winch parts, wind cups, grinder and some extra special cards from "our" shared kids.  And to top it all off there was the box that I came here for in the first place, all my transmission rebuild parts!!

With that, the decision was instantly made to leave in the morning and so I dashed off with my new passenger Chris from the likely to be written off Biscayne Bay boat to start the check out procedure, see about getting fuel, and head over the other side of the island where there is a CostULess to do all our provisioning for the month's crossing to NZ.  After many kilometers of walking back and forth between the offices we had our passports stamped and 80% of our check out procedure complete.  We need to go back at 7am tomorrow to finish the rest as the computer that prints our exit visa was down.  A few more walking marathons to find out we can’t get fuel till Wednesday as the HUGE tanker bringing fuel to the island will be taking up the whole fuel dock till Thursday and the deliver trucks have not been approved by the USCG yet to deliver fuel after the tsunami.  We’ll leave without topping up as I have plenty of fuel for the rest of the way to NZ if need be and can probably get some in Niue or Tonga.  We then got to rest our pooped puppies by taking one of the ever present bus/trucks that will take you anywhere on the island for a dollar out to the CostULess warehouse grocery store on the other side of the island where we could by all our provisions for the upcoming trip to NZ.  We drove by the massive Red Cross emergency aid supply station with hundreds upon hundreds of large plastic red and white coolers stacked up under tents and I assume filled with blood and other emergency supplies.  All the fields and buildings around the airport were equally covered with pallet after pallet of plastic wrapped boxes of more supplies. 

CostULess was a phenomenal find with selection and prices to match Costco and the like in North America and Chris and I filled two large shopping carts to the brim with all the food we’ll need for the next month.  We somehow managed to get this all into the small jeep taxi we hired and made it back to the boat just after dark.  With some help from our friends we did the human bucket brigade to move all the supplies below and I started to stow it all away into the nooks and crannies of fortunately voluminous Learnativity.  Lisa and Gary from Biscayne Bay had invited us out for a farewell diner at one of the local restaurants/hotels that was now open, “Sadie's by the Sea” and we enjoyed a wonderful meal by the lapping sea shore as we reflected upon the incredible experiences we have just shared and just how fortunate we really are to be at this table together, alive and well, ready for what life has to offer us next and so much richer for our new learnings and friendships..

Now I am back on Learnativity late tonight, the Wi-Fi is back up working, I’ve got most of the packages unpacked and stored and I'm a little shell shocked from the wonderful turn of events and having everything fall so suddenly into place.

Words can not express my thanks and appreciation I owe to the phenomenal effort of my state side shore support, John and Paul, for all their efforts to make this all happen.  It is second only to the other tireless workers here in AS who are still pulling 15-18 hour shifts trying to get all the supplies moving into and out of this island and onto others nearby.  Thanks guys!  Let's start planning where and when we are going to meet up for lunch or diner when I get back to Florida in November so I can thank you in person, swap our respective stories and toast the wonders of living while you are alive.

Learnativity will set sail southwards in the morning.  I have not had time to work out the routing just yet, but tentatively plan to head first for the small island nation of Niue to experience some of the clearest water visibility in the world and dive some of its underwater caves and grottos.  Then likely Westward to the southernmost part of the Tonga chain; Tongatapa/Nuku'alofa where we’ll prep for the jump south to Whangarei on the North island of New Zealand. 

I’ll be doing my best to post updates here along the way and keep you all informed as we go.  Approximate ETA in Whangarei is end of October.

Right now though, I’ve got more stuff to stow and some sleep to bank in prep for the upcoming voyages.

Wayne

Doing the Tsunami Tango in American Samoa: Part III

I’m not quite sure of the timing, but about 11am, four hours after the mayhem started on this fateful Tuesday, Sept. 29th, I decided that the surges were down enough and not coming back so I headed for the dock and tied Learnativity to the outside and jumped ashore to help others who were following my lead in.  I was anxious to find Gary and Chris who I’d not seen in the past hour while I was circling out in the bay and also to see what assistance I could provide to others who were looking for lost crewmembers as well as the whole situation ashore.

On American Samoa, as with most other islands the only real road is the one which circles the coastal circumference so it is all very close to sea level.  Normal sea level that is.  When the tsunami hit, the water rose up to a level about 5’ above the roadway and several hundred feet inland.  It cleaned out everything in its path, picking up vehicles and dropping them inside buildings and culverts. If the buildings were concrete and well built, the water neatly emptied all their contents, if not it simply washed away the entire building.  Cars were strewn everywhere as if some giant hand picked up the island and gave it a good shake.  As you walked up to the road there were manta rays, eels and tuna still flopping about on the dry pavement desperately searching for their watery homes.  Several hardware stores along the road had been emptied and tools were strewn everywhere.  Much of the edge of the water was lined with chain link fencing which had acted like a sieve and was now a colorful mosaic chockablock full of a plastic, paper, wood and weeds.

By the time I got up to the road though, people were already pitching in to help others in need and soon people started to clean up the mess that was everywhere.  Traffic was at a standstill of course with vehicles all over the road, wrapped around trees, sticking out of doorways and windows and parked in culverts.  Many had simply been washed into the bay.  There were injured people everywhere and soon the sirens began and continued on through the night and the next few days as more were found amongst the wreckage and on the sides.  Miraculously to me no fires had broken out which was a good thing as there was fuel and oil everywhere.  The gas station immediately behind the dock had all four of its pumps knocked clean off their foundations as cars had floated by and the water rose up over them.  Now they spewed raw gasoline and diesel out of their amputated pipes.  While out in the bay the smell of diesel, gas and oil was overwhelming as most of the large fishing and commercial ships that were swept away had ruptured their tanks and the water was slick with petroleum. 

I wanted so much to head for the West end of the bay to find Gary and Biscayne Bay and help them find Biscayne Bay, as well as see if Ruby had survived.  But I dare not leave Learnativity alone and there was so much to do on the docks trying to help those whose boats were still there and those who were missing crew members.  Gary actually showed up aboard Joan’s boat Mainly to help her dock it and there was still no sign or word of Dan.  And so the afternoon progressed as we all pitched in and drifted from one job to the next; cleaning, consoling, assessing and trying to comprehend what had just happened.  With son Jake on board Biscayne Bay to keep watch as looting had already begun on ships and ashore, Chris and Gary went back and forth between Learnativity and Biscayne Bay in the dingy, moving all their belongings and food aboard Learnativity as I invited them to live with me for the next while.

 

As we shuttled all their belongings from one boat to the other we decided to try to get Biscayne Bay back into the water and if she was not taking on water to try to bring her back to the dock.  Gary and Chris went back to the boat and with the help of some others and the next big surge, miraculously got her upright and off the mud bank and bottom into deeper water.  She was taking on some water, but it was minimal and the bilge pumps would be able to keep up with it.  The engine would start but something was wrapped around the prop or shaft or both and they were locked up solid.  There was limited steering but with a 25HP outboard on his dingy, Gary was able to push and shove her all the way up the bay and around the end of the concrete dock.  With Chris at the wheel and Gary using the dingy as a mini tug boat, Jake threw me the bow line as she raced toward the dock and I was able to wrap the line around one of the large steel bollards and with a final crunch against the dock she was back home.  It was hard to believe that only 8 hours earlier this crunched and battered dear boat had been quietly tied up next to Learnativity in pristine condition.

The search continued for our missing comrade cruiser Dan and with no sign of him by mid afternoon Joan went to the hospital and sadly arrived just as they were bringing Dan’s body to the morgue.  His body had washed up at the west end of the bay.  So difficult to comprehend all this.  How is it possible that at 7am you are sipping your first morning coffee together as a happy retired couple in the cockpit of your sailboat docked in paradise on the cruise you’ve dreamed of and worked for your whole life, and then minutes later be washed off the dock never to be seen again?  We all did out best to be with Joan as she worked her way through such questions and did what we could to be supportive and consoling.  Her boat would not start now for some reason and we were all anxious to ensure that our boats were ready to go at a moments notice should another tsunami strike and so several of us went aboard to set it right.  There was no shortage of skilled mechanics and electricians and we all provided tools and labor and Jack stayed aboard to find it was a bad solenoid and soon had it replaced so at least Mainly was back in working order.  Hearts and minds would require different tools, techniques and time before they would be so mended.

  Learnativity, Ruby and I came through it all pretty much unscathed.  Just the stainless tubing bow pulpit had been ripped apart and so I set about removing it and seeing what could be done to repair it.  It was beyond repair and so I salvaged the running lights and then set about using some low stretch line I had to create a makeshift set of lifelines to enclose the bow. 

Fortunately none of this is structural or will prevent me from continuing to sail to New Zealand where there will be lots of facilities to build a new one.  And I was planning on building a whole new dual anchor setup and sprit on the bow which would require a new pulpit anyway.  I just didn’t plan on removing the old one quite so soon.  Mother Nature apparently had a different schedule and I didn’t get the memo.

Gary and family were back onboard Biscayne Bay assessing the damage for the rest of the afternoon and it didn’t look good.  The more you looked the more structural damage and failed systems you found.  It was floating and they decided they could sleep aboard that night but I had them over for diner and cooked up a big feed of salad (expertly assembled by Chris) and my tummy filling spicy spaghetti and meatballs.  None of us had eaten all day and now with a chance to relax just a bit, the hunger and exhaustion set in.  We spent most of the evening quietly reflecting upon the day, dissecting it and discussing this extraordinary and harrowing experience.  I think it was very therapeutic for each of us as our minds started to deal with the reality of what all had taken place on this eventful day and what we would need to do in the aftermath of the days ahead.  Sleep was both restful and fitful for most of us that night.

Writing this now, two days later, we have continued in this pattern of cleanup, helping each other, repair and restoration of both ships, shore and souls.  It will be a long process for all of these.  The local people have continued to astound me with their genuine kindness and generosity.  In spite of great loss of life all over the island we have had a steady stream of people binging us cases of bottled drinking water, boxed lunches and cooked diners. 

In the span of two days I’ve witnessed the full spectrum of both human and mother nature and I’ve learned so many life lessons.  It is no where near a complete list, but to finish up this posting I’ll share a few of the lessons I’ve learned through this experience.

Some Lessons I Learned from the Tsunami in Pago Pago:

• It may sound trite but it is SO true that you never know when the last time will be for most things.  Living in the moment, maximizing every opportunity, are attitude and behavior to live by rather than cute phrases and platitudes.
• When it is all said and done, people, friendship and relationships are all that really matter.
• The best place to be when trouble or disaster strikes is ON your boat and out in open water.  Get there and stay there at almost any cost.
• I’ve renewed my conviction and love for steel boats.
• In times of great stress and disaster, human nature is on full spectrum display and is the same in all places and cultures.
• Put your faith and optimism in people.  There is much more good in the world than evil, many more good people than bad.
• A big powerful working engine in a sailboat is a safety device.  Make sure it is always at the ready.
• Mother Nature is a majestic and powerful force on a scale that is truly humbling.  It is likely a good thing to be reminded from time to time just how small and puny we are.
• Technology, especially communication technology is vastly under rated and under appreciated for how profound a difference it can make.
• Sat phones are essential safety devices for world cruisers.
• If are ever in the vicinity of a large underwater seismic eruption either get on a boat and head for open water or head inland as high and as quickly as you can.

I hope that by sharing some of these experiences I’ve been able in some small way to help others learn lessons of their own.  I’m off to bed now for a few hours to let my head sort through more of this experience and get some rest before another busy day of dealing with the aftermath of this extraordinary life and learning experience.

Wayne & Ruby the Wonderdog
aboard the good ship Learnativity
docked in Pago Pago Harbor
14 16.514S  170 41.554W

Doing the Tsunami Tango in American Samoa: Part I

Whew!  Now THAT was a full day!  As most of you will know by now I am in Pago Pago Harbor in American Samoa and yesterday (Tues Sept. 29, 2009) we took a direct hit from the tsunami effect caused by the undersea volcanic eruption that took place about 130nm south of here.  Reports seem to estimate it at 8.0-8.3 on the Richter scale so that counts as quite significant I think; certainly was on the Wayne scale!

** Paste my lat/long 14 16.514S 170 41.554W into Google Earth to see for yourself.  This is obviously be the "before" photo and we'll have to wait for the next satellite pass to see the "after"

I’m writing this a day later (Wed afternoon) now that I have a bit more time as things have calmed down a bit, both in terms of water action and more recently all the work in dealing with the aftermath.  Many of you have been able to follow this via various means thanks to the efforts of my main man ashore and overall phenomenal resource; John Alonso in Florida.  Shortly after escaping from the docks where Learnativity was tied up, I was able to get a few satellite phone connections and both talk to John as well as text him while I did my best to deal with the constant draining and then refilling of the harbor and dodge the endless onslaught of other ships, mostly empty, derelict hulls, containers, docks, oil drums and every other sort of debris you can imagine.  John was then able to relay these to all of you via Twitter and Emails and I can’t thank him enough for helping to get the word out and let everyone know what was going on here.  Now that I’ve got a bit more time let me start at the beginning and take you through the day of September 29th, 2009 on the good ship Learnativity.

I am up as usual about 6:30 and getting ready to go for my morning shower up on the deck when I became aware of a low frequency thrumming that I could both hear and feel.  This continued and my first thought was that there was a large freighter or other ship nearby and I was simply feeling the effects of its large propellers churning the water.  Stepping up into the cockpit to look around there was nothing in sight and it was otherwise the start of another day in paradise with the verdant hills surround Pago Pago Harbor rising up steeply all around me and piercing the few clouds in an otherwise brilliant blue sky.  The calm harbor waters stretched out as Learnativity tugged gently on her dock lines securing us to the large concrete wharf where we have been docked in about 15’ of water since arriving on Friday afternoon and joined about six other sailboats and cruisers from Australia, USA and Canada.  

But what IS that vibration??  It is about 06:50 as I step off the boat onto the concrete dock to see if it was perhaps just on Learnativity or the water?  No, it continued and was intensifying if anything.  Having experienced several other quakes including Mount St. Helens and the big quake in San Francisco and LA in the 90’s I began to suspect this as the source however it was too gentle and going on too long for my understanding of what an earthquake feels like.  And I can HEAR it as much as feel it.  Over a minute has gone by now and as I look ashore in search of other points of reference sure enough I can see that the lamp posts and telephone poles are waving back and forth like they were blades of grass in a gentle breeze.  Hmmm, I’ve only seen poles move like that once before and that was as I looked outside my office window in Sausalito during the 1989 Loma Preita earthquake.  OK, it may be different but I’ve solved the riddle and we got ourselves an earthquake.

A few of my fellow cruisers (people who live aboard their boats while cruising the world) have been awakened and are crawling sleepily out of their beds and joining me on the concrete wharf.  The mood is typically easy and friendly as we say quietly say good morning, compare notes and discuss just what’s going on.  The thrumming continues through most of this and I’d estimate at least 3 minutes in total.  We agree it must have been an earthquake and Gary, an Australian from Freemantle on his 52’ Irwin “Biscayne Bay” with wife Lisa, son Jake and Canadian crewmember Chris, joins us and tells that he has just checked it out online and found reports filed under “latest earthquake” of an underwater eruption about 20 minutes ago 130nm south of us

We continued to casually chat and discuss how unique the characteristics were.  None of us had ever experienced an undersea eruption or other such disturbances on our boats and we just left it at that as we dispersed back to our boats for breakfast and one person casually joked that we should just watch for any big wave we see.  No such wave ever materialized, it was much worse.

Just as I was bout to step back onto my boat it started to drop.  Huh?  Before I could even comprehend what was happening it then started to rapidly lean sideways as the dock lines strain and screech, tightening more and more as they take on the full weight of my very heavy steel home.  My instincts scream GET ON THE BOAT!   I jump aboard and grab onto the rigging as she continues to lean more and more and more.  THUD! Holy #^%& we are hard over on our side and ……. WHAT the …..?  the bottom of the bay is staring back at me as I dangle by one hand from the rigging. 

My mind  is cycling through every possible explanation, trying to come to terms with all the inputs and amongst the cacophony of sights and sounds as boats smash around me, deck lines snap, rigging strains.  These sounds are overlaid and an ominous and enormous rushing and sucking sound as the water all around my boat suddenly drains away! 

But a new noise, like fingernails across a blackboard divert my attention to the near vertical deck and I see poor Ruby (my 2 year old cockapoo and sailing companion) trying in vain to dig her claws into the steel deck, her legs thrashing like a cartoon animation character as she gathers speed going the other way and her tail end is headed for all the fish I now see and hear flopping around on the bottom of the bay as they search of their missing watery home.

Ruby’s a gonner if she leaves the boat so I let go of the rigging, do my best imitation of a full 180 mid air flip and lunge after her with one outstretched hand and desperately reach out with the other in the hopes of grabbing some other hand hold.  Just as Ruby is launched off the deck I get a right handful of the scruff of her neck and harness as my left hand wraps itself around the lifeline cable.  No time to think, just act.  Ruby in hand I scramble up to the opposite (Port) high side of the deck.  All hell is breaking loose around me both on my boat and all the others and I’m not going to be able to do much with one hand.  I look up above me and spot Jake, Gary’s son (14) standing on the edge of the wharf looking down at me and I yell “Jake!  Catch!” and throw Ruby up to his thankfully open arms.  He makes a great catch, Ruby is in good hands and I’ve got both of mine back.

Interesting how we all react differently.  Back aboard Biscayne Bay, Gary and family have been below making breakfast, when they notice the concrete dock rushing up past their porthole windows as if they were in an elevator shaft.  Their boat is in much deeper water around the corner from where I Learnativity is docked, so they are going straight down, lines straining, fiberglass crunching and that ever present surreal sucking sound all around.  Gary’s reaction, understandably is to GET OUT! and so they all dash up into the cockpit and scramble up the vertical wall of concrete and rubber tires as Gary pushes and shoves each of them up onto the top of the concrete wharf.

The sucking sound stops.

There is a moment of seeming silence that you’d think would be comforting but you’d be wrong.  It’s ominous.  And then a new set of sounds begin.  The volume with a ferocious velocity.  Faster than it has left, all that water is now coming back!  All the problems reverse.  Learnativity rights itself and is now rocketing skyward.  I grab my always-on-my-belt knife and dash down the port side from bow to stern slashing all the dock lines.  Scramble back into the cockpit, start the engine, simultaneously shove both control levers ahead, putting the transmission into forward gear and the throttle lever on full.  All six cylinders pick up speed as the revs cling, the turbine whines, the prop bites hard into the swirling water below and Learnativity starts to pull away from the ………………………… wharf.  What wharf?  It’s GONE! 

The water rushing back into the bay doesn’t stop at it’s previous level, it continues to go up and up and up the sides of the wharf.  It floods over the top and keeps going.  The speed and force of of the current created by millions of gallons of water flooding into the harbor is unbelievable water and is doing its best to push Learnativity backwards into the dock and marina as I put my faith into the power of diesel fuel and take a minute to look back and see if I’m going forward or backwards.

It is hard to describe what I see.  Closest to me, Gary, Lisa, Jake (clutching Ruby) and Chris are running as fast and best they can through the rushing water for a stone walled garden area in the middle of the concrete wharf that happens to have a small but tall light post embedded into it.  I watch helplessly as they climb up onto the base of the light pole, wrap their arms around each other and hang on as the water rushes past them, continuing to rise; up, up, up.

I glance along where I know the edge of the dock to have been and watch as one other boat with a great young crew of five from California have jumped aboard even quicker than I and are motoring quickly away. No wait, on the other matching lamp post down the dock I spot one of their female crewmembers who got caught ashore now clinging to this lamp pole.  Other sailboats, including Biscayne Bay have now ripped free of their tethers and I watch as they turn with the continuously rising current and crash into each other, taking the other boats in their path like falling dominos.  On the left is the “after” picture of this infamous light pole with (from left to right) Chris, Jake, Lisa, Ruby and Gary posing with much different expressions on their faces.  Imagine them and the water level half way up this pole!

As my eyes continue to travel further down the dock, I watch in horror as one cruiser is on the dock trying to untie his lines and is swept off his feet by the torrent of water.  His wife is aboard and manages to control the boat as it comes free but I can’t see any sign of her husband in all the flotsam and jetsam churning in the water. 

Worse than just the water though, almost everything imaginable has been picked up by this flood of water, torn lose from anything silly enough to try to hold them down and is now looking to smash into anything and everything in its erratic path.  I glance back to the lamp post where the Biscayne Bay crew are now climbing higher and higher up the lamp post, Gary has Ruby wrapped around his neck so he can use both his arms to hold on to his family and try to keep from being ripped off the post by the force of the water or hit by one of the boats or containers rushing toward and past them.  My brain is cycling through the question of “What can I do to help them?” but it is quite literally out of my hands and I have to turn away and bring my attention back aboard and foreword.  Fortunately diesel power overcomes even these humbling forces of nature and Learnativity and I escape to the safety of the middle of the bay.  Or is it?

========== to be continued ==========

That will need to do for the first installment, I’ll do the rest for you tomorrow.  I’m just back from a lovely diner aboard Biscayne Bay which while badly knocked up and damaged is inhabitable and afloat.  And as my Aussie friends would say, “I’m knackered”, too tired to do much more cogent writing tonight.  Hope you enjoy the details and 'I’ll have the rest of the story, more photos and video tomorrow.

Night for now.

Wayne

LTY Weekend Update: from Hao, Tomatu's June 18-22

18:45  LTY time  (UTC-10)     04:45 UTC
Days #16-19 @ Hao
Location:    docked in harbor North of Otepa, on the Hao atoll in the Tuamotu's
Position:    18 05.937S 140 54.721W

Wind:        0-2kts (true) SE
Seas:        flat (inside the lagoon)
Sea temp:        83.8F        28.8C
Air temp:        82F        28C
Humidity:        70%
Barometer:    1017

DAD's DAY EVERWHERE!

Best wishes to all the other Fathers out there!  Thought you'd all be interested to know Father’s Day is a big deal here on Hao and in Polynesia as well!

On Thursday night, as Ruby and were walking back from town to Learnativity, we passed by the basketball court beside one of the churches as we always do on our regular route home now.  This is a common gathering spot, both for games of basketball with kids and adults alike as well as other activities and we often meet friends there and stop to chat.  However tonight, it was full of large palm fronds and people busy preparing them by weaving together some of the leaves and joining all of them together standing up vertically around the whole perimeter of the basketball court and fences of the church yard.  Several ladies working inside motioned me to come inside and so I went in and they were all too happy and proud to show me how they create these decorative "walls" and how they weave in other parts of the palm tree such as the long spidery flower growth which adds to the decorative effect.  When I inquired what this was all for, they exclaimed  "la fete de Père" (Father's Day en Français) and looked at me quite incredulously that I would not know this?!!

I assured them I knew the even well but that I thought it was on dimanche (Sunday), they explained that it was for them too, but that was just the official and family day.  Tomorrow, vendredi (Friday) was the start of the celebration with larger town celebrations (I later discovered there were three such events happening on the island) and when all the eating happens, then samedi (Sat) they have more activities such as games and other family activities and then Sunday tends to be more a day of more family celebration at home after they get back from church.

Earlier that day (Thurs), I cast off the lines on Kestrel and bid Isolde and Gabor a fond farewell as they set off on their sail up to the Marquesas.  Selfishly sad to see them go as we've become very good friends and had some truly wonderful times together and also very happy for them that they were finally off.  They had hoped to leave over a week ago initially but the weather nixed that idea and then their uninvited four legged "guest" had delayed them another day as we both went through the CO gas fumigation procedures. 

 

 

But at just after 11am they motored easily out of our little private harbor here just north of town (Otepa) and headed for Passe Kaki, the only navigable break in the circular reef that is Hao and in time to be there at slack tide which was about noon.  The current in the pass is quite phenomenal, often in excess of 22 knots apparently and so you need to time your entry/exit to coincide with the tide changes.  I spoke with them by VHF after they left and once they were back out in the open seas and also received an Email update that night that all was well.   A bit envious as I do miss being out there on Mother Ocean and in the rhythm of a longer crossing, but all in due time for me and meanwhile I get to now have Hao all to myself!!  They only get about 10-12 boats a year apparently.  There were two other sailboats here when Kestrel and Learnativity arrived on June 3rd, but both of these left a few days later and now LTY is the only one, which suits me just fine!

I thought I'd start riding my bicycle into town and so Friday morning I brought the folding bike out of its storage spot in the engine room where it has been safely sitting for almost six months since I last had a chance to use it in El Salvador.  But when I went to set it all up, pump up the tires, etc. I discovered that over 20 of the spokes on the wheels had mysteriously broken in half!  Don't know what would have caused this, looks almost like some kind of metal fatigue but that would be very odd as I just got the bike before starting the cruise a bit less than 2 years ago and it has hardly been used.  I've asked Rick, who is a VERY avid bicyclist if he can try to pick up a new set of spokes and bring them over with him when he comes for their visit at the end of July and it shouldn't be too hard to re spoke the wheels and have my bike back again.  It has been a big help in places where I'm docked for a while and have larger distances to walk.

No problem it was another lovely sunny day and so Ruby and I walked into town.  It is about a 20 minute walk from the little harbor we're in to town and Ruby loves the chance to run in the grass, try in vain to befriend some of the local dogs and get them to play with her, chase a few pigeons that are often along the way and otherwise just enjoy the exercise.   I also love this walk because it takes us past one of the Elementary schools on the island and we somehow seem to time it that we pass when the kids are out in the yard playing and I just LOVE the joyous sound of all those little voices, squeals and laughter!  Today was no exception and then we continued on to see if Manu and Tina were home.  They were, and very busy preparing their costumes for the big Father's day celebration that night.  Manu showed me how he was weaving together palm leaves into what would become a head piece they would all wear.  They invited me to join them for the celebration and I graciously accepted and then left them to finish their preparations and to hurry to the bakery to catch the last baguette production of the day at noon.  Made it just in time and then headed down the block to the other family who kindly let me use their WiFi connection on their patio to get my internet fix every few days.

I caught up with Emails and mostly web work for the next few hours until about 6pm and then headed off to check out the Fete de Père celebration.  They had set up a whole set of chairs in rows in the basketball court and there was a beautiful stage area decorated up in front.  We didn't stay too long as I hadn't eaten since breakfast and it was already dark for our long walk back.  But in the time I was there it appeared that the even consisted of mostly children and mothers telling of their love and appreciation for the fathers in their lives with various poems, writings and songs.  Very lovely and quite touching for me to be able to witness.   Ruby and I quietly faded out the back and headed home to Learnativity under a moonless but very starlight sky.  The stars here are as phenomenal as we've grown accustomed to for many months now as there is almost no extraneous light to detract from their stellar shine as well as being an even more interesting sky for me here in the Southern hemisphere.

Saturday was a gorgeous day.  It is supposed to be the rainy season and we're headed into the height of it in July but so far it has only meant that we get rain most nights for brief periods.  We did have a few days earlier this week when it really did give us a torrential downpour for a few minutes, and of course twice this was when Isolde and I were walking into and out of town!  However this rain does wonders for keeping LTY decks washed and things nice and fresh ashore.  But since Wednesday we've had nary a drop of rain and so I'm enjoying the clear super starry nights and not having to close up the cockpit from the nightly rain.  Looks like this will continue for at least the next few days.

I'd picked up two treats for myself while in town on Friday; a rare find of 3 heads of lettuce, first lettuce in over a month, Romaine no less) and a whole frozen chicken.  And so I prepared myself a Father's Day feast!  Oven roasted chicken stuffed with some dried prunes I've been looking to use up for months, along with some apple, garlic and onion and then added in some potatoes, onions and garlic in the pan part way through to let them roast in that delicious chicken basting!  Started with fresh baguette with Roquefort cheese for an appetizer, a bottle of 1998 Chilean Cabernet I'd found in the back of a shelf on Easter Island, a big Caesar salad with croutons and by then the roast chicken and potatoes were ready to come out of the oven and onto the plate.   Put on some of the recorded video and TV shows John so kindly captured for me and Ruby snuggled in for a quiet evening aboard the good ship Learnativity.

Today, (dimanche/Sunday)  I was treated to Father's Day wishes from Lia via Email and Skyler via the sat phone, which certainly made my day/week/month!  Not to be left out, I gave Ruby a full shampoo and hair cut today!  She has not been clipped since we were in Florida in January so her hair was getting very long.  Here is the before picture:

 

 

 

And here is the after shot.  I quite like the way she looks with that longer poodle curly fur, but it was a pain for both of us to remove all the burrs she has been acquiring every day on our walks to town.  And as the weather is getting hotter I think she is getting a bit uncomfortable, though she doesn't seem to show it much.  So out with the scissors and electric clippers and she is now a few pounds lighter and a LOT slimmer looking!  Here are the before and after pictures. 

I've been enjoying the warm water and quiet lagoon here and start the day with an early morning swim and a few others to cool off during the day.  After her hair cut I took Ruby in for one this afternoon and then gave her a good shampoo and fresh water rinse so she is quite the regal looking wonderdog tonight!  Now, as I finish up this note for you and enjoy the ever so slight and warm breeze here in the harbor, I'm going to go and enjoy more of that delicious chicken and another Caesar salad tonight as I reflect upon my great fortune, family and friends. 

I'll collect on my in person hugs and kisses from Lia and Skyler when I see them both in the next few weeks when I fly back to California and so with that to top off their kind wishes, I've had a fabulous Father's Day and can only hope and wish that all of you, wherever you are and however you choose to celebrate, had a day that was in keeping with how very special indeed it is to be fathers, mothers, children and family, all the world over.

Wayne & Ruby the Wonderdog

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