One day short of eight months, Learnativity returned to the sea where we belong as we “splashed” back into the waters here in Vuda Point Marina on Thursday May 3rd. I’m a long ways from being done but this kind of job only happens about every 20 years or so and it has been a fabulous experience and yet another adventure for me. I’ve learned more every day not only about my boat but about this Fijian culture and people I love so dearly as I have worked shoulder to shoulder with so many of them over the past eight months, been invited to join them for lunch and to their homes. How blessed am I?!
As you can imagine “splashing” back into the water is a major milestone in this 20 year refit and renovation and one I’ve been waiting and working for a long time. It was all very much worth the time, money and effort mind you as she truly does look like an entirely new boat sporting her new dark blue hull colour and bright white everywhere else.
I’ll try to put up an album with more before and after shots for you to see just how big a difference there is and how much work has gone into this but I will post a few of them here in this post for now.
It was a VERY busy last two weeks doing everything that needed to be done to get her ready to be back in the water again such as cleaning the AutoProp, installing new transducers and zinc anodes. My great crew from Baobab were busy finishing the bottom paint and they rolled on the last of the three coats of anti foul paint on Wednesday, the day before we splashed so it is as fresh as possible and doesn’t dry out. And then once LTY was in the slings and off the stands they were able to finish painting the last few spots they had been covering and she was all set for her much awaited journey back to the sea.
I spent over five days rebuilding the Maxwell windlass (electric winch that pulls in the chain and anchor) with all new seals and motor and then getting it all mounted in its newly replaced steel home in the bow.
I also put in all new wiring and new foot switches and she works like a charm. I am very dependent upon this bit of kit as I have a 75kg Rocna anchor and lots of 10mm chain to haul up each time I weigh anchor so I have now completely redone this vital piece of equipment. As you can see here, it is like a whole new boat inside as well as out.
I also spent several days redoing my anchor chain, replacing some of the well worn parts with some of the spare anchor chain I’ve been carrying aboard for over 5 years and adding an additional 100 feet to give me a total of over 400 feet/120m. This gives me more options and safety for anchoring in deeper water. I painted a few feet of the chain at 50 foot intervals and marked these with colour coded plastic chain markers and zip ties to make it easy to know how much chain I have out when anchoring. As you can maybe start to understand, each of these “little jobs” of putting everything back together takes a long time and I am sure I have at least a full month of work before Learnativity is ready to sail again and even then there will be lots of jobs on the list of things to do while anchoring in the upcoming remote spots as I head out again.
I don’t have the new starter batteries for my main engine and generator yet so I had Mo, the marina yard jack of all trades, tow me over to our new home in the basin of Vuda Point Marina. We are all the way around the circular basin in a great little spot that looks out west to the outlying islands. My friends and fellow cruisers Terry and Christine from Teka Nova were very kind and came aboard as the Travel Lift lowered Learnativity into the water and helped out with lines and fenders, and Steve from Westward II and some of the Baobab crew helped out ashore as we slowly nested her into the new dock.
One of the first things I did after securing all the lines was to give Learnativity a good wash down. It is going to be SO nice to not be tracking dirt aboard from the yard! With the new nonskid paint holding not only your feet but all the dirt, the decks had become quite a mess from all those trips up and down the ladder as the work continued onboard in the yard. We have not had any rain now for almost a month as the cyclone and rainy season has ended for this year and we are back to the fabulous weather I so love, but as a result there is a lot of dust and dirt in the yard that was getting tracked onto the decks. Fortunately there is lots of fresh water supply here after all the rains and I have a hose bib right on the small wooden dock by the bow and it felt so good to have all that fresh water on my feet and watch all that dirt go streaming off the decks to reveal my like new brilliant white decks! I felt a bit like the Kevin Costner character in the movie Waterworld as I rid myself of all that land based dirt and got back to life on the water.
In an odd inversion of the situation though, now that LTY is back in the water I’ve moved to a beautiful new breakfast spot that is ashore. As you may recall from many previous posts, even though I was out of the water and “on the hard” in the yard, I had this great little “tree fort” on the aft deck because I had the Travel Lift put Learnativity stern first into the beautiful big trees surrounding the work yard of the marina. We faced East and so Ruby and I sat out there each morning and enjoyed watching the rising sun surrounded by flowering tree branches, birds and bees. Now that Learnativity is back in the water, you can see in the photo here that we have another fabulous new spot to enjoy each sunrise and have our breakfast out on the grassy area in front of Learnativity under the palm trees. This is facing SE so we get a whole new view out the channel and across to the many Mamanuka islands as they pop into view with the rising sun each morning. Ruby gives this spot a four paws rating as she gets to frolic in the grass each morning doing her running wild in circles routine and greeting everyone as the yard slowly comes alive with other cruisers and workers. And so as strange as it may seem, though all quite fitting for me, when I was on the hard I had breakfast onboard and now that I’m back in the water I’m having it ashore! It is a pretty great life for both of us and I take a few minutes each morning as I sit in this idyllic spot to remind myself just how fortunate and charmed a life I lead.
Once breakfast is done and we are sure the sun is rising well it is back to Learnativity to work towards the next milestone which is getting her seaworthy and setting off on our first voyage with all these new changes and paint job. Having literally removed every single thing that wasn’t welded on it is truly one of the world’s larges jig saw puzzles so I am now hard at work putting her all back together again!
The past few days I’ve been working mostly on reinstalling all the hatches in the deck. As part of the renovation I added three large new hatches, two which are over 2 feet square in the ceiling of the salon and one that is above the galley table. As you can imagine from this shot the addition of all these new new hatches have opened up the boat tremendously with so much more light and fresh air. Last night I already enjoyed the fresh breeze flowing through the boat with this added new air flow.
I actually bought these new hatches long before I left San Francisco over four years ago so I’ve been looking forward to getting them installed every since and their time finally arrived! I graduated with an honours degree from the "No project left unstarted” university but I DO get them all done eventually! And of course everything is being closely supervised by Commodore Ruby!
Each hatch takes me over four hours to install as I am also taking the opportunity to redo all the ceiling and trim on the inside of the hatch openings and the hatches have to be all rebedded using 3M 5200 sealant /adhesive to make them completely waterproof and able to withstand another 20 years of surging seawater when we are underway in heavy seas. The 5200 is wonderful stuff in terms of how well it sticks, seals and glues everything together but it is also called “devil’s glue” for a very good reason as it sticks to EVERYTHING and is soon coating your hands, tools and anything within a few feet of where you are applying it. All worth the effort but it takes me almost an hour to carefully mold the 5200 around each hatch frame and then clean up the surrounding deck area, tools and myself before it sets up. There are eight hatches in total now and I’ve got five of them installed and should be able to finish the last three today (Monday here), depending on what else comes up during the day to distract my ADD riddled little brain.
Once the hatches are all done I’ll start on the other big job which his putting in the new glass in the salon windows. These are the last remaining areas that are still covered in black plastic and masking tape and removing that will be a wonderful treat as I finally get light back into the salon and inside the boat and have my views back again.
So I still have a LOT of work to do but as you can see from these two before and after pictures it has come a LONG way already and I’ll keep you posted as the progresses continues. Thanks again for joining me on this latest grand adventure in life, love and learning.
Another busy week here in Vuda Point Marina on the big renovation of the good ship Learnativity as we finished all the prep work for the topsides of the hull (waterline up to the deck) and started in on the preparation of the deck surfaces for their upcoming coats of glossy white and then anti skid paint.
The topsides are the most visible part of the boat for those ashore or when you are looking at her from the water so we have been working hard to get those surfaces as smooth and flat as possible. This is especially important as I’m going to change the colour from white to dark blue and as you would know from looking at black or dark colour cars the darker colours show every little imperfection and ripple. Of course Learnativity is a 20 year old steel boat so I’m not looking for perfection and what the crew from Baobab Marine and I have settled on is that if we can feel it with our hands we remove it, which would be small dents, dings and hollows. We won’t be able to fully remove the larger scale waves in the steel plate surfaces but Learnativity was so well built originally that most people mistake it for a fiberglass boat because the steel surfaces are so smoothly curved. Most steel boats are built with what are called “chines” which are hard edges that result from building the boat with straight sections of steel plate and forming the curves for the hull by creating these faceted surfaces. But Learnativity was built by cold forming the 6mm steel plate over top of the ribs and stringers built up to create the shape of the hull and welding the plate in place as it was bent around these curved ribs. You may recall seeing how we did the same thing a few weeks ago when we welded in all the new steel sections in the undersides of the hull for added strength and to replace some rusted sections. So the last month or so has been a recurring cycle of priming, filling and sanding the hull with long sanding boards and orbital sanders to get the surfaces all smooth and flat. That’s all behind us now and these surfaces are all ready for the final spraying of the dark “Aristo” blue polyurethane paint. We are hoping to do that on Tuesday as the weather looks good that day with no rain and we will use Monday to mask off the bottom of the hull and the decks to protect them from all the blue overspray and do the last fine inspection for any small bits we might have missed. You can try to imagine how big the surface area of a 52’ boat is and we have been over every square millimeter of that surface many, many times now.
I also spent quite a bit of time figuring out just what colour blue I wanted to have. You don’t realize how many shades of blue, or any colour, there are until you start to look closely. I had a good set of paint chips from the paint company to choose from and they were very handy as they had a hole drilled in the middle of each one which let me put it up against another boat or object that was painted blue and easily see how close or far it was from the paint chip colour. So I spent several days wondering around the yard looking for every bit of blue paint I could find on other boats or tarps or stripes. I wanted to have a blue that looked blue at any time, in strong sunlight and shade and so I didn’t want to have that really dark Navy blue that often looks black yet neither did I want something too light or “baby blue”. Ahh, the troubled life I lead! Finally settled on one paint chip and had the factory mix up just one liter of it and send it to us so we could paint a small test patch and see what it really looked like. as you would know from painting at home colours look so different when they are on a large surface than on the paint chip in the store. I thought we would have to go through a few rounds to adjust a bit darker or lighter but I was delighted when the test patch up on deck as you can see here in the photo, turned out to be just what I wanted. Like Goldilocks and the three bears, it wasn’t too dark, not too light, it was just right! The factory quickly mixed up the whole batch and all 20 liters of it arrived on Friday. Now we just need a day with no rain next week and the hull will make its transformation to beautiful Aristo Blue.
With the hull all ready for final top coats our attention turned to the decks and as you can see in the photos here we are making good progress as we do the final stages of the paint, fill, sand cycles up here. The deck is quite a bit more work and slower than those expanses of long flat steel on the hull as it is almost nothing but nooks and crannies where all the life line stanchions attach to the deck for example and all the areas around the hatches, fittings, tracks, windows and the like. However if you compare these photos to the ones from last month you can see how far things have come. The white is the primer/filler paint that was sprayed on a few weeks ago after we had finished all the major filling, grinding, welding and sand blasting and covered all the base primer that was that reddish brown colour. The green you see in these pictures is the paste epoxy filler that is mixed up to the consistency of peanut butter, spread on with putty knives and fingers and then sanded down once hard.
You can see that things are turning out so well because Commodore Ruby continues to be on watch at all times and we are all under close supervision.
So all is well over here on this side of the world. My mornings continue to be wonderful sunny retreats up in my tree fort on the aft deck and life continues to unfold just as it should. More to follow after the hull is all shiny and blue so stay tuned.
Hard to believe that it is almost the end of February already but then I don’t have too much sense of time anymore with my current lifestyle and one of its many benefits. As they/we say here in Fiji “ne senga ne lenga” which translates into “don’t worry, be happy” and is truly a part of the culture, attitudes and way of life here in Fiji. I can’t articulate it well but have come to understand it now after living here for almost a year in total between my two different times here and especially these past few months from working so closely with so many Fijians. It has truly been one of the great gifts of my time here and a big bonus for doing all this boat work here to have the opportunity to work shoulder to shoulder with these happy people, to eat and joke with them and to be given this in depth glimpse into their lives and customs. You know how it is when you work closely and spend a lot of time with someone, when you break bread with them and when you share in experiences, how you develop such a bond and understanding of people. So far beyond anything you can get from a visit or a vacation and I’m so fortunate to have this opportunity.
The weather here has continued to cooperate as we have returned to the daily rhythm of bright sunny mornings followed by hot humid afternoons and then thunder and rain showers which typically start about 3pm or so. Not a lot of rainfall when it does happen and so things have been staying very dry and all the work on the topsides of the hull has been progressing very well.
As you can see in these pictures it is a cycle of spraying on thick coats of primer/filler, sanding with large flat sanding pads to take down high spots and then filling in low spots with filler. So Learnativity has lost its all white surface from the last round of spraying you saw last week and is now this beautiful patchwork of colours as we sand through the layers of primer and filler. The goal is to have as flat and smooth a surface as possible before the dark blue colour top coat is sprayed on. The agreement I have with the crew is that if we can feel it with our hands as we run them over the hull we fill and sand them till they are gone and if you look closely at the photo above left you can see each spot we find circled in pencil. This also means that the large wavy irregularities in the steel plate will not be removed so it won’t be a perfect mirror flat surface but that isn’t reasonable or even possible with steel or most other hulls. Going with dark blue does mean that any irregularities will be more easily seen, just as you’d be familiar with on car body panels and other dark glossy surfaces, but I think it will still look very distinctive and will truly be a whole new boat by the time we are done.
Once we have the topsides all painted our attention will move to the biggest job of all, the decks. Unlike the nice large flat surfaces of the topsides, the deck is nothing but nooks and crannies that all have to be filled, fileted, sanded and primed so it takes much longer. Then when we have this all done and sprayed with the topcoat of gloss white, I need to reinstall all the hardware, fittings, hatches, windows and rigging, as everything that wasn’t welded on was removed and now has to be replaced. This includes chasing all threads for the new fasteners, cleaning and rebuilding all the parts and equipment before it is replaced and re-bedding and sealing it all so nothing leaks. Then we will mask off the area around all these and apply the non skid surfaces. All well worth it but all very time consuming and laborious
If you look closely at some of the photos here you can see that I got them to put me in a very nice spot and position such that the stern nestled right up into the tree branches. Look a bit more closely in the photo top left with Ruby in it and you’ll see that the trees border a large grassy field and behind that is all verdant wild growth. Birds fill the trees with song and I can still have my morning routine of breakfast out on the back deck looking out over this scene as I enjoy another sunrise and quiet start to a new day. About as good as it can get for being “up on the hard” as we call it. Best of all, this kind of experience will lead to an even deeper appreciation of all those times I am up on that nice new white non skid deck enjoying yet another great sundown and put a smile on my face every time I row up to Learnativity that can only be earned through this kind of effort and experience.
Not too much else to report as this work takes up all daylight hours along with many small jobs, researching and ordering new parts as well as time helping and talking with other cruisers here, trips to town for groceries and supplies and lots of writing and reading. I’d prefer to be back in the water and anchored peacefully of some remote island, but it is still a very rich and full life that I’m blessed to lead.
Stay tuned, with any luck I’ll have a nice shiny dark blue hull to show you next week.
Well it’s official now (Monday morning here) that Tropical Depression TD07F has developed over Vanuatu islands which are directly west of us and the chance of this turning into a named cyclone in the next 24-48 hours is rated as moderate to high as it moves E and SE right towards the west coast of Fiji where I’m at. You can see a 3 day forecast map here if you’d like to get a better visual of all this.
According to the latest forecast we may take a direct hit if this cyclone forms and moves more west than south. Hopefully it will miss us and all we will see is high winds, possibly +100mph but more likely +50 and lots of rain. So we are all busy doing our best to prep for the worst and be ready for whatever comes our way Tuesday through Thursday. Right now it has just been raining since last night and not too heavily but the wind and rain will pick up as the week goes on. Unfortunately all the severe rain and floods we had last weekend has everything quite saturated and the two towns north and south of me, Lautoka and Nadi are still recovering from that so it is not a good forecast for land or sea dwellers.
This morning we took down all the large canvas tarps that we had draped around the boat to keep all the dust from sandblasting and painting contained and were being supported by lots of bamboo poles. These two pictures will show you the before (on a much nicer day) and after shots.
My big challenge is that I have all the hatches and the six side salon windows out while we are painting and so I have the tented up the top of the boat to keep most of the rain out of all these openings. The openings are covered up with black plastic but won’t withstand these kinds of winds of course. So for now I’m going to leave the heavy duty plastic tarps up and have spent the last few hours tying them all down so that the wind can’t get under them quite as easily. If we do get hit with sustained high winds I’ll do my best to monitor the situation and either take them down if they are being lifted too much or the wind will do that for me and then I’ll just have try to keep the openings all covered up and the water out as best I can.
Obviously we aren’t going to get any of the exterior paint or metal work done this week with all the rain and wind so I’ll be focusing on inside jobs and keeping the boat as dry as possible.
Wish me luck! I’ll post updates along the way as things develop and change.
As per my all too lengthy previous posting with my overview of the past year, I’m going to start posting a weekly update while I’m working on Learnativity here in Vuda Point Marina in Fiji. You can cut and paste the lat/long coordinates of 17
40.858
S,
17 7
23.211
E into an online mapping program or Google Earth if you’d like to see just where that is.
I hesitated to post much for the past few months or the next few going forward as I’m completely consumed by the major boat jobs I have underway here in Fiji and that’s about all I’ve got to report on. But after receiving more and more inquiries and finding more and more of you wanting details of what’s going on, I’ve decided to post these weekly updates and pictures. You are all smart enough to read as much or as little as you’re interested in and so I’ll do my best to keep it so an overview and provide lots of pictures to make it easier and hopefully more interesting.
A BIT ABOUT the good ship Learnativity
First I guess it would help some of you to have a little bit of background to put this all into context for you. Learnativity is my 50’ steel monohull raised salon sailboat and full time home. She was originally built and launched in 1994 by Kristen Yachts in Sidney BC just outside of Victoria on Vancouver Island. I found and bought her there from the original owner in the summer of 2005, spent just over 2 years refitting and equipping her for “blue water” long distance and single handed sailing and finally cast off on this grand adventure in March 2008. She is built like a tank, and I mean that in a VERY good way in that she is way overbuilt being all solid steel and teak and she takes me everywhere and anywhere in great safety and comfort in spite of my complete lack of boating or sailing experience prior to buying her. I don’t come from ANY nautical background, never wanted to sail before and just got more and more curious, learned as much as I could from others (online, books, charters) and then decided as is my norm that if I was still curious the only way to really learn was experientially. And BOY what an experience it has been!
I am now pretty much completely self sufficient with only diesel fuel that I take on less than once a year for my main engine and generator as I supply all my own power with wind and solar (haven’t used the generator in over a year), and propane for my stove. I am otherwise self contained and self reliant as I do things like make all my own water with the water maker I installed, look after all my navigation (with the assistance of net connections via Wi-Fi and sat phone), look after all my own sewage, cook all my own meals and am a floating workshop and tool store to look after all the many repairs and maintenance it takes to keep such a floating “city” up and running, and to it all while at sea often thousands of miles from any land, let alone stores or services.
Over the past four years we have sailed over 25 thousand nautical miles and made it down the west coast of north, central and south Americas, across the Pacific with stops at countless and mostly remote islands and now back for a second time to Fiji. While she is in great condition overall, the exterior being all steel was vividly showing signs of the wear and tear of so many miles and being in such salty tropical humid conditions. It is not just a great song but an altruism that “rust never sleeps” and so I had been fighting a loosing battle trying to keep the rust at bay all by myself and with so many other jobs that keep filling up the “must do” list on a live aboard sail boat. So I had been figuring out where and when to take on the major task of getting rid of all the rust and repainting all the steel.
I was thinking I would need to go back to New Zealand or Australia where they have such good marine work facilities and craftsmen but as is the norm in my charmed life, I serendipitously discovering last year that there was a marine company here in Fiji, Baobab Marine that does very good paint and boat work. After talking with fellow cruisers who had work done by Baobab Marine, inspecting boats they had painted over the past 10 years and meeting with the head foreman,I decided this was the perfect place to roll up my sleeves, spend more time in my beloved Fiji and work with Baobab to take on the task of a 20 year repaint and renovation of Learnativity. I had Learnativity hauled out on September 5th 2011 and put up “on the hard” on stands here at Vuda Point Marina and have been working with the great crew from Baobab Marine ever since.
The original plan involved three major paint jobs and the replacement of my bent propeller shaft which is another story in itself. The three paint jobs were as follows:
1. BOTTOM: Sand blast from the water line down to the bottom of the keel, repaint with new epoxy primer, barrier coat and anti foul paint. Although I had already done all this back in 2006 after I bought the boat, there turned out to be a problem with the zinc that was used in the epoxy primer and was continuously causing small bubbles to form between it and the anti foul bottom paint. The only solution was to take it all off down to bare metal and start over again so that is what we are doing.
2. TOPSIDES: This is the sides of the hull from the waterline up to the deck. The paint itself was holding up well and only a few dings from the past 18 years of use but was loosing it shine and needed to be repainted. The plan was (changed recently as I’ll cover in the updates) to just sand down and fill the chips and dings that had happened, repair the “tsunami souvenir” I had from the great tsunami of 2009 in American Samoa that we lived through. (3 part fully detailed story here on the Learnativity blog if you missed that adventure!) and then repaint the topsides with new polyurethane paint and trim. I also decided that I’d take this opportunity to change the colour of the hull from white to Royal Blue as I’ve always like the looks of dark hulled boats and thought this would make it seem like a truly new boat after all this work.
3. DECKS: This is all the horizontal surfaces for the most part that includes not only the deck that you walk on but also the cockpit, and dodger (hard cover over the cockpit) or pilot house as it is sometimes referred to. It is the largest job of the three by far as literally everything that isn’t welded on has to be removed so we can remove every bit of rust by sand blasting, grinding or needle gunning. Then it all gets treated with metal prep, epoxy primer, and then lots of filling and priming to fair in all the surfaces. We will then paint all of that gloss white and then mask off and spray all the areas you actually walk on with anti skid by mixing in some special sand like material so that all these surfaces are a bit like sand paper and grip your feet well when everything is wet and at angles as you sail.
All three of these jobs involve different equipment and different people helping out so it is quite literally a three ring circus for the last few months as work proceeds on all three at the same time. However the people working with me are great, very conscientious, learn well and are a treat to work with and get to know. They are both native Fijians and Fijian Indians who make up almost 40 percent of the current population of just under one million people. They range from young men in the 20’s to more experienced men in the 40’s and after five months now we have gotten to know each other very well and this has added to my love of Fiji and its people. They truly embody the saying they have here of “ne senga ne lenga” which essentially means “Don’t worry; be happy” as they are always laughing and singing while they work, always in great spirit and take on whatever new challenges and work that comes along.
There’s a HOLE in my boat!!!
The biggest new challenge that has come up so far has been the discovery of some severe rusting in the bottom of the hull that have eaten all the way through the hull in two spots, one at the bow and one just behind where the propeller shaft exits. I’m still not quite sure what has caused this but it appears to be a problem from when the boat was first built in that it is a combination of some drain holes in the ribs not being large enough and so over the past 18 years they have clogged up with debris and rust and trapped any water that entered or formed from condensation, and the paint applied to these interior steel surfaces was not applied to clean surfaces or has otherwise broken down. These are in remote, essentially impossible to see areas under some of the floors and just off either side of the center line of the hull that is left open (not coated with foam as is the rest of the hull) so that it forms a bilge drain channel that flows into the lowest sections where the bilge pumps take care of the water. A steel boat rusts from the INSIDE out as it is relatively easy to keep the outside covered with paint and anti fouling coatings and is easy to see and inspect the whole surface. But inside, and especially with a custom built boat like Learnativity, there are a few spots along the centerline that you just can’t get at or see because the flooring and equipment is covering them and these spaces are only a few inches deep at best. I had always kept a close eye on the 95% of this exposed steel areas of the bilge and while there was some surface rust it was nothing to be concerned about and the plate steel is very thick. For reasons I still don’t fully understand though there were these spots that somehow allowed the rust to start to form and over the years had turned into that layered flakes of rust and especially in these tropical climates these areas never dry out as the water is wicked in between all these fine layers of rust and it just stays “alive” and eating away at the steel beneath, forming more layers, trapping more moisture.
This discovery of such seemingly random areas that had actually rusted through the entire hull came as quite a shock as you might imagine and so upon confirming that the rust was this severe in these two sections I cut my Europe trip short and came back to Fiji last month to look things over and figure out a solution. I’ll cover more of that in the weekly updates to follow. The good news about steel is that it is relatively easy to repair and repair well by simply cutting out all the rusted steel and welding in new panels, so that is what we are doing.
Weather is the other major factor in all this work as it is the rainy season here in Fiji (their summer) and lasts through about March or April. As almost all the work is outside and involves things like welding, sanding and painting, we can’t work too well in the rain but so far (knock on wood/steel) while it does rain pretty much every day, the pattern is that it doesn’t start till the late afternoon or evening and so it is dry and hot during the work day. And I do mean HOT! Usually over 35c/100F and with all the rain it is very humid so you sweat just sitting and it just pours off you as you exert yourself with the very physical nature of most of the work with sanding and grinding. However great progress is being made and that feels great! For all of you who have asked me about my “fitness program” and why I’m in such good shape, now you know; just do lots of physical labour in a sauna, drink lots of water, eat lots of fresh produce. Sure is working well for me!!
Well, hopefully that will have given those of you who are interested some background into the work I’m in the midst of what what’s keeping me busy of late. As those of you who know me well will understand I’m very happy in these situations as I love working with my hands, will take hot over cold weather ANY day and it feels great to see such daily progress towards having an even more solid, prettier and shinier Learnativity to continue wandering and pondering the world one nautical smile at a time!!
Some of you have been asking about Whangarei, the great river town and marina where Learnativity has been moored here in New Zealand since the end of October. So below are some shots that I’ve taken over that time. While it is still much too cold for me after coming to find how much I prefer the tropical climes I’ve been in for the past two years, this has been a great spot for Learnativity for while we wait out the all too long hurricane season up in the South Pacific.
You can get more details here about the Town Basin Marina where we are have been staying all this time and the owners, Brian and Sharron could not be nicer. Whangarei is one of the marine and boat building centers of the world so there is a great selection of very skilled tradespeople here as well as every kind of part and supplies I’ve ever needed. Learnativity is on what they call a “pole mooring” where there are sets of telephone poles sticking up from the bottom and I tie lines from my bow and stern on each side up to a set of are four of these. There are tires which float around each pole where my lines attach and these all goes up and down with the tide swings, which are quite large here, about 2-3meters. Makes for a very secure and peaceful setup. To get ashore I just row my dingy about 200meters over to the other side of the river to the dinghy dock at the Town Basin Marina office. Works great and other than being much too long away from the open ocean and sailing and hot weather, it has been super place to be.
The people are great, there is a very modern and well stocked grocery store “Pak n Save” just across the street from the marina and very good wine store right beside it. Pretty much everything I’ve needed so far has been within walking distance or a short ride on my bike. There are regular busses that go to Auckland each day and I’ve taken those several times to get to the Auckland airport and to visit friends there. However on the last trip I discovered that when you fly Air New Zealand all inland flights to Auckland are free so this last trip I flew direct from Whangarei to Auckland.
Here on the river it feels like a very small and picturesque town with almost a Disneyland look (in a good way) to it at first as they have fixed up the whole riverside walk beside where I am moored. But as I’ve explored it more and more over the past few months by foot and bicycle I’ve discovered it is quite a large city. Some of the shots below I took while replacing my wind transducer up at the top of the mast so you can get a good view of the river, and others are from the deck and from ashore.
I was just treated to one of life’s wonderful moments when a mother duck and her 5 ducklings swam by the boat quacking merrily and treated me to a display of love, life & learning. Everything and everyone can be a teacher if you let them.
* In case you are wondering, yes, I can count! This isn’t my photo nor the ducks in question. I struggle a bit with finding the balance between fully living in the moment and being able to share these with others such as here on the blog. Even the word “capture” seems at odds sometimes with the notion of living in the moment and getting the most out of each one. So I often choose not to interrupt such moments by trying to capture them with my camera and this photo from Flickr will have to do.
All 5 ducklings pursued their curiosity and swam up to one of the tires around the mooring pole I'm on. While the others were content to explore the tire by swimming around it, two were brave and strong enough to jump/climb up onto the tire and one of these jumped into the water inside.
But now how to get out? The inside of the tire was rimmed with a vertical band of steel and too high for him to climb up on. (I assume he was male as girls would have been smarter!) For a moment I thought I may have to go rescue him but taking my cue from his Mom who was watching patiently from a distance, left on his own he figured it out and after a few tries jumped/flapped/kicked his way back onto the top of the tire and then back into the outer water to join his Mom and siblings.
I thought what a great microcosm and vignette of life I was just treated to! All five were curious and checking everything out. Two decided to jump up onto the tire to explore further and one heeded the call to learn more and check out that inner water space. Curiosity can get you into interesting situations but seems to me that those who are confident enough to risk getting into these situations will also usually figure out how to get out of them.
May we all continue to passionately pursue our curiosity and treat learning as a way of being.
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.
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.
It’s quite the feeling, sitting here on what they tell me is the largest uninhabited island in the world, Isla del Coco (5° 31′ 8″ N, 87° 4′ 18″ W); and I’ve got an internet connection to send you this update! Pretty amazing. It is hard for me to describe the feeling I have here, the island is lush and very jagged as you will see if you check out links like this and this. But I get a very visceral feeling of awe from just being here, surrounded by such stunning natural beauty, sitting hundreds of miles at sea away from any other land. Can’t wait to check it out more, both above and below the water.
Cocos Island (Spanish: Isla del Coco) is an island located off the shore of Costa Rica. It constitutes the 11th district[1] (one of 13) of Puntarenas Canton of the province of Puntarenas. [1]. It is one of the National Parks of Costa Rica. It is located in the Pacific Ocean, approximately 550 km (340 mi) from the Pacific shore of Costa Rica,[2] at 05°31′08″N 087°04′18″W / 5.51889°N 87.07167°W / 5.51889; -87.07167. With an area of approximately 23.85 km² (9.2 mi²), about 8×3 km (5×1.9 mi) and a perimeter of around 23.3 km[3] this island is more or less rectangular in shape. Surrounded by deep waters with counter-currents, Cocos Island is admired by scuba divers for its populations of Hammerhead sharks, rays, dolphins and other large marine species. The extremely wet climate and oceanic character give Cocos an ecological character that is not shared with either the Galapagos Archipelago or any of the other islands (e.g., Malpelo or Coiba) in this region of the world[4]
The sail from Puntarenas Costa Rica, where Learnativity had been since just before Xmas, went very well, enough wind to sail almost all the 150nm and then died out and motored more of the last 140nm. Only bit of excitement along the way was that I hooked a sailfish or some kind, but only long enough to see him jump out of the water 3 times before he succeeded in getting the hook out of his mouth. Mostly my inexperience with fishing (about zero) and so in my excitement I just started reeling him in and I now recall that you are supposed to let them “run” for a bit to set the hook and tire them out a bit. So yesterday, just after the skies opened up on the way in here to Isla del Coco the line when zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzing again, thought I had another one, only to find that it was a bird! A large dull chocolate colored gull of some sort I think, been seeing lots of them on the trip over, and felt just AWFUL that I had hooked the poor thing! I’d seen them diving after my lure for a few hours beforehand. I got him aboard, managed to grab his very large pointed beak and get the hook out of his wing and release him, but I fear he was maybe too tired and hurt to survive? I hope he did though.
Weather was clear and beautiful until about 25nm away when the clouds rolled in and the downpour started. Coco get’s almost 300 inches of rain per year so that was to be expected. It stopped and the clouds cleared long enough for me to find Wafer Bay and get anchored. I was able to raise the Park officials ashore on the VHF and they came out to the boat and checked us in and collected the fees. $25/day for the boat and $25/day for each person so $50 total per day. Reasonable to my way of thinking and feels good to contribute to the upkeep of this amazing place rather than a marina!!
Today (Sunday March 8th) it is clearing and I’m looking forward to some hikes ashore and to some snorkeling with my new “electric snorkel” from Sea Breathe to check out some of the underwater life that apparently makes this one of THE SCUBA dive spots in the world.
I’m currently in Wafer bay, about the middle of the North side (see map above) and will move around to the NE corner to Chatham Bay this afternoon to check out things there. It was a very rolly night due to the swell that has been rolling into the bay since I got here, but that doesn’t bother me much and helps to rock me to sleep. Not that I needed much help with that and I had a great full night’s sleep after 3 days non stop sailing, though I was feeling fine when I arrived. Right now I’m ashore at the Park ranger’s office to pay for my stay for another day and to get this net connection. Wasn’t strong enough to pick up from LTY as they just have a small WiFi router here in the office.
This afternoon I’ll move the boat around to Chatham Bay where it might be a bit less rolly and also give me a new area to explore underwater and ashore. Tomorrow I’ll head out for the crossing to Puerto Lucia marina near Salinas Ecuador. This is about 600nm and will include crossing the equator and two sets of currents. Should be more wind but the currents could slow us down so hard to say just how long it will take, but should be between 7-10 days best guess now.
Need to go explore more now, glad I could post this update for you along the way and will do more when I get to Ecuador.
** NOTE: I have just figured out how to post “tweet” updates from my satellite phone to Twitter and have these linked here to the blog. These will now show up in the column on the left side of this blog. So you can check back here and look at that column to see the more frequent updates that I’ll post there as I’m sailing.
