Living & Learning Aboard the Good Ship Learnativity

LTY UPDATE: Day #14 Jan 11, 2014

LTY UPDATE for passage from west side of Fiji up to Majuro Marshall Islands via Rotuma

Day #14
Saturday, January 11th, 2014
(Remember we are on the other side of the International dateline than most of you)

LTY time: 21:25 (LTY time = UTC +12)
Location: about 970nm NNE of Rotuma, Fiji
Or 280nm S of Majuro
Position: 00 33.723 N, 172 36.753 E (you can cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
SOG: 5.8kts (SOG = Speed over Ground)
COG: 358 (COG = Course over Ground, my GPS based compass heading)
Wind: 22-28kts E Apparent
Seas/Swell: 2.5m @ 6 sec out of NNE
Weather: Drastically changed weather that built into 60nm winds and very high wind waves
Air temp: 77F 25C
Sea temp: 88 F 31.0 C
Barometer: 1014
Distance travelled: 970nm
Distance to Majuro anchorage: 280nm NNE

SWIMMING & STORMING OUR WAY INTO THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE

One of the many fun things about life on a passage is how changes can come about in an instance. We had become very accustomed to the gentle magic carpet ride of a sail the past week an d so it was quite a change today as we approached the equator and sailed into a very big storm front with every high winds and rain. Our night and morning had gone much as before with a very starry night lit up to almost daylight proportions by the brilliant half-moon shining through the clear skies and lighting up all of LTY’s shiny new white decks and the silvery ocean surfaces stretching off to the western horizon. This morning we were treated to a brilliant sunrise of sharp orange and yellows that set to work to wake up a very blue sky filled with lots of clouds. As we closed in on the equator about 10am the skies had become less and less blue with more overcast and gray clouds but as we slowed and then stopped precisely on top of the imaginary line in the sea for the equator, the skies cleared up and the seas calmed down right on cue and just long enough for me to fulfill my silly desire to swim across the equator.

As we watched our GPS lat/long readout count down the diminishing minutes and seconds of degrees south of the equator we took down both sails and used the motor to ease us right up to precisely 0 degrees 00 minutes 0000 seconds. With Christine at the helm with the engine running she was able to spin the prop back and forth between forward and reverse with the engine just idling to keep that GPS reading right at zero. I’ve got a bottle of rum I’ve had onboard since setting out on this grand adventure back in March 2008 which is for the express purpose of the mandatory toast to King Neptune. I’ve also kept the little clay shot glass from La Paz Mexico which Skyler gave to me to remember our times together for the first four months and which I’ve used since the very first equator crossing. So with this shot glass filled with rum and the GPS reading all zeros north/south, Christine and I each took a sip and then toasted King Neptune by tossing his share overboard for him to catch. We thanked him and Mother Nature profusely for the unending series of gifts they both continue to present us with and then it was time for me to SWIM across the equator.

I’m not sure why I’ve had this urge ever since my first crossing back in 2008 but it has been growing these past six years because I’ve always been thwarted in all my previous attempts as I seem to always arrive at the equator in the middle of the night. But this time it was almost high noon as we pulled up to the equator and now was my chance to fulfil this silly dream. I doffed my duds on the aft deck and stood poised waiting for Christine to give me the high sign that we were just one second of a degree south of the equator and then I jumped off into those unfathomable depths of indigo sea. For a brief nanosecond as I was mid-air I had a flash of a thought that I had just jumped off my boat leaving a lovely lady who I had only met a few months previously with the throttle in one hand and the gear shift in the other and that if there was ever a golden chance to get rid of me without a trace and the most perfect story of my disappearance, this was it! “Gee officer, I don’t know what happened. I came up on deck for my watch and he was just gone. I circled around several times, go check my track on the chart plotter if you’d like, but not a sign of him and so here I am with this lovely new sailboat of mine and I’m not sure just where I’ll sail to alone from here?!”

Fortunately as my head emerged above the water after my dive, Learnativity was still not more than a few meters away and was not an ever shrinking dot headed for the horizon! Instead Christine and Ruby were on the aft deck taking pictures, which I’ll post once I get to Majuro and have good internet connections again, cheering me on as I swam across the equator and over to the swim ladder hanging in wait off the aft end of Learnativity. So I have now crossed the equator by motorcycle, car, truck, plane, ship and swimming. Not bad but I’ve still yet to cross under water by submarine or the like, nor by blimp or dirigible, nor by flying my own plane, nor by train or bicycle or ………… well, still LOTS of ways to do cross this imaginary line that marks the north south spherical halves of this mazing planet.

Once I got dried off I scurried up the mast to inspect the main halyard and all our rigging after what is now two weeks of passage. All looked very well and so we hoisted the sails and sailed off into the northern hemisphere. However as we did so we looked up to see that the entire north and western skies had turned a very ominous black and within half an hour we were in the teeth of a very strong storm. Winds climbed all the way up to 60 knots at one point and were in the 40-54 range for over an hour as we put in more and more reefs in our sails and eventually furled the whole headsail in and only had a double reefed main flying. The wind had also built up the waves which were now running up to 3 meters as they rolled in out of the East now. Fortunately the winds had also continued to turn to the east and had gone all the way around to the ESE at the height of the storm. None of this was at all dangerous, just such a contrast from our 3 days of no wind at all from Fiji up to Rotuma and then such calm seas and gentle winds the past two weeks. And it made for some very fast speeds which often had us charging across these large mounds of sea at over eight knots.

As sundown approached the winds gradually eased off and started to stay below 30 so we were able to put up a double reefed head sail and get back to sailing again. After sundown the winds and seas continued to soften and we are now back to conditions similar to yesterday with winds 18-25 and from an even better direction of about due East which is letting us sail much more comfortably and on a course of almost due North which is about what we want for the last leg of this passage from Tarawa to Majuro.

So yet another abfab day of first and bests for Christine, Ruby and I and we hope your day has been equally fulfilling and eventful. Christine is about to head off to bed to rest up for her shift in about four hours and I’m going to get this sent out to you and then get LTY all rigged up and on course for tonight’s sail. Thanks VERY much for joining us on this great ride and adventure and we’ll be back with more tomorrow.

Christine, Ruby & Wayne

LTY UPDATE: Lucky Day#13, Jan 10, 2014

LTY UPDATE for passage from west side of Fiji up to Majuro Marshall Islands via Rotuma

Lucky Day #13
Friday, January 10th, 2014
(Remember we are on the other side of the International dateline than most of you)

LTY time: 19:00 (LTY time = UTC +12)
Location: about 828nm NNE of Rotuma, Fiji
Or 422nm SSE of Majuro
Position: 00 59.125 S, 174 09.114 E (you can cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
SOG: 5.4kts (SOG = Speed over Ground)
COG: 324 (COG = Course over Ground, my GPS based compass heading)
Wind: 12-20kts NNE Apparent
Seas/Swell: 0.5m @ 6 sec out of NNE
Weather: Continued great sailing weather, mostly blue skies, some clouds, steady winds
Air temp: 88 F 31C
Sea temp: 88 F 31.0 C
Barometer: 1013
Distance travelled: 830nm
Distance to Majuro anchorage: 420nm NNE

EQUATOR HERE WE COME!!

Just a short update for you tonight as we had yet another blissful easy day of sailing and lucky day # 13 of this passage north. Weather continues to cooperate very well, especially for being so close to the equator where there is usually much more weather “action” or non action such as doldrums as the Corellas effect takes hold and winds, currents and seasons go through their south to north hemispheric transformation. Delightfully for us, and again thanks to Rory and Philip for their great weather inputs before and during this passage, we seem to have found a great weather window that looks like I may stretch all the way up to Majuro with very good winds and this lovely north south running alley of good weather. Today was similar to the past few with lots of scattered fluffy overhead clouds scattered across otherwise blue skies all around. There is typically always a full set of clouds parked out on all 360 degrees of watery horizon surrounding us which makes it feel all the more like we have our own private universe inside this lovely donut hole in Mother Nature’s cloud cover. Winds vary gradually up and down from occasional lows down to 12 knots and some equally occasional highs of 25 plus, but mostly averages in the 15-20 range which is just perfect wind velocity to keep big heavy LTY moving along and a steady pace of 4-6 knots. We did some motor sailing today just to charge up the big house battery bank a bit more fully and that bit of “diesel wind” pushed us up over 8 knots for a bit so we’ve made very good time overall today.

As per the latitude you might have noted in the position report above and the title of tonight’s update, we are now under 1 degree south and thus rapidly closing in on the equator! While it is only an imaginary line of human invention, crossing the equator, especially out in the open ocean is always a significant and exciting milestone on any passage. Right now it looks like one of my long time hopes to be able to swim across the equator, may finally come true as it is likely that we will cross the equator sometime tomorrow afternoon. Every other of my many times crossing the equator it has always worked out that I crossed during the middle of the night and so I’ve been so far thwarted in my quirky desire to be able to stop and swim across the equator. We’ll see how our progress goes but I’m really hoping I will be telling you tomorrow how it felt to swim across this imaginary line circling our amazing planet.

Otherwise we continue to bask in the joy of this phenomenal fluid state we are living in where we are totally immersed both mentally and physically in this silky smooth flow of spacetime. It seemed like we had just had breakfast and our typically leisurely conversations afterwards when I noticed that it was already 4pm! In spite of how many passages Christine and I have done neither of us ever cease to get over just how much our sense of time changes. It is very difficult to explain, even to ourselves, as it feels neither fast nor slow as it goes by and yet days and nights seem to dissolve into thin air like wisps of steam or trails of clouds. If we stop and think of it long enough we did get lots done, Christine did get the laundry done in the nice new cooler we have lashed down to the aft deck and we hung out our sheets and clothes to dry in Mother Nature’s dryer out on our lifelines, and I spent some time checking out a disconcerting sea water leak under the aft cabin bed, checked out the transmission oil (which was fine), topped up the main engine fresh water cooling as there seems to be a slow leak in that, checked oil levels, fan belts, etc. and replaced the filters on the watermaker. And we both got in some writing, so there was certainly lots of things getting done throughout the passage of the day. And yet all these activities also seem to dissolve and disappear in this liquid life we are living and before we know it another day has somehow flowed past us into the wake we leave behind.

As I finish typing this latest update Christine and I have just finished enjoying one of our nightly joys having dinner and a sunset and what a spectacular show Ma Nature put on for us tonight! One of those sunsets where the actual setting of the sun is very subdued and lulls you into thinking the day and the show is done. Then you look up between bites as you notice this beautiful new light wrapped around you and everything you can see and you look up to see the entire sea and sky lit up by the most amazing light. Tonight as we watched with mouths agape the rippling seas were like some kind of fabulous surrealistic painting or really a slow animation as the smooth rippled surfaces of the seas stretching out to all points west and then climbing up the banks of pink and blue in the skies. Then there was this quilt of much higher clouds blanketing the whole sky and they too were reflecting this most amazing pallet of pinks and blues. Do we lead a charmed life or what!!?? Thank you, thank you Mother Nature!

And with that I’ll leave you for tonight as we snuggle up in the cockpit to enjoy the last bit of that light and the rapid transition into the black seas and skies of night which of late are actually more deep blues as the extremely bright half-moon has been lighting up our evening sail. Night night for now, sweet dreams and see you again tomorrow.

Christine, Wayne & Ruby the Wonderdog

LTY UPDATE: Day #12 Thurs, Jan 9th, 2014

LTY UPDATE for passage from west side of Fiji up to Majuro Marshall Islands with one stop in Rotuma

Day #12
Thursday, January 9th, 2014
(Remember we are on the other side of the International dateline than most of you)

LTY time: 18:09 (LTY time = UTC +12)
Location: about 715nm NNE of Rotuma, Fiji
Or 535nm SSE of Majuro
Position: 02 40.875 S, 174 57.137 E (you can cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
SOG: 4.4kts (SOG = Speed over Ground)
COG: 318 (COG = Course over Ground, my GPS based compass heading)
Wind: 13-18kts NNE Apparent
Seas/Swell: 1m @ 7 sec out of NNE
Weather: Fabulous sailing weather, mostly blue skies, hot, steady winds
Air temp: 90 F 32C
Sea temp: 88 F 31.0 C
Barometer: 1012
Distance travelled: 715nm
Distance to Majuro anchorage: 535nm NNE

RHYTHM

All three of us, Christine, Ruby and I are now fully settled into the rolling rhythm of this passage where it feels like we are sailing through time as soft and fluid as the air wafting over our sails and the seas flowing under Learnativity’s hull. In both cases, time and sea, they have now become almost completely transparent and unnoticed in any conscious way and yet we are fully immersed in their flow through and around us and they play with every one of our senses from the physical ones of touch, taste, sound and smell to the more cognitive ones of time flowing by. This is nature’s natural rhythm and we are also finding ourselves appreciating the simple yet profound beauty and wonder of the equally natural rhythm of living life on the no plan plan. Christine and I both marvel at how it always seems that if we will allow the natural rhythm of life to come through, let life come to us through serendipitous gifts rather than by trying to predict and plan what should happen, when and where, we seem to live a life more filled with the richness of great adventures and experiences. As John Lennon so perfectly put it “Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans” and so we try to spend the least time possible doing any pre-calculated planning and therefore spend the most time living life fully and in the moment as opportunities present themselves so much more clearly when you’re open and available for them.

This state of mind and way of living was amplified by the idyllic day of sailing and living we’ve had today. We’ve got the sails dialed into these conditions just perfect and have barely needed to touch them for several days now. The wind has been soft, warm and consistently changing ever so gradually from lows of about 15 to highs of about 24 knots and the seas have been smooth surfaced with just enough swell to provide us with that magic carpet feel as we glide up and down over these undulating soft hills of open ocean. It has been mostly blue skies all day with plenty of soft fluffy clouds spread throughout to provide some texture and shapes to intrigue and evoke imagination and the air is that fresh, moist tropical kind that flows and wraps around you with enough heat to make you perspire just enough to feel the gentle cool of it evaporating off your skin in the ocean breezes.

So it is with such feelings of blissful contentment that we sit here enjoying tonight’s “dinner and a sunset” and the smooth transition from such a mesmerizing day into what promises to be an equally spell filled evening of calm waters lit up to almost daylight brightness just by the half-moon that has been so brilliantly lighting our night skies and passage the past few days.

Christine, Ruby and Wayne

Wayne Finds His Blankie!

Just this morning I told Karl a woman had been appearing more and more in your stories. Thank you so much for the blanket story and for filling in the details. I just found that our local library has 3 of Christine's books and I'll pick one up tomorrow to start reading. I've been stunned ah how much you've been writing... but now see you found your soul mate. Literally. And wooooohoooo!!!!

- M

[email protected]
1+540-849-9011 (mobile/txt)

Read my latest in FastCompany: http://j.mp/worldBetter

On Wed, Jan 8, 2014 at 7:18 PM, Wayne Hodgins <[email protected]> wrote:

Wayne Finds His Blankie!

One of my fondest and most special places in the world is 12 29.250 S, 177 07.265 E (you can cut & past this into Google Earth/Maps or Bing to see where this is) This is the lat/long address of the tiny island of Rotuma. Technically and politically Rotuma is part of Fiji even though it is 350nm north of the rest of all the other 328 islands which make up the nation of Fiji. However in every other way Rotuma is a country and culture very much of its own with its own language, history, culture and ways. When sailing into or out of a country you have to go through what’s called a PoE or Port of Entry to do your clearing in/out with customs, immigration and bio security and back in 2009 I had read a little article that Rotuma had recently been made a PoE for Fiji. These PoE’s dictate our routing as we are only allowed to enter and exit via one of these ports and there are often only one or two PoE’s for any given country even though the rest of the country can be spread out over thousands of miles as is often the case in most of the archipelago nations scattered like seeds in the giant aquatic garden known as the South Pacific. Being so remote and unknown Rotuma had been calling my name loudly for a long time and so when I first left Fiji back in 2010 I did so by sailing up north to Rotuma and was ship #6 to have ever done so which added to the specialness of the whole experience. Hence began my love affair with this little dot in the world and I’ve since checked in and out of Fiji every time in the past three plus years since and our stop there last week makes it six times LTY has nestled her anchor into the sandy bottoms of Oinafa Bay on the NE corner or Hapmafau Bay on the SW corner.

Being such a relatively small population of 1928 people based on the last census in 2010 and my habit of mingling with the local people ashore as I both explore their location and culture as well as seek out their assistance in solving the latest of my mechanical and other challenges with keeping Learnativity all ship shape, I have become more and more familiar with individual Rotumans who have become friends. These range from the dozen or more young boys and girls, 8-18 years, who came out to Learnativity when I was anchored in Hapmafau Bay last trip down to Fiji in August and spent the whole afternoon having me show them things like binoculars and chart plotters to playing games of jumping off the high coach roof of Learnativity into the clear almost bathtub temperature waters with all of us giggling the whole time like little school girls. Then the next day, after they had all been relating all this to their respective families over dinner that night with stories of their fun times on this big yacht bobbing out in the bay with this one odd captain and his little dog, the next day four of their Dads came out to see for themselves and we had another grand time together. Or the time when the Police Chief, head of Bio Security and the visiting Australian who was the Economics teacher at the high school for the past two years, timidly suggested I move anchorage from Oinafa to Hapmafau Bay as the wind and swell was swinging around to be out of the North and that why yes, they would be very glad to come along for the ride to be my “official” guides! Or the time I was invited to attend the big annual rugby for the men and net ball for the young women tournament weekend with teams from each of the eight local “districts” of residences spread throughout the island and was their guest of honour at the luncheon for all the chiefs. And then there was the adventure of finding some oil when my turbo hose had been leaking and I was out of new oil as well as being low on gas for the dinghy which I unexpectedly needed when I moved to the SW Hapmafau Bay and had to anchor about 1nm out from shore. I made the rounds from one person to the next in my search for the elusive gas and oil which was in short supply as the monthly supply ship was due in the next week and each one could not have been more helpful when they didn’t have any but thought they knew someone who might and escorted me to them. In the end I found the “Station Chief” who kept his own secret stash of gas and gladly shared 4 liters with me and then had his crew of men who looked after maintaining the four different water well pumps on the island, take me with them for the day of going from one pump station to the next to do the daily maintenance and picking up 4 liter of oil from one of their supply sheds along the way.

I tell you all this today to for several reasons. One to give you a feel for why I continuously feel like I lead such a charmed life of contiguous grand adventures filled with these kinds of “up close and personal” experiences and relationships with the local people I meet along the way and how it always seems like what starts out as adversity in the form of the latest challenge Learnativity or sailing or life presents to me, quickly turns into yet another amazing adventure and set of experiences. And more specifically I tell you all this today to set up some background and context for one of the more wonderful stories which I now have to tell from my most recent return to Rotuma and experience with these beautiful people. I will forever refer to this as “Wayne Finds His Blankie” and here is how it came to pass.

Jack is the young, I’d guess about 30, Rotuman who is the head of Bio Security and thus looks after checking what fruit, vegetables, meat and the like we might be bringing into or leaving Rotuma with. And of course Jack is also the one responsible for checking Ruby in and out of Fiji so Ruby and I have known Jack better and better with each visit and have developed a closer and closer relationship with him. On New Year’s day Christine and I had moved LTY over to Hapmafau Bay after the “grounding & pounding” adventure in Oinafa on New Year’s Eve and we spent the next day ashore in the main village of Ahau which is more commonly referred to as “Government Station” as this is where all the official buildings and resources are located and we had the most wonderful time as I showed Christine around this precious little jewel in my treasure chest of adventures and introducing her to my many friends there as they all seemed to just come out of the woodwork to say hello and welcome Ruby and I back and to meet the mysterious lady who had suddenly appeared aboard LTY on this latest visit. We visited the one little local store, more for the experience than any supplies though we did find a tin of baking soda so Christine can make more breads for us and then we went over to the Station Chief and brought him the 20 liters of gas I had brought along from Fiji to repay his extreme generosity of giving me the 4 liters of gas from his precious supply on my last time through Rotuma. Then we spent a few hours completing all the many many forms required for our clearance out of Fiji and clearance into Majuro. Each in triplicate via carbon paper of course! With some final adieux and bon voyage wishes from all our local friends Vincent drove Christine, Jack and me back to Hapmafau Bay where our faithful dinghy was waiting to take Jack and us out to LTY for his final inspection and signing of our exit papers. Ruby was the most excited of all to see Jack again and after Jack’s quick inspection of our fridge and freezer and fruit hammocks, he and I went back up to sit out on the aft deck in the fresh breeze. While Jack and Ruby they were having their joyous reunion the hostess with the mostess Christine, disappeared down into the galley to prepare a light snack for us as Jack and I chatted and took in the wonder of tiny Hapmafau Bay which wrapped its 270 degrees of protective coral shores around us.

Jack glanced furtively around to check that Christine was out of hearing range down in the galley and then leaned in close to me and softly said, “We’ve all been talking about you since you arrived on New Year’s Eve.” And he went on to tell me the story I’m now finally telling you. Jack explained that some of the people ashore in Oinafa village where we first anchored had sent word via the coconut telegraph on the island that Wayne and Ruby were back AND this time they aren’t alone; there is a WOMAN on board! Oh, she’s probably just one of those things they call “crew” some said but “No!” others corrected “Two of us saw them up on deck and they were KISSING after they anchored!” Later, as we were “observed” with ever more inquisitive eyes from ashore and then in person when we visited Government Station, Jack went on to explain that they could all now confirm that Wayne was indeed no longer that very odd and rare beast known as a “single hander” with is faithful pup Ruby, he now had the loving partnership of a woman in his life! And then Jack looked directly and deeply at me and said “We are all so happy that you’ve finally found your blanket.”

My puzzled look prompted him to go on to explain that in Rotuma, if a man is experiencing the winds and storms of life alone because he has yet to find or has lost the one woman who will be his partner in life, then he doesn’t have a “blanket” to protect him, comfort him and keep him warm. So he wanted to tell me how happy they all were that “Wayne had found his blanket”.

How special is THAT?! A little choked with the emotion of this sincere caring an how truly rich I am and the reminder that I have indeed found my “blankie” I shook Jack’s hand and gave him a hug to say thanks and let him know how touched I am by his friendship, this story and the great kinship I shall always feel for the beautiful people of Rotuma.

For you inquisitive ones out there “my blankie’s” name is Christine Kling and YES! She is THAT (http://www.christinekling.com/bio.html) Christine Kling and THIS (http://writeonthewater.com/?page_id=37) Christine Kling! Christine Kling the amazing Amazon #1 best seller author, Christine the single handed 100 ton licensed Captain, Christine the awesome mother, Christine the adventurer and Christine the truly beautiful person. And NO! I have no explanation other than a momentary lapse of her otherwise great judgement as to why she has chosen to be my blankie. But I no longer ask Why? to the awemazing gifts life seems to continuously bring me and I focus my energies on appreciating and enjoying them to the fullest extent of my abilities.

Lucky for your eyes, I will spare you for now from my more effusive description of this wonderful woman and my feelings for her and instead let you read at your leisure some of her previous blog postings in the past few years about her experiences with sailing and life. If you find yourself shaking your head at weird Wayne and wondering and pondering it all, check out these posts from Christine’s blogs over the past few years and I think you’ll see just how “meant to be” we are. As you will read if you have time, she is a great writer and has such a love of life and adventure which I think you’ll see as I did how wonderfully she captures the joy and rapture only sailors, and perhaps single handed sailors in particular can appreciate with the glorious times she has had on her boat and how much she loves her life in blogs like this one http://writeonthewater.com/?p=7837 or this one http://writeonthewater.com/?p=7266 or this one http://writeonthewater.com/?p=3698 . When you read these I suspect you too will have the same reaction as you wonder if you are reading one of my blog postings or one of hers. I’ll save for another day and posting, our story of how we so serendipitously came to meet and simply say that I when I am able to meet Christine’s little Yorkie “Barney” for the first time in person I will be kissing him full on the mouth and be forever in debt for his posting called “This message is brought to you by my Yorkshire Terror” (http://writeonthewater.com/?p=13834)

With that teaser, I’ll leave you with this portion of the story “Wayne Finds His Blankie” because I’m off to snuggle with my blankie as we enjoy yet another day of bliss out here in our own private cosmos aboard Learnativity and sailing silently on top of the big blue marble called Earth. As soon as you can please go snuggle up to the blankie(s) in your life and remind them and yourself just how much richer, warmer and comfy your life is when you are wrapped in the love of your blankie.

Your blankified no longer single handed friend Wayne

Wayne Finds His Blankie!

Wayne Finds His Blankie!

One of my fondest and most special places in the world is 12 29.250 S, 177 07.265 E (you can cut & past this into Google Earth/Maps or Bing to see where this is) This is the lat/long address of the tiny island of Rotuma. Technically and politically Rotuma is part of Fiji even though it is 350nm north of the rest of all the other 328 islands which make up the nation of Fiji. However in every other way Rotuma is a country and culture very much of its own with its own language, history, culture and ways. When sailing into or out of a country you have to go through what’s called a PoE or Port of Entry to do your clearing in/out with customs, immigration and bio security and back in 2009 I had read a little article that Rotuma had recently been made a PoE for Fiji. These PoE’s dictate our routing as we are only allowed to enter and exit via one of these ports and there are often only one or two PoE’s for any given country even though the rest of the country can be spread out over thousands of miles as is often the case in most of the archipelago nations scattered like seeds in the giant aquatic garden known as the South Pacific. Being so remote and unknown Rotuma had been calling my name loudly for a long time and so when I first left Fiji back in 2010 I did so by sailing up north to Rotuma and was ship #6 to have ever done so which added to the specialness of the whole experience. Hence began my love affair with this little dot in the world and I’ve since checked in and out of Fiji every time in the past three plus years since and our stop there last week makes it six times LTY has nestled her anchor into the sandy bottoms of Oinafa Bay on the NE corner or Hapmafau Bay on the SW corner.

Being such a relatively small population of 1928 people based on the last census in 2010 and my habit of mingling with the local people ashore as I both explore their location and culture as well as seek out their assistance in solving the latest of my mechanical and other challenges with keeping Learnativity all ship shape, I have become more and more familiar with individual Rotumans who have become friends. These range from the dozen or more young boys and girls, 8-18 years, who came out to Learnativity when I was anchored in Hapmafau Bay last trip down to Fiji in August and spent the whole afternoon having me show them things like binoculars and chart plotters to playing games of jumping off the high coach roof of Learnativity into the clear almost bathtub temperature waters with all of us giggling the whole time like little school girls. Then the next day, after they had all been relating all this to their respective families over dinner that night with stories of their fun times on this big yacht bobbing out in the bay with this one odd captain and his little dog, the next day four of their Dads came out to see for themselves and we had another grand time together. Or the time when the Police Chief, head of Bio Security and the visiting Australian who was the Economics teacher at the high school for the past two years, timidly suggested I move anchorage from Oinafa to Hapmafau Bay as the wind and swell was swinging around to be out of the North and that why yes, they would be very glad to come along for the ride to be my “official” guides! Or the time I was invited to attend the big annual rugby for the men and net ball for the young women tournament weekend with teams from each of the eight local “districts” of residences spread throughout the island and was their guest of honour at the luncheon for all the chiefs. And then there was the adventure of finding some oil when my turbo hose had been leaking and I was out of new oil as well as being low on gas for the dinghy which I unexpectedly needed when I moved to the SW Hapmafau Bay and had to anchor about 1nm out from shore. I made the rounds from one person to the next in my search for the elusive gas and oil which was in short supply as the monthly supply ship was due in the next week and each one could not have been more helpful when they didn’t have any but thought they knew someone who might and escorted me to them. In the end I found the “Station Chief” who kept his own secret stash of gas and gladly shared 4 liters with me and then had his crew of men who looked after maintaining the four different water well pumps on the island, take me with them for the day of going from one pump station to the next to do the daily maintenance and picking up 4 liter of oil from one of their supply sheds along the way.

I tell you all this today to for several reasons. One to give you a feel for why I continuously feel like I lead such a charmed life of contiguous grand adventures filled with these kinds of “up close and personal” experiences and relationships with the local people I meet along the way and how it always seems like what starts out as adversity in the form of the latest challenge Learnativity or sailing or life presents to me, quickly turns into yet another amazing adventure and set of experiences. And more specifically I tell you all this today to set up some background and context for one of the more wonderful stories which I now have to tell from my most recent return to Rotuma and experience with these beautiful people. I will forever refer to this as “Wayne Finds His Blankie” and here is how it came to pass.

Jack is the young, I’d guess about 30, Rotuman who is the head of Bio Security and thus looks after checking what fruit, vegetables, meat and the like we might be bringing into or leaving Rotuma with. And of course Jack is also the one responsible for checking Ruby in and out of Fiji so Ruby and I have known Jack better and better with each visit and have developed a closer and closer relationship with him. On New Year’s day Christine and I had moved LTY over to Hapmafau Bay after the “grounding & pounding” adventure in Oinafa on New Year’s Eve and we spent the next day ashore in the main village of Ahau which is more commonly referred to as “Government Station” as this is where all the official buildings and resources are located and we had the most wonderful time as I showed Christine around this precious little jewel in my treasure chest of adventures and introducing her to my many friends there as they all seemed to just come out of the woodwork to say hello and welcome Ruby and I back and to meet the mysterious lady who had suddenly appeared aboard LTY on this latest visit. We visited the one little local store, more for the experience than any supplies though we did find a tin of baking soda so Christine can make more breads for us and then we went over to the Station Chief and brought him the 20 liters of gas I had brought along from Fiji to repay his extreme generosity of giving me the 4 liters of gas from his precious supply on my last time through Rotuma. Then we spent a few hours completing all the many many forms required for our clearance out of Fiji and clearance into Majuro. Each in triplicate via carbon paper of course! With some final adieux and bon voyage wishes from all our local friends Vincent drove Christine, Jack and me back to Hapmafau Bay where our faithful dinghy was waiting to take Jack and us out to LTY for his final inspection and signing of our exit papers. Ruby was the most excited of all to see Jack again and after Jack’s quick inspection of our fridge and freezer and fruit hammocks, he and I went back up to sit out on the aft deck in the fresh breeze. While Jack and Ruby they were having their joyous reunion the hostess with the mostess Christine, disappeared down into the galley to prepare a light snack for us as Jack and I chatted and took in the wonder of tiny Hapmafau Bay which wrapped its 270 degrees of protective coral shores around us.

Jack glanced furtively around to check that Christine was out of hearing range down in the galley and then leaned in close to me and softly said, “We’ve all been talking about you since you arrived on New Year’s Eve.” And he went on to tell me the story I’m now finally telling you. Jack explained that some of the people ashore in Oinafa village where we first anchored had sent word via the coconut telegraph on the island that Wayne and Ruby were back AND this time they aren’t alone; there is a WOMAN on board! Oh, she’s probably just one of those things they call “crew” some said but “No!” others corrected “Two of us saw them up on deck and they were KISSING after they anchored!” Later, as we were “observed” with ever more inquisitive eyes from ashore and then in person when we visited Government Station, Jack went on to explain that they could all now confirm that Wayne was indeed no longer that very odd and rare beast known as a “single hander” with is faithful pup Ruby, he now had the loving partnership of a woman in his life! And then Jack looked directly and deeply at me and said “We are all so happy that you’ve finally found your blanket.”

My puzzled look prompted him to go on to explain that in Rotuma, if a man is experiencing the winds and storms of life alone because he has yet to find or has lost the one woman who will be his partner in life, then he doesn’t have a “blanket” to protect him, comfort him and keep him warm. So he wanted to tell me how happy they all were that “Wayne had found his blanket”.

How special is THAT?! A little choked with the emotion of this sincere caring an how truly rich I am and the reminder that I have indeed found my “blankie” I shook Jack’s hand and gave him a hug to say thanks and let him know how touched I am by his friendship, this story and the great kinship I shall always feel for the beautiful people of Rotuma.

For you inquisitive ones out there “my blankie’s” name is Christine Kling and YES! She is THAT (http://www.christinekling.com/bio.html) Christine Kling and THIS (http://writeonthewater.com/?page_id=37) Christine Kling! Christine Kling the amazing Amazon #1 best seller author, Christine the single handed 100 ton licensed Captain, Christine the awesome mother, Christine the adventurer and Christine the truly beautiful person. And NO! I have no explanation other than a momentary lapse of her otherwise great judgement as to why she has chosen to be my blankie. But I no longer ask Why? to the awemazing gifts life seems to continuously bring me and I focus my energies on appreciating and enjoying them to the fullest extent of my abilities.

Lucky for your eyes, I will spare you for now from my more effusive description of this wonderful woman and my feelings for her and instead let you read at your leisure some of her previous blog postings in the past few years about her experiences with sailing and life. If you find yourself shaking your head at weird Wayne and wondering and pondering it all, check out these posts from Christine’s blogs over the past few years and I think you’ll see just how “meant to be” we are. As you will read if you have time, she is a great writer and has such a love of life and adventure which I think you’ll see as I did how wonderfully she captures the joy and rapture only sailors, and perhaps single handed sailors in particular can appreciate with the glorious times she has had on her boat and how much she loves her life in blogs like this one http://writeonthewater.com/?p=7837 or this one http://writeonthewater.com/?p=7266 or this one http://writeonthewater.com/?p=3698 . When you read these I suspect you too will have the same reaction as you wonder if you are reading one of my blog postings or one of hers. I’ll save for another day and posting, our story of how we so serendipitously came to meet and simply say that I when I am able to meet Christine’s little Yorkie “Barney” for the first time in person I will be kissing him full on the mouth and be forever in debt for his posting called “This message is brought to you by my Yorkshire Terror” (http://writeonthewater.com/?p=13834)

With that teaser, I’ll leave you with this portion of the story “Wayne Finds His Blankie” because I’m off to snuggle with my blankie as we enjoy yet another day of bliss out here in our own private cosmos aboard Learnativity and sailing silently on top of the big blue marble called Earth. As soon as you can please go snuggle up to the blankie(s) in your life and remind them and yourself just how much richer, warmer and comfy your life is when you are wrapped in the love of your blankie.

Your blankified no longer single handed friend Wayne

LTY UPDATE: Day #11 Wed Jan 8, 2014

LTY UPDATE for passage from west side of Fiji up to Majuro Marshall Islands with one stop in Rotuma

Day #11
Wednesday, January 8th, 2014
(Remember we are on the other side of the International dateline than most of you)

LTY time: 18:00 (LTY time = UTC +12)
Location: about 600nm NNE of Rotuma, Fiji
Position: 03 52.856 S, 176 21.949 E (you can cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
SOG: 4.2kts (SOG = Speed over Ground)
COG: 311 (COG = Course over Ground, my GPS based compass heading)
Wind: 18-25kts NNE Apparent
Seas/Swell: 2m @ 6 sec out of NNE
Weather: overcast but no rain and some blue patches, clouds on all horizon as night falls, nothing ominous
Air temp: 90 F 32C
Sea temp: 88 F 31.0 C
Barometer: 1012
Distance travelled: 601nm
Distance to Majuro anchorage: 648nm NNE

SAILING & SUFFERING SILENTLY THROUGH THIS ADVENTURE

Last night we were back to going through swarms of squalls with their higher velocity swirling winds and rain. Mother Nature decided to throw a few dashes of some good thunder and lightning to the mix in the early morning hours before first light from about 4-6am. Christine’s watch is typically about 3-7am (mine 11pm to 3am) so she got to enjoy the sound and light show and I was vaguely aware as I snoozed beside her up in the cockpit. As light came up and the sun rose about 7:10 this morning and we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast, things began to settle down and the winds died right off and we did a few or our pirouettes as the we lose steerage, the sails back and we get on course by simply letting the light breeze turn LTY around in a full circle and then the sails catch the wind again on the right side and we slowly move off. Made for a lovely breakfast time and then the wind freshened up and rose to the steady state of 15 to 24 knots apparent (wind as we feel it on the boat, not as you would on the ground/sea), so we were soon back up to good speeds all day since then running from lows of 4 to highs of 7 knots.

The skies have been mostly overcast and a bit gray but lots of blue patches to keep things brighter and no rain so it has been another very pleasant day of sailing, chatting endlessly, writing, showering and reading. The sun is now making its daily dash for the western horizon off our port side and Christine is just serving up our nightly tradition of “appies” (appetizers) of Cambazola (creamy blue), vintage Cheddar and creamy peppercorn cheeses, salami, bread and spiced olives. I know, I know, oh woe is we and yes our theme song is “Nobody knows the trouble we’ve seen” However we will continue to do our best to suffer through all this hot, humid, grueling adventure and help you enjoy all the more, the snowy winter wonderland which so many of you are currently experiencing. ;)

We are closing in on crossing the equator in the next few days and in a few hours we will cross the half-way point between our start in Vuda Point marina in Fiji and the anchorage inside the Majuro lagoon in the Marshall islands so all is going very well. Christine and I are apparently amongst the few who absolutely love these longer passages and get a bit melancholy when they end. Even though this one isn’t really that long we continue to revel in the rapture of our shared time and experiences “trapped” together inside this vast private bubble of a universe we almost embarrassingly have all to ourselves. We hope that you too are enjoying your bubble with friends and family and that you similarly have 2014 off to a great start.

We’ll be back tomorrow with more updates from our aquatic universe and till then wish you sweet dreams and happy days.

Christine, Wayne & Ruby the Wonderdog

LTY UPDATE: Day#10 Jan 7, 2014

LTY UPDATE for passage from west side of Fiji up to Majuro Marshall Islands with one stop in Rotuma

Day #10
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
(Remember we are on the other side of the International dateline than most of you)

LTY time: 21:01 Tuesday Jan 7th (LTY time = UTC +12)
Location: about 500nm NNE of Rotuma, Fiji
Position: 04 38.331 S, 177 42.927 E (you can cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
SOG: 5.1kts (SOG = Speed over Ground)
COG: 281 (COG = Course over Ground, my GPS based compass heading)
Wind: 18-25kts NNE
Seas/Swell: 1m @ 6 sec out of NNE
Weather: blue skies & sunny all day, clouds on all horizon as night falls, nothing ominous
Air temp: 84 F 29C
Sea temp: 88 F 31.0 C
Barometer: 1012
Distance travelled: 508nm
Distance to Majuro: 744nm NNW

WHAT a DIFFERENCE a DAY MAKES!

Being spoiled by the norm being hot sunny days almost all the time we notice those few days when our world turns shades of gray when the skies are overcast and we run through lots of squalls with their varying wind directions and rain. However in another way we learn to love those few gray days because it helps us appreciate the rejoice when the blue skies and sun come back. Such was the scene starting late last night as one by one Mother Nature’s twinkling gemstones in the sky started to reappear as the clouded night sky began to clear and by first light this morning we knew the blue skies and sun were about to follow. And so it has been sunny and warm again all day today. Better yet around noon the wind began to freshen and we were no longer doing those slow pirouettes of the past few days when the wind would die out, the auto pilot would lose steerage and we’d drift off course so the sails would back and we’d stall. By noon we were seeing steady winds of 15-25kts out of the NE and with 2 reefs still in the main and the genoa (125% head sail) out full we were gliding over surprisingly smooth seas with very little heal which makes for that magical gliding almost silently over the water while doing 5-6 knots.

This continued all day and now into the night with the wind velocity increasing gradually to be averaging in the low 20’s and best of all gradually clocking around to the east which is a much better direction for us in that it lets us start to point more northerly and eventually NNW to put us on track for Majuro. Given that the weather and seasonal predictions for north of the equator are steady NE trade winds we knew that it was a good thing to be putting more easting “in the bank” as it positions us just right for when we turn that corner and change to a starboard tack (wind coming over the starboard/right side of the bow) and which will push us gradually westward. Christine and I decided we would wait till our heading had moved over to be past 50 degrees and therefore past NNE before we would tack and change our course to NNW and start using up that easting we had in the bank, so about 6pm we tacked Learnativity and are now on a heading of about 280 which is just a bit north of due west. We expect the winds to continue to clock gradually around to the east as we approach the equator and we’ll follow that by gradually increasing our heading to be more northerly and get onto a heading of about 320 which is what we want to round the NW end of Kiribati and the island of Tarawa and start the direct run to the east side of Majuro.

I know that is a lot, probably too much directional sailing info for most of you so the bottom line is that we have had a truly wonderful day of sailing through sunny blue skies at good speeds and moving along the serpentine course we anticipated we would take based on the weather predictions. We would also like to give special thanks to Rory on Streetcar down in Vuda Pt. Fiji and Philip from Blue Bie even though he and Teri are currently over in Switzerland, for all their assistance in providing us with fabulous weather and routing synopsis and recommendations from all the satellite and weather data they are able to gather with their full internet connections and most of all with their amazing amount of experience and expertise with sailing and weather.

The sun has now set and Christine and I have just enjoyed yet another one of her fabulous creations from the galley and are finishing up a bit of our mutual typing/writing before settling in for some evening snuggles before our night watches begin. So I’m going to finish up and get this latest LTY Update sent off into the ether making its way to you as it often takes up to an hour to get the multiple sat phone connections required to send it all out. Night for now, sweet dreams one and all and we’ll be back tomorrow night with the next installment from the good ship Learnativity.

Christine, Wayne & Ruby the Wonderdog

LTY UPDATE: Day #9 sent out Tuesday, January 7, 2014

LTY UPDATE: Day #9 sent out Tuesday, January 7, 2014
(Remember we are on the other side of the International dateline than most of you)
Day #9 of passage from west side of Fiji up to Majuro Marshall Islands with one stop in Rotuma

LTY time: 03:45 Tuesday Jan 7th (LTY time = UTC +12)
Location: about 425nm NNE of Rotuma, Fiji
Position: 05 29.969 S, 177 22.931 E (you can cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
SOG: 4.1kts (SOG = Speed over Ground)
COG: 012 (COG = Course over Ground, my GPS based compass heading)
Wind: 0-15kts NNE
Seas/Swell: 1m @ 6 sec out of NE
Weather: mostly overcast with occasional squalls and rain but clearing slowly
Air temp: 84 F 29C
Sea temp: 88 F 31.0 C
Barometer: 1012
Distance travelled: 425nm
Distance to Majuro: 835nm NNW

SLOW STEADY SAILING NORTH to the EQUATOR

I’ll keep today’s note very short as I finish up my watch here at 3:30 am and get Christine up. We had a very busy day yesterday getting the hydraulic transmission all sorted out and I’m tired but happy with it all. With great thanks to Christine for letting me “talk to think” and work through this all and especially to my dear friend Greg for his mechanical expertise, we figured out that the problem was a leaking transmission oil cooler. This cooler is a heat exchanger so transmission oil flows through a series of long thin copper pipes which are encapsulated in a 2” diameter copper pipe which has cold sea water flowing through it and taking the heat from the oil. Apparently one of these tubes had corroded through and was now letting sea water to be pumped into the transmission oil. Initially this caused all the oil to foam and then eventually all the oil was pumped out and there was just sea water in the transmission. Not good!

Fortunately this floating parts department otherwise known as Learnativity had a new oil cooler in stock and so I was able to swap it out for the new one and then start the process of flushing out the transmission. The one remaining problem was that I don’t have enough ATF (Automatic Transmission Fluid) onboard to do all this flushing and replacing of the transmission oil. So I’ve had to use engine oil which should work well enough to get us to Majuro and then I can see if I can flush this all out and replace with new ATF or if I may need to remove the whole tranny and rebuild it. For now the engine oil seems to be working and we’ll give it a good test in the coming days when we are likely to hit some low wind as we approach the equator.

So I spent the better part of the day down in the sauna otherwise known as the engine room where it is about 110 degrees and I’m up to my eyes in oily bilge water. Keeps me very fit and helps answer the question many ask of why I seem to stay in such reasonably good shape without exercising. Trust me, keeping a 52’ sailboat working well IS a very good exercise program!! ;)

Weather has continued to be overcast with intermittent rain and some squalls but seems to be slowly getting better and starting to clear a bit more as we move north and are now under 6 degrees South. Wind varies a lot in these conditions and we can sometimes have winds up to 40 knots in the teeth of some of the squalls and then be down to almost nothing within a few minutes. When we are becalmed like this the sails stall and back (fill in the opposite or wrong direction) and not wanting to use the motor and transmission too much till we got it fixed, we just put the rudder hard over to one side and spin slowly around in a full circle till the low wind catches the sails and we are back on course and slowly moving forward again. Overall we are making slow but steady progress north and continue to be pushed a bit eastward all the time which isn’t what we want but we’ll tack over in the next day or two and now that the transmission is fixed we can motor sail to bet back onto on course for Majuro.

So that’s the update for Day #9 of this passage and I’ll be back with later tonight.

LTY UPDATE: Days 6, 7 & 8 Sent out Sunday, January 5, 2014

LTY UPDATE: Days 6, 7 & 8 Sent out Sunday, January 5, 2014
(Remember we are on the other side of the International dateline than most of you)
Days 6, 7 & 8 of passage from west side of Fiji up to Majuro Marshall Islands with one stop in Rotuma

LTY time: 16:45 Sunday Jan 5th (LTY time = UTC +12)
Location: about 270nm NNE of Rotuma, Fiji
Position: 07 43.760 S, 177 12.055 E (you can cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
SOG: 6.8kts (SOG = Speed over Ground)
COG: 016 (COG = Course over Ground, my GPS based compass heading)
Wind: 22-32kts NNE
Seas/Swell: 2m @ 5sec out of NE
Weather: Sunny and clear, lots of wind past 2 days out of NNE
Air temp: 88 F 31C
Sea temp: 91 F 33.0 C
Barometer: 1012
Distance to Majuro: about 980nm NNW

BREAKING RADIO SILENCE FROM OUR PRIVATE COSMOS

Sorry for the radio silence from the good ship Learnativity these past few days. We’ve been having problems with our sat phone which is how we connect to you via the internet. Something seems to have been draining my large bank of sat phone minutes and so mid-day on Friday my account ran out of time and we could no longer get online. Fortunately texting directly from the sat phone still worked and so I was able to contact tech support at Ocens.com and sort it out. It’s the weekend for them but given that most of us who use their sat phone service can quite literally have our lives dependent upon being able to communicate from extremely remote locations such as we are in the middle of the vast blue expanses of the S. Pacific ocean, they are on call 24/7. We still need to sort out the root of the problem and we’ve gone offline once again today, but we have it up and running till they can look into it more on Monday. Whew!

Seems that “transmission” is the theme of several of our problems as I also discovered a problem on Friday with the hydraulic transmission on the main engine. When I was down in the engine room fixing some fuel problems I noticed that there was foamed oil oozing out of the breather cap on the top of the transmission. Not good! After a few hours of checking and head scratching the best I can guess is that there is something wrong internally, perhaps with a crack in one of the tubes carrying the high pressure oil for the clutches or the oil pump and it is pulling air into the oil and turning it to foam. I’ve got all the parts and gaskets necessary for a complete transmission rebuild but this is not something I’d want to take on at sea and the current assessment Christine and I have agreed upon is that we can run the engine and transmission sparingly but pretty much as needed along the way to Majuro without fear of doing any significant damage to key parts such as gears and bearings. Then I can take on the rather large job of removing the transmission, rebuilding it and putting it all back together once we are safely moored in Majuro. So far we’ve run it for a few hours and it all worked well with no slipping, overheating or other indications of problems. So while it still foams when in gear and driving the boat, the leaking is quite slow and the foam is fully filling the transmission so we know that all the parts are at least getting lots of lubrication so we’ll continue as is and with our fingers crossed.

The problems with the sediment stirred up in the diesel in our keel tank from the good shaking and pounding it took back in the Oinafa harbour grounding has all been sorted out, the bypass I did to the engine fuel pump is working well and so for now we are up and running and sailing just fine. As most of you who have been traveling along with us for any length of time have by now figured out, this sailing life is indeed grand adventure beyond words, however it isn’t what many might picture from magazines and movies of nothing but sundowner’s on the aft deck in some idyllic anchorage or marina. So this life isn’t for everyone or even very many but most of you would still understand that it is only through adversity and perseverance that we can truly appreciate the wonders of the world and our accomplishments. As I am wont to note, the only difference between adversity and adventure is attitude. And were it not for all these challenges that single handers and blue water cruisers like Christine and I experience we could not possibly have the awe and wonder we do of each glorious sunset, the vastness of the star studded inky black cosmos we stare out into each night, the childlike curiosity and delight from watching flying fish perform their acrobatic ballet on the waters rushing by us and live life filed daily with wonder, awe and gratitude.

Weather wise we have made the transition from the windless expanse from about 17 degrees to 10 degrees South where we had to motor sail the entire way from Fiji up about 100nm north of Rotuma. The past three days though we have been through several squalls and storm fronts with lots of wind and since yesterday afternoon we’ve been in quite steady and strong winds ranging from 15-40 knots, mostly in the mid 20’s to low 30’s which are driving us northward at a good clip ranging from about 5-7 knots per hour which equates to about 6-8MPH or 9-13KMH which might sound pretty slow when you’re accustomed to planes, trains and automobiles but here in our aquatic world encapsulated by 33ton Learnativity, gliding through the open ocean at 7 knots is break neck speed indeed!

Our only challenge is that all this wind has been out of the NW to NNW which of course is exactly where we want to go in the Marshall Islands and so the wind is what we call “on the nose” and directly opposing us. So we are close hauled (sails trimmed in as tight in line with the boat as possible) and managing to keep our COG (Course Over Ground) averaging about 10 degrees. This means we are heading NNE when we really want to be going NNW so tomorrow sometime we will need to tack (turn left 90 degrees) in order to head West for a day or so to put us in position to tack back onto the NNE course that will take us to Majuro. We are also hoping that after we cross the equator and the winds and currents change around, the wind will clock over to be out of the NNE to East and that will be a much more helpful and comfortable direction for the rest of our sail up to Majuro which lies at about 7 degrees north.

Otherwise the weather has been very good with not too much rain or cloud. Today we have had lots of overhead cloud and some storms on the horizons but we’ve been able to ovoid crossing them directly and it has been mostly sunny with lots of steady wind so we are blasting along on our undulating magic carpet ride towards the equator. Today is day #8 since leaving Fiji with two days stop for New Year’s Eve and day in Rotuma and we have now settled into that wondrous state of a long passage which Christine and I both yearn for. It is one of those things you can only really appreciate and understand via direct experience so I shan’t go on and on about it and the best I can do to describe it is that you develop a whole new rhythm with time and life. It is a very contiguous experience where you’re of course very aware of day and night, sun, rain, moonlit nights, storms and the like and yet this all blends together into this marvelous melange of time and sensations. Time becomes very fluid and you stop measuring it in any units such as hours, days or minutes and instead you find yourself immersed in this gentle continuous flow of time and experiences.

There is also this amazing feeling of being in your very own private universe with a population of three; Christine, Ruby and Wayne. Surrounded entirely by open ocean stretching out to the horizon on every one of the 360 degrees around us and with no land in sight we are visibly and viscerally cognisant that we are sailing on a giant sphere of water as the curvature of the earth is so readily apparent. And here we are, this minute little steel dot bobbing around all by ourselves at the very center of this universe. It is both humbling and intoxicating as you become accustomed to living entirely within this bubble world where you are not an observer but an integral part of it all. Almost embarrassing in the richness of this experience we are having and so we do our best to be grateful and take maximum advantage of the profound joy produced by the gift of this time and experience we are sharing. Well, you get the idea and aren’t you glad I didn’t go on and on about it!! ;)

So that’s the latest update from the good ship Learnativity as we head into the night sea and sky and continue sailing our way to the equator and into the northern hemisphere. We are very glad to be back online and have you join us on this latest adventure and hope you are all enjoying your weekend with similar amounts of joy and happiness to start this new circumnavigation of the sun.

Christine, Ruby and Wayne