Saturday July 1st, 2000
Latitude = 16 degrees, 29 minutes 3 seconds South
Longitude = 151 degrees, 45 minutes 1” West
FRENCH POLYNESIA-THE SOCIETY ISLANDS- BORA-BORA- Yacht Club
This morning we decided we had enough of this solitude in this bay and motored over to the Bora-Bora Yacht Club to fill the tanks with water and pick up one of their mooring buoys. To fill the water tanks we had to pick up a mooring buoy that was close to their dock and then stern tie the boat to the dock. They had a hose of about 100 feet with a very small diameter, causing the water to come out in just a trickle. It looks like it was going to take hours to fill our tanks and it did. All this service of the yacht club is free as long as you eat one meal in their restaurant, so we had lunch while we were waiting for our tanks to fill. Three hours later we were finally ready to leave the dock and pick up a mooring out in the bay. After we got settled in, we dinghied into town to have dinner with Sawleeah and Flyer and then attend the dancing. We found a nice little place to have dinner in the temporary structures they have erected for the Hiva festival and then found a place to watch the dancing up close with the locals. The Hiva festival in Bora-Bora lasts for at least two weeks with 14 nights of dancing and singing competitions. Apparently every little village on the island can send a group to the competition. The winners of the competition are sent on to Tahiti to compete in the festival representing all the Society Islands. Wouldn’t that be a sight to see? First up on the program is what they call the chanting, which is actually singing. The large group of 60 or more dances out on to the sand arena to the sounds of ukuleles and the beating of the drums. Once to the center of the arena the group huddles together on their knees and forms a circular bunch. They perform all their songs in this crouched position. Only the drummers and strummers get to sit on little log stools. After singing about 3- 4 songs the band and a few singers move to the side while a group of about 25 –30 women dance to the songs. Very similar to the Hawaiian hula except the singers all have long dresses on. The arms and hips sway so gracefully to the beautiful Polynesian melodies. The songs are sung in their native Polynesian dialect and even though we don’t know what they are singing about the songs are still beautiful to listen too. After two groups of chanting the dancers finally arrive. They have a band made up of drummers, ukuleles and guitar players. The band situates itself in a little shelter made of coconut tree pillars and pandanas leaf roof. Once the drumming began, out came all the dancers in their glorious costumes. I have never seen anything like it. Men and women dancing with grass skirts made of palm leaves and wreaths on their heads of beautiful flowers and leaves. They had a large wreath they wore around their neck that was made of some kind of nuts. The women were holding spears that were wrapped in a green vine. Spears and hips swinging like crazy! The women had clamshells in the palms of their hands which they would clap together to make a noise. In the mist of all this dancing a group of scantly clad men carried out the princess on their shoulders and laid her down in front of all the dancers on a palm leaf mat. It was absolutely spectacular! This group preformed several dances in what appeared to be the native costume of years ago. Soon they all ran off the arena and a single female dancer came out and preformed in front of the princess. Soon the whole group was out again in a new costume, this time they appeared to be made more of man made materials. The skirts were made of a long white looking grass and they had huge headdresses on. The men were dressed in a similar style but their skirts were a little bit shorter. They preformed several dances in this costume and than ran off again to come back in a new outfit. This time all the women were wearing long gowns that had long sleeves as well. The gowns were made of cotton and each one was a different color. Their hair was all tied up in a bun on the back of their head. The men came out in long skirts as well. The dances preformed in these costumes appeared to be a little more subdued. All we could conclude was that the first dance costume was the Polynesian wear of years ago, then when they became more exposed to other cultures and materials the costume changed from natural materials to some man made material, then the last costume we figured was the result of the missionaries influence on the islands having the women cover their whole bodies. I will have to say that the first costume was the prettiest and most interesting to watch. Well it was a pretty exciting night of dancing enjoyed by all. We took a starlit dinghy ride back to our boat and called it a day.
Sunday July 2nd, 2000
Latitude = 16 degrees, 29 minutes 3 seconds South
Longitude = 151 degrees, 45 minutes 1” West
FRENCH POLYNESIA-THE SOCIETY ISLANDS- BORA-BORA- Yacht Club
This morning after chores I went out on deck and took a nice nap in sun while David stayed inside and read. Around noon David and I felt like exploring so we loaded up the snorkel gear and headed over to the motu on the other side of the lagoon from the yacht club. On this motu exist the beautiful Pearl Beach Resort. One of the last resort to be built and supposedly done in away to enhance the marine environment. It indeed was a beautiful site. There were about 50-60 bamboo-clad bungalows built over the shallow lagoon. We arrive at the dock to be greeted by some beautiful Polynesian women who kindly told us where to park our dinghy and then directed us to the resort. We walked around like we owned the place. We went down to the pools and washed off in the outdoor showers and then walked along the white coral beach. The white coral sand was so fine it was like walking on sugar! The water was so clear you could see the bottom as far out as you could walk. We found a beautiful white hammock strung between two coconut trees and decided to take a little break in it. As we lay there looking out over lagoon towards the mountain of Bora Bora the beauty of the place struck us. From this view point you could look back at the main island of Bora Bora across all the shimmering colors of water in the lagoon which varied form clear over white sand, to turquoise, emerald green to dark blue. From here Bora Broa looks like a little emerald jewel sticking up in the middle of the ocean. After our little exploration we decided to have lunch at the resort. We walked up the steps with water fountains flowing down to the pool below and found a seat in the outdoor patio. From our vantage point up on the hill we could once again look out over the lagoon with the little bungalows laid out before us. What a place to vacation we thought. There was actually talk of getting a cat sitter and staying here for a night, but that soon ended when we heard the price. I guess we are lucky to have our little floating home. After a wonderful relaxing lunch we wandered around the bungalows and actually ran into some from folk’s form Greece that we had met the day before. They are staying in one of the bungalows above the water. She was saying how nice it was to get up in the morning walk down the steps of their bungalow and jump right in the crystal clear water beneath their hut. Wow! It was getting late so we decided to dinghy around a look for a snorkeling spot. By the time we found one that looked good it was getting too late so we just went back to the boat to get changed and head into town for the dancing. While we were having our dinner we saw Shiriri coming in the pass to Bora Bora, we called them up and the radio and they decided to take a mooring at the yacht club as well. David went to help them get attached and then we were off to see dancing. We were standing behind some locals watching the singing and chanting, once the dancing began they asked us if we would like to sit on their blanket with a front row seat. That was hard to pass up. Tonight the dancing was spectacular. The group was a village that was based on fire and dancers first appeared with fire torches in grass skirts and coconut shell tops. They wore long strands of white shell necklaces and when they dance they shells made noise on the coconut shell tops. What a beautiful spectacle. All the dances this night were done with some kind of fire. The second costume change was spectacular, its hard to imagine the work that goes into each of these costumes each dancer wears. Between costume changes they had a single male dancer come out that had large sticks of fire that he twirled. This particular man had tattoos that covered his legs and went all the way up his hindquarters. What a site he was. We saw the folks from Scaldis and Sawleeah when the dances were over and then had a nice dinghy ride back.
Monday July 3rd, 2000
Latitude = 16 degrees, 29 minutes 3 seconds South
Longitude = 151 degrees, 45 minutes 1” West
FRENCH POLYNESIA-THE SOCIETY ISLANDS- BORA-BORA- Yacht Club
David, Ann and I went snorkeling this morning in a reef that was near the yacht club. It was a large reef that suddenly dropped off into the deep bay. We saw many beautiful tropical fish. Ann had made a comment while we were snorkeling that she hadn’t seen a shark yet. I said I hope we didn’t see one today. After a few more minutes of snorkeling I saw a big black tip reef shark swimming directly below Ann. I alerted everyone to the shark’s presents and then made a beeline for the dinghy. From what we know blacktip reef sharks are apparently harmless to humans, but somehow that doesn’t give me any comfort. I sat watch in the dinghy while David and Ann snorkeled a bit more. Scaldis came by and invited us to a birthday party for Marci at the Yacht club, it also happened to be Rod and Darylens 7th anniversary. So I set to work making cards and presents for the party. At 6:30 the folks from Shiriri, Scaldis, Sawleeah and David and I all gathered at the yacht club for dinner and festivities. Marci’s daughter had made her a beautiful flower laie and birthday cake and presents were delivered. By 9:30 things were winding down but it was too late to head to town for dancing so we called it an early night.
Tuesday July 4th, 2000 HAPPY 4TH OF JULY
Latitude = 16 degrees, 29 minutes 3 seconds South
Longitude = 151 degrees, 45 minutes 1” West
FRENCH POLYNESIA-THE SOCIETY ISLANDS- BORA-BORA- Yacht Club
This morning was dedicated to chores and laundry, but the afternoon was a bit more fun. We actually forgot it was the forth of July until a charter boat with some Americans came by and wished us a forth of July. With all the festivities going on Bora Bora the 4th of July celebration didn’t seem to compare. I went over to the Shiriri boat to get a hair cut from Heather. It felt good to finally get rid of all those scraggly ends. After the hair cut Ann, David and I went snorkeling over by a different motu. There were so many fish of beautiful colors. We saw many sea amenies and clown fish. We saw the long trumpet like fish that change colors depending on what they are swimming over. I actually did see a shark, but it was just a baby, nothing to be worried about. It’s hard to believe that we are still seeing new varieties of fish every time we go out. After a good snorkel we got ready to head into town once again for another night of dancing. David and I went in early so we could have dinner at one of the temporary restaurants. We found a suitable one and had some delicious chowmain. We found a place to stand amongst the locals and waited for the dancing to start. Tonight’s show was to be the best 4 bands and the best female and male dancers. This was a big deal for even CNN was here to film it. The band of just drums and drumming like instruments would set up and then a single male dancer would come out and perform. When he was finished a single female dancer would come out. The female dancers had beautiful strings of flowers flowing down over their hair like flower veil. They had very simple cloth skirt and bikini top to match. I think the object of this series of dancing was to see who could shake it the fastest, the lowest and most gracefully. It was fantastical! Four sets of bands and dancers preformed and then they posed for pictures and that was it. So we crawled back into the dinghy and found our way back under starlit sky.
Wednesday July 5th – Saturday July 8th, 2000
Latitude = 16 degrees, 29 minutes 3 seconds South
Longitude = 151 degrees, 45 minutes 1” West
FRENCH POLYNESIA-THE SOCIETY ISLANDS- BORA-BORA- East Side Of Lagoon
Sorry I haven’t written in a few days, I found out through the wonders of email that my grandmother passed away a day ago and so I haven’t felt much like writing. One of the things about being on a trip like this is that is hard to be away from your family during times like this.
We have moved away from the Bora Bora Yacht Club and motored around the north end of the island to a beautiful anchorage by a motu called Temahu. We anchored in beautiful clear water of 20 feet in depth. We kidnapped Anne from Shiriri to come with us for a few days. She was afraid her parents wouldn’t come down to this end of the island so we brought her with us for a few days of snorkeling and fun. As soon as we were anchored David jumped in and swam ashore. Anne and I began fixing lunch and Tom and Jodie from Flyer came over to visit us. They said that their girls and two other cruiser girls were over camping on the motu and that all the adults were invited to a potluck on NANU, a very large 85 sailboat. Anne and I went swimming and then we all set to work making food for the potluck. We had great fun at the potluck meeting people from all over the world. The people on NANU are from Poland and France and have been cruising for 22 years. They have two children and one of their girls was on the motu camping with the Flyer girls. The other family on IMANI is from California and France and they also have a girl on the motu. The Flyers of course are from Canada. It was fun listening to all the stories from all over the world. As I sat there I was amazed how all of us were conversing in different languages, accents and still managing to have a good time and a lot of laughs. The next day all the adults went for a great snorkel in the coral by the pass. Later in the afternoon we packed a lunch to take to the motu and went over to visit the girls on the motu. What a little camp they had set up. They had a big campfire area with plastic chairs set around. Next to the fire they also had some mats on the ground that they had woven out of palm leaves. They were very good too. They also had a coconut chopping area set up with a machete. They did have a real tent that all 4 of them could fit in. They were conducting all kinds of experiments with coconut crabs in crab land and crab world. The girls had already spent two nights on the motu and were planning one more, which I’m sure was a nice break for the parents as well. They did manage to even do their schoolwork while on the motu. David and I noticed a palm tree beginning to sprout of a coconut and had circles of shells and coral around it. We asked the girls if they had made this and they said that the family from NANU had made it as a memorial for their grandma that had just died. We thought that was very special and plan to do a similar memorial for my grandmother when we find the right place with a sprouting tree. That night we had the Tom and Jodie over from Flyer since they were girless. Jodie brought her Taro cards and Tom brought his rum. We had great fun and also watched a movie. Saturday we decided to move the boat further down the eastside of the island inside the lagoon. We had to weave our way through the coral heads even though the way was marked with buoys. I stood on the bow pulpit pointing the way through the coral heads while David and Ann steered and navigated the boat. We finally found a beautiful spot to anchor near a large motu on the southeast corner of the island. The boat is anchored in 13 feet of the clearest water I’ve ever seen. Water washes over the reef and floats right buy us here, so it is very clean and clear. The Flyers, Nanu and Imani all moved down this way too, so we are anchored in what I think is the most beautiful spot on the island. There are a few coral heads here so we had to be careful where we parked, but in the end it appears that each boat ended up with their own coral head tropical aquarium. In no time we were in the water swimming from boat to boat getting some good exercise and saying hi. The bottom is covered with white coral sand that was like powder when you picked it up. The water is such beautiful colors of jade green, turquoise and blue. A white Tropicbird flew over the boat and the blue of the water was reflected on the underside of his wings. Ann and I decided to have a domestic afternoon, I made homemade pasta and Ann made homemade bread and cinnamon buns to have for breakfast Sunday morning. While Ann and I were baking David was in the water scrubbing the green stuff that grows on our waterline as well as the prop and shaft. Its rare to be in water so clear that you can see to do this underwater work. We were pretty wiped out from the night before and the big day so we called it an early night.
Sunday July 9th, 2000
Latitude = 16 degrees, 29 minutes 3 seconds South
Longitude = 151 degrees, 45 minutes 1” West
FRENCH POLYNESIA-THE SOCIETY ISLANDS
BORA-BORA- South East Side of Lagoon
David had a few projects to do while we are in this clear water. He soon put on his mask and fins and jumped over board with a hammer, screwdriver and zincs. It was time to replace the zinc’s. So we heard him pounding around down there for awhile. As soon as he was done it was time to go explore what is called the coral gardens and is suppose to be the best snorkeling on the island. Soon all dinghies (Flyer, Imani, Nanu and Tucumcari) were heading around the point of the motu towards the reef. There was a very strong current running through here so we were planning on drift snorkeling with the dinghy tied to David. Once over the side of the dinghy the current immediately swept you away. The water was fairly shallow so you had to be careful where you drifted as not to get cut by coral or stabbed by a sea urchin. It was truly the most amazing and exhilarating thing I’ve ever done. The bright pink, purple, green and white coral formed mini canyons that you drift through. You just put your arms out and it was like flying through colorful canyons of coral. Of course it was over too fast and you would have to swim back against the current, which required an extreme amount of effort. David decided to just tie our dinghy onto Nanu’s, which had a large anchor holding it in place. We were all swimming up the current like a bunch of salmon swimming up stream. The kids were amazing to watch swim back up against the current. They would swim a little bit and then grab onto a piece of dead coral to take a break until they were ready to swim again. The sea urchins were very numerous and were a spectacular array of colors. There were many dark purple ones with dark blue neon on the body where the spines would come out. Others were purple and pink. It was really amazing. There weren’t a great variety of fish because I suspect it was even hard for a fish to hang out in this current, but there were a few and I even saw one get slammed into some coral when he couldn’t fight the current. Some of the littler kids were just hanging on to a rope hanging off the back of the dinghy, but not the flyer girls; they swam back and drifted many times. David, Ann and I had a great time swimming back and forth 6 or 7 times. I would have kept going all day but we soon noticed a big squall coming and realized we had left the hatches open on the boat so we had to head back soon. So we decided to do a big snorkel drift with David drifting with the dinghy. It was really wild all the coral ecosystems we drifted through. After we drifted through the beautiful colorful gardens we ended up in a field of white creamy Staghorn coral. As far as we could see it was Staghorn coral. There was a little dark brown fish with big eyes that lived in this coral and they looked up at us in amazement as we drifted over them. Staghorn coral is very spinney and could hurt us if we got too close. The water was getting so shallow that I had to start sucking in my stomach to get over some of the patches. Soon we were out of this Staghorn field and into the Staghorn graveyard. It looked like an underwater desert compared to where we just were with little pieces of broken Staghorn coral spread about. Then it was back to just plain white sand and time to get back in the dinghy and head back to the boat.
Ann and I decided to have an art afternoon and drug out all my art supplies to make cards. We spent the rest of day creating while David read. David made us a wonderful dinner and then the Imani’s dropped by for a visit to deliver my pearl. As it turns out Mark is a jeweler and has his whole workshop on their boat. So it was nice to get my pearl that I got for free in Manihi set to wear as a necklace by someone that I know. We had a nice a chat and then called it a night.
Monday July 10th, 2000
Latitude = 16 degrees, 29 minutes 3 seconds South
Longitude = 151 degrees, 45 minutes 1” West
FRENCH POLYNESIA-THE SOCIETY ISLANDS
BORA-BORA- South East Side of Lagoon
This morning we dinghied around to the other boats to make arrangements to go to the coral gardens again. We had heard that there were manta rays somewhere over here that you could swim with, but nobody knew exactly where. While at Imani I purchased a beautiful little sculpture that Marc had been working on. It is a carved tiki head from the Marquises. It is carved out of a stone that he found on the beach there and then mounted on a piece of rose wood. It is very nice. Well we finally got everything sorted out to go snorkeling again. This time I wore my wet suit so I didn’t have to worry so much about coral scratches. When we got to the place we went yesterday it was obviously low tide, for much of the coral was sticking out of the water. So we went to a new spot and it proved to be just as spectacular. This time Ann and I found a spectacular deep coral canyon. We swam back and forth several times just so we could drift through it again. The current was still strong, but not as bad as the day before. Tom and David spied a break in the reef and wanted to go check it out so we moved to a new spot. This time there was a great array of fish, mostly trumpet fish and needle fish. We saw a lot of Triggerfish and Parrotfish as well. David found a big piece of staghorn coral and started turning over sea urchins with it. As soon as one was turned over, fish came from every little crack and crevasse to devour the delectable bit. It was really quite a feeding frenzy. We found this so entertaining that David turned over several more. Seemed like the big Triggerfish usually won the battle and swam away with his prize. When we got back to the boat I decided to hang out in the water swimming for a bit more. We made some lunch and then David and I decided to go to shore on the motu for a walk on the beach. Pretty soon we saw horses coming at us trotting down the beach and sure enough there was a little ranch just around the bend. The view from there was spectacular and looked back at the mountain of Bora Bora. There were all kinds of sprouting coconuts so we decided that this would be a good spot to build a memorial for my grandmother. This is my favorite place so far and it so beautiful here and there would be horses always going by. So we decided to leave this for a project to do tomorrow as it was getting dark. We made it back to the boat just as the sun was setting, made dinner and had a pleasant night.
Tuesday July 11th, 2000
Latitude = 16 degrees, 29 minutes 3 seconds South
Longitude = 151 degrees, 45 minutes 1” West
FRENCH POLYNESIA-THE SOCIETY ISLANDS
BORA-BORA- South East Side of Lagoon
This morning Ann offered to make us fresh scones for breakfast and so who were we to refuse such a rare treat. Just as they came out of the oven Nadine from Nanu stopped by to borrow a book so we invited her in for some fresh scones. While she was here Marc from Imani came by to return some videotapes they borrowed from us the night before. So we had a boat full at breakfast time. After everyone left David and I went to shore on the motu to build the memorial to my grandma. We found a fine coconut sprout and then began building. I put a shell laie around the plant and then we put rings of coral, shells and flowers around. David went off hunting for shells and while he was gone I noticed that the shells he had already put down were moving away down the beach. For you see they had someone living them (Mr. Hermit crab) so we had to be a little more careful in our shell picking. We found a piece of bamboo that we were able to use as a vase and put flowers in. it was a pretty nice little memorial. As we stood there looking out over the turquoise water at the mountain of BORA BORA some white tropicbirds flew overhead and the turquoise of the water was reflected on the underside of their bodies making them look blue on the underside. It wasn’t long before the horseback riders came by again, so I knew this was the perfect spot. Beautiful scenery, beautiful water, beautiful birds and horses going by. I think she would have liked it very much. Well, we thought we would leave this beautiful spot today and head back to the yacht club and do the last of our in town business so we could head out this weekend. We stopped by Flyer on the way back for a chat and then it was back to our boat for preparation to head back. We got the anchors up and were underway under clear skies and 15 knots of wind. We decided to motor since we had to weave our way back though the channel of coral. We had been motoring along for about 20 minutes when the smoke alarm went off. David went down to discover that the alternator belt had disintegrated. So he immediately went to work trying to fix it while Ann and I put in an anchor to keep us from drifting onto coral. About an hour later he thought it was fixed, but now it was too late to be going through the channel with the sun in our eyes, plus it didn’t look like the problem was totally solved. So we went back to the anchorage to sort it all out. Everyone was surprised to see us back. Ann and I picked up Jodie from Flyer and went to the motu for a walk on the beach. We found our way through the palm tree jungle to the ocean side of the motu and walked along the ocean side of the motu collecting beautiful shells and having a great time. At 5:30 Ann informed Jodie and I that we had to quit shelling and start back before it got dark. We got back to the dinghy just as the sun set behind the volcano of Bora Bora. We got everyone returned home only to find that David had made us another wonderful dinner. David and Ann finished off the night playing backgammon while I wrote in the journal.
Wednesday July 12th, 2000
Latitude = 16 degrees, 29 minutes 3 seconds South
Longitude = 151 degrees, 45 minutes 1” West
FRENCH POLYNESIA-THE SOCIETY ISLANDS BORA-BORA-Viatape
We awoke this morning to discover that Anne spent the whole night sleeping outside in the cockpit. She said it was such a beautiful clear calm night that she wanted to spend it under the stars. David immediately jumped in the water for a swim. He came back for his snorkel and fins and went off swimming while Anne and I had our morning coffee. Pretty soon he came back carrying the most monstrous muscle we ever seen. It weighed about 8 pounds and was way longer than my foot. Anne thought we should keep it for dinner. But I wouldn’t have been able to kill it, let alone eat it so we took a few pictures and David put it back where he found it. Anne and I made the rounds in the dinghy to say our good byes to everyone and then prepared the boat for departure once again. This time everything appears to be working. We got the anchor up from the clear blue water and this time it was my turn to steer us through the coral channel back to the yacht club. I did just fine, but I won’t say that I wasn’t sweating bullets during the hairy parts. We delivered Anne back to her parents and then found a suitable anchorage just off the town Viatape. David went into town to the marine store to look for a few items we need while I stayed behind to do laundry. Later in the afternoon we went into town to provision a few things we ran out of and then it was time to relax. We had a very fun a pleasant last week on the other side of the island. Its seems so noisy here with the big cruse ship traffic going by all the time. We are anchored right in front of the fueling dock and dive shop so there is a lot of traffic here. I think tomorrow after we get cleared out of here and get our bond money back we will be moving. I hope.
Thursday July 13th- Friday July 14th, 2000
Latitude = 16 degrees, 29 minutes 3 seconds South
Longitude = 151 degrees, 45 minutes 1” West
FRENCH POLYNESIA-THE SOCIETY ISLANDS BORA-BORA
We made it into the gendarmire by 8:00am and got cleared out of French Polynesia and then it was off to the bank with the paperwork to get our bond money back. We picked up a few groceries and then it was back to the boat and on the move again. We motored back over to the yacht club to get more water in our tanks. Once again this was about a 3-hour process, so we had lunch with the Tucumcary folks at the yacht club while we were filling up. There was no open mooring buoy at the yacht club so we went out to anchor by the Pearl Beach Resort out on the motu. We just got settled in when the boat Arahina anchored near us. They joined us for a walk around the resort and dessert at the restaurant. It was a beautiful way to spend the night.
Friday morning brought with it a switch in the wind, which put us on a lee shore, so it was time to move again. This time we moved to the southwest part of the island behind the motu Topua. This was a nice and quite anchorage and we were the only boat there. This is the official French Holiday of Bastille Day. Everyone thought for sure there would be some sort of celebration, but they are not too excited about a French holiday here in Bora Bora. Soon after we got settled in the weather turned to gray clouds and rainy skies. So we had a movie day. We watched 3 movies and I began working on the courtesy flags for our up and coming countries. I first finished off the Western Soma flag and then set to work on the Fiji flag. So we are pretty set now.
Saturday July 15th, 2000
Latitude = 16 degrees, 29 minutes 3 seconds South
Longitude = 151 degrees, 45 minutes 1” West
FRENCH POLYNESIA-THE SOCIETY ISLANDS BORA-BORA-Topua Motu
This morning shortly after I awoke I thought I heard someone snorkeling around our boat, David was gone so I thought I would go see what he was doing. He was fiddling around with something in the lazzerette, so it wasn’t him. I started surveying the surface only to discover that we were totally surrounded by dolphins that were surfacing around our boat, thus the snorkeling noise. Wow, what a thing to wake up to in the morning. David immediately grabbed snorkel gear and jumped in to see if he could keep up with them. Right when he got in the water I saw a dinghy heading our way. I was soon able to tell that it was Marc and Doreen from Imani. They stopped by on the way back to their boat, which was on the other side of the motu. They had a big white cloth covering something in their dinghy. Doreen lifted up the cloth to revile a dinghy full of bananas (still on the stock) and hundreds of papayas in various stages of ripeness. There were also a few sour-sops and pompomuse in there too. They had just come from town and had found a fruit stand that took pity on them and gave them all the extra fruit they had. They looked like a floating fruit stand. Needless to say we were blessed with more bananas and several papaya. So I made my coffee and sat in the cockpit eating fresh bananas and papayas for breakfast, looking out into the water at all the fish swimming by and hoping the dolphins would return. Wow, what a morning we had and it was only 9:30am. Imani had told us that the wind had died down on the other side of the motu and that we should come over there, that there was great snorkeling to be had. So soon we were lifting the anchor to go exploring again. Soon after we got the anchor up the dolphins were back leading the way for us around the motu. We were worried about coral, but the water never got below twenty feet so we were fine. The water was so clear that I could see all the coral, which made it look scarier than it actually was. Soon we saw where Flyer and Imani were anchored and found a nice patch of sand for our anchor too. David dove in to look at how the anchor set and then just kept going. So I turned off the engine got on my snorkeling gear and swam over to say hi to Flyer. On the way I passed over many beautiful coral heads with lots of fish. Then to my delight I saw my first stingray! What a glorious sight. It glided along the bottom with the grace of a ballet dancer. When I got over to Flyer the whole family was out on deck. Tom said they were just getting ready to leave for the Cook Islands. They had their dinghy up on deck; almost all of their anchor chain pulled in and all seasick medication had been taken. By this time the folks form Imani were swimming around too. We were all talking about the two stingrays in the water, plus all the other beautiful fish. Jodie kept saying, “no, we are leaving today. We already took our sea sick medication.” Well, I guess the peer pressure was just too much, for soon Jody was digging out the snorkeling gear and was jumping in the water to check it out for herself. Tom threw up his hands and said “ that’s it, I guess were staying another day” there was a big cheer from the crowd in the water and from all the kids. Off we went, snorkeling around the nearby reef. David and Tom managed to find two very large moray eels, one of which, was the biggest one I’ve seen. I sure would hate to meet up with him on my own. Jodie and I snorkeled around looking at all the wonderful little fish. We saw several new fish that we had never seen before. Jodie came up and said, “its like God just went crazy here creating all these different fish.” We did see one very strange little guy. He had a 4-inch worm like body with brown and white bands of coloring and then had the head of a sea horse. Very strange little creature. We didn’t get too close, not sure what kind of punch a little guy like that might have! We snorkeled for close to 2 and half-hours. We were actually getting cold so we decided to go in for some lunch and then head back out to a new spot later in the afternoon. Sometime earlier that morning Tom was telling someone over the radio about the wonderful little anchorage he was in and that it wasn’t crowded at all. Well, soon the word was out and while we were eating lunch 7 other boats arrived and anchored over here! You know what they say…. Call some place paradise and everybody comes! Since the Flyers already had their outboard engine stowed for the passage we offered to tow them in their rowing dinghy to the new spot we had picked out. By now the wind waves were picking up and the flyers had the ride of their lives while David zigzagged them around in the dinghy. I wish I had a camera to capture the expressions on those faces! We found our new snorkeling spot and soon were snorkeling along the edge of big reef with a 20 to 30 foot drop off. I thought to myself this is the kind of place sharks like to hang out. David and Tom headed out to the deep water while Jody, Laurel and I stayed in the shallow water looking at all the pretty fish. Soon David and Tom came back saying that there was some good snorkeling on the other side of the deep water, so we went exploring in the dingy. Once back in the water we saw beautiful coral formations and lots of fish. The tourist boats must stop here and the feed the fish, for as soon as we were in the water we were surrounded by fish nibbling away on our fins. This was some deep water for snorkeling but soon we spied another stingray gracefully swimming right at Tom. What a sight to see the white underside of his giant wings flap up and down. I saw two more new fish, bringing my total for the day up to 5! Hard to believe that after all this time I’m still seeing new fish. We were swimming along when all of the sudden I spied a big shark. I turned around and made a beeline for the dinghy. Tom and his girls stayed around to see what he would do, and apparently he didn’t even bother to look at them. I guess the tour boats feed him as well! We were soon back in our dinghies and we towed the flyers back to their boat. We definitely had a big day of snorkeling and saw many new fish, so you can’t complain about that!
Sunday July 16th, 2000
Latitude = 16 degrees, 29 minutes 3 seconds South
Longitude = 151 degrees, 45 minutes 1” West
FRENCH POLYNESIA-THE SOCIETY ISLANDS BORA-BORA-Topua Motu
This morning I awoke at 4:30 am with a stabbing pain in my head. I don’t know why, but it soon went away. The wind was blowing pretty strong so I thought I would take a look outside. Wow! When I got outside the full moon was a deep dark orange. I sat and watched it for awhile and soon noticed 4 shooting stars as well. David wanted to know what I was up too, so he soon came out for a look as well. While we sat there, at around 4:30 am, watching the moon we noticed that there was a little sliver of white at the top, as we watched the moon the sliver kept getting bigger and bigger. What we were witnessing was definitely a full eclipse of the moon! Now how did my poor old head know to wake me up for that! I guess it was worth the momentary pain to witness such a beautiful eclipse sitting here on the clear waters of Bora Bora. After the wonderful event we went back to snoozing. When we finally awoke at around 8:00 am we noticed that the Flyers were on the outside of the reef with their sails up heading towards the Cooks. I guess they decided to sneak out of here before anyone helped them change their minds again. It was very squally looking out today and soon we were getting rained on as well. Didn’t look like it would be a snorkeling day today. So we decided to make it a baking day. We first made bread and then scones. After this was all done it was still raining so we watched a movie. When this was over we couldn’t take it anymore so I got on my wet suit and snorkeling gear and went in the rain. David was already ahead of me. As I swam in his direction I spied another stingray lying on the bottom. He barely moved as swam over his light gray body and dark black tail. In fact if he hadn’t had a black tail I wouldn’t have even seen him, for his body blended in perfectly with the sand. Soon the folks from Arahina, Imani, and Ann form Shiriri were all out swimming too. We saw two more stingrays and this time because there were so many of us they actually glided across the sand bottom. We were out swimming around until I noticed that the sun was setting so figured I better find my way back to the boat before the sharks got hungry! It’s still misting so not a lot activity in the anchorage tonight. Guess we will have a quite night tonight.
Monday July 17th, 2000
Latitude = 16 degrees, 29 minutes 3 seconds South
Longitude = 151 degrees, 45 minutes 1” West
FRENCH POLYNESIA-THE SOCIETY ISLANDS BORA-BORA-Viatape
Happy Birthday Francis! It was one year ago today that we christened our boat the sailing vessel Francis. Hard to believe all the ground we have covered since then.
Well we didn’t have the quite night we were planning on last night. David had not been feeling well all day and by nightfall he was having terrible pain in the chest. That was a little scary, considering how healthily he has always been. He’s not a complainer so I knew it was serious. I got out the Merck manual of medicine and began looking up everything on the heart. From what he was telling me and from what I read it sounded like he tore or stressed a muscle near his heart, so I got out the medical kit and gave him a muscle relaxer. He was still tossing and turning with pain all night, so neither of us got much sleep. By morning we decided to move the boat into town and go to the clinic and get it checked out. Ann from Shiriri came along to help us manage the coral pass and getting docked at the wharf. We were soon in to see the doctor. He was a real nice guy and checked David out pretty well. He too thought that he pulled a muscle in his back and was having some referred pain. So he wrote some more prescriptions and said to keep taking the muscle relaxer. So that was a big relief to me. It’s pretty scary when someone’s life is in your hands and you are so far away from help. The doctor wanted to see David again in the afternoon to see how it was going. So David went back to the boat to rest. Of course everyone came by to see how he was doing, so I don’t know how much rest he got. I went off to get the prescriptions filled. The medical cost here was really a pleasant surprise, the office visit, with EKG, and prescriptions was $45.00! Makes you wonder? When everything else in this country is so expensive that there medical cost are so reasonable. We went back to see him at 4:00 and David was feeling somewhat better. The doctor gave us his home telephone number in case we needed anything in the night! Hard to believe. He would like to see him in the morning again to see how he is doing. We were planning on leaving tomorrow for American Soma but will stick around a day or two to make sure he is ok. When we get to American Soma we will get him checked out again. Well we are tied up to the main dock here in town where they had all the dancing, so its not the quite peaceful anchorage we are used to, but we are close by incase we need anything. Dewey came out for look and 4 dogs immediately spotted him and were lined up on the dock looking up at our boat and Dewey. It was pretty funny seeing the stare down. Dewey gave them a big growl and the dogs just laughed at him. So Dewey retreated to the safety of the boat. Hopefully we will get some sleep tonight tied up here next to all the action.
Tuesday July 18th, 2000
Latitude = 16 degrees, 29 minutes 3 seconds South
Longitude = 151 degrees, 45 minutes 1” West
FRENCH POLYNESIA-THE SOCIETY ISLANDS BORA-BORA-BLOODY MARY’S
Last night was hard to get any rest. The wind switched and the waves were slapping up on the boat and slapping us into the dock all night. What a noise! So at dawn we untied from the dock and headed to the southwest corner of the island in search of a mooring buoy in front of the infamous Bloody Mary’s Restaurant. There were actually several available so we picked one up and got settled in. Dale from Phantom had given David some new weather fax software and so he was busy playing with that for awhile. We went over to the luxurious dock that Bloody Mary’s has and got some water in our jerry jugs. We went to check out the famous restaurant and make a reservation for dinner. (Part of the deal for getting a buoy and water). Wow! What a great place, David saw that they had fish and chips on the menu and wanted to go back for lunch. We went over to say hi to Phantom, who had also just picked up one of the buoys. We asked if we could take their son Austin out to lunch, for tomorrow is his birthday and we probably wont be around to attend the planned party. So off to Bloody Mary’s we went, with no shoes! Bloody Mary’s has a sand floor and even the people who work there don’t wear shoes. So much for the no shoes no shirt service at this place. It was a fun little place with the best food and prices we seen on this island so far. After lunch we delivered Austin back to his boat and then David and I headed back to the dock for a little walk to see how he was feeling. We just went a short way so he didn’t over do it. Then it was back to the boat for showers and a rest. Soon Dan from Arahina came over to see how David was doing and borrow a few movies. Just after he left the Phantom folks came by minus Austin to visit. Dale helped David set up the new weather fax software while Tina, Katlin and I made birthday cards for Austin. Next thing we knew it was time to go to Bloody Mary’s again for dinner. Off we went back to the dock. As we entered the restaurant, a large table of assorted fresh fish and lobster greeted us. At Bloody Mary’s there is no menu, you point out the fish you want and they grill it up right there on the spot, and serve it with some fresh salad, veggies and rice. What a treat this all was. David I both decided to try the wahoo. It was a very large steak looking piece of fish and it was delicious. No, we didn’t have the famous Bloody Mary, for David is on his medication and no drinking! Oh well… something to come back for.
The restaurant is a designers dream job. The whole floor is covered in sand. The table and chairs and made of coconut palm trees. The chairs are little stools plopped down in the sand. For dividers between the tables they just planted immature coconut palms in the sand. The whole building is made in the traditional Polynesian style with pandamus leaves woven for the walls and roofing. The bathroom was really a treat. Still a sand floor but the sink was a black basalt rock waterfall. There was a wooden ring hanging next to the waterfall and when pulled started the motion of the water trickling down the fall until it all poured out in the bottom for you to wash your hands in. what a cool idea! Half the bathroom was open to the outdoors and hosted a beautiful garden of tropical flowers. Too bad I could have eaten in there. It was way cool. Well after a wonderful meal it was time to go back and get a good nights sleep. We hope to leave Bora Bora tomorrow and head to American Soma.
Wednesday July 19th, 2000
Latitude = 16 degrees, 29 minutes 3 seconds South
Longitude = 151 degrees, 45 minutes 1” West
FRENCH POLYNESIA-THE SOCIETY ISLANDS BORA-BORA-BLOODY MARY’S
After listening to the weather report on the radio this morning it looked like it was going to be a good weather window to leave. This is a sad day, I have loved French Polynesia and enjoyed the people and the traditional dancing and all the great scenery and snorkeling. This is definitely a hard place to leave, but the days are ticking away and we do need to get going. It is also sad to leave because this is the point where all the boats and friends we have made so far, all depart to go their separate ways across the south pacific. The Flyers and Imani are going to the Southern Cook Islands and then Tonga. Shiriri is heading for Suvaro, Western Soma and Fiji. Phantom is staying here for several more weeks and then heading to Tonga. Sawleeah, Scaldis and Wylie Coyote are all heading back to the states, via Hawaii. David and I are heading to American Soma, Western Soma and then Tonga. So we may meet up again with our new boat family again someday. David took the jerry jugs and made one last trip to the fuel dock. We filled up our tank on the boat and began the procedures for departure. I went over to say good bye to the Phantom folks, who were very sad to see us go and not be able to attend Austin’s birthday party, but they knew when the weather window opens up, you have to go. The boat is already, so we hoisted the main sail, put up the sock for the spinnaker and let go of the buoy. As we motored away from the anchorage waving good bye to all our friends we set the spinnaker and out came our beautiful Polynesian Turtle, waving good bye to Bora Bora as we sailed past the main town and made our way out of the pass. It was beautiful day and as it turns out the Shiriri’s are leaving today as well and had left two hours before us. We could see their boat off in the distance ahead of us. The boat was sailing fine and the winds were perfect for the spinnaker. It was a fine way to say goodbye to French Polynesia. It wasn’t long when we started gaining on the Shiriri boat. They are an old traditional gaff rig schooner and don’t move very fast. As we sailed by Shiriri we were all out on deck taking pictures of each other’s boats under sail. Soon we passed by the island of Maupiti, the last of the Society Islands. Good bye French Polynesia. Good bye to daily fresh baguettes, French Franks and Hinano beer. You will always have a place in my heart as a special little jewel in the ocean. Soon we saw a squall coming, so down came the spinnaker and up with genoa and we sailed off into the sunset under a clear night, with lots of stars and half moon.
Thursday July 20th, 2000
Latitude = 16 degrees, 06 minutes South
Longitude = 154 degrees, 27 minutes West
Day One
Traveled 158 nautical miles
Sorry we haven’t written in a few days. The Sea State has been very rough and it was way to rough to get out the computer to write and send email. The swell has been 8 to 12 feet making for a fast and lumpy ride. Dewey and I have been taking seasick medication and seem to be doing fine. We have had a few squalls today.
Friday July 21st, 2000
Latitude = 15 degrees, 28 minutes South
Longitude = 156 degrees, 38 minutes West
Day Two
Traveled 153 nautical miles.
A fairly nice day of sailing, the sun was out and we were making good time. The watches are going good and we are all doing fine.
Saturday July 22nd, 2000
Latitude = 15 degrees, 31 minutes South
Longitude = 159 degrees, 14 minutes West
Day Three
Traveled 152 nautical miles.
Most of the day was fine with sunshine and good wind for sailing. Tonight at sunset we had several squalls around us and David actually noticed 3 rainbows. One rainbow was quit unusual for it was a big circle in the sky. Kind of looking like an oil spill in the road. How weird we thought. As we sailed into the night we surrounded by squalls, it looked like it was going to be a long night of getting wet. Sure enough pretty soon it was raining so hard that we actually had to drag out our foul weather gear again. There was even a bolt of lightening here and there. We couldn’t believe that we were wet and cold. Isn’t this what we left behind? Oh well, we made it through the night ok and were looking forward to some better conditions. We were getting pretty tired and were now thinking of changing our course a little bit to make a detour to the island of Suvaro. It’s not far off the course and hopefully would be a nice place to rest if we needed to. So we put the waypoint into the GPS and started a course in that direction. If we were doing fine and the weather improved we could always keep going.
Sunday July 23rd, 2000
Latitude = 14 degrees, 13 minutes South
Longitude = 160 degrees, 47 minutes West
Day Four
Traveled 125 nautical miles.
The whole day was spent in our foul weather gear; the sky was 90 percent cloud cover with the squalls becoming more frequent. Lightening was also becoming more prevalent so we decided to turn off all electronics except for the autopilot. It’s a little scary when you see lightening and you are the only giant lightening rod in the neighbor hood! We do have a lightening repeller on the top of the mast, but its better to error on the side of caution. By now we were extremely tired of being squalled and not sleeping much so the option to go to Suvaro was looking like a good one. So that is the new plan and pointed the boat in that direction. By sun set, which we couldn’t see, the lightening had grown so intense to the north of us that we actually decided to change our course to stay away from it. There were huge bolts of lightening that would stick the water about every 3 to 5 minutes plus there were all kinds of lightening shooting across the sky. It also seemed like the big squalls would come marching across the sky one after the other right over us dumping their wind and rain on us. The only good thing was that it was raining so hard that it beat the seas down so they weren’t quit so lumpy. We had already rolled in the genoa and decided that it would be best to take down the main as well. So we turned on the motor, took the main down and were resigned to motoring though the night. I pleaded with the stars to come out. It seems so lonely out here when it’s just the black sky and no moon. Every once in awhile a few stars would show themselves only to be covered up by the long tentacle arms of squall heading at us again.
Monday July 24th, 2000
Suvaro Atoll in the Northern Cook Islands (also known as Suwarrow)
Latitude = 13 degrees, 14 minutes 8 seconds South
Longitude = 163 degrees, 06 minutes West
Day Five
Traveled 153 nautical miles. 741 total trip miles.
By morning David and I were exhausted from the storm patrol of the last few days and nights, so being only 23 miles from the atoll Suvaro we decided to just motor the rest of way. The wind was only about 3 knots and would have taken us the rest of the day to try to sail there. By 10:45 am I spied the first of several islands on the atoll of Suvaro. We were so excited to be seeing land again. This island is famous for its bird population as well as a few other things. As we got closer to the islands we noticed more and more birds flying around. Mostly terns, albatrosses, frigate birds and brown boobies. As we neared the pass we could see several islands of the atoll that were covered with birds flying above them. One island looked like it had a black tornado of birds swirling above it. We kept our course to the waypoint and by 12:30 PM we were entering the pass of the atoll. It was some of the most beautiful clear water I’ve ever seen. The depth in the pass was 20- 50 feet and the water was so clear that I could see the bottom with the coral heads perched up looking at us. We made it in safely and found a nice place to anchor in 30 feet of water off of Anchorage Island. When we arrived there was only one other boat here in this anchorage. There were two other boats that were off of an area called 7 islands. This atoll was named Suvaro after a Russian explorer who first visited the atoll, but later when the island became part of the Cook Island territory the island changed its named to Suwarrow which is more true to the Cook language. This atoll for obvious reasons is a nature reserve with only one caretaker on Anchorage Island. This island is also famous for the unique individual who used to live here. Tom Neal who wrote “An Island to Oneself” lived here as a hermit for 16 years. The remnants of his shack are still standing. By 12:48 PM we were anchored and enjoying the beautiful scenery of this nice little atoll. Once we were settled in it was time for some well-deserved naps! We awoke just in time to get to the deck and watch the beautiful sunset and listen to the roar of the surf break on the coral reef 150-meters from our boat. We listened to the radio net at 7:30 and checked in with all our friends. Sounds like Shiriri is still a few hundred miles out of Suvaro. We went to bed to get good nights sleep and fell asleep to the sounds of frigate birds chattering overhead.
Tuesday July 25th, 2000
Suvaro Atoll in the Northern Cook Islands (also known as Suwarrow)
Latitude = 13 degrees, 14 minutes 8 seconds South
Longitude = 163 degrees, 06 minutes West
Well, so much for our peaceful night of rest. At about 12:30 am a giant squall marched over us inside this little atoll. First we ran around closing all the hatches and then sat on anchor patrol. It seemed like we had 35-40 knot winds coming through and we wanted to make sure we didn’t drag since we so close to the coral reef. Just to be on the safe side we decided to drag the bruce anchor out of the lazzerette and have it ready to throw over in case we started to drag. But every time the wind blew our anchor held strong. We went below to watch the radar and see the size of this monstrous squall. Soon it passed over and about 1:45 am we were able to get back to sleep. Around 3:00 am I awoke to hear the pounding rain once again. I looked outside to see the other boats in the anchorage. We were all still in the same place so that was comforting. I turned on the radar only to see another 4 mile by 2-mile squall coming over us again. This time I stayed up while David got some rest. After it passed it looked clear for at least 16 miles so back to bed I went again. By morning things seemed to have cleared up a bit. We had breakfast and then went about a few boat chores. David made bread today and worked on a few repairs. Later in the afternoon I rowed the dinghy over to shore to see what the check in procedure was in the Cooks. When I got to the island there was only a sign that said welcome to Suwarrow, a Cook Island National Park. There were a few people around picking up coconuts and cleaning up the place. When I enquired as to what was going on I met a young fellow who said he was from Fiji and was just about to complete his circumnavigation. He pointed to another sign that said if you stay in this park please spend one hour of your time cleaning up the place a bit. So that is what these people were doing. There apparently is not a caretaker of the island any more, so there is no check in procedure. So I rowed back to the boat and informed David that we didn’t have to do anything today. We watched another beautiful sunset as all the birds returned to the island for the night.
Wednesday July 26th, 2000
Suvaro Atoll in the Northern Cook Islands (also known as Suwarrow)
Latitude = 13 degrees, 14 minutes 8 seconds South
Longitude = 163 degrees, 06 minutes West
Last night we finally got the good night of rest we needed. We still took it easy today. After listening to the net this morning it sounds like people are either becalmed or having 40-knot winds. Doesn’t sound like a good day to leave. So we will explore this little island that Tom Neil used to live on. The fly and gnat situation here is very bad. Even with all our screens on, flies are still managing to find their way in. This drives David a little crazy and today he started to attack the flies with the dust buster. I don’t think I’ve laughed that hard in while. The amazing thing was he was actually getting a few flies with this technique. As he sucked up the last fly he exclaimed that his new company will be called “fly be gone”. After the fly expulsion was over we decided to go ashore to check out the place, when we got to shore the people from the Fiji boat were there again, still hard at work cleaning up the place. So we went exploring to see what was there. The home where the caretaker used to live was still there with many belongings left behind. There was a nice little statue of Tom Neil with a little blurb about his life there on Anchorage Island. From the looks of things it appeared that the family here had to evacuate rather quickly, probably due to a hurricane. They left behind many objects and paperwork. Anchorage Island is itself only about 100 yards wide so we walked to the other side to see what was going on in the pass. The other side of the Anchorage Island revealed a beautiful coral reef about 100 yards wide and fairly shallow so we walked all the way out to the edge of the reef to observe two of the Fiji people spear fishing in the pass. As the waves would curl up to break on the reef it was like looking into a clear glass prism into the pass. It was truly amazing. David and I continued to walk around the island along the beach, some spots were white powder sand while others areas were sharp old fossilized corals from the ancient past. There was one spot we could see a lot of fish so we waded out into the reef where it got to be about chest high. The water was so warm it was like sitting in a warm hot tub surround by beautiful little fish and colorful coral. We eventually made it all the way around the island to where Tom Neil’s homestead was. By now the Fijian people were resting in the hammocks still left in the palm trees. There was still a large picnic table in the center of the caretaker’s homestead and we sat there for a rest and chatted with Tony the captain of the Fijian boat. Soon another fellow joined us, his name was Dieter and he was from Switzerland. We were all having a nice chat when the two fellows who were spear fishing came back with four huge parrot fish. They will be eating well tonight. Soon another couple came to shore, they turned out to be from Germany, so they started right in with Dieter and had quite the conversation in German. As it turns out, Tony from the Fiji boat has been sailing around the world on a boat his father built 30 years go and has most of his family along with him for the journey. It also turns out that Tony owns and operates two marinas in Fiji as well as fiberglass boat building shop. Good guy to run into. We sat around most of the afternoon exchanging stories and getting information on Fiji. Some of his crew were collecting coconuts and cutting the tops off to serve us a nice fresh coconut drink and then we tasted the inside of coconuts as well. Depending on the maturity level of the coconut the meat inside has a variety of taste and textures. I think I have definitely tried enough coconut for awhile. They also collected some bananas and breadfruit and made a gift to us of a few, since I had not tried the breadfruit yet. These were truly people who knew how to live off the land. It was getting close to sunset so we came back to the boat in time for the radio net check in. Shiriri is still 30 miles out and think they will get here tomorrow morning sometime. They are only going two knots! So we turned in early for a good nights rest.
Thursday July 27th, 2000
Suvaro Atoll in the Northern Cook Islands (also known as Suwarrow)
Latitude = 13 degrees, 14 minutes 8 seconds South
Longitude = 163 degrees, 06 minutes West
Last night at about 11:30 I heard the wind come up, I looked outside only to see a huge squall coming at us again. We ran around closing all the hatches and then turned on the radar to see where it was coming from and how big. Well it was another big one, it soon passed over us dumping rain and wind, but the wind never stopped. I could see by the radar that the squall was now 4 miles away, but wind was still pounding us. The wind was coming from the east and we were on the west side of the atoll so the waves were building up fairly good by the time they reached us. We were really glad we had two anchors out. By now we figure the winds were reaching 40 to 45 knots. There were white caps as far as we could see and we actually had water breaking over the bow at anchor! This was soon becoming reminiscent of our Meave Beach experience. The boat was rocking and rolling so much that I was actually getting seasick and Dewey ran to his usual sailing position. Poor guy probably thought we had started sailing again. I took some seasick medication and we just sat round watching our anchors and the other boats. We called the boats on the east side of the anchorage with vhf radio to see how things were over there. They too were getting blown around pretty well but everyone seemed to be holding ok. One of the guys had just down loaded a weather fax at 12:30 am and he said it looked like there was a front coming over us with 15 to 20 knot winds for the next two days. Sounds like we could be having fun for a while. The boat bounced up and down and the wind howled like crazy, but amazingly enough these tiny little anchors held us in place. Hard to believe such a beautiful clear, calm day could turn so quickly into this. We sat up until about 3:00 am trying to hail Shiriri on the radio, they most definitely were being hit by the same storm and were probably far worse off then we were. No luck in reaching them all night, which wasn’t a very comforting thought. David went back to bed to try to get some sleep, but it was still too lumpy for me so I stayed up until 4:00am when I gave the anchor rode one last check and then finally dozed off. A t 7:00 am I woke to hear David trying to call Shiriri again. Still no answer. But another boat heard us calling them and called us back. This was the MaryFrancis. They were 5 miles off the island hove to waiting for the storm to lighten up a bit to come in the pass. The funny thing is that there is a boat anchored near us called Mary, we are called Francis and Mary Francis is outside the pass. Wouldn’t it be fun to get a picture of the three of us together. We talked to the boats in the other anchorage and it sounded like they all managed to make it through the night without hitting coral. Finally at 8:30am we heard from Shiriri, they were 20 miles out, hove to with their drogue out. They were having 45 to 50 knot winds, 12-foot seas and everyone was fine. What a relief! I’m glad I’m not on their boat. They said they were worried about us washing up on the coral reef and wondered how we were all doing. So now we know everyone is ok and we can breath a little easier. This morning on the net it sounded like everyone from the Society Islands to Soma and Tonga were having 30 to 45 knot winds and high seas. The guy who does the weather said there was a front moving though that is very large and is reinforcing the trade winds. This front covered all of the Cooks, Tonga and Soma as well as the Societies and it didn’t look to move though for another 30 to 48 hours. So it looks like we will just hunker down here and weather the wind. Later this afternoon the Fiji people came over to say good bye and said they were going to leave. They have a 120-foot sailboat and the swell and wind doesn’t bother them so much, and they figured they have good wind to go. We later watched them go out the pass and off into the distance. We will stay here and weather another night in this lumpy anchorage and windy sky. If the weather looks better tomorrow morning we will take off, so if you don’t hear from us for a few days you know we are out sailing on our way to Pago Pago American Soma. If that’s the case its looking like I will spend my 40th birthday at sea getting bumped around. Hopefully we will have a wonderful sail and cruse right into an American territory! Yea! Won’t that be nice?
Friday July 28th, 2000
Suvaro Atoll in the Northern Cook Islands (also known as Suwarrow)
Latitude = 13 degrees, 14 minutes 8 seconds South
Longitude = 163 degrees, 06 minutes West
We awoke today to the same rocking and rolling. Not much had changed form yesterday as far as the wind. It was way too rough to get in the dinghy and go a shore so we decided to prepare the boat for departure. After listening to the net this morning it actually sounded like we would have a good weather window to make it to American Soma, so by noon we had our anchor’s up and were heading out of the pass with main sail up. The first several hours were fairly nice while we were still in the lee of the island, but once we out in the open ocean again the seas were 10 to 12 feet and the wind was 25 knots. We were definitely moving fast, but it was a lumpy ride. We doubled reefed the main and just had our little storm stays’l up, and were still making 7-8 knots with an occasional 9!
Saturday July 29th, 2000
Day One
Latitude = 13 degrees, 29 minutes South
Longitude = 165 degrees, 51 minutes West
171 total nautical miles traveled
It was a long first night back on the sea, but by the end of our first day we had knocked off 171 miles, at this rate we will make Pago Pago pretty fast. Despite the strong 25-knot winds and 12-foot seas, this was actually a pretty nice day. The sun was out shinning strong and the clouds were few and far between. We checked in with Shiriri, they are about 60 miles ahead of us now, not sure if we will catch them or not, but well see what the wind does.
Sunday July 30th, 2000
Day Two
Latitude = 13 degrees, 54 minutes 3 seconds South
Longitude = 168 degrees, 17 minutes West
151 total nautical miles traveled
Another day of pounding away, still making good time, still have the main double reefed and the just the storm stays’l up. We appear to be closing in on Shiriri, at 5:00 am I notice a little light off in the distance. I turned on the radio and watched for about an hour, we seemed to be gaining on the light fairly quickly. I woke David up and we shinned our big million-candle power flashlight over its way. They soon called us on the radio and it turned out to be Shiriri. We had fun on the radio for a bit and then when back to our watches. By 8:00 am the wind had totally died and we were barely making two knots, hard to believe after all the strong wind we had had. Since our batteries were low and needed charging David just decided to run the engine for a while. So for the next two hours we motor sailed until the wind filled in again and we were back to being a sailboat.
The day was going by pretty slow so I went down to take a nap while David stayed on watch. All of the sudden I heard him yell, “Lisa get up here.” I threw on my life jacket and went scrambling half a sleep to the deck. “What’s wrong?” I asked. By this time David was on his way to the stern of the boat and I could hear his fishing rod singing away. He finally has caught a fish! He worked for about a half-hour to bring the beast in. It would bounce up and down in the waves, reviling itself to us every once in awhile. David finally got the fish close enough to the boat to give it a good gaff and bring it aboard. It was a nice looking tuna. Probably about 15 pounds and one and half feet long. David sent me below while he cut up the fish. He knows how I can’t stand to watch such a beautiful fish be killed. After all the excitement was over we sat and pondered all the circumstances around this fish. We caught it when we were at the intersection on the world grid of 169 degrees west and 14 degrees south. It rather rare to cross the grid at an intersection like this. Second we had just finished out last can of tuna for lunch that day. Third we are headed to Pago Pago home of 3 of the largest tuna factories, including Charlie Tuna of Star-Kist. Weird how the universe provides for you when you need it. Well if we weren’t so tired we would have had fresh tuna for dinner tonight, but we just bagged it up and put it in the freezer for the barbecue tomorrow night when we reach Pago Pago. As sunset came we were rounding the islands of Tau and Olosega. The next island is American soma. We should arrive sometime in the morning.
Monday July 31st, 2000
Day Three - Landfall
PAGO PAGO, AMERICAN SOMA
Latitude = 14 degrees, 16 minutes 49 seconds South
Longitude = 170 degrees, 41 minutes West
127 total nautical miles traveled
We arrived in the harbor to Pago Pago around 10:00 am this morning. The stiff strong winds made for a fairly quick passage and we made it here before my birthday, so I won’t have to spend it being seasick! Yea! By 10:45 am we were in front of the customs dock waiting for clearance to enter the country. There happened to be a big motor yacht tied up to the customs dock so we just motored around waiting for them to leave. Finally the harbormaster told us to just come along side of the yacht and tie up to it. He couldn’t find the owners to make them leave. So we rafted up next to the large yacht and gathered all our paper work and climbed over the boat to meet the customs officials. They all drove down to meet us at the dock and got us cleared in just a few minutes. They wanted David to walk down to the harbormaster office to fill out some more paper work while I stayed behind on the boat. I began to clean things up a bit and put things away from our passage. Then I inquired about water. It was available on the dock there we just had to get a hose long enough to stretch over the large yacht. Between all the other cruisers gathered around I got a hose long enough to reach to our boat and got our water tanks filled and all the salt water washed off the boat. Nice to touch things that aren’t all salty again. David finally came back and we were off to the anchorage to find a spot to land. We finally found a little spot, got settled in and collapsed. We were both so hungry that we decided to go into town just to see what we could find to eat. We ended up at a little hamburger shack, had a quick snack and then wandered around town a bit. So far from what we have witnessed about Pago Pago, it is just what we were led to believe. It is a very dirty and stinky place. Garbage just lays on the streets and ditches and the smell of the tuna factories lingers over the town and harbor. Doesn’t really make us want to eat our fresh tuna we caught yesterday. Maybe we will save that for the next stop. We finally got back to the boat and by 4:00pm we were both a sleep. Slept right through dinner and the radio check in. I woke up at 8:00 for a few minutes and then went back to sleep. I guess we were pretty tired after that passage.