Tuesday, 10 June 2014
Atuona
A few pictures from our last days in Atouna. It is a pretty tight Harbour but the exhausted crew of this boat then went and anchored right beside us. They had just sailed from the Galapagos and as it was getting dark and his one crew had just left we thought it more prudent to move our boat forward. He was vey apologetic and dropped off a very nice bottom of Panamanian rum in the morning.
Overnight the swell direction changed and made it less than safe where we were anchored. The photos do not do it justice but we could have surfed on the waves going past. We were anchored fairly shallow - for us - so not a lot of room under the keel in the big swells. We left in the morning.
A Summary from Victoria
This is a summary Victoria wrote for her old classmates at the Shambhala School in Halifax.
Dear classmates,
It has been almost two years since I last saw most of you, and I thought you might be curious about what we have been up to. We bought our boat in Anacortes, Washington, and sailed from there to San Francisco and then San Diego. From San Diego we sailed to Mexico. We stayed in Mexico for the last year and a half, fixing what broke on the way down. There was a lot to fix, like the rigging, the steering, the autopilot, the fridge, the engine, the watermaker, the plumbing, and the electronics. My dad, with a little [a lot !] bit of help from my Grampy, fixed it all. Parts are hard to get in Mexico. Even if you can find them they can be fairly expensive.
Thankfully, in the marina we were at, there was another sailboat with some kids on it. While Dad fixed the boat, Johnathan and I played with the kids and did things like catching barracuda, building with Lego, playing at the beach, swimming in the tiny pool, and biking to the little town square. At the square, there was a little icecream shop that has some of the best ice cream that I have ever tasted. It was made right there in the little shop. Just a short walk from the icecream place, there was also a good source of fireworks. Nearby were two of my favourite restaurants. One had amazing ceviche and the other had the best tacos you could find anywhere. Ceviche is a Mexican food that is fish (uncooked) that has sat in lime juice until it turns from pink to white. This cooks the fish fairly well. Then they add tomatoes, cilantro, and onions.
Last year we went to the Sea of Cortez for a while. In the Sea of Cortez, it was wonderful. There was clear water, beautiful fish, and amazing snorkeling. The only down side of my time in the Sea of Cortez was that I got a fairly bad rope burn, which meant that I couldn't play in the water for a while. It is better now, but there is still a scar. Our engine broke again, but other than that it was an amazing trip. After the Sea of Cortez, we went back to Canada to see our family, and came back to Mexico in the fall. In December, Mom had my little baby brother Benjamin. Being at Benjamin's birth was an amazing experience.
In April, we set off for the South Pacific, which can be a month-long passage. It took us 21 days and 23 hours of non-stop sailing. We couldn't use our motor very much in case we needed the fuel later if a squall came. During the passage, we caught a marlin, a mahi mahi (also known as a dolphin fish or a dorado), a tuna, and a skipjack. It was rough at times and at other times smooth. Now we are in French Polynesia. We first arrived on the Island of Fatu Hiva. After that, we went to Hiva Oa to check into the country. After we checked in, we left because it wasn't a very good anchorage and the boats were coming way too close and the waves were getting big. We went to the island of Nuku Hiva. On the way, we caught another tuna and another mahi mahi. The anchorage looked like a beautiful postcard, with white sand beaches, coconut trees, and coral reefs. The only downside was that it was a long hike to the ancient Marquesan ruins, so we were going to go to another anchorage that was nearby so it would be a shorter hike, but our engine broke again! There was a nice man on another boat who had a lathe. He helped us use the parts we had to stop the leak.
In the new anchorage, we met the wife of the Doctor in that town and she agreed to take us to the ancient ruins. The ancient ruins were amazing. They had some amazing stone carvings and tikis (carved statues). We went for another hike and met a nice lady who helped us get two full shopping bags of delicious mangoes - for free! We have now moved to a new anchorage because the last anchorage was getting rolly. Here, it rains every day and the water is murky. It gets very hot when we have to shut all the windows. The only thing I like about this bay is that there are giant manta rays, from three feet wide to five feet wide. People say that there are fairly large sharks here, so it is not a good swimming bay. Down here we have gotten pamplemousse. It translates into grapefruit, but it is so much better. Even Benjamin likes the pamplemousse. The bananas are amazing here, and plentiful.
That has about caught up to where we are now. I hope it helped you understand how our passage has been going. If you want to check on how we are doing, this is the address to our blog: SV-FLUENTA.blogspot.ca.
From,
Victoria Shaw
-----
At 6/8/2014 6:18 AM (utc) Fluenta's position was 08°55.00'S 140°06.00'W
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
Dear classmates,
It has been almost two years since I last saw most of you, and I thought you might be curious about what we have been up to. We bought our boat in Anacortes, Washington, and sailed from there to San Francisco and then San Diego. From San Diego we sailed to Mexico. We stayed in Mexico for the last year and a half, fixing what broke on the way down. There was a lot to fix, like the rigging, the steering, the autopilot, the fridge, the engine, the watermaker, the plumbing, and the electronics. My dad, with a little [a lot !] bit of help from my Grampy, fixed it all. Parts are hard to get in Mexico. Even if you can find them they can be fairly expensive.
Thankfully, in the marina we were at, there was another sailboat with some kids on it. While Dad fixed the boat, Johnathan and I played with the kids and did things like catching barracuda, building with Lego, playing at the beach, swimming in the tiny pool, and biking to the little town square. At the square, there was a little icecream shop that has some of the best ice cream that I have ever tasted. It was made right there in the little shop. Just a short walk from the icecream place, there was also a good source of fireworks. Nearby were two of my favourite restaurants. One had amazing ceviche and the other had the best tacos you could find anywhere. Ceviche is a Mexican food that is fish (uncooked) that has sat in lime juice until it turns from pink to white. This cooks the fish fairly well. Then they add tomatoes, cilantro, and onions.
Last year we went to the Sea of Cortez for a while. In the Sea of Cortez, it was wonderful. There was clear water, beautiful fish, and amazing snorkeling. The only down side of my time in the Sea of Cortez was that I got a fairly bad rope burn, which meant that I couldn't play in the water for a while. It is better now, but there is still a scar. Our engine broke again, but other than that it was an amazing trip. After the Sea of Cortez, we went back to Canada to see our family, and came back to Mexico in the fall. In December, Mom had my little baby brother Benjamin. Being at Benjamin's birth was an amazing experience.
In April, we set off for the South Pacific, which can be a month-long passage. It took us 21 days and 23 hours of non-stop sailing. We couldn't use our motor very much in case we needed the fuel later if a squall came. During the passage, we caught a marlin, a mahi mahi (also known as a dolphin fish or a dorado), a tuna, and a skipjack. It was rough at times and at other times smooth. Now we are in French Polynesia. We first arrived on the Island of Fatu Hiva. After that, we went to Hiva Oa to check into the country. After we checked in, we left because it wasn't a very good anchorage and the boats were coming way too close and the waves were getting big. We went to the island of Nuku Hiva. On the way, we caught another tuna and another mahi mahi. The anchorage looked like a beautiful postcard, with white sand beaches, coconut trees, and coral reefs. The only downside was that it was a long hike to the ancient Marquesan ruins, so we were going to go to another anchorage that was nearby so it would be a shorter hike, but our engine broke again! There was a nice man on another boat who had a lathe. He helped us use the parts we had to stop the leak.
In the new anchorage, we met the wife of the Doctor in that town and she agreed to take us to the ancient ruins. The ancient ruins were amazing. They had some amazing stone carvings and tikis (carved statues). We went for another hike and met a nice lady who helped us get two full shopping bags of delicious mangoes - for free! We have now moved to a new anchorage because the last anchorage was getting rolly. Here, it rains every day and the water is murky. It gets very hot when we have to shut all the windows. The only thing I like about this bay is that there are giant manta rays, from three feet wide to five feet wide. People say that there are fairly large sharks here, so it is not a good swimming bay. Down here we have gotten pamplemousse. It translates into grapefruit, but it is so much better. Even Benjamin likes the pamplemousse. The bananas are amazing here, and plentiful.
That has about caught up to where we are now. I hope it helped you understand how our passage has been going. If you want to check on how we are doing, this is the address to our blog: SV-FLUENTA.blogspot.ca.
From,
Victoria Shaw
-----
At 6/8/2014 6:18 AM (utc) Fluenta's position was 08°55.00'S 140°06.00'W
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
Taiohae
Liz Letters:
Fluenta 8-9 Jun - Taiohae
Greetings - just a quick message so you will know we are still here :)
We are still anchored in the big bay of Taiohae. It turns out that today was a holiday, so we have had three days of waiting for the workweek to start so we could get going on some provisioning, repairs, etc. Max went ashore today and met a guy who runs a yacht services company on the dock - an American sailor who came here by boat and married a local girl, so English is his working language, he has a good knowledge of both boats and the local area. He turned out to be really helpful, and will assist us with everything from laundry to diesel repairs. (Small world - his brother-in-law owns the restaurant where we ate a couple of nights ago, which supposedly has the best/quickest wifi signal around).
Max was able to do a temporary repair to our toe-rail today (where a piece tore off during our Mexico passage). He cut off the broken piece, then with Johnathan's help on the upper deck, he was able to fasten in some bolts [and a bunch of sealant] to keep it all snug until we get to Papeete or NZ. I spent a short while with my head in the area of the bolts when Johnathan didn't have the length to hold the wrench to the underside. My reaction was that it was a crowded awkward spot to put my head; for Max it has some of the easiest access of any of his jobs on the boat!
As for me, after two days of having it as the "next thing on my list," I finally worked my way through our bounty of mangoes and set some of them aside for eating and turned the rest into my first-ever pot of mango chutney. I wasn't sure how popular it would be, but when I presented it as mangoes cooked with sugar and vinegar ("Like Grammy's meatballs, but with fruit instead of meat," deduced Victoria) it turned out to be quite a hit as an accompaniment to our smoked turkey breast (Costco, Puerto Vallarta), mashed potatoes (pretty much the last of our Mexican horde - thanks to Deborah and Rigo on Heavy Metal for some last minute re-provisioning when we were in Punta Mita, or we would have been out some time ago), and corn at dinner time. Of course, we started with a sashimi appetizer as well, to use the last of our yellow-fin from the other day :)
Victoria and Johnathan continue to work their way through all the books on board (paper and electronic). They have both now finished the Island and Everest trilogies by Gordon Korman (thanks Mom for sending them, and thanks Marilyn for carrying them!). Johnathan has started "Hoot" and Victoria has been busy knitting. When they are busy, they are quiet. Johnathan has also spent some time each day doing something active (jumping overboard, climbing the rigging, paddling the kayak, etc ... it is good that he knows when he has energy to burn!)
The excitement on the Benjamin front is that he cut his first (sharp!) tooth this weekend. I am hoping that the eruption of these teeth will ease the grisliness/fussiness and the teething rash around his neck. We were given a solution to bathe his neck with by the nurse in Hatiheu last week, but I will take him to be seen tomorrow or the next day (local advice - it will be a bit like sick parade, so don't go on the first morning after a long weekend!) in the hopes of getting something for the thrush in his mouth, as well as for the rash (looks like a teenager's worst nightmare!)
Internet has been a bit of a case of "so near and yet so far" - there is internet in the bay, but it is painfully slow and we have thus far had to go ashore to do much of anything. We can see the wifi signal with our antenna, but we haven't been able to get a good connection. I know that you are waiting for photos of all of us (OK, I know that you are waiting for photos of Benjamin...), and they will come, but not today! Hopefully on Monday, one of us will go ashore with the sole purpose of choosing and uploading some photos :)
In the meantime, I hope our little note finds you well, and that you are enjoying the feeling of spring wafting across your doorstep.
Much love,
Elizabeth
-----
At 6/8/2014 6:18 AM (utc) Fluenta's position was 08°55.00'S 140°06.00'W
7 Jun 14
Greetings :)
Max finally has a reprieve from either rowing our dingy or making two round trips with our kayak for every excursion ashore. Our anchorage is rolly, but the winds are not as strong as they have been, which meant that it was not such an ordeal to launch both our dingy and our outboard this afternoon. This is the first we have used our outboard since Mexico, and it started on the first try. Even Johnathan was able to start it on his first pull when he drove us ashore for supper. We met another baby boat on our way - they were flying the unmistakable flag of baby families everywhere - diapers on the lifelines - so we stopped to chat. They will be heading to Canada this summer - they have another baby due in Dec, so we will exchange info, and help them as much as possible.
There is a breakwater here and a concrete wharf where dingies can be tied. I was a bit surprised to see the metal ladders we had to climb to leave the dingy - we have been so spoiled in other places with floating docks and stepping ashore! It was a bit daunting to pass Benjamin (in his life jacket) up from the dingy. We elected to do it in stages - Max stayed in the dingy, I stood on the middle of the ladder, and Victoria scampered up ahead of me to receive him on dry land. (I did things much more simply on our return to the boat - I put him in the back carrier and simply climbed down the ladder!) We also contemplated (jokingly) doing what several crews were doing with large water jugs - tying a line on and hoisting! Thank goodness or four watermaker :)
As soon as we stepped ashore, we had a selection of places to eat for dinner, all of which were offering free wifi ... this was the opposite of Atuona. We elected to walk into town a little ways, and found a sweet little place that offered what we were craving - steak / frites, hamburgers, and curries. We will go back for brunch at some point to try their crepes (and their wifi!)
Sooo ... it is quite likely that we will be able to upload some photos in the next day or so :) In the meantime, thank goodness for HF!
Love to all,
Elizabeth
-----
At 6/8/2014 6:18 AM (utc) Fluenta's position was 08°55.00'S 140°06.00'W
-----
At 6/8/2014 6:18 AM (utc) Fluenta's position was 08°55.00'S 140°06.00'W
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
Fluenta 8-9 Jun - Taiohae
Greetings - just a quick message so you will know we are still here :)
We are still anchored in the big bay of Taiohae. It turns out that today was a holiday, so we have had three days of waiting for the workweek to start so we could get going on some provisioning, repairs, etc. Max went ashore today and met a guy who runs a yacht services company on the dock - an American sailor who came here by boat and married a local girl, so English is his working language, he has a good knowledge of both boats and the local area. He turned out to be really helpful, and will assist us with everything from laundry to diesel repairs. (Small world - his brother-in-law owns the restaurant where we ate a couple of nights ago, which supposedly has the best/quickest wifi signal around).
Max was able to do a temporary repair to our toe-rail today (where a piece tore off during our Mexico passage). He cut off the broken piece, then with Johnathan's help on the upper deck, he was able to fasten in some bolts [and a bunch of sealant] to keep it all snug until we get to Papeete or NZ. I spent a short while with my head in the area of the bolts when Johnathan didn't have the length to hold the wrench to the underside. My reaction was that it was a crowded awkward spot to put my head; for Max it has some of the easiest access of any of his jobs on the boat!
As for me, after two days of having it as the "next thing on my list," I finally worked my way through our bounty of mangoes and set some of them aside for eating and turned the rest into my first-ever pot of mango chutney. I wasn't sure how popular it would be, but when I presented it as mangoes cooked with sugar and vinegar ("Like Grammy's meatballs, but with fruit instead of meat," deduced Victoria) it turned out to be quite a hit as an accompaniment to our smoked turkey breast (Costco, Puerto Vallarta), mashed potatoes (pretty much the last of our Mexican horde - thanks to Deborah and Rigo on Heavy Metal for some last minute re-provisioning when we were in Punta Mita, or we would have been out some time ago), and corn at dinner time. Of course, we started with a sashimi appetizer as well, to use the last of our yellow-fin from the other day :)
Victoria and Johnathan continue to work their way through all the books on board (paper and electronic). They have both now finished the Island and Everest trilogies by Gordon Korman (thanks Mom for sending them, and thanks Marilyn for carrying them!). Johnathan has started "Hoot" and Victoria has been busy knitting. When they are busy, they are quiet. Johnathan has also spent some time each day doing something active (jumping overboard, climbing the rigging, paddling the kayak, etc ... it is good that he knows when he has energy to burn!)
The excitement on the Benjamin front is that he cut his first (sharp!) tooth this weekend. I am hoping that the eruption of these teeth will ease the grisliness/fussiness and the teething rash around his neck. We were given a solution to bathe his neck with by the nurse in Hatiheu last week, but I will take him to be seen tomorrow or the next day (local advice - it will be a bit like sick parade, so don't go on the first morning after a long weekend!) in the hopes of getting something for the thrush in his mouth, as well as for the rash (looks like a teenager's worst nightmare!)
Internet has been a bit of a case of "so near and yet so far" - there is internet in the bay, but it is painfully slow and we have thus far had to go ashore to do much of anything. We can see the wifi signal with our antenna, but we haven't been able to get a good connection. I know that you are waiting for photos of all of us (OK, I know that you are waiting for photos of Benjamin...), and they will come, but not today! Hopefully on Monday, one of us will go ashore with the sole purpose of choosing and uploading some photos :)
In the meantime, I hope our little note finds you well, and that you are enjoying the feeling of spring wafting across your doorstep.
Much love,
Elizabeth
-----
At 6/8/2014 6:18 AM (utc) Fluenta's position was 08°55.00'S 140°06.00'W
7 Jun 14
Greetings :)
Max finally has a reprieve from either rowing our dingy or making two round trips with our kayak for every excursion ashore. Our anchorage is rolly, but the winds are not as strong as they have been, which meant that it was not such an ordeal to launch both our dingy and our outboard this afternoon. This is the first we have used our outboard since Mexico, and it started on the first try. Even Johnathan was able to start it on his first pull when he drove us ashore for supper. We met another baby boat on our way - they were flying the unmistakable flag of baby families everywhere - diapers on the lifelines - so we stopped to chat. They will be heading to Canada this summer - they have another baby due in Dec, so we will exchange info, and help them as much as possible.
There is a breakwater here and a concrete wharf where dingies can be tied. I was a bit surprised to see the metal ladders we had to climb to leave the dingy - we have been so spoiled in other places with floating docks and stepping ashore! It was a bit daunting to pass Benjamin (in his life jacket) up from the dingy. We elected to do it in stages - Max stayed in the dingy, I stood on the middle of the ladder, and Victoria scampered up ahead of me to receive him on dry land. (I did things much more simply on our return to the boat - I put him in the back carrier and simply climbed down the ladder!) We also contemplated (jokingly) doing what several crews were doing with large water jugs - tying a line on and hoisting! Thank goodness or four watermaker :)
As soon as we stepped ashore, we had a selection of places to eat for dinner, all of which were offering free wifi ... this was the opposite of Atuona. We elected to walk into town a little ways, and found a sweet little place that offered what we were craving - steak / frites, hamburgers, and curries. We will go back for brunch at some point to try their crepes (and their wifi!)
Sooo ... it is quite likely that we will be able to upload some photos in the next day or so :) In the meantime, thank goodness for HF!
Love to all,
Elizabeth
-----
At 6/8/2014 6:18 AM (utc) Fluenta's position was 08°55.00'S 140°06.00'W
-----
At 6/8/2014 6:18 AM (utc) Fluenta's position was 08°55.00'S 140°06.00'W
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
Sunday, 8 June 2014
Raining Mangos
Evening greetings :)
It is calm but rolly in our new anchorage. Lots of boats around the perimeter of the bay are stern-anchored; we will decide tomorrow if it is worth our while to move to join them... in the meantime, we are in the middle of a large group with only a bow anchor.
Yesterday's adventure was a hike to the top of the saddle between our bay and our previous bay (Anaho). We spent the morning on Fluenta focusing on some reading and school assignments (which was fortuitous, because our friend came by after his dawn fishing trip with yet another gift for us - this time a deep water red fish, whose eyes were bulging because of the great decrease in pressure he had just experienced. He looked like some kind of cartoon !) In the afternoon, after a lunch of banana pancakes, we went ashore, bought a baguette for the road, and headed uphill. Our journey was partly to stretch our legs, partly to see the view, and mostly to collect mangoes that we had heard were to be found all along the route. At the top of the well-worn foot/horse path, as we were admiring the beautiful view (of at least seven sailboats, in contrast to our solo anchorage) we met a woman whom we had chatted with the previous week on our hike to the garden. {Aside - Every day, she does the one-hour hike morning and evening to work in the coconut plantation we had walked through.} As with all the local folk we had met, she turned out to be very friendly, and we walked back down with her and her two dogs. Somehow it came up in conversation that we were interested in a few mangoes... The next thing we knew, she had found a long forked stick (by long I mean 10-12 feet) and had started shaking mangoes out of the trees for us. When her stick broke in one of the trees, she climbed the next one and shook them out by hand! Johnathan's comment that it was "raining mangoes" pretty much summed it up - she shook them down and the kids scampered around to collect them. By the time we got to the bottom, we had a couple of grocery bags full of beautiful golden yellow mangoes. We tried some today, and their flavour was again unlike any mangoes we have had at home - sweet, flowery, and peppery all at once.
I got chatting with our new friend as we descended. Like all Marquesans, she had a French name (Bernadette) and a Marquesean name that I cannot manage to repeat. Her Marquesean name meant something along the lines that she was a descendent of the last King, and that she was the guardian of her town. She is a second or third generation granddaughter of the last king. Once she realized that we were interested in the various fruits that we were walking by, she was excited to share and let us taste any that we saw. I am sure it was very dark by the time she got to her home near the historical site (up the hill on the other side of town), as she was very patient in stopping to cut down "pistache" (different from our pistachios - grape-shaped, dark purple/black and we at the fruit not the nut), some kind of bean where we sucked off the juicy covering of the inner seeds, but left the seeds, and various other delicacies. She also pointed out the noni tree, which of course had become very popular as a cure-all in North America and here grows wild. Marquesans use it for many medicinal reasons. I was sad to arrive back in the village, as it had been so interesting to talk to her, and since we really were ready to move on to another location today, it had to be a short-lived friendship. Incidentally, she was the guide for our NZ and UK friends to visit the historical site the day we were fixing our diesel leak.
On our way back through the village, we stocked up on baguettes (buy em when we see em!) and stopped to say farewell to our "hosts". We had brought a small bottle of lotion as a token of thanks, and *still* we didn't leave empty-handed - the husband disappeared inside their home and came out a minute later with two beautiful shells. After a few more minutes of chatting, the wife said, "Go, or I will cry!" It was very like leaving home at the airport! Thankfully, we have an email address for them, so we will be able to send some photos once we have wifi.
This morning, after a quick restoration of the upper decks to sailing-ready status and a mouthful of baguette (our provisions for the day!) we left for the main town on the island (Taiohai). Our route basically took us on a 35 nm half-circumnavigation from the NE corner to the SW corner. We elected to go counter-clockwise in order to be in the lee of the island while the wind was on the beam. As it turned out, we were in the lee of the swells, but the wind was pretty fierce throughout the day. I really didn't know what it meant to feel vulnerable until I had a baby strapped to me and the wind was gusting to 29 kts! Thankfully, it was a short passage, which meant that we had both adults "on duty" for the whole trip, and that we could motor-sail (ie keep the main up, but mostly use the engine for propulsion) as we can re-fuel in this bay. We even had a yellow fin tuna kind enough to jump onto our favourite double-hook squid lure while we were in the lee of the island so that Max could fillet it before we headed up-wind. We had so much sashimi for our appetizer at dinner that we hardly needed a main course :) The funniest part of the trip was also the most stressful: our last eight miles were up-wind against some bouncy/steep seas (there is a reason people refer to "bashing to windward" - as we went through each wave, the bow would rise up, bash down, and a wave would break on the top of the dodger, with water running along both sides of the upper deck). Max and I were counting down the miles until we would safely be in the anchorage with (hopefully) nothing new on the maintenance list; Victoria and Johnathan (harnessed and tethered) were leaning out of the cockpit so they could feel the full force of the wind and be doused by the waves!
After being alone last night, it was a shock to arrive here and be one of dozens of boats. We are not in Kansas anymore, Toto! We have heard that there is wifi here, so we will hope to reconnect, send photos, do laundry, buy groceries, etc then head around the corner to Daniel's Bay, from which we can hike to the 3rd highest waterfall in the world, and wait for a weather window to head to the Tuamotos.
Love to all,
Elizabeth
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At 6/2/2014 9:08 AM (utc) Fluenta's position was 08°55'S 140°06'W
-----
At 6/7/2014 9:01 AM (utc) Fluenta's position was 08°55.00'S 140°06.00'W
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
It is calm but rolly in our new anchorage. Lots of boats around the perimeter of the bay are stern-anchored; we will decide tomorrow if it is worth our while to move to join them... in the meantime, we are in the middle of a large group with only a bow anchor.
Yesterday's adventure was a hike to the top of the saddle between our bay and our previous bay (Anaho). We spent the morning on Fluenta focusing on some reading and school assignments (which was fortuitous, because our friend came by after his dawn fishing trip with yet another gift for us - this time a deep water red fish, whose eyes were bulging because of the great decrease in pressure he had just experienced. He looked like some kind of cartoon !) In the afternoon, after a lunch of banana pancakes, we went ashore, bought a baguette for the road, and headed uphill. Our journey was partly to stretch our legs, partly to see the view, and mostly to collect mangoes that we had heard were to be found all along the route. At the top of the well-worn foot/horse path, as we were admiring the beautiful view (of at least seven sailboats, in contrast to our solo anchorage) we met a woman whom we had chatted with the previous week on our hike to the garden. {Aside - Every day, she does the one-hour hike morning and evening to work in the coconut plantation we had walked through.} As with all the local folk we had met, she turned out to be very friendly, and we walked back down with her and her two dogs. Somehow it came up in conversation that we were interested in a few mangoes... The next thing we knew, she had found a long forked stick (by long I mean 10-12 feet) and had started shaking mangoes out of the trees for us. When her stick broke in one of the trees, she climbed the next one and shook them out by hand! Johnathan's comment that it was "raining mangoes" pretty much summed it up - she shook them down and the kids scampered around to collect them. By the time we got to the bottom, we had a couple of grocery bags full of beautiful golden yellow mangoes. We tried some today, and their flavour was again unlike any mangoes we have had at home - sweet, flowery, and peppery all at once.
I got chatting with our new friend as we descended. Like all Marquesans, she had a French name (Bernadette) and a Marquesean name that I cannot manage to repeat. Her Marquesean name meant something along the lines that she was a descendent of the last King, and that she was the guardian of her town. She is a second or third generation granddaughter of the last king. Once she realized that we were interested in the various fruits that we were walking by, she was excited to share and let us taste any that we saw. I am sure it was very dark by the time she got to her home near the historical site (up the hill on the other side of town), as she was very patient in stopping to cut down "pistache" (different from our pistachios - grape-shaped, dark purple/black and we at the fruit not the nut), some kind of bean where we sucked off the juicy covering of the inner seeds, but left the seeds, and various other delicacies. She also pointed out the noni tree, which of course had become very popular as a cure-all in North America and here grows wild. Marquesans use it for many medicinal reasons. I was sad to arrive back in the village, as it had been so interesting to talk to her, and since we really were ready to move on to another location today, it had to be a short-lived friendship. Incidentally, she was the guide for our NZ and UK friends to visit the historical site the day we were fixing our diesel leak.
On our way back through the village, we stocked up on baguettes (buy em when we see em!) and stopped to say farewell to our "hosts". We had brought a small bottle of lotion as a token of thanks, and *still* we didn't leave empty-handed - the husband disappeared inside their home and came out a minute later with two beautiful shells. After a few more minutes of chatting, the wife said, "Go, or I will cry!" It was very like leaving home at the airport! Thankfully, we have an email address for them, so we will be able to send some photos once we have wifi.
This morning, after a quick restoration of the upper decks to sailing-ready status and a mouthful of baguette (our provisions for the day!) we left for the main town on the island (Taiohai). Our route basically took us on a 35 nm half-circumnavigation from the NE corner to the SW corner. We elected to go counter-clockwise in order to be in the lee of the island while the wind was on the beam. As it turned out, we were in the lee of the swells, but the wind was pretty fierce throughout the day. I really didn't know what it meant to feel vulnerable until I had a baby strapped to me and the wind was gusting to 29 kts! Thankfully, it was a short passage, which meant that we had both adults "on duty" for the whole trip, and that we could motor-sail (ie keep the main up, but mostly use the engine for propulsion) as we can re-fuel in this bay. We even had a yellow fin tuna kind enough to jump onto our favourite double-hook squid lure while we were in the lee of the island so that Max could fillet it before we headed up-wind. We had so much sashimi for our appetizer at dinner that we hardly needed a main course :) The funniest part of the trip was also the most stressful: our last eight miles were up-wind against some bouncy/steep seas (there is a reason people refer to "bashing to windward" - as we went through each wave, the bow would rise up, bash down, and a wave would break on the top of the dodger, with water running along both sides of the upper deck). Max and I were counting down the miles until we would safely be in the anchorage with (hopefully) nothing new on the maintenance list; Victoria and Johnathan (harnessed and tethered) were leaning out of the cockpit so they could feel the full force of the wind and be doused by the waves!
After being alone last night, it was a shock to arrive here and be one of dozens of boats. We are not in Kansas anymore, Toto! We have heard that there is wifi here, so we will hope to reconnect, send photos, do laundry, buy groceries, etc then head around the corner to Daniel's Bay, from which we can hike to the 3rd highest waterfall in the world, and wait for a weather window to head to the Tuamotos.
Love to all,
Elizabeth
-----
At 6/2/2014 9:08 AM (utc) Fluenta's position was 08°55'S 140°06'W
-----
At 6/7/2014 9:01 AM (utc) Fluenta's position was 08°55.00'S 140°06.00'W
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
Thursday, 5 June 2014
More Pamplemousse, fish and school.
Greetings!
I almost stopped to write to you several times today - it was just that kind of a day :) As it is, I am writing at my usual boat-is-quiet-but-I-want-to-write-more-than-I-want-to-sleep hour!
We were hardly on deck this morning when another dingy stopped by to say that a "lady" was on the dock with fruit for us. Max and Victoria hopped into the kayak (with the chocolate-banana cake we had (thank goodness) made yesterday) and paddled over to see our friend on the dock - she had shown up with three big bags of fruit - guavas, starfruit, and pamplemousse. As predicted by our neighbours, she told them that she loved chocolate, and was grateful for the cake. On arrival back at Fluenta, Max had hardly put the kettle on when our friend's husband also came bearing gifts - independently of his wife, he was returning from an early morning fishing trip, and had a beautiful silver fish to bring us. When I asked what I should do with it, he told me I should "eat it!". In other words, it was a lovely fish and would be equally nice as poisson cru, ceviche, cooked in butter or bbq'd. It is fun to have interacted with people enough to have them joke with us. We have been rereading the Dashew "Offshore Cruising Encyclopedia" in which they talk of staying in one place long enough to get to know people a bit, rather than trying to cover as much ground as possible, and we certainly find that to be our preferred approach as well :)
The rest of the morning was focussed on school. I am finding that if one child is reading I can work well with other; hopefully this is a model that we can continue as we go. This afternoon, Johnathan and Max did some fun science - they studied (and opened, and shared) our first coconut. Thanks to Shandro and Matero, Johnathan knew to look for a bright orange coconut, which he had found and brought home on our last trip to town. Our machete came out of its storage place, and he and Max set to work figuring how to open a coconut on a sailboat. The shore-side advice of smash it on the cement or mount a stake into the ground doesn't quite apply here onboard... After a bit of trial and error (all good grist for the write-up) they came downstairs with two half-coconuts full of lovely coconut meat. After dinner, we had great fun as a family reading aloud from our old copy of "Cruising in Tropical Waters and Coral", which has a whole chapter dedicated to choosing, harvesting and enjoying coconuts.
I told you about the end of our eggs yesterday, but I didn't mention what we used instead - Nancy left us a can of freeze-dried eggs, and they worked super well in the cake. They were even yellow and smelled like eggs, so I think they will be a good addition to my kitchen, especially since eggs are really hard to find here in French Polynesia.
As for dinner tonight - we had ceviche, butter-fried fish, rice, and various fruits - really tasty and very local :)
We are once again the only boat in the anchorage. Our wind-generator is happy because the wind almost never stops (and often gusts 15-20 kts with the odd gust of 25 kts to keep us on our toes. I guess this is good preparation for the Tuomotus, where we have been hearing of gusts to 30 kts!). Our solar panels are happy because except when it is raining it is really sunny (how is that for a true statement?!). We seem to get pouring rain at least 2-3 times every day or two, most often overnight or in the morning. The rain keeps our solar panels clean, while the wind keeps them cool. Thanks to Max's installs over the last couple of years we haven't had to run our generator at anchor :) We haven't got a system to collect rain water, but at least it rinses the salt from the clothes that have been hung, and it gives the diapers a second rinse.
I am sure there is more I could tell you, but it is time for bed!
Much love,
Elizabeth
-----
At 6/2/2014 9:08 AM (utc) Fluenta's position was 08°50.00'S 140°05.00'W
-----
At 6/2/2014 9:08 AM (utc) Fluenta's position was 08°50.00'S 140°05.00'W
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
I almost stopped to write to you several times today - it was just that kind of a day :) As it is, I am writing at my usual boat-is-quiet-but-I-want-to-write-more-than-I-want-to-sleep hour!
We were hardly on deck this morning when another dingy stopped by to say that a "lady" was on the dock with fruit for us. Max and Victoria hopped into the kayak (with the chocolate-banana cake we had (thank goodness) made yesterday) and paddled over to see our friend on the dock - she had shown up with three big bags of fruit - guavas, starfruit, and pamplemousse. As predicted by our neighbours, she told them that she loved chocolate, and was grateful for the cake. On arrival back at Fluenta, Max had hardly put the kettle on when our friend's husband also came bearing gifts - independently of his wife, he was returning from an early morning fishing trip, and had a beautiful silver fish to bring us. When I asked what I should do with it, he told me I should "eat it!". In other words, it was a lovely fish and would be equally nice as poisson cru, ceviche, cooked in butter or bbq'd. It is fun to have interacted with people enough to have them joke with us. We have been rereading the Dashew "Offshore Cruising Encyclopedia" in which they talk of staying in one place long enough to get to know people a bit, rather than trying to cover as much ground as possible, and we certainly find that to be our preferred approach as well :)
The rest of the morning was focussed on school. I am finding that if one child is reading I can work well with other; hopefully this is a model that we can continue as we go. This afternoon, Johnathan and Max did some fun science - they studied (and opened, and shared) our first coconut. Thanks to Shandro and Matero, Johnathan knew to look for a bright orange coconut, which he had found and brought home on our last trip to town. Our machete came out of its storage place, and he and Max set to work figuring how to open a coconut on a sailboat. The shore-side advice of smash it on the cement or mount a stake into the ground doesn't quite apply here onboard... After a bit of trial and error (all good grist for the write-up) they came downstairs with two half-coconuts full of lovely coconut meat. After dinner, we had great fun as a family reading aloud from our old copy of "Cruising in Tropical Waters and Coral", which has a whole chapter dedicated to choosing, harvesting and enjoying coconuts.
I told you about the end of our eggs yesterday, but I didn't mention what we used instead - Nancy left us a can of freeze-dried eggs, and they worked super well in the cake. They were even yellow and smelled like eggs, so I think they will be a good addition to my kitchen, especially since eggs are really hard to find here in French Polynesia.
As for dinner tonight - we had ceviche, butter-fried fish, rice, and various fruits - really tasty and very local :)
We are once again the only boat in the anchorage. Our wind-generator is happy because the wind almost never stops (and often gusts 15-20 kts with the odd gust of 25 kts to keep us on our toes. I guess this is good preparation for the Tuomotus, where we have been hearing of gusts to 30 kts!). Our solar panels are happy because except when it is raining it is really sunny (how is that for a true statement?!). We seem to get pouring rain at least 2-3 times every day or two, most often overnight or in the morning. The rain keeps our solar panels clean, while the wind keeps them cool. Thanks to Max's installs over the last couple of years we haven't had to run our generator at anchor :) We haven't got a system to collect rain water, but at least it rinses the salt from the clothes that have been hung, and it gives the diapers a second rinse.
I am sure there is more I could tell you, but it is time for bed!
Much love,
Elizabeth
-----
At 6/2/2014 9:08 AM (utc) Fluenta's position was 08°50.00'S 140°05.00'W
-----
At 6/2/2014 9:08 AM (utc) Fluenta's position was 08°50.00'S 140°05.00'W
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
Wednesday, 4 June 2014
Skeg Bolts and Fresh Fish.
Greetings! It is tempting to go to bed (midnight and the boat is quiet .. most people would call it a night at this point) but I so love the idea of a sending a little dit to read over your morning coffee, that I decided to stay up a bit longer to write to you :)
We continue at anchor in Hatiheu. I thought our stay would be much shorter than this (after all, the other kid boats left a few days ago), but for various reasons, we are still here. We will likely stay at least through tomorrow, and then move on to the main town (Taiohae) to re-provision a bit and then head out of the Marquesas.
Benjamin is 6 months old today. In addition to marvelling that a half-year has gone by since he was born (wow!) it is also time for his six-month jabs. By a lovely coincidence (I love "coincidences"!) the husband of the family who has befriended us is also the local "infermier" (nurse - ex-military, to boot!) so he offered to give Benjamin his vaccinations for me. Even though our conversations are a little stilted, I definitely like his style - when I came yesterday and found out that I needed not one, but two, jabs, he suggested that I come back today so that Benjamin would only get one needle at a time :) This is my preferred approach, but I would have been reluctant to impose a second visit on someone (especially when he was going on holiday today), and was glad when he offered. As for Benjamin, he seemed none the worse for his two pokes, and now his jabs are up to date.
This same gentleman (along with his brother) took Max fishing yesterday afternoon. If this were a high-traffic tourist center, we probably wouldn't have paid the going rate for such an excursion, as they could easily have priced it out of our range but they simply took him to do the fishing they were planning to do anyway as a gift of hospitality. Within the space of two hours, they trolled underway (using handlines similar to ours), fished for deep-water bottom fish (200 ft - they used lines weighted with pieces of rebar and had a motorized gizmo to bring one of them up [our host had the motorised downrigger - I did it hand over hand. Max]- the only mechanized thing on the boat (ie no radio, no GPS, etc)) and fished a third way that escapes me at the moment [jigging with rods close to the rocky headland] ! They left in the late afternoon, and Max came back just at sunset. His share of the catch was two huge fish, one of which was a mean looking red thing that we enjoyed for dinner tonight :) We had a quick look in our fishing book, but I am not sure what they were. Thankfully, his host is the local expert on ciguatera, so regardless of what kind of fish it was, we know that it was OK to eat!
Today was the day we declared war - on the bugs in our boat, that is. We have had some unwanted guests since sometime after Christmas when we returned to the boat from the Condo. Thankfully, we have not had the big bugs that shared the Mexican condo with us, but we seem to have a variety of their smaller cousins - about 3/4" long and similarly nocturnal. We have been trying the "squish-em-as-you-see-em" approach, combined with clove oil and little pots of boric acid mixed with icing sugar here and there, but we have been losing ground. A couple of nights ago, we had a couple of land-lubber bugs (probably 2" long by 3/4" wide) follow us back to the boat (I think they came either on our friends' small boat or our kayak (one was still on the kayak when we went to hoist it for the night - we sent him for a swim!)). Seeing these giant critters galvanized me into action, so I asked for a recommendation in the local shop. I came back with a bottle of suitably poisonous powder and now have to figure out how to sprinkle it where they like to go, without getting it on food surfaces. Not easy. My first experiment is to cover the kitchen counter with foil, then with powder, sprinkle sugar in the middle to attract them, and see what happens by morning. I keep reminding myself that these are all God's creatures who will eventually not live on my boat (they must have some redeeming qualities ...) and that there are worse pests!
Also in the category of one more thing ... this time on the maintenance front, Max dove on the boat today to clean check the hull and found that a couple of bolts that hold the skeg foot / rudder mount in place had come loose. These were removed and reset in Mazatlan in the fall, so it is a bit of a mystery why they should have loosened off. He tightened one today and we (ie he!) will keep watching them and tightening them as necessary until we can do something more permanent. Our mechanic in Mazatlan made a special tool for this, so Max will see what he can jury-rig tomorrow. This little discovery trumped the hike we were hoping to do today, so now we are thinking that we might do it tomorrow morning and then do boat-work/school in the afternoon.
On the school/kid front, Victoria has started a knitting project, and is making good progress, although this seems to have trumped the "write-up" that she was going to do on our bread baking "experiment". I chuckle each time she does something like this - the last segment of Language Arts (that kind of got overtaken by events and lack of internet) was on "informational reading". It is fun to watch her read the pattern (which is basically written in code) and translate it into the stitches she makes with her very capable hands. I felt the same way watching her decipher the "Rainbow Loom" instruction book, and then teach Johnathan how to make the crafts. As for Johnathan, he just finished reading "Where the Red Fern Grows" and loved it. Now he wants to live near the woods and keep a hunting dog :)
The kids and I had had a fun evening last night. After dinner, I started singing "Tomorrow" to Benjamin, but replacing the words with "Manana" and the chores I would do "manana". Victoria wanted to know the real words to the song. The end result was that we watched "Annie" together - it had enough singing, chase scenes, and kids-getting-the-best-of-grownups humour to keep both of them happy (and Johnathan stayed still long enough for me to comb some of his hair).
For the curious, a few food notes ...
We have joined the ranks of tropical cruisers with dozens of bananas all ripening at once on our transom - today I made Mom's chocolate zucchini (banana) cake with a dozen of them, and didn't even make a dent in our supply! Supposedly Marquesans love chocolate, and I stocked up on chocolate chips before leaving Mexico, so we will take one of the loaf cakes into our "family" in the morning. I still have almost an entire stock to use, and we can only handle so much baking, so I may try my hand at banana jam (recommendation of our local host).
I have used the last of my Mexican eggs. As it turns out, I used them the *last* time I did some baking earlier this week. Today when I float-tested each one before cracking it, they *all* floated (two entire flats of eggs!) The funny thing was that even these eggs provided some entertainment value. I asked the kids to throw them overboard for me. Thinking like a busy grownup, I assumed one of them would stand at the side of the boat and dump them all at once. Of course, this is *not* what they did. First Johnathan and then both kids created several different games, all of which were variations on seeing who could throw/catch/smash in mid air the two flats of eggs one at a time. They had great fun, and it was a joy to hear their self-generated laughter wafting down from the upper deck. {For the pantry record, I left Mexico with seven flats of 30 eggs each (six that I had bought and one that was given to me by someone who cancelled their trip after provisioning). Due to seasickness, rolly seas and general laziness/lethargy, I turned them less frequently than I should have (should be 2x/week), and stored some of them in the microwave (no airflow, but at least they weren't going to get scrambled on my belongings!), and used them more slowly than I had planned (we didn't either eat eggs or bake on passage nearly as much as I had expected). If I were doing the passage again, I would bring the same number of eggs. They are much cheaper (and easier to find) in Mexico than here, they are compact, and they are easy to cook. In total my eggs lasted somewhere between 6 weeks and two months without refrigeration. Not perfect, but not bad :) }
On the bright side, we finally have some baguettes on our boat! We missed them on Saturday. There were none to get on Sunday. They didn't come in as planned on Monday (or Tuesday morning), but they finally arrived this afternoon [and we got the last ones in the village]. They were very yummy with our fish-and-potatoes supper :)
Anyway, there is the good, the bad, and the ugly of a "day in the life". We are in a beautiful location, visiting and meeting friendly people, and like any family anywhere, there are aspects that test our sense of humour!
I hope you are well, and enjoyed your little taste of our life with your morning coffee :)
Much love,
Elizabeth
-----
At 6/2/2014 9:08 AM (utc) Fluenta's position was 08°50.00'S 140°05.00'W
-----
At 6/2/2014 9:08 AM (utc) Fluenta's position was 08°50.00'S 140°05.00'W
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
We continue at anchor in Hatiheu. I thought our stay would be much shorter than this (after all, the other kid boats left a few days ago), but for various reasons, we are still here. We will likely stay at least through tomorrow, and then move on to the main town (Taiohae) to re-provision a bit and then head out of the Marquesas.
Benjamin is 6 months old today. In addition to marvelling that a half-year has gone by since he was born (wow!) it is also time for his six-month jabs. By a lovely coincidence (I love "coincidences"!) the husband of the family who has befriended us is also the local "infermier" (nurse - ex-military, to boot!) so he offered to give Benjamin his vaccinations for me. Even though our conversations are a little stilted, I definitely like his style - when I came yesterday and found out that I needed not one, but two, jabs, he suggested that I come back today so that Benjamin would only get one needle at a time :) This is my preferred approach, but I would have been reluctant to impose a second visit on someone (especially when he was going on holiday today), and was glad when he offered. As for Benjamin, he seemed none the worse for his two pokes, and now his jabs are up to date.
This same gentleman (along with his brother) took Max fishing yesterday afternoon. If this were a high-traffic tourist center, we probably wouldn't have paid the going rate for such an excursion, as they could easily have priced it out of our range but they simply took him to do the fishing they were planning to do anyway as a gift of hospitality. Within the space of two hours, they trolled underway (using handlines similar to ours), fished for deep-water bottom fish (200 ft - they used lines weighted with pieces of rebar and had a motorized gizmo to bring one of them up [our host had the motorised downrigger - I did it hand over hand. Max]- the only mechanized thing on the boat (ie no radio, no GPS, etc)) and fished a third way that escapes me at the moment [jigging with rods close to the rocky headland] ! They left in the late afternoon, and Max came back just at sunset. His share of the catch was two huge fish, one of which was a mean looking red thing that we enjoyed for dinner tonight :) We had a quick look in our fishing book, but I am not sure what they were. Thankfully, his host is the local expert on ciguatera, so regardless of what kind of fish it was, we know that it was OK to eat!
Today was the day we declared war - on the bugs in our boat, that is. We have had some unwanted guests since sometime after Christmas when we returned to the boat from the Condo. Thankfully, we have not had the big bugs that shared the Mexican condo with us, but we seem to have a variety of their smaller cousins - about 3/4" long and similarly nocturnal. We have been trying the "squish-em-as-you-see-em" approach, combined with clove oil and little pots of boric acid mixed with icing sugar here and there, but we have been losing ground. A couple of nights ago, we had a couple of land-lubber bugs (probably 2" long by 3/4" wide) follow us back to the boat (I think they came either on our friends' small boat or our kayak (one was still on the kayak when we went to hoist it for the night - we sent him for a swim!)). Seeing these giant critters galvanized me into action, so I asked for a recommendation in the local shop. I came back with a bottle of suitably poisonous powder and now have to figure out how to sprinkle it where they like to go, without getting it on food surfaces. Not easy. My first experiment is to cover the kitchen counter with foil, then with powder, sprinkle sugar in the middle to attract them, and see what happens by morning. I keep reminding myself that these are all God's creatures who will eventually not live on my boat (they must have some redeeming qualities ...) and that there are worse pests!
Also in the category of one more thing ... this time on the maintenance front, Max dove on the boat today to clean check the hull and found that a couple of bolts that hold the skeg foot / rudder mount in place had come loose. These were removed and reset in Mazatlan in the fall, so it is a bit of a mystery why they should have loosened off. He tightened one today and we (ie he!) will keep watching them and tightening them as necessary until we can do something more permanent. Our mechanic in Mazatlan made a special tool for this, so Max will see what he can jury-rig tomorrow. This little discovery trumped the hike we were hoping to do today, so now we are thinking that we might do it tomorrow morning and then do boat-work/school in the afternoon.
On the school/kid front, Victoria has started a knitting project, and is making good progress, although this seems to have trumped the "write-up" that she was going to do on our bread baking "experiment". I chuckle each time she does something like this - the last segment of Language Arts (that kind of got overtaken by events and lack of internet) was on "informational reading". It is fun to watch her read the pattern (which is basically written in code) and translate it into the stitches she makes with her very capable hands. I felt the same way watching her decipher the "Rainbow Loom" instruction book, and then teach Johnathan how to make the crafts. As for Johnathan, he just finished reading "Where the Red Fern Grows" and loved it. Now he wants to live near the woods and keep a hunting dog :)
The kids and I had had a fun evening last night. After dinner, I started singing "Tomorrow" to Benjamin, but replacing the words with "Manana" and the chores I would do "manana". Victoria wanted to know the real words to the song. The end result was that we watched "Annie" together - it had enough singing, chase scenes, and kids-getting-the-best-of-grownups humour to keep both of them happy (and Johnathan stayed still long enough for me to comb some of his hair).
For the curious, a few food notes ...
We have joined the ranks of tropical cruisers with dozens of bananas all ripening at once on our transom - today I made Mom's chocolate zucchini (banana) cake with a dozen of them, and didn't even make a dent in our supply! Supposedly Marquesans love chocolate, and I stocked up on chocolate chips before leaving Mexico, so we will take one of the loaf cakes into our "family" in the morning. I still have almost an entire stock to use, and we can only handle so much baking, so I may try my hand at banana jam (recommendation of our local host).
I have used the last of my Mexican eggs. As it turns out, I used them the *last* time I did some baking earlier this week. Today when I float-tested each one before cracking it, they *all* floated (two entire flats of eggs!) The funny thing was that even these eggs provided some entertainment value. I asked the kids to throw them overboard for me. Thinking like a busy grownup, I assumed one of them would stand at the side of the boat and dump them all at once. Of course, this is *not* what they did. First Johnathan and then both kids created several different games, all of which were variations on seeing who could throw/catch/smash in mid air the two flats of eggs one at a time. They had great fun, and it was a joy to hear their self-generated laughter wafting down from the upper deck. {For the pantry record, I left Mexico with seven flats of 30 eggs each (six that I had bought and one that was given to me by someone who cancelled their trip after provisioning). Due to seasickness, rolly seas and general laziness/lethargy, I turned them less frequently than I should have (should be 2x/week), and stored some of them in the microwave (no airflow, but at least they weren't going to get scrambled on my belongings!), and used them more slowly than I had planned (we didn't either eat eggs or bake on passage nearly as much as I had expected). If I were doing the passage again, I would bring the same number of eggs. They are much cheaper (and easier to find) in Mexico than here, they are compact, and they are easy to cook. In total my eggs lasted somewhere between 6 weeks and two months without refrigeration. Not perfect, but not bad :) }
On the bright side, we finally have some baguettes on our boat! We missed them on Saturday. There were none to get on Sunday. They didn't come in as planned on Monday (or Tuesday morning), but they finally arrived this afternoon [and we got the last ones in the village]. They were very yummy with our fish-and-potatoes supper :)
Anyway, there is the good, the bad, and the ugly of a "day in the life". We are in a beautiful location, visiting and meeting friendly people, and like any family anywhere, there are aspects that test our sense of humour!
I hope you are well, and enjoyed your little taste of our life with your morning coffee :)
Much love,
Elizabeth
-----
At 6/2/2014 9:08 AM (utc) Fluenta's position was 08°50.00'S 140°05.00'W
-----
At 6/2/2014 9:08 AM (utc) Fluenta's position was 08°50.00'S 140°05.00'W
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
Monday, 2 June 2014
Diesel Repairs in Anaho and Amazing Hospitality in Hatiheu
The Liz Letter:
Greetings!
Just when you were becoming convinced that we must have fallen off the far edge of the world, an email! Thank you for your patience :) We have a lot to catch up on...
On the morning of May 29, we started on some of our boat chores (Max) and school chores (Liz/kids). It was a surprisingly good day. Johnathan started a list of some of the things he had done this school year (everything from "making a bow" at the beach the day before to "crossing the Pacific"; it struck me that there was a certain amount of understatement in some of his entries!) and then he wrote a paragraph on one of them. Victoria was going to do a list, then she was going to write up her "science report" about making bread the previous day, but she ended up starting to make her own star chart like she had been using to make our tests. As for Max, he was able to knock off a few of the items on his maintenance list. Part way through the day, the other kid boats announced that they did not want to hike to the neighbouring bay, they wanted to go there by boat and hike locally the following day. Rather than rushing to go with them (risking a late afternoon arrival at an unfamiliar destination), we decided to leave at first light the following morning. This left us with a quiet evening in the anchorage to enjoy the bonita we had been given (we have found out since that it is better as poisson cru than it is on the BBQ, which is how we cooked it). Having heard a few days earlier that it was our anniversary "in three days", the kids set a lovely table for us in the cockpit, and decorated some "frying pan lumps" that Johnathan had made of his own recipe (not bad tasting for an 8-year-old's cooking...). They were rather put out to have missed it by a day, but this turned out to be just their dry run for the following night.
We woke early on 30 May, but when Max did his engine checks, he found a diesel leak. Since this needed immediate attention, and tightening the fitting turned it from a slow leak into a fast leak, he had his day's work cut out for him, and our plans were adjusted accordingly! The compression fitting (in technical terms - this where a nut screws onto some threads to mate two surfaces, but there is something in the way (an "olive" [or Ferulle]) that gets squished so that it won't leak) on a teeny copper pipe (which seems to be the only part of the engine for which we do not have spares) needed to somehow come apart and have the little piece inside (the olive) either refurbished or replaced. By this time, there were only a few other boats in the anchorage, and we knew that at least two of them had gone hiking, but we radioed one of the remaining boats, and asked if they had any experience with these type of diesel lines. The wife answered the radio and relayed questions from the husband. We could tell from the questions that had some idea of the problem ... and then we heard the golden words - "would you like Walter to come over and have a look?". Would we! Walter coming over to have a look turned into Walter spending the entire afternoon with us (less two visits back to his boat to use his on-board lathe), fashioning a new fitting (Plan A, which turned out not to work) and then using the lathe to carefully remove the copper from under the olive from one end of the copper pipe and a file to somehow fit it onto the other (Plan B, which worked beautifully)). The long and the short of it was that by evening (late for the dinner he was meant to be at) he dropped back a ready-to-use segment of pipe that Max could fit onto the engine in short order, and which did not leak at all. Good as new! It was such a good feeling to start the engine, count more seconds than I had been able to count earlier in the day, and have it deemed a success :) [We have so many spares and tools on board but again we were missing the critical part. Onto our shopping list goes spare copper tubing and ferulles for 1/4" copper line. We have a full gasket set for the Perkins engine but the fitting was not part of the engine-proper. Our backup solution was to use JB weld to make a temporary solution but Walter's fix was far superior. Also confirmed that the exhaust elbow does have a small leak but I should be able to fix it temporarily. The welder that made the elbow was recommended by the incompetent riggers in Anancortes so not surprised the welds failed already. Max]
By now it was the evening of 30 May, our actual 16th anniversary. With the galley emptied of dads and tools, Victoria moved in to make dessert - we are trying out our frying pan to make bread-type things, so she made biscuit dough and then used apples, butter and brown sugar to make four turnovers. We put these in a hot frying pan, covered them with a lid, and they were surprisingly good. In the meantime, needing something simple for us to eat, I used a bottle of the pork that Nancy and I had canned, added some leftover rice, a can of corn, and some chopped apple, and called it a roast pork dinner in a pot. Victoria then banished me from the Saloon and set about decorating. She came up with an ingenious way of segmenting the port side of the table with sheets hung from the ceiling, made letters to spell "Happy Anniversary" that she hung on another banner (aka pillow case), set the table with a lovely cloth, and set herself up as our waitress for the evening. Max and I (and Benjamin, who chose that moment to wake up) were served dinner for two, complete with wine, appetizers, and a bill (which could be settled in chocolates!) It was a lovely way to celebrate.
Yesterday morning (31 May) we had a not-crack-of-dawn-start, and motored next door to Hatiheu. This bay has a small village (I learned today that 150 people live here) where we went for a walk with our NZ friends soon after our arrival. Almost immediately, we ran into the lady who had given us the bonita! Her husband is the village nurse, and she is a volunteer tour guide. She suggested that she could bring us to the nearby historical site the following morning. I wasn't sure I wanted to commit to anything without knowing the price (tours in Atuona had been very expensive), but when I asked the price, she told me that she would take us simply for the pleasure of showing us her island and her culture. Amazing. We are not used to generosity like this in Canada. She also told us that the restaurant was closed for the weekend, but that the church was having a fundraising supper that night, serving a variety of local food. As we walked by the church a few minutes later, we saw a group of ladies sitting at tables under a bit of a tent. I thought that perhaps they were preparing food for the big dinner, but when I wandered closer to ask about tickets, I found that they were playing Bingo! All the ladies were very friendly, and so we decided that eating there would be easier than cooking on board, and certainly more interesting. They had a menu on the wall, so we were able to choose amongst various choices, familiar and unfamiliar .. poisson cru, goat (cooked in curry, coconut milk, or red wine), prawns (curried), lobster (bbq'd) accompanied by rice, manioc (a root veg similar to a potato cubed and fried), poké (cooked bananas with coconut milk), or a "fruits de mer" concoction which seemed to be grated coconut and seafood. Even though we only ordered two items from the menu (goat and poisson cru), we ended up with more food than the four of us could eat! (I thought about writing this email once we got back to the boat, but falling asleep with Benjamin and Victoria was just too enticing...)
This morning, we were up bright and early to be sure of making our 1000 timing, and we went ashore with a backpack laden with water, snacks, and a picnic lunch. Our new friend took us to the historic site, which is where traditional Marquesan meetings and ceremonies occurred. Everything was restored for a festival a number of years ago. There were a variety of petroglyphs, as well as banyan trees, which have a particularly interesting history - the roots of these trees grow from above as small stalks which drop from the branches to the ground. This makes the trees have a kind of hollow structure. Several were tens of feet across. One of them actually had a pit some 6-8 feet deep at its roots, with a brick wall around it, which was where prisoners would be kept until they were sacrificed/eaten. We were told that when the missionaries came, the tribes would put some of their traditional artifacts in the middle of these trees (eg skulls and items used for ceremonies) so that they wouldn't be taken away. It led to some interesting conversations with the kids about the arrival of Europeans both in French Polynesia and in Canada and the way their forebears had treated native culture, language, religion, etc. There is a small museum here, and our guide had borrowed the key for us so that she could take us around. Once we were finished the tour, as a gesture of thanks, we asked if they would like to come to Fluenta for dinner. At almost the same moment, as we prepared to leave to go back to the boat, she wanted to know if we would like to join her and her family for lunch!
We ended up eating lunch with them and dinner aboard Fluenta (Mom's Sweet & Sour Meatballs - with meatballs fashioned by V&J, rice, canned mixed veg (which really no one likes, but we have no other veg at the moment), and apple crisp (all but one of the last of our Mexican apples) for dessert. Her husband had spent 24 years in the French army as a nurse, so we had a great deal to talk about over both meals. Our heads were hurting from so much French conversation by the time they went home (dinner was truncated by a "please come now" phone call from one of his patients, so their apple crisp was a to-go course), but we made arrangements for me to take Benjamin for his 6-month jab tomorrow morning, and he offered to take Max fishing in the afternoon! It has been a full visit, and we are not done yet. As if they had not already been generous enough, they also brought local meat from their freezer - goat and beef. I am not quite sure what we received, but we will have a go at cooking it as time goes on! We had shared some body lotion after lunch, and during that meal her eyes had lit up at the mention of maple syrup, so I will bring some ashore for her in the morning. It was nice to have something unusual, and Canadian, to share :)
Whew! That pretty much brings us up to date on the last few days. I hope this little note finds you well. The boat is quiet now, and I have a stack of dishes calling my name ...
With much love,
Elizabeth
-----
At 6/2/2014 9:08 AM (utc) Fluenta's position was 08°50.00'S 140°05.00'W
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
Greetings!
Just when you were becoming convinced that we must have fallen off the far edge of the world, an email! Thank you for your patience :) We have a lot to catch up on...
On the morning of May 29, we started on some of our boat chores (Max) and school chores (Liz/kids). It was a surprisingly good day. Johnathan started a list of some of the things he had done this school year (everything from "making a bow" at the beach the day before to "crossing the Pacific"; it struck me that there was a certain amount of understatement in some of his entries!) and then he wrote a paragraph on one of them. Victoria was going to do a list, then she was going to write up her "science report" about making bread the previous day, but she ended up starting to make her own star chart like she had been using to make our tests. As for Max, he was able to knock off a few of the items on his maintenance list. Part way through the day, the other kid boats announced that they did not want to hike to the neighbouring bay, they wanted to go there by boat and hike locally the following day. Rather than rushing to go with them (risking a late afternoon arrival at an unfamiliar destination), we decided to leave at first light the following morning. This left us with a quiet evening in the anchorage to enjoy the bonita we had been given (we have found out since that it is better as poisson cru than it is on the BBQ, which is how we cooked it). Having heard a few days earlier that it was our anniversary "in three days", the kids set a lovely table for us in the cockpit, and decorated some "frying pan lumps" that Johnathan had made of his own recipe (not bad tasting for an 8-year-old's cooking...). They were rather put out to have missed it by a day, but this turned out to be just their dry run for the following night.
We woke early on 30 May, but when Max did his engine checks, he found a diesel leak. Since this needed immediate attention, and tightening the fitting turned it from a slow leak into a fast leak, he had his day's work cut out for him, and our plans were adjusted accordingly! The compression fitting (in technical terms - this where a nut screws onto some threads to mate two surfaces, but there is something in the way (an "olive" [or Ferulle]) that gets squished so that it won't leak) on a teeny copper pipe (which seems to be the only part of the engine for which we do not have spares) needed to somehow come apart and have the little piece inside (the olive) either refurbished or replaced. By this time, there were only a few other boats in the anchorage, and we knew that at least two of them had gone hiking, but we radioed one of the remaining boats, and asked if they had any experience with these type of diesel lines. The wife answered the radio and relayed questions from the husband. We could tell from the questions that had some idea of the problem ... and then we heard the golden words - "would you like Walter to come over and have a look?". Would we! Walter coming over to have a look turned into Walter spending the entire afternoon with us (less two visits back to his boat to use his on-board lathe), fashioning a new fitting (Plan A, which turned out not to work) and then using the lathe to carefully remove the copper from under the olive from one end of the copper pipe and a file to somehow fit it onto the other (Plan B, which worked beautifully)). The long and the short of it was that by evening (late for the dinner he was meant to be at) he dropped back a ready-to-use segment of pipe that Max could fit onto the engine in short order, and which did not leak at all. Good as new! It was such a good feeling to start the engine, count more seconds than I had been able to count earlier in the day, and have it deemed a success :) [We have so many spares and tools on board but again we were missing the critical part. Onto our shopping list goes spare copper tubing and ferulles for 1/4" copper line. We have a full gasket set for the Perkins engine but the fitting was not part of the engine-proper. Our backup solution was to use JB weld to make a temporary solution but Walter's fix was far superior. Also confirmed that the exhaust elbow does have a small leak but I should be able to fix it temporarily. The welder that made the elbow was recommended by the incompetent riggers in Anancortes so not surprised the welds failed already. Max]
By now it was the evening of 30 May, our actual 16th anniversary. With the galley emptied of dads and tools, Victoria moved in to make dessert - we are trying out our frying pan to make bread-type things, so she made biscuit dough and then used apples, butter and brown sugar to make four turnovers. We put these in a hot frying pan, covered them with a lid, and they were surprisingly good. In the meantime, needing something simple for us to eat, I used a bottle of the pork that Nancy and I had canned, added some leftover rice, a can of corn, and some chopped apple, and called it a roast pork dinner in a pot. Victoria then banished me from the Saloon and set about decorating. She came up with an ingenious way of segmenting the port side of the table with sheets hung from the ceiling, made letters to spell "Happy Anniversary" that she hung on another banner (aka pillow case), set the table with a lovely cloth, and set herself up as our waitress for the evening. Max and I (and Benjamin, who chose that moment to wake up) were served dinner for two, complete with wine, appetizers, and a bill (which could be settled in chocolates!) It was a lovely way to celebrate.
Yesterday morning (31 May) we had a not-crack-of-dawn-start, and motored next door to Hatiheu. This bay has a small village (I learned today that 150 people live here) where we went for a walk with our NZ friends soon after our arrival. Almost immediately, we ran into the lady who had given us the bonita! Her husband is the village nurse, and she is a volunteer tour guide. She suggested that she could bring us to the nearby historical site the following morning. I wasn't sure I wanted to commit to anything without knowing the price (tours in Atuona had been very expensive), but when I asked the price, she told me that she would take us simply for the pleasure of showing us her island and her culture. Amazing. We are not used to generosity like this in Canada. She also told us that the restaurant was closed for the weekend, but that the church was having a fundraising supper that night, serving a variety of local food. As we walked by the church a few minutes later, we saw a group of ladies sitting at tables under a bit of a tent. I thought that perhaps they were preparing food for the big dinner, but when I wandered closer to ask about tickets, I found that they were playing Bingo! All the ladies were very friendly, and so we decided that eating there would be easier than cooking on board, and certainly more interesting. They had a menu on the wall, so we were able to choose amongst various choices, familiar and unfamiliar .. poisson cru, goat (cooked in curry, coconut milk, or red wine), prawns (curried), lobster (bbq'd) accompanied by rice, manioc (a root veg similar to a potato cubed and fried), poké (cooked bananas with coconut milk), or a "fruits de mer" concoction which seemed to be grated coconut and seafood. Even though we only ordered two items from the menu (goat and poisson cru), we ended up with more food than the four of us could eat! (I thought about writing this email once we got back to the boat, but falling asleep with Benjamin and Victoria was just too enticing...)
This morning, we were up bright and early to be sure of making our 1000 timing, and we went ashore with a backpack laden with water, snacks, and a picnic lunch. Our new friend took us to the historic site, which is where traditional Marquesan meetings and ceremonies occurred. Everything was restored for a festival a number of years ago. There were a variety of petroglyphs, as well as banyan trees, which have a particularly interesting history - the roots of these trees grow from above as small stalks which drop from the branches to the ground. This makes the trees have a kind of hollow structure. Several were tens of feet across. One of them actually had a pit some 6-8 feet deep at its roots, with a brick wall around it, which was where prisoners would be kept until they were sacrificed/eaten. We were told that when the missionaries came, the tribes would put some of their traditional artifacts in the middle of these trees (eg skulls and items used for ceremonies) so that they wouldn't be taken away. It led to some interesting conversations with the kids about the arrival of Europeans both in French Polynesia and in Canada and the way their forebears had treated native culture, language, religion, etc. There is a small museum here, and our guide had borrowed the key for us so that she could take us around. Once we were finished the tour, as a gesture of thanks, we asked if they would like to come to Fluenta for dinner. At almost the same moment, as we prepared to leave to go back to the boat, she wanted to know if we would like to join her and her family for lunch!
We ended up eating lunch with them and dinner aboard Fluenta (Mom's Sweet & Sour Meatballs - with meatballs fashioned by V&J, rice, canned mixed veg (which really no one likes, but we have no other veg at the moment), and apple crisp (all but one of the last of our Mexican apples) for dessert. Her husband had spent 24 years in the French army as a nurse, so we had a great deal to talk about over both meals. Our heads were hurting from so much French conversation by the time they went home (dinner was truncated by a "please come now" phone call from one of his patients, so their apple crisp was a to-go course), but we made arrangements for me to take Benjamin for his 6-month jab tomorrow morning, and he offered to take Max fishing in the afternoon! It has been a full visit, and we are not done yet. As if they had not already been generous enough, they also brought local meat from their freezer - goat and beef. I am not quite sure what we received, but we will have a go at cooking it as time goes on! We had shared some body lotion after lunch, and during that meal her eyes had lit up at the mention of maple syrup, so I will bring some ashore for her in the morning. It was nice to have something unusual, and Canadian, to share :)
Whew! That pretty much brings us up to date on the last few days. I hope this little note finds you well. The boat is quiet now, and I have a stack of dishes calling my name ...
With much love,
Elizabeth
-----
At 6/2/2014 9:08 AM (utc) Fluenta's position was 08°50.00'S 140°05.00'W
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
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