Suwarrow, Cook Islands 21 Aug 2010 13.2476S 163.1084W

We arrived yesterday around noon in another beautiful anchorage with 5 other boats, 3 of which we’d met in the Marqueses. As we progress the cruising community gets tighter and we realize despite the large number of boats out here, it’s actually pretty small, friendly, and everyone watches out for each other. We’re back in atoll territory, amazing water colors, rugged outer reef, beautifully populated coral heads, protected flat anchoring, low motus, coconut trees, nesting terns, miles of beachcombing, and a plethora of sharks. We emptied one half bucket of water with just a little bit of fish blood in it and got a swarm of 10 little blacktip reef sharks. We’ll need to find another place to clean fish if we hope to swim around the boat much. Swimming with one or two nearby doesn’t bother me, but 10 – that’s another story! We received an incredibly warm welcome from the 2 park rangers that live here 6 months out of the year, all rumors we’d heard about their friendliness and love of this place appear to be true. We were thinking we’d stay 10 days or so, we’ll see if we can stick to that, I think it’s one of those places that will be hard to leave.

xoxomo

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No country, International waters, Pacific Ocean 18 Aug 2010 14.6523S 157.3408W

Yesternight’s half moon, looked swollen tonight, and it just dropped below the horizon. Taurus is upside down, and feels like it’s on the wrong side of the boat. Not a good position for a bull – upside down and backwards. And Caseopia’s mom, will be giving her hell for tilting her chair like that, especially if the back legs break. I’m back on the dog watch – haven’t seen any yet (dogs that is). We’ve had 4 days of steady 15-knot winds out of the East, with more of the same predicted for the next 4 days. Sailing doesn’t get much better – well if the wind were just a hair more from the southeast, we could take down the whisker poles, move the staysail out of wing and wing position and over to our starboard side, then maybe we’d roll a little less, but I’m really splitting hairs there, it’s been a super comfortable sail, a very reasonable 145NM/day. TTG right now is hovering just over 2 days to Suwarrow.

Today’s fish-on excitement netted us some beautiful Mahi Mahi filets. But Frank tossed the head. I can hear my sister-in-law Roselyn’s cry “Mon morceau prefere!” On our eclipse day we caught a Mahi Mahi, and Frank, on tossing the head overboard, lamented the sweet meets found there, saying any Polynesian would be horrified. When we went to the supermarket in Tahiti, they had just the heads for sale – $25 each. Apparently the cheeks and the top of the head are a delicacy. But it’s a big head to fit in our little oven, so we fed the “preferred morsel” to the sharks, yet again. Maybe someday I’ll get a taste – when we have a bigger oven (or a smaller fish) on hand. We’ll have to make do with the poor man’s peices, the leaner filets, where the fish does all his work. Still – Yum.

Frank announced yesterday that we’ve logged over 12,000 miles since we left Anacortes in September of last year. In response to many questions about where we are going and when we stop, I’ve often answered that life is more about the path than the destination (although the destination shapes the path). So at 12,000 nautical miles, and a rough average of 5 knots/mile, we’ve lived a lot of path these past few months (and a few destinations too).

xoxomo

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Eastern waters of French Polynesia 16 Aug 2010 16.5034S 153.2675W

We’re sailing again. I always have a hard time lifting anchor, one more day in a beautiful spot, one more day to tackle tasks without the added challenge of a lurching world, one more day of excursions, all seem so desired when the anchor is nice and settled. Frank on the other hand is ever ready to go, so he surprised me on Saturday morning – we had planned on leaving if the wind came from E/SE, the weather had turned as predicted, and we had perfect wind for leaving (with a little rain) – and HE suggested waiting a day. I of course did not hesitate to agree with this rare unsolicited proposal from him. So we stayed an extra day and left our quiet little spot in Huahine yesterday (Sunday) morning. We’re not going as fast, since the winds calmed a bit during that day, but we’re making comfortable way, running along with 10-15 knots of wind pushing the boat to 6-7 knots. Everyone is feeling good, I even slept some last night.

I don’t know why I get gripped by the desire to stay – I like being underway, there’s a subtle and pleasant shift that happens the second we’re clear of major land obstacles, and sailing along on the open sea. Something in my mind adjusts from feeling like I need to fill the time with tasks, and not waste precious daylight hours at anchor; to feeling like we have all the time in the world and it’s just fine to kick-back and daydream awhile. There’s something in making way, that gives one license to stare into space and dream, listen to music – really listen – discerning the poetry behind the lyrics, or have conversations with Frank and the kids that flow from serious to silly and back again. It’s the same feeling you get on long roadtrips, sometimes singing, sometimes talking, sometimes just watching the milemarkers go by. Red Hot Chili Peppers captures the essence well:

“Road trippin’ with my three favorite allies, fully loaded we got snacks and supplies, it’s time to leave this town, it’s time to sail away. Let’s go get lost anywhere in the USA. Let’s go get lost let’s go get lost…”

I’ll have to play that song next time I’m reticent to lift anchor. So we’re off to Suvarov (Suwarrow)to get lost in a new paradise. Friends on Totem, a boat we met in the Marquises, are way ahead of us now in Tonga, but they spent 10 days in Suwarrow, and said it was fantastic, with two very friendly rangers and epic snorkeling. (Kennan is concerned about the “epic” part. The Illiad and the Odyssey were epic tales and there’s lots of bloodshed in those stories…he’s a little worried about sharks).

That extra day at anchor? Much like the others. Lesson? Don’t waste any time, just go get lost. I’m hoping you’re all getting some time to get lost on your summer vacations.

xoxomo

P.S. I sent a brief email before we left Moorea, announcing that I’d posted pictures on http://picasaweb.google.com/margoreveil and we started posting the Scurvy Report at www.silverliningacademy.org. If you sent me a response, I have not had internet since, but I’ll look forward to reading your updates when next we are connected – likely to be in a month, depending on if we go straight to Tonga, or if we do a side provisioning trip to American Samoa.

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Huahine 11 Aug 2010 16.7640S 150.9604W

Back to our solitary sailing life. Back to the familiarity of constant change. There is something cozy about settling back in with my own thoughts, my own observations. This life provides me with a quiet that allows me to hear my own voice, and the voices of others are filtered by my imagination. Somehow the constant talk and vocalizing and social interactions of “landlife” drowns out my own thinking. I’ll say things that I’m not sure I mean, but having said them they start to seem real. Some of the things I say aloud are real, some are only half-baked ideas, some are phrases intent on pleasing the audience at hand. I find myself spending a lot of time attempting to explain the choices we’ve made, attempting to justify this life. The verbal world leaves little room for editing, revising, rewriting, and the verbal justifications are ones designed so that others can relate and connect with our choice to do this – not necessarily the real reasons, which are a more complex tapestry of desire, circumstance, ego and a search for life satisfaction. And what am I finding out here? No real earth shattering answers to life’s questions. Mostly life just keeps following us wherever we go: the chores, the parent/child power struggles, the challenges. Indecision, guilt, frustration, joy, satisfaction, pride – all continue to exist in pretty much the same doses as before, only now I have more time to reflect on them; which means sometimes I wallow in the negative ones more than I should, but sometimes the time for reflection shows me a clearer path to contentment. One of the biggest differences of a sailing life to a worker’s life, a thing that makes this all worthwhile, is the constant presence of tremendous natural beauty, a beauty which changes dramatically as we navigate further. Juxtaposing all of life’s cornucopia of moments with the surprises and images nature’s changing landscape offers, enhances the joyous moments and maybe it softens the challenging moments, or if it doesn’t soften them, at least the natural beauty offers a tremendous salve for any wounds the challenges inflict. Why does change, our constant movement, seem to enhance our appreciation of the beauty around us? If we stop, at what point do we forget to be awestruck by this beautiful world, and start to focus on it’s dark sides? When we spend a lot of time with someone, at what point do we forget to be amazed by their competencies, and start to see only weaknesses? I don’t think you have to sail across oceans constantly saying hello and goodbye to beautiful people and places to press that reset button, but it’s a powerfully effective method.

We had a truly beautiful sail from Moorea to Huahine, night before last. We’ve gone from being surrounded by family and friends in a breathtaking anchorage, to being alone in a breathtaking anchorage. Next stop Suwarrow, a remote atoll in the Cook Islands. We’ll leave here as soon as the wind is not on our nose.

xoxomo

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