Hanavave, Fatu Iva, Marquises, French Polynesia 24 nov 2011 11:11.11 10S27 138W40

I am thankful that Frank is cooking. Damn it smells good in here. I started rolls early this morning. Logan made Leo’s Mom’s Lemon Meringue Pie (with Marquisian limes – so I guess it’s really Leo’s Mom’s Marquisian-Lime Pie.) Kennan…will be setting the table, I doubt he’ll be putting the forks and knives on the correct side with knife blades in…but I’m supposed to be counting blessings here. This will likely be the best Thanksgiving feast ever on Fatu Iva – maybe the only Thanksgiving. I don’t think many Americans have spent T-day here, since U.S. insurance companies blanket all of FP as a hurricane zone starting November 1 – despite the fact that there has never been a hurricane recorded here – yet there has been one in L.A., go figure.

Wow, Kennan actually just used a sponge on the table before setting it – sorry, that was worth interrupting my train of thought. Definitely the world is looking up.

I’m NOT thankful that Steve Jobs took the soul of my MacBook Pro with him to paradise. It was a slight delayed reaction (maybe he hung out in purgatory for awhile), but yesterday my computer died . Two years in the tropics, was too much for it. We’re finding many of our electronic devices throwing in the towel after two years of abuse in our extreme climes and conditions. My Canon SLR gave me a scare the other day, going dark on a beachcombing walk. After I got it home in the shade, it appeared to be a non-lethal form of heat stroke, and revived once cooled down – I’ve been very careful not to give it large quantities of water too quickly. But the two-year old Macbook is dead. Frank says tropical years are more like double-dog years – still 28 seems young. I’m not taking it well. It’s not like loosing a friend, it’s like loosing a part of your brain. Frank says I should be thankful that it wasn’t me that succumbed to a stroke – just the computer. But it feels like having had a stroke. Part of my brain has died, along with it, school records, writing, some cool recent beachcombing photos (incl. a great shot of a black velvet toddler-size left shoe), and Logan’s recent edited video of reef-fish. Yes I backup, but never enough, and to recover a backup you have to have a functioning computer to recover to. We’re currently about 4 months away from the nearest Apple store.

My family is full of good advice. Logan said, “At least you didn’t loose the photos you’re going to take.” From the mouth of babes…teens… Still, I’m having a hard time coming out of my funk (booooohooooo, sob, sob, hic). So, back to being thankful – right now, I’m thankful for white wine, and the smell of Frank’s cooking, and for this Fatu-Iva view, and for two amazing teens and their handsome dad, cheers, (hic). And yes I’m thankful that it wasn’t me who had the stroke, and that I didn’t loose any of the pictures I’m going to take. Still, it’s not fair that the youngest computer on the boat died. But as my parents always taught me – life’s not fair. And as my kids have taught me, there’s always tomorrow.

xoxomo

No Comments »

Hanavave, Fatu Iva, Marquises, French Polynesia 22 nov 2011 11:11.11 10S27 138W40

That’s a little rude, shouting”, “Land Ho!” when we never got a “Sea Ho!” message out. Four and a half days ago, we left the atolls behind, and headed a day east then 3 and a half days north making landfall this morning in Thor Heyerdahl’s eden turned hell – Fatu Iva (written Fatu Hiva by westerners, but apparently it really should be Fatu Iva – something to do with the French having no respect for the letter H, and so they add it in written form when they shouldn’t, then hardly ever pronounce it in verbal form, except when they should not – just ask Frank to pronounce “Hot Air Balloon” someday and you’ll see what I mean).

It was an upwind passage. We did not tack back and forth too much, just a full day east, then the three days north with a couple hours tacking yesterday when the wind swung around to the north of full east, pushing our course a little too far west. But we’ve done our easting now, so hopefully we won’t have to do it later on our way to Hawaii. If you have not sailed, all this wind and weather talk may be too arcane, if you have sailed, you’ll understand my obsession. It’s the core of our dinner table conversations now, often elbowing out discussions of politics and culture – not easy topics to elbow about with a Frenchman onboard. I suppose if I’d taken up lavender farming instead of this Odyssey, I’d be writing about the arcane arts of distilling lavender into perfume – weather and seasons would probably also be a part of those dinner table conversations. Now that I think about it though, the lack of weather discussions at the dinner table, in our past city life was probably more linked to locality than to what we were doing at the time. L.A. truly does not have much weather. You may ask “What about Santa Ana’s” “What about the winter storms” “What about fire season” but those relatively rare events did not interrupt much of a day in L.A. I used to call my great aunt Florence back in Maryland, and she’d always start the conversation with “How’s your weather, dear?” It would baffle me, “um…sunny with a few puffy clouds??” I’d look out the window, trying to determine if there was a trick to her question. Had she seen something in the news, that I didn’t know about?Some raging storm on it’s way? It never really occurred to me to watch the weather on the news, and I was always pleasantly surprised on the mornings I’d awaken to a rare rainy day. I understand better now that in the Maryland/D.C. area, there’s always lots of weather to talk about, and now that I care more about the weather, I’d be a better conversationalist with Aunt Florence if she were still around.

So the past 5 days we had some weather, big pregnant squalls marching across our path. Some slid in front of us, some behind and some dumped their megaton load of water on our heads. Winds in and around the squalls, would build to whaling crescendos then die off leaving us becalmed and bobbing around, before the prevailing winds returned to bring on the next line of dark columns. If the sun was just right rainbow bits sprouted in unexpected places, sometimes high up in a cloud, sometimes low and bright on the water, and sometimes we’d get more than bits, we’d get the full arch or the supreme double rainbow. Big beautiful and exhausting weather, especially when you’re trying to beat into it instead of run with it. Since the computer is on the starboard side and most of the trip was done on a starboard tack. I did not feel much like bracing to keep myself seated while I typed, and the boat slammed. So for you it was a quiet passage. With all that starboard, I wonder if I’ll be listing to starboard when we go walking ashore.

Last year I gave a detailed description of this amazing cove. The village of Hanavave at the head of the cove is tucked between some dramatic basalt cliffs, with their tiki shaped peaks, one tiki looks more like the Virgin Mary, you can almost see the tears coming from her eyes when it rains. The squalls continue to parade through, waterfalls on either side of the cove are flourishing. Tropic birds still reflect bright against the dark stormy backdrop and/or the dark green and black cliffs. It smells like rich wet tropical earth. This may well be one of the most beautiful anchorages on the planet.

You can look at my pictures from spring 2010 to get a taste, only then, the cove was filled with boats, now we are eerily alone out here. I can see people ashore though, we’re heading in now, to say hello and see if they have any pamplemousse or mangos – that would add a nice touch to tomorrow’s Thanksgiving feast. We did catch a good sized Wahoo, but I think it’s going to be bird tomorrow – kids are pretty attached to traditions, but I’m afraid they may be a little disappointed that the bird is in chicken form not turkey. There must be a can of cranberries somewhere in our chaotic shook up shelves though.

Happy T-day! I’m thankful to be here. xoxoxomo

No Comments »

Makemo, Tuamotus, French Polynesia 11 11 2011 11:11.11 16S28 143W50

Here we are at the 11th minute of the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th year of the 21st century – Armistice day. Makemo is not such a bad place to celebrate such auspicious numbers and dates. Although we’ve replaced Armistice Day with Veteran’s Day in the US, the French still celebrate today as the end of all the world wars (They had another day in May for WWII, but apparently it was starting to add up to too many holidays and they had to combine a few or loose a few – imagine! The French! Agreeing to loose a holiday! Leaders of the 35 hour work week, lovers of the give-no-quarter when it comes to time off! What’s the world coming to? So we’re not taking the day off (sigh), school is in session; but we will be eating canned sauerkraut for dinner in celebration (a meal now French only because Alsace was returned to France as part of the Versailles Treaty in 1919).

A couple days ago, we left our quiet, blissful spot at Tahanea, and spent all night tacking between atolls to make it 40 miles east here to Makemo. We then had two hours of lagoon crossing, our eyes peeled for bommies (AUS), coral heads (US), patates (FRA) – known onboard as potato heads (SL). We managed to avoid them all and settled in the lee of what must be the longest motu around (roughly 30 uninterrupted miles – the whole atoll is 36 NM in length, second only to Rangiroa in length). The winds are back to their steady trade-wind state, 15-20 knots from the east. With miles of flat, potatohead-free lagoon at our stern, Frank may attempt a windsurfing lesson for PE today (the board and sail are the spoils of helping a friend clean out his garage – both saved from certain destruction due to mouse colony expansion).

So far the left shoe data is ambiguous here on Makemo, due to two, unmatched, uni-sided dive fins found (along with 4 left shoes and 4 right). Would the fins have been worn on the person’s left or right foot when they became detached? One of our correspondents has theorized that the right leg is tastier; shark’s would likely agree with the cannibals on this point, in which case they could well be left fins. Another correspondent suggested that the Coriolis* effect may be at work, causing more lefties south of the equator, but we will not be able to test his hypothesis until we make it back to the northern hemisphere. Even if the Coriolis force does play a role, it is possible that we would still find a higher density of right shoes as we approach the equator due to counter-currents. We may need to crowd source our data gathering efforts and add a shoe tally tab to our website so we can expand our data pool to include a global view. I won’t get to this task for a couple months (due to lack of internet in the Tuamotus), so in the meantime feel free to note the GPS coordinates of any shoes you find beached, and note their side: L, R, or unknown, and I’ll let you know when the survey is up and running. We will not guarantee a share in any grant income, but your efforts will be recognized in any future research publications on this topic (unless you prefer anonymity). Hopefully with enough data gatherers, we’ll be able to overcome any research bias, from individual data gatherers skewing data due to a preference for one hypothesis over others. While I know none of you would intentionally dirty our data pool…**

xoxomo

*”On the earth, the effect tends to deflect moving objects to the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern” **http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2011/03/07/people-don’t-know-when-they’re-lying-to-themselves/

No Comments »

En Route for Tuamotus, French Polynesia 5 Nov 2011 8:00 p.m. 16S50 144W41

After a slow but easy passage with light but fickle winds, we arrived back in atoll country early yesterday. Blacktip reef sharks rushed to greet our anchor as it entered the water. Our new buddies have been circling ever since, certain that a big gray hulk of a boat like ours, must be a fishing vessel, and that soon blood and guts must start pouring over the side in plentiful quantities. So far we’ve disappointed them. They didn’t seem interested in the cucumber skins, nor the rice bits, but the fact that the little black trigger fish are excited by the vegan droppings, did seem to get the sharks excited. Frank suggested that the kids scare them off with a good cannonball from the bow, or bellyflop from the stern. They seem reluctant.

We are the only boat anchored between Tahanea’s two main passes. We’ve seen a few small fishing boats in the distance, otherwise the only trace of other humans is the ubiquitous trash on the beach. Atolls make effective filters for the pacific ocean. Why is it that every shoe or flipflop we find beachcombing is a left foot? What’s up with that? We have not done a formal survey, but I think I may do one, it’s surely a research topic that has not yet been covered. Today’s data: 3 right for 12 left. Is it that most people are right footed, so when they step into the boat, it’s the left shoe that tumbles? Do they only trail the left foot over the side? Or do they tend to loose the right shoes on land, then toss the remaining useless left shoe into the sea? Maybe the tall blond man with one black shoe could help us solve the mystery.

While all that trash should make me sadder, there is something strange and exciting about being in such a remote place, and imagining how such an odd variety of plastic leavings ended up so far from humans. What was their path here – conception, to manufacture, to purchase, to use, to abuse, to rejection or loss? We’ve seen laundry baskets, hard hats, shoes, toothbrushes, dolls’ heads, Mr. Bubble containers, fishing buoys (lots), clothespins , soda bottles, lines varying from 1/16 of an inch thick to 4 inches thick, oil drums, tugboat bumpers (15’ long), today I even found a Lego (well actually a fake Duplo – from our own experience in bathtubs, Legos sink). Do they have bathtubs on Japanese fishing boats, requiring a good supply of Mr. Bubble and floating Duplos? How do you loose a 15’ fender? And did someone get tired of doing the laundry, and toss the whole kit and caboodle into the sea? I too have been tempted, but!

So walking one way around the motu, we skirt the edges closer in to land (where most of the plastic floats to the highest ground), then we return via the reef edge where violent life battles are being fought. Eels and grouper attacking the fast-footed crabs, turquoise parrot fish charging up the deep channels to gnaw on the softer lagoon size coral then rush-retreating before they’re high and dry, and black tip reef sharks scratching their bellies in 3 inches of water to check every nook and cranny for dinner. You can almost see the conical shape of reef snails forming in response to the pounding of the waves, the why of their evolution clearly visible. And thousands of perforations in the reef plateau seem to be powered by a set of giant’s lungs, as each wave causes the reef to breath and bubble, groan and hiss. It’s a magical scene. After miles at sea with only a rare sighting of a whale or turtle or tuna, it’s amazing to walk the reef and witness the myriad life forms battling or their very lives under our feet. How can such a hostile environment sustain so much life? Why does that savage intertidal zone seem so prolific when a few yards inland or a few yards out at sea, ecosystems are barren in comparison?

Truly a blissful way to end a school day.

xoxomo

No Comments »

En Route for Tuamotus, French Polynesia 3 Nov 2011 1:00 a.m. 17S30 145W56

We are underway again, we’ve been underway quite a bit the last month, and anchored quite a bit, but actually leaving Tahiti “for real” this time is different than the many “sorties” to the leeward islands we’ve been doing. We’re officially continuing our backwards path through the Pacific. We’d waited long enough for a weather window that would bring us to the Tuamotus without beating into the wind. The first low of the season arrived on time first of November, just like the captain said. “We’ll want to be underway heading north and east by the first of November,” he said. Unfortunately, that means we missed getting to hold his new grandbaby #3 – Marama arrived the day after my bday Congrats T.!). It’s a strange life living by the weather window, a short hop west can seem a continent away, as the low pressure systems push our own psychological pressure points to the limits. We need to be east of here by hurricane season, and the system we’re riding now is the first indication that we’ve moved from the long season of the short rains to the short season of the long rains (the two seasons in FP).

Some of you may have seen a blip in the news regarding the first recorded cannibalistic event in the Marqueses in 70 years. Well officials are not saying it was cannibalism, but trying to eliminate body parts in a campfire in a land known for cannibalism, was too juicy for the journalists to pass up. Though a local reporter, doubting those reports, did say that hamburgers were a more attractive feast to most modern Polynesians. The victims were a German cruising couple, she escaped, he did not. My heart goes out to them and their families. The perpetrator, a local hunting guide, has not been found. And we are planning on stopping there for awhile – the same island where Melville was held captive in Typee. We’ve studiously avoided much adventure the past 2 years, and we hope to continue to avoid adventure. So we’ve added a new rule to Scurvy’s list of onboard rules – never go hunting with cannibals. I don’t mean to make light of the horror of the incident. But what is Halloween if not a moment to laugh in the face of death.

To add to this Halloween edition, we’ll be sailing past Faaite in the morning, possibly anchoring at an adjacent atoll Tahanea. You may be able to Google “butchers of Faaite” and get gruesome details of an event there back in the 1980s where a village was split by religious zealotry, and one half of the village ganged up on the other half to rid themselves of the “evil” some well meaning visiting missionary sisters had preached to them about shortly before the horrendous event. They’d built a big bonfire, to burn the scourge from their midst, one young man even tossed his mom onto the fire. The local priest and mayor were off atoll at the time, and the only contact to the atoll was via a shortwave radio. There’s a scary story for you. Am I worried? I’ve served jury duty in downtown L.A. (double homicide) I didn’t need to sail across the pacific to get a taste of fear and horror. So no I’m not too worried, maybe I’m in denial, or maybe the fact that I’m writing this is proof that I am worried. So to put myself at ease at this late night/early morning hour, forgive me while I review our tenets to a “stay safe yet live life” approach – Weigh the odds and tilt them in our favor when possible, avoid certain situations when possible, treat the locals with respect, but keep a healthy distance, avoid large crowds, be wary when alone, and maybe most important, expect the worst, but always look for the best in others – in nature – in the world – in yourself. Just looking for the best sometimes makes it so, but if you don’t look for it, you may not find it at all and then you’re left with only your worst expectations being fulfilled.

Happy belated Halloween (Good news, Thanksgiving is next), xoxomo

And I thought I had nothing left to say, months of silence, but give me an ornery keypad and a four hour midnight watch and the fingers are a-flyin’.

No Comments »