En Route to Tonga 6 Sept 2010 (? We should pass the dateline soon) 16.8760S 169.9702W

We thought we’d spend 10 days in Suwarrow, but ended up staying a little more than 2 weeks. It really is the quintessential south pacific paradise. The coral was more alive there than any reef we’ve seen yet, and the lagoon was teaming with fish, including some very large parrot fish and groupers – sizes usually not seen at other atolls due to overfishing. The rangers, were very enthusiastic atoll lovers and organized many excursions above and beyond the call of duty. They spend 6 months of the year on Suwarrow, and are dropped off with limited supplies at the beginning of the season in May, so through potlucks and shared excursions they’ve inspired cruisers to be generous with their own supplies of fresh food, gas and propane. A very worthwhile exchange for all. And they were both neat guys well acquainted with atoll life.

We also took mornings to get back in the swing of school. Logan is officially in 9th grade now, so I officially have to start being a more meticulous in my tracking of his curriculum. In science we have some incredible resources available to us. We met an environmental chemist specializing in polar research in Suwarrow, she spent an afternoon talking to the kids about the periodic table. Another friend on Kamaya has offered a physics lesson in waves (sound and water), when we meet up with them again in Tonga. He told Logan to bring his Ukulele for the lab time, sounds like it should be interesting. And another boat offered his collection of University lecture podcasts including a whole series on Biology. Who needs internet when you’re surrounded by experts (with USB sticks!). Sounds like fun and games, but I now have to figure out how to give credit for 4 hours one on one with a researcher and 20 hours of podcasts.

Now we’re back on the water headed for Tonga. We were planning a stop on Niue (aka the internet nation?), but the weather was not willing, and last night we gave up pounding through lightning storms into the wind and headed farther west towards our new destination, Niautoputapu in Tonga. I’m completely relieved to be on a better point of sail with lighter winds today!

I’ve not been keeping up with you all very well. It’s only partly due to the business of land life, mostly I think I may be loosing the discipline of sitting down and putting thought to paper (or ether). We’re definitely living in the moment here, course when I was working like a madwoman to get here, we were living in the moment too, and I equally lacked the discipline to put thought to ether then. Was it just that in between change time that I was able to stop, reflect and document? I enjoyed it, and I hope to find a way to get back to sharing more vignettes of life moments with you and not the standard “went there, met them, saw that”.

But for now, there’s a big beautiful ocean outside, the cabin is hot and smelly, and I need some fresh air.

xoxomo

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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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Cook’s Bay, Moorea (Where the first Mutiny on The Bounty was filmed) 29 Jul 2010 17.5020S 149.8192W

I know I left you hanging once again after that last message, but it’s going to be hard to top the eclipse! And we’re still in busy land-life mode, so I won’t even try. We did arrive in Tahiti, spent two weeks, provisioning, doing paperwork, and of course enjoying daily feasts with Frank’s mom and his brother’s family. We even pressed one family member into service (Logan and Kennan’s 11 year-old cousin Mauna), and the five of us are now over in Cook’s Bay. After all of the stunning spots we’ve seen, Moorea is right up there with the best. Maybe we’re a little biased, since both Frank’s daughters and their babies live here. We spent the day with Hina yesterday, and the day with Tehani and their two sons today, and somehow life for us just got better. Both girls look great and both have settled into really comfortable lives here, and so this spot seems to have a special glow. I think there must be no greater joy in life than to see your kids (even your stepkids) satisfied with their lives. After all the complications of teenagerdom, distance, a complex family (us), they’ve made it through to the other side just fine. I will be a happy mom if Logan and Kennan get to the same level of life bliss in 10 years, and Frank will enjoy double that happiness.

My finger is not broken, but still sore enough that it doesn’t like to type, so writing is slow – if only my writing were more concise as a result, instead I’ve practically stopped – any excuse! On that note, know that I think of you all often, and send frequent wishes for keeping your own life bliss.

xoxomo

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Solar Eclipse Path, 70 miles South of Tahiti 11 Jul 2010 18.7599S 149.1819W

We ended up with perfect weather and visibility, and Frank monitored and adjusted sails all night to get us directly under the center of the path. I truly had no idea how much more impressive a full eclipse would be compared to the partials I’d seen in the past. The three or so minutes of totality were completely spellbinding. The lighting leading up to the eclipse got very eerie with strange crescent shaped shadows all over the cockpit, then very suddenly, the world did in fact go dark, like late dusk or early dawn, with a glowing yellow horizon in all directions. Stars and planets were visible overhead, and the eclipse itself looked like someone was drilling a perfectly round hole in the sky with a circular laser. A puffy cloud passed in front for one of the three or so minutes, but it did not obscure our visibility, instead it made a burst of iridescent colors around the eclipse. Then as suddenly as it all started, a sunbeam exploded us back into a glowing yellow daylight. I truly had the sense that angels were watching down on us, and had come to save us from the sudden darkness.

The entire event lasted almost 3 hours, I could tell a lot more – the kid’s excitement, images of them looking out at the sun and sea wearing the welding helmet, playing with the crescent shadows, projecting dancing crescents with the binoculars (hard to hold binos still on the boat), accounts of historical tricks early explorers used the eclipse for, and cool details Marc Googled for us – but I sprained my finger yesterday, rushing to get a bucket of water to help Frank clean up fish blood from a 4′ Mahi Mahi we caught. A wave came and tried to steal the bucket, almost took the end of my left index finger too! La Garce! The bucket looks more bent than my finger though, so I think I’ll be typing faster again soon.

The planet officially has 4 new coronaphiles! Next one Australia 2012? Hmmm that’s not too far off, nor too far away from here. I’m so glad we didn’t let cabin fever get the better of us, and I’m glad we were able to slow Silver Lining down a bit; she was a little too eager to be leaping and hopping on the moon’s shadow, now I know why!

xoxomo

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North of Raivave, South of Tahiti 9 Jul 2010 23.2307S 147.9134W

It would have been a good day for exploring Raivavae, but it’s an exceptional day for a sail. If it were this beautiful out here every day, we would not be the only boat we’ve seen in over 3 weeks. Well we did see one tanker, just before we arrived in Raivavae on his way from NZ to Panama, he came very close, we chatted and he gave us a nice friendly long loud blast and a bunch of short ones with his mega-horn, that was a thrill (it doesn’t take much out here).

We have blue sky above, a long slow swell from the south that isn’t impacting our comfort, and minimal windwaves from the east. We have 15 knots on the beam, we’re reaching for Tahiti at about 6.5 knots. We’re all in high spirits, and if this weather holds for another 36 hours or so, we’ll have great visibility for that eclipse.

xoxomo

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Raivavae, Les Australes 8 Jul 2010 23.8643S 147.6884W

We came very close to taking off this morning. We’ve had mostly rain and/or strong winds since we arrived, so there’s been very little exploring here. We’ve done lots of cleaning and drying out. We’ve tackled a few boat projects (including recaulking the back windows that were leaking on my books). We’ve made good progress in school. We’ve read a lot. And the boys (big and small) have spent lots of time with their computer games. And when rain isn’t actually pouring down, Logan and Kennan run up top to practice their sword fighting or carving seashells with the Dremel. Logan has now listened to some of the radio labs so many times, I think he’ll soon be reciting them for us verbatim. We’re very eager to visit Frank’s family in Tahiti and as of last night we’d had enough! We were sure to be departing this morning, we’d even hauled up the dinghy and it’s engine. But this morning Frank and I both woke up thinking about that eclipse, we looked again at the route, the weather, the schedule, and reminded ourselves, that one of the reasons for staying here through the 9th, was so that we would be at sea, in a good spot to see the eclipse Sunday morning. And if we were to arrive too early in Tahiti, we might not see it (more clouds likely, and more obstacles, mountains, land, trees). We’ve been thinking, talking and dreaming about this eclipse since we thought this adventure up. Originally we’d planned to be in the exact best spot in the Tuamotus for it, but then as we’ve been flowing with the go, it seemed like too big of a driver of where to go and when to go there, given that it was pretty likely to be cloudy. In view of the last couple weeks of rain, it was probably good that we didn’t plan our whole trip around the eclipse. But now we’re oh so close, and the weather report is looking somewhat favorable for clearer skies, and here we are ready to haul anchor early and throw that chance away – all because of a little cabin fever.

So another day today of projects, school, adding Yahtzee and popcorn to break the monotony. The boat is looking/feeling downright shipshape, more ready to go than usual. Stuff is stowed, engine oil’s been changed, fuel filters changed, watermaker filters changed, windows should be watertight now (knock on wood, just in case, the library has been temporarily relocated to a dry spot on the boat). After a little more of the cupboard dance, the pile of stuff on the chart table now has it’s own drawer. The laundry is down to a minimum, and the washing machine no longer has coins stuck in it’s drainpipe, and no longer fills my clothes drawer with water (an incident that came up after the book incident). We’ve stocked up on peaches (easy up easy down, as an Aussie acquaintance of Marc’s once said). A pot of bacon, lentils and delicious taro (the only crop on this island) is cooked and ready for a few sea meals. Seas are looking sloppy after all this weather from all directions – no worries, we’re ready for it! That’s what leaving a day later instead of a day earlier than expected does for you.

We’re off to see the earth darken, or rather see the sea darken, apocalyptically. What could be more fun?

Les Reveils de Tahiti/Moorea – preparer vous, on arrive!

xoxomo

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Raivavae, Les Australes 30 June 2010 23.8643S 147.6884W

We arrived around 2 in the morning yesterday, slept off the worst of our fatigue, then spent most of the day trying to bring order to chaos on board. Windy weather is keeping us from going ashore – too windy to launch the dinghy (25 knots with gusts above that), and rain is predicted. Winter in the tropics can be unpredictable weatherwise. So we got here a day early spent that day cleaning up the mess, now we wait and hope for better weather. We had lots of rain in the Gambiers, but the dinghy was already in the water, so we’d still venture out to explore and often come back drenched. A few boatbound days, helps us catch up on schoolwork and chores. This last crossing gave us a healthy chores list. We had a little bit of water intrusion in the aft cabin, that I had not noticed until the books went flying out of the shelf. It wasn’t a massive amount of water, but enough to wreak havoc on our reference book shelf, and the foot of our mattress, so I’ve been spending a lot of time trying to set them out to dry, bring them in before squalls, flip the pages on the books with color plates so the pages don’t stick together. It’s been a depressing task, but only one book I had on photography tips is irreparable. Sun yesterday helped dry everything some, today’s grayer weather, is keeping the project indoors. Part of airing out the boat then included some rearranging, to find a semi-temporary safer place once they’re dry. Fixing the leak is a bigger project involving reseating or replacing a couple of the back windows, so we’ll need some time in a calm anchorage with no rain before we can tackle it. I would say it’s a testament to the intensity of the weather of this last crossing, six months of all kinds of weather, and this area had never leaked. Frank says it’s not related, it was beautiful weather for sailing, the seals just give up at some point. Yes water is a big part of the sailing experience, but I prefer it when it stays outside the boat.

Raivavae is lower in altitude than the Marqueses, but there are similar dramatic cliffs, peaks and rock outcroppings, they just start lower down. From the boat, shore looks drier than anywhere we’ve been in the southern hemisphere yet. There are fewer coconut trees than Gambiers and the Tuamotus, but this island does have an outer reef with motus, and some of the same beautiful blue and turquoise waters. From Google earth, it looks like there is a road that traverses over to the other side, which promises some spectacular views, but for now all land activity remains out of reach, watching land out the window is not half bad though. There’s a small round little Motu out my port window that looks different from any we’ve seen so far; not a single coconut tree on it, instead it’s all fuzzy looking with big lacy-leafed trees. Until we can go visit, I have no idea what kind of trees they are.

I’m really enjoying the novel “My Name is Red” by Turkish author Orhan Pamuk. It’s a romance/murder mystery, which takes place in 16th Century Istanbul in a community of miniaturists. My mind is filled with visions of illuminated manuscripts, rich colors, and minute details of Islamic Ottoman life. I get a visual shock when I go from his descriptions of illustrations of bright robed sultans, and leafed or gilded page borders, to look out at the landscape in front of me trending toward blues, greens and grays. The only red visible is a bright red navigational marker – a spar with a red square on top – warning of a coral head below. I’m only about half-way through, but every page is luscious and vivid; the character’s egos, emotions and thoughts are thickly intertwined with descriptions of the process of creating the richly illustrated books, and with descriptions of the stories they tell and how the detail of a scene, the elements rendered, the colors chosen, the character of the brush stroke all contribute to capturing the essence of a moment in a tale. The book is full of philosophical questions about art, ego and spiritual belief. I’m not looking forward to it ending. One of the joys of working with lots of bright people at UCLA, was the great book recommendations everyone gave me before I left, Thanks for this one Diane!

In one chapter it describes how when one sultan would overthrow another, he would have all the artists and painters, cut the books apart, and put them back together in a different order, to change the stories – or where the old sultan’s face was used to depict a traditional hero, he’d have them replace it with his own portrait. Our books on board look like war casualties, strung about the cabin, I may have to have my artists, paint new faces on the fish in our “Audubon Field Guide to Fishes Whales and Dolphins” and I would not be surprised to see Logan’s face appear on his favorite Nudibranch in his guide to “Pacific Coast Nudibranchs.” I’m afraid with our library, it would not be that meaningful to reassemble them to create new books, “The 12 Volt Doctor’s Practical Handbook on Electric Eels,” “Weather Guide for Whales” or “Adolescent Writers Between Pacific Tides?!” Since the pages all now have the wavy texture yellowed color of illuminated manuscripts, maybe we should decorate the boarders with kelp, waves and flying fish, just to perk them up a bit. They are looking a little sad right now.

xoxomo

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