We got a sliver of moon early this morning and a handful of stars peeking though the overcast as dawn broke. No sunrise, just a gradual lightening of the gray.
The wind and waves evolve through the hours, holding a pattern for a while then throwing us a change up. I feel like our bodies are locked in a game of espionage with the ocean. The evil Axis of Wind and Waves alters the sea state and our bodies work feverishly to try and decipher the motion of the boat like code breakers hacking the Enigma machine. Then a couple hours after we become accustomed to the rhythm of one motion, the wind will veer slightly, or the wave period will increase, and our inner ears are back to smoking cigarettes in dimly lit rooms in the Pentagon.
This afternoon the cloud cover broke slightly and patches of blue punctuated the gray. The sun ripped through the curtains for a gorgeous sunset. Still, the wind isn’t holding back, we’re seeing gusts to 23 and seas to match. We’ve had a few of those really good ones that clip the boat on just the right angle, kick us up into the air and wash over the top of the coach roof. I’ve adopted the McGurn method of operation in uncomfortable situations, which I learned many years ago from the mastermind when we were surfing in Lake Superior. Just before Ian (the the method’s developer) nosed over the top of an icy barrel and was crushed along the stony bottom, I heard him emit a faint, “Fun gaaaame!” Later he explained that by such vocalizations in uncomfortable circumstances one can trick the mind into thinking it’s in the midst of a more pleasurable experience, like as playing a fun game, instead of being hammered into the lake bottom. I’m working on my technique now; when we get one of those really good waves that shudders the boat and bastes us from stem to stern, I’ve taken to visualizing that I’m on a log ride at one of those summer water parks and squealing, “Wheeeee!” My outbursts are more startling to Miranda than the actual wave, but I swear it’s working.
We’re making better time than calculated and all is well aboard. The water rushes by the hull, slapping and banging on the way. It’s a bit unnerving to be dressing oneself with sleep-encrusted eyes take in a nice sunset view out the window, then the next instant be staring at the bottom of the sea. All in the life of a sailing fool.
We left Tonga this morning after the passing of a sizable front that brought heavy rain all night. Took a bath in the dinghy it was so full of water this morning! Left the protection of the Vava’u island group this morning after fighting with a little coral wrap with the chain. Dodged whales on our departure today. They’re the Tongan equivalent of deer in the highway. Also, notice how the boat in the shot looks like it’s sinking and that also it looks like a pretty darn flat sea? The boat is in a four-foot trough. This gives a nice sense of how hard it is to photographically capture the real feel of wave action. Wiley buggers.
We’re making good speed under 15 knots of wind abeam and moderate seas. Dark night, heavy cloud cover, with out tricolor the only light. The heavy cloud is from a trough that’s running NW to SE that we’re punching through. It’s bringing gray, low skies with some showers, but good wind to keep us clipping along and not too heavy seas.
Found that the towing generator wasn’t putting out any current and after some diagnostics discovered the culprit was a broken wire. The fix consisted of opening an enclosure on the housing and soldering new wire to the terminals, all on a rolling deck in sea spray and light rain. Now that’s fun! With little sun forecasted for the trip we’ll need the energy to keep the thirsty autopilot, chart plotter and refrigerator cranking, so it was worth a little nausea.
We should make it to Fijian waters the day after tomorrow, then have two more days of sailing to reach Nadi. Connecting from New South Whales tonight! Very exciting. More from Tayrona to come.
On August 5th, we left Niue heading west for Tonga.Niue fell astern as we rocketed downwind, running wing-wing under twenty knots of wind.Moderate following seas gave us an extra push AND we didn’t even have to hand steer since Otto was back in the game.The next day was August 7th.What happened to August 6th ask you?Gone!Zip!Ripped from our lives like a bandaid from a skinned knee!Everyone else will have an August 6th, but the day will be an empty hole in our histories. Can you hear the Twilight Zone music? I hope I don’t have to account for my whereabouts at some point in the future.
“Where were you on the night on August 6th, 2015?”
“Uhhh… I didn’t get one.”
“Get one what?”
“An August 6th, sir. I missed that day. Must have been out sailing.”
“Off with his head!”
Tonga isn’t across the international dateline, but they take the same date as Fiji for business reasons.Thus, as we raced into Tongan waters, our trusty little boat burrowed twenty-four hours ahead in time like a wayward electron quantum tunneling out of a potential energy well. erhm…sorry ‘bout that.Won’t let him out again.
We spotted the islands of the Vava’u group as we cut through a deep portion of the shoal and into more protected waters. To the north and south of the cut, rollers exploded on the unseen reefs as we scooted through. We sailed north then west, dodging rocky islands and a couple of whales before we tucked into the protected bay formed by Nuapapu and Vaka’eitu islands.Tried anchoring in several spots before we were satisfied with our holding and swing room based on the weather supposed to be coming in.
We woke on the 8th after a glorious, flat-water sleep.Our bodies ate it up.Two days on passage isn’t enough to get your body into a good circadian sailing rhythm.We were making ready to go snorkel the nearby coral gardens when a lone man standing in waist-deep water started yelling and waving from the empty shore.I dropped the dinghy in the water and zoomed in to see what was up. In the shallows a stout Tongan man with a mustache and enormous smile introduced himself as David.I don’t know what he was smiling about- he explained that his boat broke down on other side of the island and asked me if I could tow it back to his house.Together we zipped to a sandy bay where his two boys, George and Kaho, were waiting with the little boat.Apparently the motor had died while they were fishing and George swam the boat to shore with a rope tied around his waist.I threw them a line and towed the boat back around to the other side of the island where we moored it just off a sandy beach.David’s tin house stood just inside the line of palm and mango trees.He told me his family had been on Vaka’eitu for many generations, pointing out a small cemetery on a hill where his parents, grandparent, and great-grandparent were buried.
When David explained in his measured, thoughtful English that he had no tools to fix the motor, I offered to take a look at it. I brought hardware from Tayrona and David went ashore to help his wife with lunch, leaving his sons on the skiff to help me with the repairs on the 2-stroke Yamaha . The recoil mechanism to pull-start the motor wasn’t working and there was fuel leaking from somewhere. The three of us sat on the little boat and wrenched off the recoil unit atop the engine. The obnoxiously long winding spring had popped out of place and required a good deal of finesse and six hands to coerce back into the housing. Nice to have so much help, even if we didn’t speak the same language all the time. Pointing and noise making did the trick when ‘socket wrench’ didn’t translate into Tongan. “Hey, pass me the ‘crick-a crick-a crick-a, please. Mālō”. The fuel line connector had a torn seal that couldn’t be fixed, so I bypassed the connectors and spliced the fuel line right to the filter on the engine. With a touch of persuasion the motor fired right up. The boys were proud, David was relieved, and I was happy that I didn’t do any more grievous damage to the thing! It’s nice to feel like you can give something tangible back to the people that share so much with us. That boat and a small kayak are the only means of transportation from their island to the next town, five miles away across the bay, where the store, church, and school are. I can’t imagine what happens if that motor goes south. Daniel brought us three papaya, ten shucked coconuts, a dozen limes, and an invite to have dinner at his house to say thanks.
Before our big date ashore, Miranda and I went snorkeling in the coral gardens in the shallow pass between Nuapapu and Vaka’eitu.At first the coral looked blasted, with mostly dead stag horn, though it was surprisingly still full offish.We finned across the shallows toward deep water, and after duck diving a few breakers we were out in the deep.Whales sang hauntingly in the distance as we chased butterfly fish and dove among the brightly colored, rolling patchwork-quilt of coral hills. I think Nemo was even out there!
Also ran into a vicious predator of the deep. This is one of the dreaded cone shells in the South Pacific. It’s the Marbled Cone Snail. It hunts other mollusks down and injects its venom through a harpoon structure that will also go through the foot of a careless wader. There is another kind out here called the ‘Cigarette Cone Snail’ because you have time for one last cigarette if you get stuck by one before the venom gets you. You know those things’ll kill you…
This next one is just a plain old boring cowrie shell. Really pretty though! They have a beautiful, smooth shell which gave rise to the word ‘porcelain’ from the Italian name for the little guys. Neat, huh?
Back at the floating ranch we got ready to go in for dinner with David and his family.We brought rice, veggies, and lemonade to share.What do people like to eat on tiny Pacific islands?Last time we treated a local guy to our cuisine he almost jumped overboard rather than try our peanut butter!We also brought a bunch of little gifts for their kids: some cool shades for George, a pocket knife for Kaho, jewelry things for the girls. David played guitar and sang harmony for Hika in a welcome song as the girls danced in the Polynesian style for us. They served us a gorgeous spread of fried plantains, roasted grouper, and teriyaki chicken. All of it was cooked over an open fire outside of their dwelling and had a beautiful smoky flavor. I played a few tunes for them as well and we talked about life in Tonga. It was a thoroughly enjoyable and unexpected evening.
After we got back to the boat the rains came, first sprinkling, but then quickly turning into torrents. It was the front we had seen on our weather reports and the reason we ducked clandestinely into the shelter of Tongan waters. It rained all night, the kind of biblical rain that weighs the boat down, obliterates all other sounds but the hammering of the decks, and turns the radar screen into a wash of yellow so thick that the shore can’t be seen just a hundred meters away. No more sea spray on the decks!
We snorkeled in Willy Wonka’s coral gardens again the next days and prepared for our passage to Fiji with a few meals and a solid slab of brownies. BAM! Our original passage from Bora to Fiji was twice interrupted, both times leading us into extraordinary experiences for our troubles in changing our plans. Go tell the sea gods about yourplans. They love a good joke.
