Blog

Dear F&F,
July 17-20, 2009

The first 24 hours was great. I think any of you would have enjoyed the ride. Then it got more \”boisterous\” as Scott calls it. Rough & bumpy. Too intense wind & sea for me to enjoy being outside. Nice & dry & comfy inside. We had several rain squalls last night which always does strange things to the wind – none, then way strong – hard to predict & know how to react. We are doing fine on our good old 4 hours on 4 hours off watch schedule. Our first night there was a ship that passed very close to us. They did not communicate respond to our hail by radio & did not have the Automated Identity System on, which is required for a ship that size. Oh well, good thing we use our eyeballs. We also saw another sailboat on a parallel path & they did talk to us by radio. We warned them of the ship.

July 20
We have arrived! After 3 days & nights at sea we entered the pass to the inside of this atoll. Our timing was lucky, because for that distance (550 miles) it is hard to predict daylight & a flood tide. Flood tide means water from the ocean is rushing into the interior of the lagoon. You get an extra push across the shallow part of the pass. We never saw less than 40 feet deep. Cargo & cruise ships come in here, which is one of the reasons we chose this as our first Tuamotu Island – easy entry. Easy means that it was obvious where the entry was, with buoys marking the safe water passage. But there were 3-5 feet standing waves from winds of 20-25 knots on the nose. So it was a bumpy ride for about 15 minutes. Then we got into the protection of the motus, which are skinny, low sand/coral islets. So here at anchor it is very calm with just a nice 10 knot breeze. It was overcast & rained on & off yesterday & today.

When Scott checked in with the Pacific Coconut Radio Net, another sailboat \”Migration\” asked to speak to him on another channel. We had heard from our friends on \”Red Herring II\” that this couple were divers. They had read about our manta adventures & were keen to meet up with us. They are avid divers too, but do not have a compressor on their 45 foot trimaran. So they actually diverted from going to a different atoll to meet us here in Fakarava. Their names are Alene & Bruce, potentially our new best friends. We have wanted to connect with other divers because we may need topside dinghy support to dive with the currents here. They should be at anchor near us soon & we\’ll have them over for Happy Hour. Hope it\’s a good match. Friends Mary & David from \”Giselle\” will arrive here tomorrow. There are only 2 other boats in this wide lagoon. There is a little village (Rotava), which we will explore probably tomorrow.

The water right where we are anchored is not quite as crystal clear as we\’d hoped, but part of the limited visibility could be due to the overcast sky. We\’ll need a couple of days to recover from the passage and then we\’ll see about diving. First dive will likely be on our anchor, hoping we did not drop on coral but sand. We have lift bags we can use to pick our chain up off coral if necessary. We did this in Coco Island.

I am very pleased with how I felt the whole trip. By avoiding the computer & chewing on fresh ginger in addition to my full scopalamine patch I really had no seasick symptoms. I also slept quite well during my off watch periods. The sun is coming out a bit. It is very peaceful & quiet. I can hear some children laughing & a rooster crow, lovely!

Cindy & Scott

Dear F&F,
July 17, 2009

I finished reading this book as we departed the Marquesas & set sail for the Tuamotu Islands. Some of you may be more familiar with the book, Kon Tiki Expedition\”, written by the same author. Thor and wife Liv left their home in Norway to live a primitive lifestyle on the island of Fatu-Hiva. This was their goal:

Page 13
\”We wanted to see if the two of us, man and woman, could resume the life abandoned by our first ancestors. If we could tear ourselves away from our artificial life. Completely and utterly. Be independent. Independent of the least aid of civilization. Independent of everything except nature.

\”The island of Fatu-Hiva became our choice. Mountainous and lonely. Rich in sunshine, fruit, and drinking water. Few natives and no white men. \”

I won\’t spoil the story by telling you any of their adventures. But near the end of the book, his reflection and conclusions struck me as valid today, although the year they lived on this Marquesas Island was 1936. The book was published in the 1970\’s.

Pages 260-261
\”We like to think of progress as modern man\’s struggle to secure better food for more people, warmer clothing and finer dwellings for the poor, more medicine and hospitals for the sick, increased security against war, less corruption and crime, a happier life for young and old. But, as it has turned out, progress involves much more. It is progress when weapons are improved to kill more people at a longer range. It is progress when a little man becomes a giant because he can push a button and blow up the world. It is progress when the man in the street can stop thinking and creating because all his problems are solved by others who show him what happens if he turns on a switch. It is progress when people become so specialized that they know almost everything about almost nothing. It is also progress when reality gets so damned dull that we all survive by sitting staring at entertainment radiating from a box, or when one pill is invented to cure the harm done by another, or when hospitals grow up like mushrooms because our heads are overworked and our bodies underdeveloped, because our hearts are empty and our intestines filled with anything cleverly advertised. It is progress when a farmer leaves his hoe and a fisherman his net to step onto an assembly line the day the cornfield is leased to industry, which needs the salmon river as its sewer. It is progress when cities grow bigger and fields and forests smaller, until ever more men spend ever more time in subways and bumper-to-bumper car queues, until neon lights are needed in daytime because buildings grope for the sky and dwarf men and women in canyons where they roll along with klaxons screaming and blow exhaust all over their babies. When children get a sidewalk in exchange for a meadow, when the fragrance of flowers and the view of hills and forests are replaced by air conditioning and a view across the street. It is progress when a centuries-old oak is cut down to give space for a road sign.\”

\”We felt an urge, an inconvenient need, to return to civilization. But we did not want to be a single step farther from nature than life in our part of the world made necessary. Primitive life in the wilderness had filled us with a well-being, given us more than the city life as we knew it had ever been able to give us.\”

Our 5 weeks diving with the manta rays at Islas Revillagigedos last winter were as close to his feeling of \”back to nature\” that we have experienced so far. Except for the time we will spend in Tahiti & neighboring Society Islands, we look forward to visiting less developed, isolated islands where we can immerse (and submerse) ourselves in nature and breathe in that sense of well-being that Thor spoke of.

Cindy & Scott

Dear F&F,
July 17, 2009

I finished reading this book as we departed the Marquesas & set sail for the Tuamotu Islands. Some of you may be more familiar with the book, Kon Tiki Expedition\”, written by the same author. Thor and wife Liv left their home in Norway to live a primitive lifestyle on the island of Fatu-Hiva. This was their goal:

Page 13
\”We wanted to see if the two of us, man and woman, could resume the life abandoned by our first ancestors. If we could tear ourselves away from our artificial life. Completely and utterly. Be independent. Independent of the least aid of civilization. Independent of everything except nature.

\”The island of Fatu-Hiva became our choice. Mountainous and lonely. Rich in sunshine, fruit, and drinking water. Few natives and no white men. \”

I won\’t spoil the story by telling you any of their adventures. But near the end of the book, his reflection and conclusions struck me as valid today, although the year they lived on this Marquesas Island was 1936. The book was published in the 1970\’s.

Pages 260-261
\”We like to think of progress as modern man\’s struggle to secure better food for more people, warmer clothing and finer dwellings for the poor, more medicine and hospitals for the sick, increased security against war, less corruption and crime, a happier life for young and old. But, as it has turned out, progress involves much more. It is progress when weapons are improved to kill more people at a longer range. It is progress when a little man becomes a giant because he can push a button and blow up the world. It is progress when the man in the street can stop thinking and creating because all his problems are solved by others who show him what happens if he turns on a switch. It is progress when people become so specialized that they know almost everything about almost nothing. It is also progress when reality gets so damned dull that we all survive by sitting staring at entertainment radiating from a box, or when one pill is invented to cure the harm done by another, or when hospitals grow up like mushrooms because our heads are overworked and our bodies underdeveloped, because our hearts are empty and our intestines filled with anything cleverly advertised. It is progress when a farmer leaves his hoe and a fisherman his net to step onto an assembly line the day the cornfield is leased to industry, which needs the salmon river as its sewer. It is progress when cities grow bigger and fields and forests smaller, until ever more men spend ever more time in subways and bumper-to-bumper car queues, until neon lights are needed in daytime because buildings grope for the sky and dwarf men and women in canyons where they roll along with klaxons screaming and blow exhaust all over their babies. When children get a sidewalk in exchange for a meadow, when the fragrance of flowers and the view of hills and forests are replaced by air conditioning and a view across the street. It is progress when a centuries-old oak is cut down to give space for a road sign.\”

\”We felt an urge, an inconvenient need, to return to civilization. But we did not want to be a single step farther from nature than life in our part of the world made necessary. Primitive life in the wilderness had filled us with a well-being, given us more than the city life as we knew it had ever been able to give us.\”

Our 5 weeks diving with the manta rays at Islas Revillagigedos last winter were as close to his feeling of \”back to nature\” that we have experienced so far. Except for the time we will spend in Tahiti & neighboring Society Islands, we look forward to visiting less developed, isolated islands where we can immerse (and submerse) ourselves in nature and breathe in that sense of well-being that Thor spoke of.

Cindy & Scott

Dear F&F,
July 15-16, 2009 – Hike to Waterfall

It was only 1 hour motoring around to the next protected anchorage, but I felt pretty bad from the motion of the ocean. It is a lovely spot, very tranquil. I was kind of lethargic the rest of the day. Scott decided to bake bread! Never discourage a man from cooking. I set him up with a recipe & all ingredients. It turned out great. The fact that the oven was on during the hottest part of the day, did not diminish our enjoyment of the yummy fresh bread. In the evening our group of 6 had a beach party complete with bonfire. Since we didn\’t roast anything, it seemed out of place in this climate & the smoke somewhat annoying. But it supposedly helps keep away bugs. We made our plan to begin the hike to the waterfall at 8:00 a.m.

The hike was 5 hours start to finish. It rained on & off so we were quite wet well before reaching the waterfall. We crossed a stream 4 times. Once knee deep & quite swift, but a convenient tree limb growing across helped us get to the other side. Someone thought this was the 3rd highest waterfall in the world, but I have no way to confirm that. The full height was viewed only at a distance. To Scott it appeared to be around 900 feet high. Once we were up close there was a pond to wade across. We had to scramble under & over huge boulders to reach the water catchment. It was refreshing to swim toward the spray zone. We did not go all the way back to the base of the waterfall. Even though this was a second water catchment that only fell about 100 feet, the power of the water was intense.

On our return, Augustine, a local bone carver that lives in the area along the waterfall path saw us walking by in the pouring rain. He invited us under his shelter & kindly showed us his work. We admired his large spear, used when hunting pigs. He has about 5 dogs & a few cats. We were amused to see that he feeds them baguettes! He generously picked papayas & limes from his trees. Mary smartly carries a bar of soap as an impromptu gift, she was the only one prepared to reciprocate.

The others bought bananas from another woman with a small farm. We were tired & wanted to just get back, but took a few wrong turns. In the end they 4 beat us in returning to the dinghies. We were tired but glad that we had this final outing at the Marquesas. The next hike we will be able to do is in Tahiti. The tallest thing to climb on any Tuamotu Island is a palm tree! We will set sail early tomorrow, expecting 3 days at sea.

Cindy & Scott