August 11, 2007, Saturday, Day 37
Passage Underway: Leaving Toau Atoll, South Anchorage
Scattered billowy cloudy skies, 58% humidity, and temperature 80F/27C, barometer: 1010 millibars.
0812 local, 1812 UTC, pulled anchor and left the south anchorage of Toau, on our way to Tahiti
We expect 15-25kt winds and lumpy seas so we made sure everything was stowed or tied down, everyone had food and seasick medicine inside them. We even insisted that Gaby (who never gets sea sick) take a Sturgeron for the passage. Rock and roll that's what we were expecting. To borrow a quote from the Harry Potter movie, "Hold on, it's gonna be a bumpy ride".
0845 we arrived at the pass, aligned our boat with the white range markers, engine hummed, no sails up, then we turned Encanto into the pass with the easterly winds on our starboard bow. Three to five foot waves were generated from the wind meeting the outgoing current making a WILD and rocky passage. Captain had the wheel firmly in both his hands as we bounced and dodged between the waves. Several times, the swells splashed into the cockpit and twice doused Judy who was sitting in the cockpit. This kept up beyond the pass as the current extended about 2 miles out.
The drugs kicked in and most of us had to go below to sleep off the effects of the seasickness medicine. The Captain was left to single-hand his mistress in these sloppy seas.
Captain:
"We tried to leave Toau today for Tahiti. We got about 10 miles out and about to cross over the top of the atoll when I made the decision to stop at the northern anchorage, Anse Amyot. If this place wasn't here, we would have kept on, but to be honest, my heart wasn't in it. We were in 5-7' beam seas, rolling, and just not happy. The weather forecasts were showing 20-25 knots of wind from the east to southeast and a trough (a weather feature similar to a low pressure system, but much more
compact) in the area. I just got a newer forecast, and it looks like the system is moving east. We will stay here try again on Monday to leave for Tahiti."
First Mate:
Greeted by a launcha (a home built wooden boat with outboard motor), Gaston and his nephew guided us to a mooring that could handle our 25-ton steel sloop. Monaa threw Gaby a line and she laid it firmly around our bow bollard. The use of mooring is an idea that should be promoted, thus protecting the coral heads AND, avoiding that woe and worry of wrapping your chain and anchor on a coral head. We have heard several tales of boats that had to leave their anchor and chain in order to escape the dreaded chance of going on the rocks and reefs. Or the tales told by cruisers and islanders of coral heads having to be sawed off to retrieve an anchor and chain. Our Captain has quietly worried throughout our term in the South Pacific over this woe.
Perhaps, we could have continued on the two nights, two-day passage in the rough, sloppy seas, some of the worst we've seen, but why go when everyone just wasn't feeling well and when the chances are high that the weather and conditions will calm and be better in a day or two?
This anchorage is drop dead gorgeous. Some of the prettiest blues we have ever seen set in white sandy beaches and abundantly gorgeous reefs. The quality of light as it hits the water is unbelievable and we know we can't catch it on film or even in a painting. It is just a sight to be seen by the naked eye and one's memory.
A welcome hail from our friends on s/v Mokisha, triggered us to quickly drop the dinghy, something we rarely do; usually we like to kick back and just enjoy our new surroundings before going ashore. With Colleen, s/v Mokisha, we were off to the village. Warmly greeted by Valentina, who began to tell us stories of the atoll and her family. Currently, there are only five people living here, Valentina, her husband-Gaston, her nephew, her brother, and a friend. Frequently, other members of her family are here, making for a population of about twenty, but at this time, several family members are in Tahiti or Fakarava.
Their daughter (21) is in Tahiti attending school in Information Sciences. A computer literate daughter is quite the contrast to the subsistence life on this one telephone booth island, where the population is five, not counting the dozen chickens, one cat, several dogs, pigs, and piglets. Valentina walked with us, sharing her wonderfully generous laughter and stories.
We walked pass Gaston and Monaa as they quickly shucked the white coconut meat from the shells. Burlap bags of coconut meat would be laid out for three days of drying and become copra. Copra is a mayor life support on these islands. The supply ships come and exchanges cash or fuel for Copra. They sell the copra for about $1 USD per kilogram. It is hard work. The supply ship only comes to this island when they have copra to sell. The copra is used to make lotion, soap and healing medicines.
She showed us their small church, where she is the pastor. "It's a lot of work to come up with a service every Sunday, but I'm a believer. Are you a believer?" I stuttered and then said, "Well, I believe in the goodness in people, loving kindness, diplomacy and I have faith in the future." "Do you believe in Buddha?" (Several nights ago we had had a dinnertime conversation where we all agreed that Christians often mistake, Buddha to be a God, when he really was a man who found enlightenment and chose the middle way, a practice in daily life of mindfulness, but he never claimed to be "God". Often this concept of a practicing lifestyle, get confused as a dogmatic religion. My head wasn't ready to explain all this when I speak no French). Before I could say anything while still in my mind, Valentina smiles and says, "So, you ARE a non-believer." Then, she laughed, a big belly laugh. A whamm, gotta ya feeling struck me. I'm sure Valentina and I will have many more conversations about my being "a non-believer" and how I could be "saved". More stories to come…
For those who don't know, we are meeting a schedule, rare as that is for the crew of Encanto. We'd like to be in Tahiti by Wednesday night to meet our friend Ann who is flying in from California for a three-week visit on Tahiti and Moorea. She likes to refer to us as her coming to "Camp AmberChan and the giggle factory". We are warming up and ready to warmly embrace her.