15º 48.193s 146º 09.174w
Sun Jul 21 2019
Well
we finally bailed from Fakarava a few days ago, sailing the short distance from
the North pass of that atoll to Toau atoll Southeast pass, one with a bit of a
“reputation”, but we arrived with wind on our back and a slight incoming tide
and the entry was a “non-event”. Not so the exit yesterday, but that’s another
story and one that will be told over a good craft beer. It will begin with “no
sh_t, there I was, thought I was gonna die”. By then we’ll embellish the
details of the event so that it sounds much more impressive and dangerous than
it actually was, but suffice it to say that we’ll do our best not to repeat
that experience. Back when I had just finished my IFR flight rating and wanted
to go shoot some approaches on a rare nasty weather day in Arizona I was a
weekend guest at my test pilot pal Bert’s home. Another test pilot, Bob quizzed
me about the weather forecast, which included known icing in clouds. He quickly
shoved a very alcoholic beverage into my hand, promising to tell me stories
about how he got really scared and darn near killed flying in icing conditions
so I wouldn’t feel compelled to do it myself. Worked out great, and I’m still
here. Excessive consumption of alcohol does occasionally result in a positive
outcome, as we’ll soon hear.
After
entering the Southeast pass we turned to port and wandered about 3 nm down to a
lovely spot with excellent protection from the predominate Southeast wind and
swell. There were numerous dwellings onshore, heaps of coconut palms, and some
feral livestock wandering about including pigs and chickens. There was also a
very shy dog. Our new best friend and temporary crew Simon the Danish guy and I
went off on the SUPs for a bit of exercise and shore touring and discovered a
lot of dead coral and much less fish than we were accustomed to seeing on other
atolls. Not really sure why.
The
three of us dinghied ashore the following day and did a bit of exploring,
nosing around the abandoned huts and shacks, noting that folks must live in
them during the copra harvest. Copra is dried coconut which is processed to
make coconut oil and such. Many of the atolls are covered with coconut palms
that have been planted to exploit the coconut crop. Anyway, we gathered a few
dry coconuts to open for the meat, and Simon managed to break an entire branch
of green coconuts off a short palm tree. The green ones are better for drinking
the water as it has a nicer flavor, and the ones with more bronze or gray
finish generally have more meat. They also get oilier as they get older, and if
you find one that is actually sprouting it will have a bit of meat inside that
is more like bread in texture. Tastes good! Apparently if the sprout has been
growing for a while the entire inside of the coconut turns into that bread-like
texture. I’ll have to look for one of those.
In
one of the shacks we found a pick axe with a chisel tip, perfect for husking
the coconuts, so we took care of the dry ones we wanted to take back to JollyDogs.
The green ones we treated differently – using a clean drill bit to drill
through the husk and drain the water for a refreshing potable! In hindsight we
should have husked those as well; getting to the inside of the shell to see if
there’s any tender meat to harvest is a bit of a palaver without the right
tool. Oh well.
Simon
and I went on a long SUP paddle later in the day while Isabel did a long yoga
workout – and we stopped to put the tools we had borrowed back where we found
them. There were 3 pigs poking about and we broke open about a dozen coconuts
just to enjoy seeing the pigs eat them. Pigs love coconuts, lots of oinking and
tail wagging! So do feral chickens, but those guys were too shy to get close
while we were around. Perhaps their relatives ended up in a frying pan by
getting too friendly with the humans. . .
We
left the anchorage at the crack of sunup yesterday morning to make the slack
tide at the pass which didn’t quite work out, nevertheless we had a lovely sail
up to the North end of the atoll where there’s a false pass, actually just a
bit of a dent in the atoll with a lovely lagoon, a very small village and few
mooring balls. There’s a lady named Valentine who runs a little restaurant and
given her reputation for putting on a great feed we’re booked in for dinner on
Tuesday, with the crew of Halcyon joining us. They’ve got friends visiting –
newlyweds – so Simon is on board with us for a spell. He’s great to have
around, educated as a 200 meter cargo ship engineer and worked as one long enough
to pile up some money then go on a walk about. He’s been on an adventure for
quite some time now, having recently spent 90 days on a Kon Tiki style raft
sailing from Chile to the Tuamotus where he bailed out of the expedition.
That’s a great story that’s best told by Becca from Halcyon – perhaps she’ll
post something on their www.halcyonwandering.com blog site. She’s a
great writer!
Yesterday
Simon and I spent a few hours aboard SV North Star, a beautiful Hallberg Rassy
48’, with a Danish family, dad Kim, mom Marie, and daughters Alex and Mickey. I
spent several hours troubleshooting their ill-tempered water maker with Kim.
Simon spent his time on deck enjoying the wild flirtations of the 2 daughters.
Kim and Marie really like him and had invited him to sail to New Zealand with
them later this Fall, an opportunity he graciously declined. After we returned
to JollyDogs in the mid-afternoon Isabel gave him a “why New Zealand is a
killer place to visit for a few months, and you must be nuts to turn down such
an opportunity”. I noted that Kim and Marie would be great in-laws and that
both beautiful daughters seemed like him “a lot”.
Funnily
enough, last night Simon went over to exchange contact information with the
family and returned about 3 hours later having enjoyed several adult beverages
with the family. He announced that he had accepted their invitation to sail to
New Zealand – no big surprise to us, and we’re pleased he passed that
particular IQ test! They’re lovely people with a wonderful, seaworthy boat and
their itinerary puts Simon in New Zealand during the best weather. It’s a great
country for backpacking and adventuring – simply no downside. We like to think
we’ve been a good influence, including introducing Simon to the finer aspects
of tequila.
Simon
will be 28 soon – as my cousin Harry told me many years ago, young enough to do
anything one wants, but old enough to be taken seriously. An awesome time in
anyone’s life, and one that I still remember clearly. I reckon Isabel and I
will live vicariously through Simon when our own lives seem to be a bit too
dull.
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