16º 03.749s 145º 37.119w
Thu Jul 18 2019
Well
a couple, at least I think it was a couple days ago, we ended up motoring up to
the village of Rotoava on the Northeast corner of Fakarava. Much as we like to
sail, Mr. Wind decided to hose us down and then to top that off we enjoyed the
wrath of a pretty good squall. Nevertheless, we managed to get the anchor up
and depart.
Getting
the anchor up in a bunch of bommies is no small task. First off Isabel has to
steer to my shouts and crazy arm waving antics, and I’ve got to try to look
down into choppy water and see what the hell the anchor chain might be wrapped
around, decide how we might best maneuver to unwrap the chain, then communicate
that to Isabel. Bless her heart, she’s doing the best she can but I think the
only solution to keep the hollering to a minimum is to get some of those fancy
radio headset/microphone thingys and try to “maintain low tones” just like the
Coneheads! Dan Akroyd and Jane Curtain are my heros!
Anyway,
up the anchor comes with no damage, so off we chug towards Rotoava with the
hopes that the squall will pass then we’ll be able to deploy all sails and have
a gentle sail up the center channel, which is “mostly” devoid of bommies that
will sink our lovely JollyDogs. Well, it’s just not to be. It’s either all the
wind, or no wind at all, and we end up motoring al the way to Rotoava. Well
shucks, at least we arrive with topped up water tanks and batteries. As wonders
never cease, it’s almost flat calm in the Rotoava anchorage and we can see the
bommies and sandy patches. I’m at the helm and Isabel is trying to decide when
to drop the anchor. There’s this engineering thing about “phase”, and we were
certainly out of phase, as when she said “drop” and I managed to get the anchor
to hit the bottom it wasn’t the pretty picture we were envisioning. We went
ahead and did our thing, exchanging places so I could deploy anchor chain and
install buoy floats to keep the scope off bommies, while Isabel took the helm.
We did our best, and once she pulled down and pronounced us “we’re here” I donned
snorkel gear and had a look. We missed the sand entirely and are so hooked into
a bommie that I might have to don SCUBA gear to clear up the miss. In the
meantime there’ll be no dragging since we’re stuck. That’s the upside as the
wind has piped up out of the South Southeast and with almost 30 miles of fetch
it’s become a rough anchorage.
Fakarava
Yacht Services is a great place to get laundry done, sails repaired, propane
tanks filled (with butane), bicycles rented, you name it. Also the reasonably
high speed internet is free, so off we go to deliver a couple huge bags of
laundry and check our email. It’s time to get the Spotify subscription sorted
out so we can download music for listening offline. We’ve only go the contact
info for two friend’s playlists, so we’re a bit on our own. Fortunately John
from Halcyon is one of them, and he’s from Virgina and likes the same sort of
bluegrass and hillbilly music that Isabel and I prefer, and Rob, an old
boyfriend and sailing mate of Isabel’s has shared his playlists as well. I dig
around and add a bunch more bluegrass, country/western, coffee house, and
meditation stuff and we’re off and running with Spotify. I swear this is going
to change our lives!
So
now we’re all provisioned up and about to take on crew member Simon as Halcyon
has newlywed guests and I think they might want their “space” as it were, so
Simon needed somewhere to live. He spent 90 days on a freakin’ Thor Heyerdall
raft sailing from Chili to the Tuamotus before John and Becca rescued him when he
floated by the atoll Hao. He’s a young guy from Denmark, a ship’s engineer on a
walkabout, and we’ll enjoy having him aboard. Isabel is worried about how
she’ll feed him as he eats like a carp, pretty much like me. Lots of food, we
get “larger”, cut out the calories and we slim down.
We’re
outa here tomorrow – sailing for the next atoll along the way, then we’ll go
hunting coconuts, crabs, and spear fishing and generally have a great time.
Hopefully I can help the lovely Danish folks on SV North Star with the water
maker, which has been giving them problems for many months. I’m armed with
intel from Charlie at CruiseRO, and I’ve read the technical data on their water
maker, essentially a European version of our unit, installed on all Hallberg
Rassys. Their boat is a beautiful 48’ model with all the mod cons, but it’s had
it’s share of troubles as all boats do.
Our
last shore call with be at 0600 to collect fresh croissants and baguettes then
Simon will dive the anchor (his first chore) to clear it from the bommies and
we’ll be away. Time for new adventure AND new tunes!
If
you’re willing to share your musical tastes and playlists, please send your
Spotify contact info to us at jollydogs@myiridium.net
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