Amanu is being good to us so far. The Northeast corner is a lovely series of coconut tree laden motus providing excellent shelter from Northeast to the Southeast winds. Plenty of bommies, but also lots of open sandy bottom to anchor and the holding is excellent. Our anchor might have dug down to China by now! There is a group of manta rays, perhaps juveniles of the giant sea going variety tooling around the area. The hike to the outer reef is a little tougher than at Tikehau’s East end, but plenty of pretty shells and tasty sea life around.
Isabel’s French language skills open a lot of doors for us, and a few days ago while returning from a beachcombing walk, she stopped to chat with a local family fishing around a nearby bommie. Nice folks – live down at the village but have a little place up here on a motu. We reckon the pressures of life in a village of 100 residents, and especially the rush hour traffic must be awful. Glad they can get up here to decompress! Yesterday they stopped by and gave us a couple of freshly caught snapper, and they’ve declared there’s no ciguatera in this lagoon. Let’s hope they’re right, but they did have a load of the fish and obviously eat them quite often. Perhaps we’ll grill them up Greek style for a new years day treat, and I’ll try and bake them a coconut cake to take today – a neighborly gesture and big thank you for the protein.
On the 28th we had a belated Christmas day dinner with Carla and Alex, beginning with starters on Ari B then moving to roast lamb with all the trimmings on JollyDogs, and for dessert Carla’s mince pies! For new years eve we hatched a plan to begin with a beach bonfire around 1600 followed by a potluck on JollyDogs for all comers. We got the word out to SV Slingshot and SV Due South, kid boats anchored 3 miles Southeast where the kite boarding is a bit better. They elected to move their boats up to this anchorage and join us for our party. SV Grace with David and Helen arrived on the 30th so they were in, and just in the afternoon SV Migration pulled into the anchorage, so for new years eve we had 6 couples and 6 kids on JollyDogs for a great evening of fun. Everyone brought everything they needed to eat or drink, dishes to share, their own plates and utensils, and we provided a hot grill.
We had a blast! The kids ranged in age from something like 14 down to 8, and they were all typical cruising kids – bright, curious, engaging, respectful, and just a lot of fun to be around. I spent as much time talking with the kids as with the adults, enjoying some very stimulating conversations. I liken cruising kids to short adults -the level of maturity they demonstrate at a very young age is astonishing. They understand responsibility and danger and without the distractions of the internet and TV they learn to entertain themselves and learn about their natural environment. Cruising is a great way to raise a family!
It was a lot of fun for us to have such a big crowd aboard, and it was a great reminder that our Seawind 1160 is a killer party platform. With the excellent ventilation, the huge cockpit, the tri-fold doors open between the saloon and the cockpit, and the many seating choices, everyone had a comfortable place to be as they talked and ate. When we fired up the grill everyone realized that JollyDogs is essentially a killer grill with a great sailing boat built around it. Everyone did their thing, cooking whatever they brought from fish to steaks to sausages. With such great weather we could have had double the number of people and still there would have been plenty of space, as the cabin top, foredeck and trampolines were underutilized. It was a fairly international event, with Canadians, Brits, Kiwis, a French Canadian (they’re different), an Austrian, an Antiguan, and an American, and everyone seemed to have a grand time.
Today we awaken to a beautiful day, a perfect start to a new year, full of hope and possibility.
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