Wednesday 30 April 2008

So nearly there...

10 deg 49 min S, 132 deg 44 min W. Which means, unfortunately, we've come too far south already. :(. But that's the wind for you. Frustrating!! But the flip side of that is that it's also very Zen - you just have to go where the wind is and that's that. Happily it's turned a bit today though, and we're actually slowly heading north back towards Fatu Hiva. 'Only' 350 miles to go now... Tomorrow we should be there the day after tomorrow. Finally! All this time for thinking (and sewing - cockpit cushion cover is coming along nicely and I've got round to mending umpteen t-shirts and bras - I'm sure C puts holes in them deliberately - his t-shirts that is, not my bras!) has got me thinking... I've been remembering being little and going to museums with my Mummy, and things I did at University and all sorts of other things - remembering stuff I haven't thought about in yonks. Has made me smile.
C has progressed from Dickens to the Koran, which is appears to be much more repetitive and much less interesting! He caught a big fish today - it must've been at least 2.5 ft - we even have a photo to prove it to all you doubters. I got a lesson in filleting and we ate it for supper. Not much else to report - hopefully the next post will be from land!!
Love from (very grubby) H&C"

Sunday 27 April 2008

Only another 774 miles to go!

09 deg 29 min S, 125 deg 37 min W. Since the last post, we seem to have found the wind, and have been zipping along at a pretty steady 5 knots. Not going to break any records, but should arrive by 2nd May, which is a relief. Much easier to take it all in your stride when you can see an end in sight. (Also in sight since the last post has been a ginormous gas tanker. On my watch, obviously, as I'm a 'boat magnet' - if there's ever any traffic to deal with it's always muggins here who has to deal with it. There's millions of square miles of ocean out here, and this tanker just happened to pass within 3 miles of us. Once it had gone we all started wondering if we'd imagined it! First sign of civilisation for 12 days...)
My other bit of excitement is that I NEARLY caught a fish - in the end though, I think I was quite relieved that it got away as once I had it on the end of the line, dangling out of the water, thrashing about, my heart was racing and I really didn't want to kill it. Which is pathetic, I know, as I'm more than eager to eat fish that C catches and kills. It was just much more difficult than I had imagined. I've never killed anything before, except insects. But, now I know what to expect I'm prepared for next time. Course I won't catch anything now - the one that got away has told the others to stay clear!
Other news: C has finished, and enjoyed, Bleak House; I'm still struggling with Al Quaeda - can't read too many chapters at once or all the clever words that have gone in one side of my brain start falling out the other; I'm finding lots of uses for pumpkin - v pleased that we still have some fresh produce even though today is day 20 at sea.
One final thing to tell you that I think you'll find amusing - we're heading for the Baie de Vierges on Fatu Hiva - that's the Bay of Virgins to you and me - was called Baie de Verges (Bay of Penises) after some phallic looking rocks...but the missionaries objected and inserted an 'i' to defend everyone's modesty!
Okey dokey - might be on land next time I write - looking forward to it sooo much - except think that it might all be a bit bewildering when we get there - having to deal with NOT being on a boat. Think we might all look and smell a bit like Stig of the Dump too! Oh, I hope there's a hot shower and some croissants when we get there...
Lots of love
H (&C - asleep now though as it's the middle of the night and I'm the only one up, on watch)xx

Saturday 26 April 2008

Day 13 in the Big Brother Boat

(sent 20.04.08)
06 deg 40 min S, 110 deg, 00 min W. It really is like the BBB - '[in a Geordie accent] C has caught a fish, H is asleep, Stuart is having a coffee. Later Stuart makes lunch.' Doesn't get much more exciting than that folks. Except there's no jacuzzi or chicken run or diary room to make it more interesting. Just the same 41' of boat there was yesterday, and the day before... At least we seem to have found the Trade Winds though - currently have 16-18 knots and should be there in 15 days (last week the GPS said our ETA was the middle of July!! Don't want to miss Bastille Day in French Polynesia!)
C has resorted to reading 'Bleak House'. It's that desperate. I was going to read some chick lit book that was lying around, but my brain refused after the first chapter. So I've settled on a book about Al Quaeda instead. From one extreme to the other. (The last book I read was about the war and the Enigma machine - all the talk about rationing and mending stuff made me think of living on a boat - v pleased that, because of careful planning, we still have fresh provisions left after 2 weeks at sea. Had the last of the fresh peppers this evening though :( )
Should be half way by supper time tomorrow. Which is a relief - I had my 'I've been on a boat too long' wobble yesterday. Feeling much better now. How did people ever make this journey without knowing where they were going or even if there was anything at the other end? At least the GPS is making sure I'm inching my way towards a hot shower (haven't washed my hair since we left - was a bit yucky on day 5/6/7 but is now safely tucked away in plaits and looking after itself (plaits means that C sings the 'Oh Brunhilda' song from Bugs and Elma Fudd's 'Ring of the Nibbling' to me :) ) How does Ellen MacArthur do it without even someone else to whine to?
Right. No more news. Must go and unblock the loo before it floods.
Love from H&Cxx
PS - are now at 111 deg 29 min W - H v upset cos she was too busy talking to C to notice when it was 111 deg 11 min.111 W. Bugger!"

Tuesday 15 April 2008

BORED

4 degrees 59 minutes south,99 degrees 40 minutes west. Yes, I know, we haven't gone that far since the last post. That's because there's NO WIND. The sea was like a mirror two days ago. No kidding. It's going to take us forever to get there at this rate! Will have to start being extra conservative with water soon - no washing my hair for a while (maybe I should get dreads like C? Would stop my hair falling out all the time too - latest odd place a strand of long blond hair was found was in the engine compartment...)
I'm SO BORED. It's like being a little kid, when you're too bored to do anything. I'm making some cushions for the cockpit out of an old life jacket, trying to read a book in German and have learnt how to play Gin Rummy, but it's no good. It's still dull, and there's no getting away from the fact that there's 2340 miles still to go. And there's no getting away from Stuart (the skipper) or C either. Tensions have been a wee bit frayed the last couple of days - probably because we're all SO BORED (and because C has failed to catch any fish for days too!).
Right, sun's nearly up - nearly the end of my watch!!
More soon
Hxx"


PS yup, we do get lovely sunsets on the boat (although they tend to be cloudier than during the days) but...you get a bit blase about sunsets/rises when you see this many of them! We were sailing with another boat for a few days, but they've gone a different way to us now, so it's just us...haven't seen another vessel for at least 2 days now...

Friday 11 April 2008

Catching the right fish

"02 degrees 13.6 minutes South, 95 degrees 55 minutes West. Sun's just come up...but the wind's just disappeared. Again. So the engine's on, which means it's loud and smelly. But at least it means I can use the computer to write an email. Still can't quite get over the fact that even out here in the ocean we're still able to be online! Actually, even without email we're still not totally incommunicado. We can use our Single Side Band radio to get the World Service (including the Archers if we're lucky) and also to talk to other boats nearby on a 'Net' - it's a bit like the Waltons, everyone checks in every morning and evening to say where they are and what the weather's like!
Other news: C has caught, killed and filleted two mahi mahi (dorado - every time he catches a fish I have to get out the piece of paper with the pictures of FISH YOU MUST NOT EAT to check it's ok. The first one he caught was only a tiddler and I told him to throw it back. He said it had a bloody great hook through it's gob and had been dragged for miles so was half dead anyway, so he didn't throw it back. I did my bit for fish protection the next morning though when I threw a kamikazee flying fish back in the sea after it jumped on our deck. C was also visited during the night - by a flying squid which landed at his feet in the cockpit!!)
Not much else to report - have been sewing, read a v bad Robert Ludlum book and trying to think of inventive things to do with cabbage as we have lots of it. Hope we find the elusive South East Trade Winds soon. H&Cxx"

Sunday 6 April 2008

Nearly done in the Galapagos

Helen: Thought we´d be gone by now...but we´re still here. Our skipper doesn´t like doing anything in a hurry, which is a bit annoying as we feel like we´re done here already and want to get going. Specially as we have a new plan forming... We think there is a very strong possibility that we might have had enough of sailing (especially sailing other people´s boats) by the time we get to NZ. One bit of sea, and for that matter, one island, looks pretty much like another, and we´re not really into the cruising lifestyle - lots of sitting on your boat looking at pretty views or moaning to other yachties about how long it takes/expensive it is to get parts. So...the inkling of a new plan that´s forming in our minds is that we might ditch boats in favour of bikes when we get down under. If Euan McGregor can do it, don´t see why we can´t. So, I´m just sitting here looking up what the weather´s like in Bejing, Nepal, Bombay, Cairo, Istanbul, Croatia, Vienna, Moscow, Sweden and Denmark, trying to plot a route that gets us where we want to go at the right times of year to avoid snow, big winds and lots of rain. We spent ages looking at a map of the world the other day and decided that the only way to avoid major war zones was to ship the bike from India to Egypt. We´ve had enough bad luck already without deliberately putting ourselves in harms way!
As for our immediate adventures here - we went snorkelling this morning in a lovely fresh water pool (kinda crevice in the rocks really) and have just had ice creams. Afraid it´s not much more exciting than that just now! We did, however, find the weekly fruit and veg market yesterday, which was a relief as otherwise we thought we were going to have to live off tinned food for the next month. Not an appetizing prospect.
Will write again when we can
H & Cxx

Thursday 3 April 2008

Underwhelmed and overtaxed in the Galapagos

Helen: Wish I didn´t get so excited about things, like C, as then I wouldn´t get so disappointed when they didn´t turn out as I expected. I´ve seen so many pictures of the Galapagos in National Geographic and learned so much about Darwin at University, that I was really looking forward to the Galapagos. It´s really not that great though. Oddly, we keep meeting other tourits who say this is the highlight of their trip or the best holiday ever. We can only assume that they haven´t spent any time in the Caribbean or Africa or Asia for that matter - there are so many places we´ve been where the wildlife is more accesssible (even in Panama, just outside the marina we saw monkeys in the wild). And other places are cheaper!! It´s v expensive here - I´d like to believe that´s becuase everything has to be imported, and also becuase the money they raise by taxing and overcharging tourists is reinvested into the protection of the national park. C on the other hand is more cynical. He thinks the whole thing is an elaborate money extraction exercise, based on the reputation of the Galapagos and the fact that they have a captive market. Maybe he´s right. Although they don´t need any more tourists. They don´t have enough water for the ones they´ve got. Or enough fresh fruit and veg for the locals. It´s v v hard to find fresh produce here, so most people (locals included) eat out for every meal. Which explains why they´re so fat. They women at least - our guide for our mountain trek told us that only the men play sports. They women just watch TV and have babies. They don´t seem to grow much here - only one of the islands has fresh water - but they do get lots of rain, and the highlands are pretty lush, so we can´t help wondering why everything is imported. Hmmmm

But, it´s not all bad. We met up with a Swedish friend who we met in Panama; we´ve been snorkelling, and seen a sting ray (no seals though - they´re always in the water just before and just after we are in the water, but never at the same time! We also missed out on sharks, but I´m inclined to think that´s actually a good thing!); and we climbed a volcano on Tuesday. It was a very bleak landsacape with amazing colours (red, black, orange, yellow, white, green from the ferns that were growing in the craters and blue from the sky). We were lucky that we had the whole place to ourselves - just me, C and our 2 guides (could´ve done the walk no worries by ourseleves, but you must have a guide - see above, money extraction). Because we had decided to camp, we started out a lot later than the groups of tourists who trek up the hill on horses. They were all coming down as we were going up. They seemed to have guides who spoke good English - ours didn´t. At first I wished Carla and Cesar had spoken better English and known more about the geology/wildlife of the area - but C said it would have made him feel like he´d been on a school field trip, and, actually, having to try to speak Spanish was really good for us. We camped with them and the two national park guards that evening and sat around in their hut chatting (well, attempting to chat). A much more ´local´ experience than we would have had if we had gone with a large organised tour. (We weren´t expecting to find the guards at the campsite, and had packed for being in the wilderness - the guides and guards offered to let us cook in their well appointed kitchen, but C insisted on using his camping stove outside. They all came out to have a look - I´m not sure if they were impressed or bemused by the clouds of billowing deisel smoke!)

Right, that´s enough for now. For anyone who´s interested we´ve seen penguins, rays, blue-footed boobys, seals, giant tortoises (v v cute) and marine iguanas. So that´s a big TICK for Galapagos as C would say. Going to try to find some fresh produce and stock up on deisel and water and should be leaving for the Marquesas on Saturday.

Hx