day 110 or maybe 111
Naomi here We are free on the open ocean again, rolling about downwind. Makatea was truly a magical stop off where I found more shells and we also gleaned various fruits and lucky red seeds. Tapu the tour guide said the island is an atoll but it didn’t seem like one to me. It seemed more like a cake tin actually. Miriam and I spent the morning with a puppy from the marquesas and tapu on his way to drop us off at the store stopped off at a few sites from the old times when they mined phosphate and showed us the old slaughterhouse and the miners pizza oven too and told us about how some folks in French Polynesia are finally getting payouts from the French government, some people got very sick from the French governments nuclear testing programs. Of course you have to have all the right paperwork and so forth, they don’t make it easy. He hopes one day the people of makatea can fight for their rights too as they left the island a bit of a mess after mining it, there’s holes all through it. It was very nice to spend time in some lush jungle again after so long on the atolls, if you are ever in makatea do get in touch with tapu he is a very chill and friendly guy.
Miriam: Rollicking and rolling indeed, it feels like we are flying downwind now that night has fallen, surfing the waves and making good time to Bora Bora. I enjoyed this morning’s impromptu adventure with Naomi. We meant to just walk to the store after I met Tapu to pay him for yesterday’s rock climbing adventure but he insisted that we ought to just get a ride which turned out to be a mini tour complete with some historic sites of machinery rusting into oblivion and being devoured by the jungle, meeting his grandmother who sold us fresh eggs, seeing the family compound’s garden which was quite impressive, and getting a handful of necessities from the two tiny stores on the island which we likely would not have found without Tapu’s guidance. We walked back down to the port and gleaned tamarind, mangos, unripe vanilla beans that we hope will ripen, star fruit, a kefir lime and a key lime all while walking briskly to make it back in time for an early departure. I found some Bay Rum seedlings growing by the pizza oven and delighted in their delicious smell. Makatea was incredible and I’m grateful for our time there, as brief as it was. And now onwards to more adventures!
Ia orana, Megan here. Spent a quiet morning with Jamie on the boat, watching herds of unicorn fish stream by and inventing creative scenarios in which our crew mates had surely died given how long their quick shore mission was taking. Still, they came back with many delights, including a cool Coca Cola for me. Now we sail again, for about 48 hours straight, my longest nonstop journey thus far. Today’s greatest challenge has been cooking while my utensils and ingredients cavort and gambol about the kitchen. What vigour they exhibit during passage! I had to check with Naomi that the gimbal on the stove was up to the job. So far no disasters. Mauruuru!
Jamie here, on the road again, the road of the open ocean. Yesterday we caught a 40cm tuna in the morning then left it out all day and cooked it in the evening. It was at first treated with suspicion but turned out delicious. There was a lot of meat and I knew it wouldn’t last overnight. I could see it there and took it upon myself to eat it. All of it. I must have eaten at least half of this pelagic fish. Fried in flour served with sauce. Any sauce. Mayo, sweet chilli, tomato. By the last few bites I was almost passing out. Voices of my peers blurred into background noise, “keep going, you can do it, almost there”. I did it. With a last greasy mouthful I reclined back and fell into what can only be described as a fried fish induced slumber. Good sailing downwind today we are making stellar progress towards our final island in French Polynesia. WOD; ailment: ailment - an injury or illness which hinders or debilitates u. Used in a senny: helium is an ailment which makes up the periodic table.
Ellen here What a gorgeous sail we are having, 17kts and steering as close to downwind as possible given the sea state, this time with just the genoa. We tried this particular sail change in the hopes that Wendy the windvane might agree to steer us, but no dice - she seems to love a good wander, that Wendy, which is not really what you want downwind… So we are hand steering, which is FUN puzzle - compared to running with just the main, it’s a different challenge keeping the genoa full in the swell. I find myself delaying my steering into the waves a bit so the sail doesn’t slack and flap and bang and crash, or so it sounds below when what is happening above is fairly minor. Now that it is night it’s easier to steer to the stars and keep half my attention on the edge of the sail and the wind on my back. Changing the headsail earlier was exciting - there was much flapping, and the absurd comedy of trying to neatly fold something that is both large and awkward in an inadequately small space that is also pitching around. It’s also always excellent to include some good-natured yelling among friends, like when the loop that holds the topping lift to the boom (the topping lift is the rope that holds the boom up in the air when we’re not using the main sail) broke in the middle of the process and all of a sudden we had a very heavy and thrashy extra variable to deal with. On Bluebird the topping lift is also the main halyard (the rope that holds up the main sail when we’re using it), so it was rather important to retrieve the free end… heading upwind it was trailing way out and away behind us, so we turned downwind so it blew into the rigging and wrapped itself around all manner of things just barely within reach of our tallest person standing on the mast step and lunging at it - phew. The pointer stars for the southern cross are setting - time for bed again.