Day 28 - Gambi-or gambi-er?
Trystand Today we had baguettes, papaya and fresh coconut for breakfast. Followed by the whole crew stripping down to their speedos and having a shower in a pretty serious downpour, followed by midday nap. Fran and I went snorkeling and I held him ever so tight when I saw a big fish.
Jamie here, by the beard of Zeus we are making things happen. Water, fruit, friends, you name it. Already planning the next trip around Tasmania. We have been gifted the borrow of a trolley by a fellow sailor so we no longer have to carry our 80 litres (total) of water by hand and be the laughing stock of town. We are moving on up. Rain today, bought some fresh veggies and collected water. Bought more baguettes at 6am in the hustle. Bought dinner which was french fries in soy/garlic sauce with bbq chicken on top. This would take off in NZ amongst the tradies for sure! Tomorrow we are planning to pull anchor and go across the atoll to the “airport anchorage” to try and find some good diving and more exploration away from the town of rikitea.
Naomi here– a nice combo today of resting while it rained – altho when it started raining hard you bet we were up on deck lathering up with soap and using Frans surfboard to funnel all the fresh water down upon us to rinse off- fresh bodies at last ! And a bucket or two to rinse some clothes off too. Fran and I visited a boat for coffee in the morning and this evening we all went round to a catamaran for drinks and swapping stories too, and in between we met a couple of other cruisers too. I am eternally nervous that when the boys see how dry the other boats are they will jump ship. The catamaran tonight even had real ice on board! At least we have the best stories tho, hands down.
Francesco.
We are slowly getting comfortable in this new tropical world. In these last few days I saw two very strong different realities, on one hand you have the eternal untouched world of the locals, there are people here that know only this reality and nothing else, sure they saw few changes here and there, but at the end their cultural world and values are still untouched and eternal, then you have this movement of oceanic nomads, sailing all around the seven seas just to satisfy this driving needs of being everywhere, enjoying all the hidden gems of this globe, without missing a corner of it. And these two realities are living consecutively in the same space, but never fully involved in each other different dynamics ..just aware and respectful of it. The water, separating these boats and the houses is like a wall in between these worlds.
After visiting few neighbor boats with lovely people on it, I’m slowly realizing how big was our adventure to get here, when they listen to our stories from their comfortable, cozy floating homes, they, sometimes wonder how we managed to deal with our ” uncomfortable” situation ( no bathroom, no fridge, small spaces, big ocean conditions , rough winds, water everywhere, few things breaking down..) and I can see ,some how, a bit of jealousy and desire to live just for few hours the real adrenaline rush of our Adventure. I think that our best value and gift seats in the great team that we’ve put together. Sure, we have a skilled experienced captain and the help of technology for weather forecast but also we can see the ironic face of life and deal with it, or just finding a way out with a smile on our faces.
Tristan pooped his speedos during a grouper encounter today, I didn’t dare to tell him about tomorrow’s shaky reef…
Sent from Iridium Mail & Web.