Infinity cont...

Six days at Sea.

We sailed from Tuvalu to Tonga. It took six days, or maybe more, days tend to slide into one another at sea. The weather forecast had said almost no wind to start with building to almost too much by the end. Well. Yes. So much for that theory. (Everyone was grumpy that we were leaving Tuvalu early and that we were not even going to attempt to stop at Wallis and Fortuna along the way, except the captain, of course, who'd made the plans, because he was stressed about something else, and he was, well, stressed. The mood overall was not particularly positive. And I forgot to take my preventative sea sickness meds and was dreadfully sick for the first few days.) Back to the weather... We'd assumed we'd be motoring for a few days to start with but as we pulled out of Funafuti into the ocean the wind and waves were high and rising so we raised the sails at once and killed the engine, which was great, for about 30 minutes, until, BBLLIZZZSRT, the main sail - with one reef in already due to a huge rip - ripped again, a huge tear, from side to side. Yikes. We scurried to put another reef in it (so the new rip was rolled up along the boom at the bottom out of sight) but it wasn't a procedure we'd practised and it involved a lot of yelling of instructions amidst noisy flapping sailcloth and dangerous flailing ropes. Not much fun in other words. And it sort of set the tone for the trip. Each night there were vicious squalls coming through, sudden strong winds accompanied by beating rain. The captain, worried about more damage, was being cautious  - with respect to the sails, not our beauty sleep - and so each night some of us would be up once, or twice, or even more than that, lowering the jib as a squall rushed in, and then, an hour or so later, raising it again. It takes at least 3 people to put the jib up or take it down, and 4 is better, plus one on the helm, and at night it was dark because the moon wasn't up and it was often raining and always there was salt spray dousing us as we worked on the foredeck. Yeah. Joyful. And it was all for nought anyway as the jib developed a huge rip despite all this and had to be swapped out for the much smaller storm jib and then there was yet another massive rip in the main sail leading to three permanent reefs in that which left us with so little cloth up that most of the rest of the way we motorsailed. (I think its time for new sails.) We had more squalls, we had weather so calm the sails were flogging, we had days of almost unbearable sunshine and days of endless beating rain... but overall it was OK, and, as most of us napped a lot during the days, it seemed a very quiet and uneventful - though endless - leg.

Oh, and we did see whales once, always good!

Infinity cont...

Missed Opportunities

1. Tuvalu

Tuvalu, 4th smallest country in the world, was our first missed opportunity. We didn't stay long enough to get a really good feel for it, we didn't visit any islands or atolls other than Funafuti, where the capital is located, and we didn't even visit that properly. (Clem, who had scheduled arrival in Tonga for June 6 is suddenly in a rush to make it there by May 26 (for reasons unrelated to our trip) and this has him stressed and the rest of us discouraged.)

Tuvalu is at first glance similar to other pacific nations we've seen though it's joined the modern world very successfully making 10s of millions by selling it's .tv web addresses, it's extra phone numbers, and even Tuvalu passports. It has put at least part of this money into infastructure.

In the capital, Fongafale, the airstrip, built by the US during WW2 and covering almost all of the fertile land on the island, is a social hub. People go there in the evenings to play soccer, hang out, and eat huge platefulls of rice, curried chicken, and cerviche and whole families arrive at dusk and spread their sleeping mats right on the runway to spend the night taking advantage of the breeze.

In town, houses look (to me) like houses, by which I mean they have brick or plywood walls and standard roofs, but the interiors are still very traditional, by which I mean that the only furnature many contain are woven mats and pillows. Front yards are small, often dominated by large ornate burial plots, and there is no sign of garbage whatsoever. The pigs all live in a veritable city of stys on the far side of the airstrip.

Tuvalu, like Pitcarian Island, is known for its stamps. The post office has every stamp ever made laid out under glass topped tables, all still available for sale at face value.

A large section of Funafuti is a protected conservation area; uninhabited, restricted access, and no fishing. Guidebooks claim it is spectacular even for this part of the world so we pay $5/each to have a guide accompany us there on a day trip. We do a couple dives and visit one of the islets but, really, compared to what we've seen other places it's nothing to write home about. 'It was a must but also a bust', sums up our collective opinion. Though we did see manta rays up close. We've seen sting rays and eagle rays before but not mantas, and, according to Clem, the difference between a sting ray and a manta is like the difference between a donkey and a unicorn. So that was special.

The most interesting thing I did in Tuvalu was read Where the Hell is Tuvalu by Philip Ells, and then start up an e-mail correspondence with the author, now head of a law school in England, who wrote back prompt and comprehensive answers to my questions and added a list of suggested activities, which, unfortunately, we didn't have time for. So, yes, very much a missed opportunity.


2. Wallis and Fortuna

We were supposed to stop at Wallis and Fortuna. But we didn't.  Another missed opportunity for sure. Did I mention that the captain is stressed and the rest of us discouraged.

3. Niua Fo'ou

We sail right past, as in just beside, Niua Fo'ou without stopping. Its hills, the first we've seen in months, and interior crater lake, beckon but I am powerless to do anything. We sail by. (Sob.)


Hopefully Vava'u, Tonga, which we will now have 2 weeks to visit, will NOT also be a missed opportunity.