Thursday, July 18, 2013

Off to Manihiki - really!

Dennis, Carol, and Josh were successful and were able to resolve their issues, so we are sailing south to the Cook Islands today. Manihiki will be our first stop - just a short 6 days (and nights) away. We will spend a couple of days there resting up and then sail on to Suwarrow. Looks like we have a good weather window for the trip. Hope it holds!

We were boat locked all day, our dinghy is folded up on the deck ready for take off. So we puttered around on projects. Even laundry was a good experience - the spinner dolphins entertained me, the terns screeched when I wasn't doing it right, and the frigates soared above keeping a close eye on me. I had a crowd watching over me.

Mel would be proud of me - I learned a new boat knot today - a Moku hitching knot. I was covering the mast pulpit where Doug stands - trying to keep him from slipping. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out quite like the picture. Guess I needed more directions. Oh well, it will hold until I get to re-do it Suwarrow!

Even though we have enjoyed Christmas, we are looking forward to seeing another country and another island. Time to get moving.

As always, we will be checking in daily with the Pacific Seafarers Net, updating our blog, plus our position report so that you can keep track of us.

We won't have internet access until Western Samoa, which should be around mid-August, so I will have lots of pictures to post and share.

Miss you all!


PS: We have been at Christmas long enough to get used to the daily activities in the anchorage.

The guy that paddles out every night in his small canoe about 4pm, sets his net, and waits for the fish. At dusk, he pulls in his net and paddles home. We can never tell if he catches anything or not...

The big fishing/cargo ships (the Mother ships) behinds us. The smaller (still big) fishing boats that attach to them and spend days and days unloading their catches into their cargo holds. Eventually both boats sail away. The smaller boats out to catch/net more fish; the Mother ships back to South America (we think). Worried about all of the tons and tons of fish that are taken out of the Kiribati waters daily...

The local fishing boats that come out to check their traps daily. Based on the huge spiny lobsters in the freezer that Carol found, I am thinking that is what is in the traps. Doug thinks it might be aquarium fish that they are catching and sending to Hawaii(?) for sale. If it is the lobster, I sure wish I would have figured that out sooner. I love lobster!

Then there is the two government ships that move around a lot in the anchorage, plus transport boat loads of cargo and people around the Kiribati islands. Quite a process.

Plus, we got to see the Wednesday plane. It comes in every Wednesday from Hawaii. At first, we couldn't figure out what was making all that noise. We haven't seen or heard a plane since we left Hawaii. Too funny.

As you can tell, we spend lots of time in the cockpit watching life around us and making up stuff we can't figure out. One of our favorite things to do!

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