After goodness knows how many days at sea, we arrived in Tahiti this morning! We spent a couple nights in Aputaki in the Tuamotus and a week or so in the Marquises and now here we are. This leg has flown by and I’m sad it is over in a week. This group has been so much fun, and once again, I don’t want any of them to leave. My consolation is that 10 are continuing on next leg, so the fun will continue! This leg has felt more like what I expected Offshore to be like in terms of the places we visited. The connections we have made with communities is incredible and their hospitality has been overwhelming. Hopefully, I’ll get back here with my camera to upload some photos in the near future so you can see the places we’ve been. The Tuamotus are coral atolls and look like places you see photos of but don’t actually exist. Well, now I have those photos! Lots of love to everyone.
Tag Archives: pacific odyssey
Off Again
Yesterday was the first day of leg 2. I spent my days off relaxing – going to Pearl Harbour, wandering the old part of town and seeing the palaces, art gallery, Anglican Cathedral (was there for an organ recital too), the state capital building, and others. I also spent a bit of time lounging on the beach in Waikiki and managed to see Harry Potter opening night. Very sad that they didn’t include Fred and George’s swamp… but oh well.
Today we leave around noon to head down to the Marqueses and Tahiti. It sounds like it will be about a 2 week crossing to next land, so I guess you won’t hear from me for a bit, and who knows what Internet I’ll be able to find down there. The trainees all boarded yesterday and we were able so say another farewell so some of our leg one trainees. It seems like this will be another fun group and I’ve sailed with at least 2 of them before. I can’t say I’m sad to leave port. Honolulu is not Hawaii in the sense of the Hawaii we knew on some of the other islands and I’m getting tired of the endless amounts of fancy shops and tourist traps. It will be fun to get down to some of the other islands further south. We cross the equator this leg… hopefully King Neptune’s court isn’t too cruel to us.
Finally Pictures
Back here again with all the appropriate pieces for uploading photos! They aren’t in order because that is too much work, but they are captioned! Enjoy…
Restocking the boat one side at a time in Honolulu. We had to pile all the bags and mattresses over on one side and do half the bunks then shift everything over to the other side and do it again.
Waikiki beach, Honolulu. I’ll be staying 3 blocks up from this next week on my days off!
The NaPali Coast on Kauai. Nouri and Naomi cross the river which was fairly swift. It leads into a beach where we couldn’t swim.
Butterfly on the NaPali Coast trail.
Me at the Waimea Canyon, Kauai. I guess this pose is tradition now…
Travel buddies for the day in our lovely van: Sara, Me, Christina, Nouri, Elske, Tavish, and Becca at Waimea Canyon.
The Mango pickers/eaters: Elske, Sara, Nouri, Christina, Bec. We saw this random guy with a huge pole with a net at the top along the side of the road on the way to the canyon and sort of stalked him to some mango trees. Tav and Nouri climbed up the first one and shook mangos down at us and poked at others with a stick. We then drove down the road and found another tree (Sara hanging on to the mango hunting stick out the window because we didn’t want to leave it behind it was so good). Everyone went up this tree except Sara and I and they kept throwing mangos down at us. We ate about 30 on the site and had over 40 to bring home with us. Nothing like freshly picked mango!
Anchored off of Maui. The water was so clear, you could see the bottom at 50 ft. I snorkled off the boat and some of the guys dove down to do some repairs on the props here.
Two of these guys found us in crazy winds en route from Maui to Kauai. I think it is a silverbill of some kind. Jacob is holding it in his hands. Eventually they flew off the boat – no matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t make them stay. They probably didn’t make it to land which is kind of sad.
Taro fields on Kauai.
The NaPali coastline.
The sign at the beach where we couldn’t go swimming… don’t worry Dad, I didn’t go in the water!
Getting dunked while bowsprit hanging. The water was so warm, but it is a weird feeling out there – I kept thinking the boat was going to run me down. I guess you could say we are sort of like the carrot that is dangled in front of the donkey, just hanging off the bowsprit.
The Mauna Kea Observatories, 14000 ft up on the Big Island of Hawaii.
Our rented trucks at the top of the world. I feel like it should be an advert or something. I drove the hideous blue Durango. The road up was so steep I was only able to make 15miles/hour with it floored. Granted, there were 9 people in there, but still. It was steep.
Mauna Kea from the water as we sailed by at sunset the next day.
The Island of Maui.
The flying fish we “caught” – it came on board in the mouth of one of the durango we caught.
Noah dragging the Wahoo we caught with the flying fish as bait. The Wahoo was about 30lbs and about the same length as Noah (age 9-ish). It fed us all with leftovers.
Me in my bowsprit hanging atire.
Antony perched percariously on the end of the main boom doing some sail wrangling while underway.
Sunrise en route to Hawaii.
!
Simon holding the flying jellyfish we brought onboard in a deck bucket.
Deck shower time!
Reflection of the Main in the Binnacle.
Elske and Christina bowsprit hanging.
Our Menu board in the Galley… the day of the big Wahoo (30lbs) that fed the entire boat with leftovers!
Maui
Still no pictures because, silly me, in the hurry to get into the zodiac this morning I forgot to bring my cord. We are on Maui at the moment, the town of Lahina. The last few days have been eventful. Sunday we went up Mauna Kea, the hightest point on the Big Island, and, at just under 14000ft the tallest mountain in the world. Yes, it is taller than Everest because it goes from 0 to 14000 ft in about a 2 hour drive (plus it extends some 15000 ft below the water). On the top are the worlds best telescopes, including 2 (Krek 1 and Krek 2) which have 10m lenses. Which, to put it mildly, is huge. We went inside 2 of the telescopes up there and stayed up top to watch the sun set over Maui. The clouds decend as it cools off at night and so it was like looking out of an airplane with clouds below us and the sun set, except we were standing on land!
Leaving the Big Island saw us battling crazy winds (we were surfing down waves at 11knts) in our passage to Molokini, a half crater extinct volcano which has great snorkling. Or so I have heard, everyone got to go off snorkling while I made breakfast. Breakfast you say? Yes, we arrived there at 5:30 am to beat all the tour boats who litterally take over the place around 8:30. After some snorlking, everyone came back on the boat and ate breakfast then we headed over to Maui where we are at the moment. We are anchored off Lahina, the former capitol of Hawaii and a former whale town where the guy who wrote Moby Dick visited.
We pull up the hook tonight and head up to Kuai before making out way down to Oahu and Honolulu by Independance Day.
Aloha!
We docked in Hawaii – Hilo on the Big Island – last night just after midnight and were officially cleared through customs this morning! I spent this morning at the weekly farmers market with Katie stocking up on fresh fruits and veggies we have not seen for a few weeks. This afternoon I, with some others, drove out to some waterfalls and then to a beach where we snorkled for a bit (and I got to try out my new equipment birthday presant from Dad and Colleen!). The first thing that struck me was the sand was black from the volcanic rocks. Then, I got out there and saw all sorts of huge colourful corals and lots of bright fish. And then there were the turtles!!!
Anyway, internet is expensive here, so if you haven’t checked out the daily log on www.salts.ca that Bonice, the Skippers wife, does each night, you should because it is a pretty good insight into our days. She does not exaggerate the rocking of the ship and the craziness of the galley at times. I’ve only been burnt twice though, which I am proud of. Another highlight for me was bowsprit hanging yesterday – hanging from a rope (in a harnes) from the tip of the bowsprit and dangling in the water. Not only is it lots of fun and very refreshing, it is a great way to exfoliate every part of your body… I’m looking forward to sailing past the flowing lava in the next few days and seeing the bay where Captain Cook was killed. Then its up to some of the other islands. Photos when I can get cheaper internet!
gillian's island 