28/08 ANOTHER TWO WEEKS ON THE PACIFIC
We're still crossing the Pacific on our Leopard 46'... We've made our last pit stop in Tahiti and are eager to get on with it. We're doing fine and are increasingly aware of our nearing the finish line. We crossed the 12 000 mile mark this morning and are heading full speed ahead to AUS! Well, speed is a relative term. We're taking bets on our arrival date and are even more competitive when it comes to who gets the best speed while on watch. Our fortune teller tells us that only 13 days remain of our journey. The fortune teller being MaxSea, the computer program we use for navigation and prediction... hmph! It's been saying two weeks for two weeks now!
Tahiti was beautiful but hellshingly expensive. A bag of groceries cost me US$100 and a box of smokes US$6. As result we spent most of our time on the Boat in the marina making friends with our neighbours and doing laundry in buckets. I must have hauled 15 buckets of laundry between the deck and jetty but the joy of fresh water and clean sheets was well worth it.
Moored across from us was another Leopard 46', skippered by Mike, an
American guy, very cool. He's skippering Pacifica 'til the end of this year, a private yacht he's had well kitted. We could hardly believe it was the same boat as ours. Wow, he's got it all plush and has all the toys - electric winches and night sights to boot. That and Pacifica is not gift wrapped for delivery. Oh, I can't wait to start stripping off all the tape and plastic to reveal this beauty for delivery. We had Mike over to our deck for some beers on our last night in Tahiti and listened to wild and wonderful stories from his 30 year maritime career. Toward the end of story time, Mike stopped mid sentence to ask "What the hell is that?!?" that, my friend was the Maltese Falcon pulling in to anchor in the very same marina. That was a treat. The Maltese Falcon is the private property of an owner brazenly displaying all the engineering money can buy. All glossy and grand, she certainly is a wholly modern incarnation of a romantic sailing vessel.
We set sail the following morning and have now once again been on the water for 10 days. We're 1000nm from Tahiti and there are no good books left unread on board this boat. I have even read the entire mediocre cowboy books that have gone through all our hands and am now tossing coins as to which left over waste of ink not to read next... I can do a sudoku in my sleep and simply cannot play another game of solitaire. Friends, you know how extremists clutch out and kind of lose a screw or two along the way... it is getting to that time where I will soon be losing my mind.
At least the fish are still biting. I must fuss about the fish we catch. It is the only form of excitement 'round here and come dawn we throw out 3 lines in the hopes of catching the early risers. There never are any. Dorado swim in the afternoon and will bite at around 6-7kts on a clear day, where as tuna bite at 4-5kts on overcast mornings. From swimming' in da sea to my dinner plate in 2 hours. That's fresh! What we can't eat in a single sitting we freeze and alternate eating fish and the stock of mince from SA. One Dorado feeds the four of us generously for 3-4 meals. Before Tahiti we had caught so much that our fridge was stocked for 2 weeks. We were catching 3 fish a day! So although we thought it impossible, we ran out of fish and resigned ourselves to the idea of having cowboy food (beans and bully beef) for dinner. Something I never thought I'd eat let alone get excited about but you know what? "Try it, you going to like it!" anyhow so Div's got a can of bully opened when, "FISH!" Bully in a tupper and it was fresh Dorado a la Johann for dinner. The next night Div had the second can of bully open to add to the one already waiting in the fridge and wouldn't you know it..."FISH!" We finally had the bully this evening anyway.
It's Johan’s b-day on Friday and though he's playing it cool, I'm stoked! We have a little celebration planned for him that involves a stashed bottle of rum, a chocolate cake mix and a box of Molboros. The lack of wind has us all a bit despondent at the moment, food's running low and while bodies are brown they're exhausted. We could all do with a bit of an upper.
So, once we finally do get to AUS, I'll no longer be using the email addy on SkyFile and will go back to using the old addresses.
Thanx to all those who sent tid-bits along the way. It makes the separation bearable.
Love you all and hope to see you in SA soon!
Tahiti was beautiful but hellshingly expensive. A bag of groceries cost me US$100 and a box of smokes US$6. As result we spent most of our time on the Boat in the marina making friends with our neighbours and doing laundry in buckets. I must have hauled 15 buckets of laundry between the deck and jetty but the joy of fresh water and clean sheets was well worth it.
Moored across from us was another Leopard 46', skippered by Mike, an
American guy, very cool. He's skippering Pacifica 'til the end of this year, a private yacht he's had well kitted. We could hardly believe it was the same boat as ours. Wow, he's got it all plush and has all the toys - electric winches and night sights to boot. That and Pacifica is not gift wrapped for delivery. Oh, I can't wait to start stripping off all the tape and plastic to reveal this beauty for delivery. We had Mike over to our deck for some beers on our last night in Tahiti and listened to wild and wonderful stories from his 30 year maritime career. Toward the end of story time, Mike stopped mid sentence to ask "What the hell is that?!?" that, my friend was the Maltese Falcon pulling in to anchor in the very same marina. That was a treat. The Maltese Falcon is the private property of an owner brazenly displaying all the engineering money can buy. All glossy and grand, she certainly is a wholly modern incarnation of a romantic sailing vessel.
We set sail the following morning and have now once again been on the water for 10 days. We're 1000nm from Tahiti and there are no good books left unread on board this boat. I have even read the entire mediocre cowboy books that have gone through all our hands and am now tossing coins as to which left over waste of ink not to read next... I can do a sudoku in my sleep and simply cannot play another game of solitaire. Friends, you know how extremists clutch out and kind of lose a screw or two along the way... it is getting to that time where I will soon be losing my mind.
At least the fish are still biting. I must fuss about the fish we catch. It is the only form of excitement 'round here and come dawn we throw out 3 lines in the hopes of catching the early risers. There never are any. Dorado swim in the afternoon and will bite at around 6-7kts on a clear day, where as tuna bite at 4-5kts on overcast mornings. From swimming' in da sea to my dinner plate in 2 hours. That's fresh! What we can't eat in a single sitting we freeze and alternate eating fish and the stock of mince from SA. One Dorado feeds the four of us generously for 3-4 meals. Before Tahiti we had caught so much that our fridge was stocked for 2 weeks. We were catching 3 fish a day! So although we thought it impossible, we ran out of fish and resigned ourselves to the idea of having cowboy food (beans and bully beef) for dinner. Something I never thought I'd eat let alone get excited about but you know what? "Try it, you going to like it!" anyhow so Div's got a can of bully opened when, "FISH!" Bully in a tupper and it was fresh Dorado a la Johann for dinner. The next night Div had the second can of bully open to add to the one already waiting in the fridge and wouldn't you know it..."FISH!" We finally had the bully this evening anyway.
It's Johan’s b-day on Friday and though he's playing it cool, I'm stoked! We have a little celebration planned for him that involves a stashed bottle of rum, a chocolate cake mix and a box of Molboros. The lack of wind has us all a bit despondent at the moment, food's running low and while bodies are brown they're exhausted. We could all do with a bit of an upper.
So, once we finally do get to AUS, I'll no longer be using the email addy on SkyFile and will go back to using the old addresses.
Thanx to all those who sent tid-bits along the way. It makes the separation bearable.
Love you all and hope to see you in SA soon!
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