We’re here. We’re elated to be in Vava’u. We’re freezing and wearing sweaters at 18 degrees south. We’ve cleared in. Ellie is on a mooring. Vava’u is breathtakingly beautiful. We just had fish and chips. We’re both ready to catch up on some sleep and then plan our itinerary for visiting the many dozens of anchorages in Vava’u. Goodnight and Godspeed. L&A

Mowri from Fanning!

We have weathered the storm and are now enjoying clear sunny skies with puffy tradewind clouds highlighted with turquoise reflected off the lagoon. It’s beautiful here.

We have officially found a Polynesian atoll that has yet to be overtaken by the western world. The locals still get around in dugout canoes and some have the old style Polynesian triangle sails – such an awesome sight! There is no industry on the island. There is no electricity. There is no internet or phones. The 3,000 inhabitants (I know, that a lot of people for an 8 mile-long atoll right?) subsist off fishing, pandanus and coconuts. They live in traditional open palm-thatch dwellings. The supply ship only visits three times per year and then only to bring some medical supplies, a few cans of spam and to pick up the copra (dried coconut) and seaweed that the islanders export. What a privilege to be able to visit such an unspoiled native population of friendly people. We can’t wait to explore the island and meet more of the locals – they can’t seem to stop smiling every time they come near the boat, such a wonderful welcome.

Yesterday we cleared customs, immigration and … there was a third guy but I think he may have been along for the coca-cola and chips we served them. We tried to radio customs in the morning but were told that they don’t have a VHF anymore. When friends from another boat went into the village they informed customs we were here and would like to clear in. A couple of hours later we were informed they had been standing on the dock waiting for a ride out to our boat! Oops, didn’t know we were suppose to pick them up – they don’t have a boat! Our friend Donni from the schooner SHOSTROM picked them up in his big tender – the three huge guys probably would have sunk our little dinghy! They came aboard and were very friendly and extremely gracious. They were enamored by the ice in their glasses – they got all excited and kept showing each other the ice. That pretty much tells you how very remote this island is. They stamped our passports and we pushed papers back and forth for about 45 minutes while chatting and sharing some tortilla chips and jalapeno dip, which they were also very excited about. We asked them what they do for fun on the island and they said, “We drink Kava at the Kava bar, but only Friday nights, it’s karaoke and you should come.” We most certainly will. We also asked how many boats visit this island per year and they said, “five”, we looked around and counted five boats and asked, “the five that are here?”, they said, “yes, and they all came in the past week.” haha They don’t see many yachts in this remote island. After the formalities were complete we raised the flag of Kiribati and were officially cleared into the country.

We spent the rest of yesterday cleaning up the boat, doing laundry and searching for where the water had been coming in during the passage. It was coming from a poorly bed (my half-ass fault) deck fitting for the holding tank pump out. I pulled the fitting, cleaned it all up, sanded the non-skid flat, dug out moist balsa from the core of the deck, epoxied the gaps and screw holes and then re-bed the whole fitting with polysulfide sealant. When I was squeezing the sealant the bottom blew open and the white sealant got all over my nice shorts – Lyss was pissed that I ruined yet another pair of shorts. But the fitting is now sealed properly and shouldn’t leak anymore.

After a long day of hard labor we invited our friends over for a beer. Both LEVANA and SHOSTROM came over and were so impressed by how good and refreshing the amber draft beer was that they couldn’t believe we brewed it ourselves and were adamant that we must have bought it in Honolulu. They were very appreciative to be enjoying a craft amber draft beer in a place that you can’t buy a beer if you had a million dollars to spend on it. [Interestingly, alcohol is banned on the island and locals can be jailed for being caught with any. They ferment sap from the coconut tree to make a type of alcohol.] We chatted the evening away with our friends and enjoyed a magnificent sunset. Alyssa made a toast to being back in the cruising mode. We certainly are

This morning Alyssa joined three other women from the other cruising boats and headed into the village. They are headed to the middle school to teach the students yoga. One of the cruisers teaches yoga and the school teacher thought it would be a great cultural experience for the children to learn yoga from the foreigners. She is taking pictures and GoPro so whenever we find internet we’ll have to upload some footage.

It’s really hot here and without a breeze you start to sweat profusely. Luckily the SE trades have been blowing through the boat to keep things livable. The water temp is finally warm enough for the “Princess and the Pea” to enjoy swimming…we only had to come to the equator to make that happen!

We’ll update you again in a couple of days. We have much to explore. I bought LED solar lawn lights at COSTCO before departing and we plan to gift them to families we meet. We think they will be a huge hit since they don’t have electricity here.

Aloha from Fanning Island,
Lewis & Alyssa

May 5, 2015 (May 6 here in Kiribati)

Anchored:
03 51.555 N
159 21.491 W

Night passages are difficult. The wind patterns are inconsistent, squalls are formed, and the seas look exceptionally larger because you don’t see them until they are at your stern rail(and very often are larger because of aforementioned squalls). Last night was no exception. Squall after squall hit us, with winds reaching 32kts and driving rain making cockpit solitude unattainable. The waves increased so we were going more downwind than our course called for, but that’s easy to make up when seas subside or we make it up when we’re motoring through the ITCZ on a B-line for our destination. One wave came over the entire dodger, filling the cockpit halfway with water. In less than 30 seconds, our scuppers drained the flood, but we mistakenly forgot to put our generator (which is fairly weatherproof) into a garbage bag in case the cockpit flooded. It has been rinsed with fresh water and is drying in the sunlight this morning, but I hope that there is no real consequence to our obvious lapse in preparedness.
Just before the squalls started, I was relaxing in my little corner under the dodger and noticed what looked like a dark wet spot on the oversized pillow I was resting on. I touched it and thought it was just a shadow, but a second later, I turned my hand over and the spot was in my palm and about to crawl up my sleeve!!! It was a cockroach!!! Contrary to popular belief, these suckers actually FLY. That’s right, there’s NO DEFENSE in keeping them off your boat in Hawaii. I quickly whip-lashed the nasty roach off me and onto the cockpit floor. I think the wet conditions slowed him down, and my delayed (freaking out) reflexes were able to smash him before he got away. I forgot to mention that yesterday night a large one flew at me from the settee when Lewis was asleep and landed right on the nav table when I was writing in the log! I FREAKED and jumped up, trying to look for something to hit it. Long story short, it’s somewhere in the bilge or our liquor storage area. So far, Lewis has killed one on deck which was hiding under our jacklines which keep us tethered to the boat in heavy weather. Who uses their bare hand to smash a cockroach?! Oh yeah, Lewis. We put poison feeders everywhere inside the boat, but I’m not convinced that it will work. I’m hoping these are just tag-alongs and not newborns. They didn’t seem that small, so wish us luck and we’ll take any home remedy advice as we near Fanning! (Sorry, no boric acid aboard. Another DOH!)

With all of the wind, we made 141nm in the last 24hrs and have 545nm to go. The wind has calmed a bit to a manageable 22kts and we are flying down waves at 6.8kts. It’s much more comfortable than our last two nights have been and thankfully more dry this morning. I’m feeling refreshed like I always do when met with beautiful conditions on a gorgeous morning under full jib sailing 110* off the wind. If only it were always like this…
But as Lewis always quotes, “The sweet would not be so sweet, without the bitter.”

For those of you who have been wondering what out meals have been out here so far, here’s a rundown. The first two days worth of food was mostly pre-made. We always expect to feel too sick to stay below decks the first couple days after a long stay in port.
Premade Broccoli/Bacon/Cheese Quiche
Premade Fried Rice with Orange Chicken
Premade Curried Chicken Salad with craisins and apples
French Toast and Eggs
Chicken Alfredo Pasta with Eggplant Parmesan
Fajita style Chicken Burritos
Pasta Salad with cucumber and tomatoes
Tuna Salad with celery
Deviled Eggs/Egg Salad
Salmon Cakes with Garlic Green Beans and spiced aioli over wild rice
Snacks: Tzasiki, popcorn, hummus, chips/crackers, sunflower seeds, cashew clusters, celery w/peanut butter

Hopefully we catch a fish today for some sushi. Would love to stop opening our precious cans of Costco chicken.

Alyssa

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all you Salty Sailors and Landlubbers out there!  

This past year and a half has been life changing and unforgettable.  We have made dreams come true; visited some of the most spectacular places on earth; met incredible humans both afloat and on land that will be our friends for life; and our beliefs, values and perspectives have been forever changed for the better.  Thanks for your companionship and for being along with us on our voyage.  We look forward to an even more exciting season in 2015.  

A special thanks to J. Slove (aka Dr. Love) and Allan & Rina back in the States who helped us keep the blog going, mail scanned, and the Tax Man at bay while we’ve been out sailing the vast Pacific.  Without you guys there would have been long periods without blog updates and I’d probably be locked up in some jail for unpaid parking tickets.

We’ll be writing again once we get back to the boat in January.  Much to be done before we shove off again in March/April.  

Merry Christmas,

Lewis & Alyssa

December 24th, 2014

Land-locked in Sutter Creek, CA, USA

There is a three page article about our Pacific crossing in the June issue of Latitude 38.  Our friends on Skabenga are featured in an article before ours.  Definitely worth reading about how Bruce almost became impaled on the end of the swordfish bill like a kabob!  Grab us a couple extra hard copies!  

The articles start on page 116

Virtual Copy

I Pad ePub Version

PDF Version

We are slowly clawing our way towards paradise.  We just crossed 3 degrees north and are 175 miles away from the equator.  That’s two days away at 4.0 knots.

I’m pretty sure we crossed the heart of the ITCZ last night at 03 20 N.  At about 0200 we went from becalmed to being hit with 15-18 knots out of the SSE.  It blew hard all morning and we even raised sails and turned the engine off for a while.  We sailed close-hauled on a heading of 220 with the apparent wind 40 degrees on the port bow.  Eventually the wind died to less than 6 knots out of the S, so we fired up the diesel and have been motoring all day.  We want to put as much distance between us and the ITCZ as possible.

There was no moon last night due to the cloud cover and the bright bioluminescence was incredible.  The bow wave was scattering twinkling bright blue foam on each side of the boat and there was a bright wake behind the boat trailing for 50 yards or so from the prop wash.  I sat on the edge of the stern rail and just watched in awe at the magic of it all.  My favorite is when the dolphins show up and you can see them twisting and twirling under the boat trailing streamers of bright bioluminescence; it’s absolutely breathtaking.

When I was trimming the jib last night, I heard something near the helm.  It was pitch black so I got a little closer to find what I assumed was a flying fish.  It wasn’t a fish but a bird!  I went below to grab a flashlight and came back up.  It appeared injured and it was looking at me.  I tried to scare him away so he would take flight but it seemed he couldn’t figure out how to fly out of the cockpit.  So I grabbed the edge of his wing and threw him out.  He took flight and disappeared.  It was a strange encounter.  Hope the poor guy got his bearings back.

I think 18 days at sea is starting to get to me.  Last night I hailed a squall on the VHF! haha  I was monitoring the radar and I saw what I was sure was a container ship about 6 miles off the starboard beam.  I went topside to try and see his lights but it was so cloudy and overcast I couldn’t see anything.  It wasn’t on AIS so I tried to hail what I thought was a ship.  No answer.  Hmm.  It got within 4 miles and I was sure now it was a ship.  Usually the squalls are spread out on the radar and they have multiple signatures.  This one was a small solid block like a ship.  I tried hailing again.  Nothing.  Just before I initiated a course change, the ‘ship’ broke apart into what is clearly an incoming squall.  I laughed and felt pretty silly for hailing a squall.  But hey, better safe than sorry right?  And a squall can’t call you out, but Alyssa can!  In the morning she asked, “How close did that ship get that you hailed last night?”  I laughed and confessed that I hailed a squall.  We both had a good laugh.

One big benefit of running the engine is unlimited power from the alternator.  We have been living it up.  We run the inverter to power the big screen TV for movie night.  We can use the microwave to make popcorn.  Keep the radar and laptop on 24 hours a day.  Put the huge pitcher of ice tea in the fridge to chill.  Everything is fully charged.  Alyssa is really enjoying the piping hot water from the water heater.

It’s pizza night tonight.  I think I’ll hide on the bow while the oven is on.  Should bring the temp in the cabin up to a balmy 120 degrees.  Alyssa has some kind of disorder because she relishes extreme heat.  I on the other hand am dying and dreaming of cruising places like Alaska and the Pacific Northwest.

Back to my watch while the Princess gets her beauty rest.

Current position:

3/27/14

22:30 Z

02 54 N

128 54 W

180 T

4.0 knots

Wind: 5 knots SSW

Seas: 3-4 ft