Month: November 2015

November 2015

Just a few moments from our lives at sea while on a passage…

November 2015

We were about 400 miles from land and he’d been circling us for a while, with each approach to our stern getting closer and closer. I wondered if maybe it was some kind of fishing technique. Maybe our boat stirs up fish near the surface? I watched for a while and my busy mind moved on to other things (while my body just lounged there).

A few hours later, while I was still lounging in the cockpit, something strange caught my eye at the back of the bimini. I thought maybe it was a trick of light and didn’t pay much attention. Then there it was again: Tail feathers. I slowly raised my head up over the bimini and there was the boobie*. He looked back at me with a disinterested expression. I was concerned. I’ve heard about the mess they can make. But he looked a little bedraggled and I didn’t have the heart to chase him off. I decided to have a little talk with him.

“OK, you can stay there as long as you like but leave it like you found it. No Pooping!”

He was paying attention, he seemed to understand, but thankfully, he said nothing back (because that would have been weird). I thought we had an understanding.

We both relaxed back in to the routines of being at sea. Him: preening and sleeping. Me, the same without the preening (my watch was over).

In the morning, we found out that maybe we didn’t have an understanding. That, or maybe it was just total disrespect. This rock star of a bird totally trashed his room!

This stuff is hard to clean. Even after the short time it’d been there, and even with the damp evening, it turned to concrete!

*He may have been a gannet and not a boobie, but I couldn’t identify him for sure. Him? Yea, I think so. Guys just know these things! -Rich

November 27, 2015

Eight days later, here we are in Opua. It was a GREAT passage!  More soon.

-Rich

June – November, 2015

What a great cruising season this turned out to be! We loved our time in New Caledonia, and western Fiji was even better. With the exception of meeting up with some friends in Sydney, we were pretty much on our own during our months in Australia and New Caledonia. This made it feel especially good to reunite with old friends in Fiji.

Cruising is like that sometimes: you think you might not see someone again, then you end up back together, talking story and making new plans as though no time has passed at all. This season has held a lot of that for us, and we’ve especially enjoyed getting to cruise with our besties on Bright Angel and Local Talent along with reuniting with lots of others (Ieta, Kindred Spirit, Mersoleil, Patanjali, Tanga, The Rose, and Red) and making some new friends (Sea Whisperer and Freyja).

This is our senior (fourth) year out here, and we can tell any new cruisers starting out that it gets easier every year. We still call ourselves “the little girls on Legacy” because we start whimpering as soon as it gets rough, but we’ve made great strides when it comes to confidence and trusting our instincts. We’ve gone through a process that can be summed up like this:

Year One: Nervous even about following worn and proven tracks.
Year Two: Confident about following proven tracks.
Year Three: Confident about following less-used tracks.
Year Four: Making our own tracks.

Rich and I make a good team (aside from rowing, that is). I’m good at research and finding worthwhile places to go. He’s a wizard at using Google Earth Images and other such tools to get us there. Together we have gone from being “first-year nervous” to being gunkholers, people who will seek out new destinations off the beaten path. Usually it starts by my wanting to visit a certain resort or beach and asking Rich if it’s possible. Generally, he manages to make it so! This is how we came to anchor off Cloud Nine floating restaurant, Monuriki Island, Long Beach and Navutu Stars resort, and even made up our own new anchorage off Honeymoon Beach (on Naviti Island).

We’ve also learned how to sort through the advice of others. We read and listen and take it all into account, but sometimes people are just plain wrong. Interestingly, some of the worst advice comes from locals! One local told us we should never take our own boat to Poor Knights; we’ll end up ruining our holiday when we lose our boat. It turned out to be a place we’re so glad we made the effort to visit.

We know that newbies can be a poor source of information because they only know what they’ve read (lots of asshats write and even pretty-good guidebooks can have a slanted perspective), but old-timers can be a poor source because they know too much. Just because something can at times be dangerous, doesn’t mean it’s always dangerous. I don’t meant to imply we’re careless; we’re actually pretty conservative cruisers. But we weigh all the evidence when it comes to doing things we want to do and don’t automatically give up when we hear, “You can’t do that in your boat!”

Cruising seasons each have their own rhythm and feeling. Some are more comfortable as you revisit places you’ve been, while others are all about finding your way in a foreign place. Some are upbeat and social, while others are more subdued and solitary. Some have hurdles to overcome while others unfold easily, everything just working out. Some feel abundant with options, while in others you need to make the best of what’s available.

This season for us has been one of abundance with lots of great people, food, fun, and new places to visit. I think the best way to sum it up in pictures might be with a gallery of dinners (including some from a very fun Oktoberfest at Vuda Marina). Here’s a toast to gratitude for the past season, and to (hopefully) equally good times in the future.–Cyndi

Click to enlarge/scroll through photos above.