September 5, 2012
10. We were in the groove. It takes us about three days to get in the passage groove – that point where days run together and everything is easier and flowing. Stopping would have required us to restart that difficult, awkward, uncomfortable just-started-a-passage phase.
9. The wind and seas were up and that could make the passage into the atoll difficult. With an atoll like this, big south swells (swells are waves before they break) wash over the exposed southern side of the atoll and cause a consistent, strong current going out of the pass we’d need to go in. We might not be able to motor against the current
8. There were a lot of boats already there and we were afraid that we wouldn’t find a spot to anchor.
7. It would be nice to get this 1200 plus mile section of ocean behind us. This is a long and often difficult section of ocean and as long as the weather forecast wasn’t too bad, we thought what the heck, rip the bandage off and go for it.
6. We’d be stuck on the boat in the atoll anyway. With the winds up, it wouldn’t have been safe to leave the boat so we’d be stuck aboard for two or three days. In that time, we could almost be at Samoa.
5. We really like remote, unpopulated places but we also like to explore towns and cities, maybe even more than we like the remote adventures. Give us the adventure of trying to figure out how to order what passes locally as a cappuccino over trying to figure out how to convince a native who’s never seen a white person that we wouldn’t be suitable as a main course.
4. It would be nice to be a little ahead of the crowd. There are a lot of people doing this, maybe more than these islands and anchorages can handle. By skipping Sawarrow, we’d get back “out of phase” and that might make the difference between an available slip in Samoa and a no vacancies sign.
3. No Starbucks there.
2. No Starbucks there.
1. No Starbucks there.
(Written by Rich under the influence of Pisco Sour. If you don’t know it, go to Bev’ Mo’ and get some at once. Then you too can express this level of alcoholic wit.)
