Rich: Here we are in Hiva Oa, settling in. We’ll try to start posting more, with pictures, as we know have some internet access. To start with, here’s Cyndi’s account of our excitement on our arrival morning and a picture of the rainbow that welcomed us into Atuona Bay where we are now anchored.
May 25, 2012
Cyndi: I was on watch until 5am boat time (we had only changed our clock by an hour so far and weren’t on Marquesas time yet). It was dark and we were about 6 miles from the south end of the island where we’d make our turn and sail along the south side of Hiva Oa to our anchorage. The conditions had magically calmed overnight, the wind dying down to about 10 knots and the swell easing up, slowing the boat so we could make our approach in the daylight. I was excited about getting in and hadn’t slept well earlier, and now I was very tired as I woke Rich up for his watch.
Rich took over the watch, and I went to bed and fell into a fitful sleep. I kept dreaming that Rich was having trouble starting the boat, and I’d wake up at any strange noise. Finally I was more deeply asleep when I heard Rich yell, “Hey!!!” about as loud as a person can yell that word. I shot up out of bed to take action on whatever emergency we were having, asking what was going on. Rich said, “There’s a boobie in our boat.” “What?” Then I heard this flopping around like a large, live fish on the floor. I later found out that Rich heard something in the cockpit, then saw a boobie perched at the companionway looking to come in. He yelled at it hoping to scare it off, but instead that seemed to encourage it to come on in! Bobbies have legs and feet and can walk, but this one apparently forgot that as soon as he landed in our boat, flopping around like a dying fish.
I will stop here to say that boobies are large seabirds, about the size of a 12lb turkey, that for whatever reason love hitch rides on boats. The problem with that is that they can damage delicate equipment if they land on it, foul up your fishing lines, or relieve themselves all over your boat (I’ve heard horror stories about what that’s like). I had joked to Rich before we left about getting a plastic owl for the boat, just because I liked him and thought he’d make a low-maintenance pet. They’re typically used, mostly unsuccessfully, to scare away seagulls. But after an earlier encounter with a persistent boobie who very much wanted to land on our stern, I wondered if it might have been a good idea. No boobie would ever be frightened of an owl, but maybe if I ran around waving it, hooting like a madwoman, it would confuse it enough so it would leave. Anyway, you try to avoid having a boobie on your boat. I had never considered one might come *in* the boat.
Now, Rich asked me to get him the beach towel. Boobies have large beaks and are not a bird you want to tangle with as those beaks are known to break fingers. Rich threw the towel over the boobie and got it into the cockpit, then managed to throw it from the cockpit into the water. The boobie squawked at Rich indignantly, as though we had invaded his home. I was furiously cleaning the floor below, glad it hadn’t left much of a mess. At this point, I would not be getting any more sleep.
