Worrall Wind - 2 Sail R's

Arrived Safely In Australia

2012-02-01T20:44:00.001+13:00

G'Day from Oz!

It took us about 24 from Weimar to arrive at Scarborough Marina in Brisbane. We cleared customs in Sydney where it was pouring a warm rain. It was like stepping into a sauna. Fortunately, we made a domestic transfer without having to go outside.

When we arrived in Brisbane, the sun was out and it was nearly 90 degrees. After retrieving our luggage, we picked up our rental car and quickly peeled off the jackets, turtlenecks, socks, and long pants. We stopped for a fish and chips lunch (ate half and brought the rest back for dinner), picked up a few groceries, and arrived at the boat about 2:00 p.m. Wednesday, or about 7:00 p.m. Tuesday, January 31, in North America. We lost a day. The mysteries of traveling west across the dateline into the future.

Worrall Wind is doing fine. Other than being surrounded by hoards of blue bottle jelly fish and brown water from rain run off, all looks good. The boat was dry inside (that's a good thing considering the amount of rain fall Brisbane has had) hot, and stuffy when we opened her up. But there has been a nice breeze blowing through the boat as we unpacked our gear. We'll have to get used to the rocking again.

Neither of us wants to go to bed until it gets dark, but it is daylight savings time here and the sun is pretty hight in the sky at 6:30 p.m. Our bodies still think it's about midnight on Tuesday. We are exhausted not having slept well on the plane, squeezed like sardines in a huge air bus, and the girl sitting next to me had a horrible cold and cough! Geez! Most of the time air travel results in a head cold for me. This time, I'll know the culprit. I've been taking vitamin C like crazy. Oh well. No more planes for a while.

Tomorrow we start to plan our next couple of months and search for a camper van. The adventure continues. Will keep you posted.

All is Well with the 2 Sail R's on SV Worrall Wind.

Joyous Reunions - Sad Goodbyes

2012-01-28T12:32:00.000+13:00

We've been in America now for almost three months and have enjoyed every moment of our "Worrall Wind" trip from sea to shining sea. Our time has been well spent with family and friends. With the exception of a few folks who missed our camera, we will treasure our memorable photographs of this past holiday season.

Russ and I are truly grateful for all of you who took the time to see see us and be with us during the last three months. We've gained a few pounds while we have been home. Thank you to all of you who fed us so well while we were here and filled our cups with your love and hospitality. Thank you for letting us share our journey with you.

Please keep in touch with us, and we will keep in touch with you as we resume our travels around the world. Next stop, Australia.

All is well with the 2 Sail R's soon to be reunited with Worrall Wind.

Happy Holidays

2011-12-27T15:56:00.000+13:00

December 26, 2011

Wishing all of our friends and family joy, light, health, and happiness now and into the New Year.
We just spent a wonderful three days in Sierraville at the Monico Homestead. The great surprise was a cute little companion for Mom and Dad. Abby and Neal gave them a sweet little dog, Peanut or Babe or Noel or....... Name has not yet stuck.

Here are a few photos of our time.

What fun we had with the dog, mechanical cat, IPads, and just visiting with one another.

Back to Sacramento Via Chicago, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles

2011-12-27T15:41:00.000+13:00

November 29, 2011 - With heavy hearts, leaving our son and daughter-in-law after a wonderful visit, it was time to travel west. We left Vermont after several hours of delay due to high winds at O'Hare in Chicago. When we finally arrived in Chicago, we missed our connection and our flight was rescheduled 24 hours later. So we were stranded without luggage (hats, gloves, jackets, pajamas, toothbrushes, etc.) in the windy city. Through the airline, we were able to get reasonably priced accommodations for the night.

Serendipity

The following day, we made good use of our time. It was a crisp clear day in Chicago, and we enjoyed a day of sight seeing and a lunch with my cousin Mike who works in the city. This was an unexpected and welcome pleasure.

We departed Chicago in a small jet and headed for Las Vegas late in the day. Now the winds were in Las Vegas! When we touched down after being buffeted about in howling 50 miles an hour winds, the passengers broke into a relieved spontaneous applause and bolted from the plane. Miraculously, we were reunited with our luggage, secured our rental car, and navigated our way with our iPad to Abby and Neal's home. We love our new iPad!

Las Vegas - November 30-December 7

What a delight to be reunited with our daughter, son-in-law, and grand pet Noodles. Abby and Neal both had to work the Thursday after we arrived, so we were on our own to rest up and do some touring. We went to the Atomic museum and learned about the the nuclear testing in Nevada. It was well done and very interesting.

Spring Preserve Museum

On Friday, Abby had the day off. Mother and daughter luxuriated with a a pedicure and manicure. Later in the day, Russ, Abby, and I toured the Spring Preserve in Las Vegas. When Neal came home, we had some light snacks, and headed of to see Cirque de Soleil, Ka! This was our Christmas present from the kids. It was an incredible show. We were left scratching our heads and marveling at the engineering of the sets and incredible flexibility of the humans. We capped the evening off with dinner at the MGM Grand.

Saturday was a ski day for Neal, Russ, and Abby. Neal is on the National Ski Patrol at Mt Charleston about 40 minutes from their home. Elevation is about 8500 feet and there was fresh snow. So it was a great day for all of them.

Sunday, the five of us, including Noodles, set off for the Valley of Fire, and some short hikes through the sandstone formations. Noodles with her scarf and hiking boots, looked very cute prancing through the sand and climbing up the rocks. This was a first for Abby and Neal too, so it was especially fun discovering something new together.

Monday was back to work for Abby and Neal. Russ and I caught up on laundry, reading, and working our photos. Originally, we had planned on taking a flight tour of the Grand Canyon, but because of weather the Monday flights had been cancelled.

Grand Canyon - December 6
Tuesday morning, we boarded a touring Cessna to fly to the Grand Canyon. The scenery from the air was gorgeous. The wind sock hung limply, the sky was blue, and the desert looked as if it had been lightly dusted with confectioner's sugar. It took us about an hour and half to get to the south rim. From there, Russ and I boarded a helicopter, to get an even closer look of the Canyon.

The Canyon was dusted with snow, accentuating the many exposed layers of sandstone and eroded gullies. The contrast of whites, pinks, beiges, and reds was spectacular. We had plenty of time to visit some the famous look outs for for photos.

A bird's eye view sure beats a road trip! We had a great day.

Hello Los Angeles - December 7 - 8

We arrived in Los Angeles on Wednesday night, and awoke early Thursday morning to spend 14 hours at the Happiest Place in the World.....Disneyland of course! It's been years since we have been to Disneyland, and we've never been at Christmas so we enjoyed the festive decorations and the changes to the park. We also enjoyed meeting up with fellow cruiser, Lori Newell, from SV Trim.

Pirates of the Caribbean is now more reflective of the movies than visa versa. The Haunted House was decorated as The Nightmare Before Christmas, Swiss Family Robinson House is now Tarzan's Tree House, It's a Small World was lavishly decorated for the holidays, the submarine ride now incorporated finding Nemo, Tomorrowland's Inoventions is reflective of our high tech world, and best of all was the Star Tours ride now in 3D. That was fabulous.

Woodland Hills - December 9

We slept in on Friday morning after our long day at Disneyland and took a leisurely drive north along the coast and over the mountains through Topanga Canyon to Woodland Hills where we spent the afternoon and evening with Teresa and Conor the Irish Setter. Our nephew Mike was on an overseas junket with Peter Greenberg http://www.petergreenberg.com/, travel expert. Mike frequently works as Peter's radio engineer on these trips. He has had some amazing experiences.

We missed seeing Mike, but enjoyed being with Teresa and seeing the progress that Mike is making on his sailboat project. Between the boat and other home projects, both Mike and Teresa are busy. The boat is looking beautiful. It will be too pretty to put in the water.

Long Beach - December 10

We departed late morning and made our way south once again, this time to Seal Beach. After checking into our hotel, I spent the afternoon with Aneta Murphy. We enjoyed visiting. Russ and I introduced Aneta to geocaching. We found a cache just a few feet from the hotel. Early in the evening, we enjoyed wine and hors d'ouerves with Aneta and Peter, then dinner with Irv Howard at the Long Beach Yacht Club. What a joy to see them and to catch up. There have been many changes to middle grades education at the state level, some good, some not so good. When this trio retires from the California League of Schools, I sure hope there are some great people with big feet to fill their shoes! They do a terrific job for California's teachers and students.

Sunday, December 11-18 It's Party Time!
We arrived back home in Colfax late December 11, spent 1 night in our own bed, and headed back down to the Bay Area for some visiting. We spent time with friend Carlene Abbors, Russ's brothers and sisters-in-law Ted and Marian, and Don and Diane, Roz's Aunt Laura, friends Wayne and Carol Martin, and new acquaintances and Nauticat Boat owners Barb and Dave Tishler. We returned back to Colfax to have breakfast on Saturday with Roz's former colleague from California Department of Education Marsha Robinson and her friend Bill. Saturday afternoon was spent at Wendy Stevens home in Carmichael with our former Fleet I group. We had a great, fun-filled reunion with several friends. Sunday, it's dinner with the McElhaney's and friends......phew!

Montreal and Winooski Thanksgiving

2011-11-29T06:30:00.001+13:00

It's hard to believe that our visit here with our Winooski, Vermont kids is almost at an end. We leave tomorrow for Las Vegas. It will be a bitter sweet goodbye. Bitter because goodbyes are always sad. Sweet because we will be going to visit our LV kids. It is a rare occasion that the we will be able to see both of them albeit not together, on the same day. We are scattered as the fall leaves.

During the last two weeks, we have visited the lovely city of Montreal Canada, enjoyed a cozy white Thanksgiving in Winooski, and pet sat for Misty and Balou, while Jess and Garyn traveled to Cape Code for Jessica's birthday.

Montreal - Old, New, and Lovely

We arrived in Montreal on Saturday just in time for the Christamas Parade. Montreal grownups and children and were enthralled with Santa and snow angels.

The city was dressed up for the opening of the season. The skycap was one of contrasts, old, new, spires, towers, and steeples.

We enjoyed the exceptionally balmy day in the low 50's, and the sunshine as we walked all around the town.

As the sun began to set, we ducked into the underground shopping malls which are simply aMAZing. They are several stories deep and are all interconnected, one after another.

I am glad the kids knew their way around because without our GPS, we would probably still be trying to find our way out! We spent Saturday evening in the bar at the Sheraton, sharing wine, cheese, and fruit.

On Sunday we visited the Cathedral on the hill overlooking the city and the former Olympic Stadium now used as a recreational stadium and Biodome of diversity (tropical, Vermont woodlands, marine, and subtropical environments). It was very well done and interesting. As we left the city. we made a quick stop at the Biosphere where sustainable environments is the focus.

The excursion to Canada was short but sweet.

Winooski - White Thanksgiving

Nature's Ice Art

Back in Winooski, the temperature kept dropping. We put on our long underwear, took some nice walks in the crisp autumn air, and shopped for Thanksgiving. We visited the downtown area, Winooski River area where we found a geocache. We also found a geocache within view of Garyn and Jessica's home. Right in their front yard...almost.

We awoke the day before Thanksgiving to a snowplow rumbling down the street. We peeked out from our second story window to see a beautiful white blanket of snow that had silently fallen from the sky as we slept.

Jessica brined the Thanksgiving turkey overnight in a five gallon bucket which we chilled in the land cruiser (LC). LC has taken our family on many trips, but brining a turkey was the first.

Thanksgiving was wonderful, snowy white on the outside, warm and cozy on the inside. Garyn and Jessica worked on their tiling project in the basement family room, we watched endless football games, and stuffed our selves as all good Americans do on this day.

Garyn, turkey, and Jess - First Thanksgiving Dinner

The day after TG, Garyn and Jessica, took a short trip to Cape Cod to celebrate Jessica's birthday, and we pet sat for Balou and Misty. We have loved every minute of being here with our family. Now it's time to go.

Goodbye Vermont, Hello Las Vegas.

Russ and Misty working off the turkey, Lake Champlain Causeway

All is well with the 2 Travel R's

Home to America

2011-11-19T09:50:00.001+13:00

Fall in Burlington, Vermont

The 2 Sail R's have temporarily become the 2 Land Travel R's. We touched down in California on October 26, and have now been stateside for three plus weeks.

Week 1 - California: We've been catching up with family and friends, buying some warm clothing, squeezing our feet into shoes, making arrangements for trips to Vermont and Las Vegas, getting a new roof, visiting doctors, dentists, oral surgeons and hair stylists, updating technology - cell phones, iPad, Mac, IPods, etc. Russ's aching joints get a probable diagnosis from Dr. Abby, Ross River Virus, a mosquito borne illness we believe Russ contracted in Vanuatu. The bad news it lasts 6 months to a year. The good news it lasts 6 months to a year, not the rest of his life.

Week 2 - Vermont: We packed our bags and flew east to be with our son and daughter-in-law for Thanksgiving. Garyn and Jess have a darling old home in Winooski, across the river from Burlington. We have visited Stowe, Trapp Family Lodge, Ben and Jerry's, Shelburne Farms, and of course downtown Burlington decked out with twinkling holiday lights. Ir's wonderful being here with our kids!

Week 3 - Massachusetts: Russ and I just returned to Vermont from a road trip to Salem and Boston Massachusetts. It's a chilly but economical time of year to visit Boston. There are a lot of off season deals. We visited the Salem Witch History Museum, all of the sites on the Freedom Trail, took a tour of the Boston Inner Harbor, bus tour to Cambridge and Harvard, visited the MIT Museum of Technology, toured the USS Constitution, ate at Lemoncellos in the Italian district on the North End, picked up some chocolate covered cannoli at Mike's Pastry, and spent our last afternoon at the JFK Museum in South Boston. We had a great time.

Week 4 - Coming up......The four of us are heading to Montreal for a few days and returning to Vermont for Thanksgiving. We will be dog and cat sitting after Thanksgiving while Garyn and Jess, go to Cape Cod for the weekend to celebrate Jess's birthday. Then we are off to Las Vegas to visit our daughter and son-in-law.

That's it for now. Temperatures in Brisbane where Worrall Wind is cooling her keel is in the mid 80's. We had some snow flurries last night here in Vermont. All is well with the 2 Land Travel R's

Worrall Wind Update - Arrived safely in Australia!

2011-10-18T12:56:00.004+13:00

We got in to Brisbane, but not before the storm broke.
Latitude: S 27 26.652
Longitude: E 153 06.437

Didn't want to alarm friends and family at home, but we were once again beating the clock into port, Brisbane. An unexpected front, not on our departure weather routing, pushed up from the south promising big winds and seas, moving in quickly Monday morning, October 17. We are so glad we left a day early even though it meant no wind and motoring. By day three into our journey our revised weather gribs and weather router alerted us of the high winds and waves pushing around southern Australia up the east coast. We had originally planned on a Tuesday or Wednesday arrival, but decided we couldn't afford to dink around and needed to be in the harbor by early morning.

Once we turned the motor on to leave Noumea, we never turned it off until we reached Brisbane. Lehmen (our engine), and Ray (our auto pilot) worked the entire trip to maintain at least 6-7 knots even with sails up. Keeping the motor running was one way to keep water out of the muffler and hobby horsing into the engine.

Hydie the Hydrovane rested. The new bracket we designed and installed on Hydie's rudder shaft worked well as long as we didn't jack up the rpm's over 900. It probably would have worked well with more speed, but we didn't want to push it. We had better fuel economy keeping the rpms down as well. Since we had lost some time during the two mammoth squalls with thunder and lightning (end of storms in Australia) we encountered on Saturday afternoon and night, we were running late. After the first squall we took down the mizzen and poled-out jib. After the second squall, we took down the main and decided to throttle up the engine in the morning when dawn broke with clear skies, light winds and fairly calm seas.

First we had to take Hydie's rudder off. Russ devised a slick two line pin system that allows us to unpin the rudder and pull it up without Russ having to climb down the stern ladder.

White line pulls up to release lock on rudder pin. Blue line pulls rudder pin horizontally releasing rudder.

Once we had the rudder safely removed and stowed. We throttled up, but not too much as we didn't want to use up all of our fuel before we got Australia. As the sun was setting in the distance, we were 85 miles off the coast of Australia, we caught our first glance of land.

Land Ho!

We cruised all night in light to moderate winds which swung around from north east to South west. By 4:00 a.m. the wind picked up to 20 knots. We thought once we got into the entrance shipping channel, we would be protected by Morton Island from the winds. Nope!

It was a bash all the way up the channel to Brisbane as the wind and wind waves were on our nose most of the way, increasing to 25 and 30 knots with 1-2 meter wind waves. By the time we made our final approach into the entrance channel with still eleven miles to go, our starboard fuel tank was reading empty, and our port fuel tank was on reserve with the needle becoming spastic and jumping back and forth from full to empty.

Starboard Fuel Tank Reads Empty

Somewhere along this leg we were going to have to dump one of our jugs of diesel into the port tank to see if the needle would stop swinging around. We weren't really sure how much diesel we had left.

The wind was blowing 40 knots on our port beam with rolling wind waves, and it was raining. A big tanker was on our tail, and we were trying to stay on the outside edge of the channel so the tanker could overtake us and pass on our port. We were crabbing up the river 20 degrees off course towards the center of the channel and powering up the engine just so we wouldn't be blown into the channel markers on our starboard side. One came way too close for comfort.

Channel Marker. No Red Right Returning in Pacific. We keep Green to Starboard.

It was actually pretty nice once the tanker was on our port side as it proved to be a great wind and wave shadow for us. Two tug boats were keeping Sea Master from drifting over on us. The tanker had slowed way down, and we stayed on his starboard side for a couple of miles while we supplemented our fuel tanks, until the tanker docked.

Tanker blocks wind, waves, and gives us some respite to fill our fuel tank.

Russ adding some fuel to port tank.

By then we were in the lee of the land and could go several more miles if we had too. We tied up to the fuel dock at Rivergate Marina by 1:30. The wind in the Marina had decreased to 15 knots.

Coming in to Rivergate Marina for Check In.

The Customs and Immigration people were on the boat by 1:45. Quarantine came about 4:00. The officials were very nice and professional. It was a painless check in. We had eaten all our fresh fruit, veggies, uncooked meat, and eggs. The only thing I had to relinquish were some onions and garlic cloves. They didn't take any of my flours, spices, crackers, etc. We had cooked meat in the freezer and quarantine wasn't interested.

I had all my shells ready to show them and had bagged all of my baskets, wood, planted based products in a big black garbage bag that had been sprayed with Raid and sealed up. Again, not interested. One hears so many stories, it's hard to know what to believe when it comes to these check-ins. It's not always consistent, and I think they learn to read body language and know when someone is nervous and hiding something that should have been declared. Honesty is always the best policy then you can relax and let whatever happpens, happen.

We refueled our tanks, over $1100.00. Ouch. C'est la vie. We spent the early evening with Danny and crew on Regina and Jacob on Mewa. Oh the sea stories we all have to tell! But everyone is so tired and so happy to be in port, we begged off for bed. We hope to leave Rivergate tomorrow and make the 10 mile motor to Scarborough Marina. Tomorrow was the original date of our trip home. We didn't want to be slave to a schedule and it turned out we had to be anyway. But we are here, and I hope our sailing friends who left Noumea (particularly the ones who left after we did) are coping well with the conditions or have made it safely to port.

All is well with the 2 Sail R's on SV Worrall Wind

Worrall Wind Update - Day 5 - White Squall - Black Squall

2011-10-16T22:14:00.002+13:00

SQUALLS!

Saturday, October 16, 2011
UTC 1500 10/16, 0100 10/17

Latitude: S 25 54.329
Longitude: E 156 04.818

Ok, so today hasn't been so uneventful. We knew it was too good to last.

We woke up this morning to cloudy skies and rain off and on. By 1:30 p.m., it was time for the Pacific Sea Farer's Net, but we had no better luck hearing anything on the HAM band than we did on our marine side band earlier in the morning. Propagation either from solar flares or cloudy skies prevented us from checking in. As we were trying to connect, we could see a band of rain coming towards us. The wind started to pick up from a mild 15 to about 28 knots. We were engulfed in a white squall. The clouds reached down to the water dumping rain and roiling the seas. All we could see was white all around us.

We had our mainsail double reefed with a preventer as the wind was on our starboard beam and rear quarter, a small poled jib on the port side, and our mizzen. One of our main concerns when we have a poled jib is to not get back winded. Since we were motor-sailing and using our auto pilot rather than our wind vane, it meant we had to disconnect the auto pilot so that we could keep the wind where we wanted it and not get it in front of the pole or back wind it. Hydie does this automatically, steering with a set wind angle. Ray (marine) just knows how to stay on our course, and pays no attention to the wind angle.

We could see lightning ahead. I counted to 15 before we heard the thunder. Another strike, this time 11. We quickly disconnected our electronic gear, stowing the sattelite phone, hand held gps, navigation dongel, backup disk drive, and notebook computer in the microwave. We stowed the Mac and navigation computer in the oven to protect them from any lightning strikes. For about an hour while the squall blew through dumping rain, we did a white knuckle hand steer. At one point as we were keeping the wind angle on our beam, we were headed in the opposite direction from our course line. The winds were spinning around, and we with them!

When the winds hand blown themselves out and we were in their vacuum, we hustled outside in our rain gear, took down the mizzen and poled in the jib. If this was going to be a squally day, we wanted to reduce sail and just motor. Russ said, he wanted to pretend to be a trawler for awhile. The winds finally spun around in the direction we expected and the sun came out an hour. After reconnecting the electronics, we could relax. Exhausted, we took turns napping in the pilot house like two cats in the sunshine. Our lack of good sleeping is starting to catch up with us.

By late afternoon, the clouds were starting to form again on the horizon. I took a quick 1/2 hour power nap before my 8:00 p.m. watch started, and Russ went down for his sleep time. Since the moon is waning and coming up later each night, I didn't expect to see it until 8:30 or so. I could see a few stars, but really miss the friendly night light. The moon finally rose behind the boat illuminating the horizon, but I didn't like what I saw when it did. Inky black cloud fingers stretched across the sky obscuring the stars.

At 9:30, the sky started to light up, but not from the moon light. The inky fingers had arced from 9 o'clock to 3 o'clock on the horizon and were closing in on Worrall Wind. Lightning was dancing across the sky from cloud to cloud. I waited for each lightning flash to see what the cloud cover looked like. The clouds were still in the distance, but the wind was starting to pick up. Maybe this would just pass over us or we could steer around them. I recorded our longitude and latitude, then disconnected all of our electronic gear once again and stowed them in the ovens.

I woke Russ up at 10:00 to see if he wanted me to try and steer around the approaching squall. It looked like if we changed course from southwest to due north, the squall might pass us by. That seemed to work for a while. The clouds and lightning were moving past our port side, but then we could see the black mass starting to wrap on our right side. It was like that black cloud in Lost engulfing us. It sucked out the moonlight and then the lightning that had been horizontally jumping from cloud to cloud came down in a jagged streak a mile or so off our starboard side. The lightning and crack of thunder were almost simultaneous. Holy sh#!!

We couldn't see a thing. It was either pitch black or blindingly white as the lightening cracked around us. The wind was reaching 38 knots. We decided the best thing to do now was to resume our original course with the wind right on our nose, and see if we could just plow out of this malignant ugly thing. We were glad to have the jib and mizzen down. It gave us more latitude to stay on course. The rain was fierce. It was very scary!

By 11:30 (1 and 1/2 hours later), it seemed safe enough to retrieve one of the GPS units and get a position fix, and to see how fast we were moving. With the wind, wind waves, and perhaps a current on our nose we were only making forward progress of 2 nautical miles per hour. By 12:30 the black ugly had finally passed us by. By 1:00 p.m. we were back up and running, and Russ went to bed for another couple of hours. It's now almost 3:00 a.m., and I'm ready to switch places with Russ. We are both ready for our voyage to be ending. We still have 150 miles to go! The moon is shining through a veil of clouds on our starboard side. Goodnight moon.

All is well with the 2 Sail R's on SV Worrall Wind

Worrall Wind Update - Day 4 to Oz

2011-10-15T22:20:00.001+13:00

Friday, October 14, 2011
UTC 1400/0000 10/15/2011

Latitude: S 25 07.446
Longitude: E 158 14.846
Course over Ground 250 @ 6.0 knots (motor sailing)
Light winds, 2 meter seas
477 down, 290 miles to go

Another wonderfully uneventful day following the "yellow brick road" to Oz. The sun, clouds, stars, and moon have all made their appearances today as we head west. The swells have grown a little milder this evening with the occasional rollers moving through...no traffic, no wildlife, just miles and miles and miles of water for as far as the eye can see. We've been reading, listening to Philip Pullman's the Subtle Knife, and podcasts. Our current estimated time of arrival is Monday, October 17, early a.m.
All is well with the 2 Sail R's on SV Worrall Wind

Worrall Wind Update- Day 3 to Oz

2011-10-14T23:39:00.001+13:00

Thursday, October 13, 2011
UTC 1400/0000 10/14/11

Latitude: S 24 20.962
Longitude: E 160 37.676
345 miles down, 428 more to go!

The wind picked up a bit today, variable from 8-15 knots. It's coming from our port stern. We have the main, mizzen, and jib out and running. The motor is also on around 700 rpm (low). Between the engine and the wind, we are making good time traveling 6-7 knots. Our auto pilot is steering a course right now on the rumb line to Brisbane.

Yesterday was overcast, today we had only about 10 percent cloud cover and rolling swells 1-2 meters from our beam and stern, so we are rocking back and forth as we plow forward. Fortunately, the bigger swells are not constant. With the wind on our tail and beam swell, when the big ones roll through, our sails lose their wind, the boom and whisker pole snaps against their preventers, and then the sails fill again with a pop. We are not gliding through the moonlight quietly. Oz here we come!

All is well with the 2 Sail R's on SV Worrall Wind

Worrall Wind - Day 2 to Oz

2011-10-13T12:41:00.002+13:00

I would be happy if it stayed like this. Unfortunately, not a lick of wind.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

UTC/Oz Time 1124/2124
Latitude: 23 21.252 S
Longitude: 163 22.l54 E

We have been motoring into calm seas now for 180 miles. The wind has just started to pickup but is still less than 10 knots. With our sails up as a boost we are doing about 6.5-7.0 knots. According to our weather report, the wind should begin to fill in tomorrow and hopefully we can give the motor a rest.

Russ saw a beautiful moonset and sunrise this morning as I slept. The sky was blue with a few wispy clouds and the sea was thalo blue gently undulating satin. We ate our breakfast on the front deck in the morning sun and marveled at the stillness. There were only a few flying fish breaking the water and skittering like starbursts away from the bow of the boat. Ken and Lori on S/V Trim reported seeing a shark circling their boat this morning. We looked hard, but saw nothing. I really enjoy "uneventful". We spent the day relaxing, reading, and napping. Nice!

By late afternoon, we had 100% cloud cover and still no wind. Our thalo blue seas have turned into molten silver.

The four boats that we left New Caledonia have all spread out. The only one we still have a visual on is S/V Regina. They are about 2 miles ahead of us and moving faster as the wind picks up. I expect not to see them when the sun rises tomorrow morning. Trim is off to our starboard in the wild blue yonder and Mewa is several miles behind us.

All is well with the 2 Sail R's on SV Worrall Wind

Worrall Wind Update - On our way to Oz!

2011-10-12T08:14:00.002+13:00

Tuesday, October 11, 2011, 11:00 p.m.

Yesterday we made our rounds to the customs, immigration, and port captain's offices to get our papers stamped, clear out and get our permit for duty free fuel. We spent the afternoon preparing the boat for the sea. After a month in port, there were lots of loose ends that needed strapping, shutting, and tucking away. Our friends, Brian and Claudia on S/V Skylight along with a crew friend Jack left for Oz before noon.

We bade farewell to our yachtie and land friends and enjoyed happy hour at the local pub with Lila and Claus on S/V Comedie, and dinner with Lori and Ken on S/V Trim. Comedie is leaving Wednesday, and Trim was venturing out Tuesday with us along with Danny and crew on S/V Regina, and single-hander Jacob on S/V Mewa.

Our take off was planned late morning on Tuesday. After one last trip to the morning market, coffee with friends Kay and Steffan on S/V Fruity Fruits, and the last gasp on the Internet to check our mail and weather report, we were ready to leave at 12:00 noon. Several folks helped us to cast off. It's always hard to part company with people we have grown fond of and hope to see again in the future.

After a short pit stop to top off the fuel tanks with 400 liters of diesel, we were truly on our way. Trim was anchored outside of the marina temporarily while a little low blew through with 30 knots of wind. The four boats wove their way through the lagoon and islands to Dumbea Pass and started to chase down the sun. Once we were outside of Noumea, the wind died to about 5 knots. The seas are incredibly gentle with less than 1 meter swells. Everyone is motor sailing on slightly different rumb lines. Trim is heading to Bundenberg. The other three of us are heading towards Brisbane. We spent the afternoon chatting on the VHF radio with one another.

GREEN FLASH!
One of the most remarkable sights we have seen at sea is the green flash. I had only seen it once before on the Baja Ha Ha 2009. The conditions were perfect today for one to occur. The sun was setting over a calm sea with few clouds on the horizon. Just as the sun dips out of sight, a visual phenomenon occurs. Russ and I had our eyes glued to the setting sun and then.....there it was. The best green flash ever. A greenish glow arcs around the sun and when it dips POP! a bright green flash like a camera flash goes off. Amazing. What a treat to see.

Moments Before the Green Flash!

It's now almost midnight, I'm sitting in the pilot house with both doors open and the skylight slid back. The weather is gorgeous, the sea is calm, and the moon is full. This is what we "signed up" for! Our first day of 12 hours is nearing and end, and we have progressed about 60 miles on our 800 miles journey. The wind is supposed to fill in tomorrow, and we hope to turn the motor off and do some sailing. But for right now, I'm loving these conditions.

All is well with the 2 Sail R's on SV Worrall Wind

Leaving New Caledonia for OZ, Today Tuesday, October 11

2011-10-11T10:32:00.000+13:00

Today's the day! We are ready to go. The weather looks good. We'll keep in touch via radio submissions to blog. We hope to arrive in Brisbane early next week.

All is Well with the 2 Sail R's on Worrall Wind

Waiting for Great Sailing Weather to Australia

2011-10-05T19:32:00.000+13:00

New Caledonia Sunset

All footprints in the sand are subject to the incoming tide. Looks like our optimistic plans to get to Brisbane in time for a scheduled flight home are subject to the incoming tide.

Unfortunately, we will need to postpone and reschedule our trip to California a bit as the weather window is not cooperating for a departure from New Caledonia to Australia for several days. It's disappointing as we hoped to attend a high school class reunion, but first things first.....and that's getting to Australia in one piece and with peace of mind. We want a great sail to cap the season! After our last trip, we need an excellent trip.

Deciding to go or not to go always seems to be a dilemma, so we sought marine weather expertise from professionals and got the report this morning. It pretty much confirmed what we had seen on the weather maps. Had we been able to leave by October 6, our time frame would be in tact, but no, that's not to be, and we refuse to push it. Thought you as vicarious crew would like to see what a report looks like.
We usually find that reports are understated and plan for 40% more to the extreme.

Dear Rozlynn and Russell, departure on the 6th looks rough at the end of your trip.

Summary:

1) as in your previous experiences, the latest forecast model consensus shows departure from Noumea around 00utc on Thursday, the 6th, and your trip toward Brisbane in some shifty but favorable conditions until your last 48 hours

then expecting a strong cold front to push E-NE off the Aussie coast with SW winds forecast to build to 20-30kts during your last 24 hours toward Brisbane and building seas up to at least 8-10ft out of the S-SW

2) presently, a weakening low (around 998MB) is spiraling just W of Auckland

keeping a strong S-SW wind and swell between Brisbane and Noumea

3) during Wed and Thurs, the 5th and 6th, utc time, high pressure is forecast to slide E off the eastern Aussie coast

which will help to ease the winds and seas along your route
probably easing these winds to light and variable during Friday the 7th as you would pass through the center of the high pressure

4) in this very active weather pattern, we are expecting 2 lows/cold fronts to push off the central Aussie coast from this weekend into the beginning of next week

by 00utc on Saturday the 8th, the first low is forecast to organize near Coffs Harbour, building and backing the winds from the N to the NW, along your route
think these winds speeds will average between 10-20kts with seas up to 6-8ft
which should be manageable with the correct routing

5) but the main concern for departure from Noumea at the end of this week is the second low/cold front

the low is forecast to push just E of Sydney around 18utc on Monday the 10th
by 00utc on the 11th, the low is expected to slide to the SE as the cold front pushes just E of Brisbane
probably bringing W-SW winds of 20-30kts offshore of Brisbane as you are about 24 hours out of Brisbane
and building the seas to at least 8-10ft in the blustery conditions

6) took a look at delaying your departure about 24 hours but this would only put you into the gusty SW winds and seas for a longer period of time

7) we can take another look at the weather window beginning next week. Let us know what you would like to do.

**********

Test your weather skills and see if you can find us the right conditions!

If you are interested in taking a look at a more graphic picture of the forecast, we've been connecting to the Aussie government site. The interactive maps forecast a model for about 5 days. We use these 3 charts primarily: 1) combined sea and swell (light to dark blue is good, greens and beyond not so good) We would also prefer a swell from the southeast (stern quarter push) rather than from the south (beam rollers), pressure and precipitation (nice consistent high - no rain or squalls), wind direction and speed maps (looking for 15-25 knots of wind from the southeast).

We also look at the 4 day forecast charts. Tuesday of next week is beginning to look good as a takeoff point. Note the wind and sea swell direction. Won't know what the end trip will look like until we get closer to Tuesday though. Keep a watch on it for us and let us know when you would leave.

So for right now, we're hanging around and enjoying the sights! We've posted some new photos of New Caledonia explorations.

All is well with the 2 Sail R's on S/V Worrall Wind

L'ille des Pins (Isle of Pines)

2011-09-26T15:27:00.001+13:00

One of the places we wanted to cruise when we got to New Caledonia was the Isle of Pines. It has purportedly white sand beaches and a beautiful bay for anchoring. We did not come all this far to miss it!

Now that all of our parts have been delivered and the majority of the contracted boat work completed, we were antsy to leave the boat. Since the boat is not quite ready to leave the marina, we decided to take a different mode of transportation out to the Isle of Pines, and went on the high speed motor cat ferry.

Most of our friends sail to L'ille de Pins over a two day period with an overnight anchorage along the way. We made it there in two hours on the ferry. We left at seven a.m. and arrived around 9:30 a.m., rented a car for the day, and returned to Noumea by 8:00 p.m. in the evening. This is the fringe season, so we were able to get a good deal. Ordinarily tourist class is about $120/per person round trip. We secured a special promotion of $90.00 round trip in VIP. The savings went toward a rental car of $45.00 for the day including gas.

The most remarkable features of Isle of Pines are of course the pine trees, a great majority of them having shapes dissimilar to what we are used to in the states,

aquamarine water,

white sand beaches,

large rocks undercut by the sea,

and beautiful limestone caverns.

We also saw some interesting statuary,

Russ's 65th Birthday Portrait - You're as young as you feel!
churches, and the vestiges of a French prison built in 1881 to house political prisoners from the French Prussian war.

We enjoyed a lovely meal at the Meridian Hotel looking out over the bay.

All in all it was a great day, and even though it was a quick trip, we enjoyed every second.

All is Well with the 2 Sail R's on the Sailing Vessel Worrall Wind.

Exploring Noumea, New Caledonia

2011-09-19T18:44:00.000+12:00

In between boat projects, estimates, ordering parts and waiting for deliveries, we have been enjoying the beautiful spring weather, catching up with friends and exploring Noumea. We can only describe this island as a paradise of beauty, convenience, and good services. It is quite a change from the developing countries we have been in the last six months. Noumea is like the French Riviera.

When we limped into Noumea two weeks ago, friends on Tahina, Karen and Frank were already here and awaiting new batteries for their cat. Trim with Ken and Lori, pulled in the Friday after arrival, and Serenity, Baja Ha Ha compatriots - Sherry and Gordon, came in a day or two later, along with Lila and Klaus on Comedie whom we had met in Luganville. Friends that we met in Port Villa, Kay and Steffan on SV Fruity Fruits, are also here as semi-permanent residents this season.

With friends, we have shopped, coffeed, eaten French pasteries, walked, shopped, coffeed, eaten French pasteries......Yes, life is good!

Karen SV Tahina, Lori SV Trim, Sherry SV Serenity

On Friday of last week, we were notified that our hydrovane had arrived in Noumea. We sent in the appropriate paperwork and were hoping to have it sometime today (Monday), but it hasn't arrived yet. Hopefully we will get our new vane this week. The welding and davit repair is almost finished. The back of the boat will need some cosmetic work in Australia, but is ready for the vane and davits to be reinstalled. So things are coming along, not quite as fast as we hoped, but we're still hoping to leave here for Australia within the next two weeks.

Since we have been here, we have attended a World War II/911 Commemoration of Americans,

hiked the mountain to Fort Terek,

found a geocache, logged in our travel bugs, visited the City Center, Flea Market,

Commercial Fair, New Caledonia Museum,

zoologic and botanical gardens,

cultural center,

Men's Dream in Every Culture

Palm Beach,

and Aquarium.

Most of our friends have left for cruising grounds around Noumea, and we are feeling a bit lonely here with the exception of Kay and Steffan. We'll keep you posted about our plans to leave for Australia. In the meantime, we are enjoying ourselves. Looks like we may be celebrating Russ's birthday here next week. Cheers!

All is Well with the 2 Sail R's on the Sailing Vessel Worrall Wind

When Living the Dream Becomes a Nightmare

2011-09-07T10:22:00.001+12:00

The 2 Sail R's are safely in Noumea, New Caledonia. The trip here was the mechanical trip from hell. One thing after another transpired during our passage. The Worrall Wind Blogs spanning the time period of August 29 to September 5 are Indexed and chronologically linked in this blog regarding the passage along with some photographs. There aren't many photos as we were pretty busy fixing things.

Day 0 and 1 a.m. - Monday, August 29 - 1) Unable to checkout of Vanuatu due to a local holiday, tightening our weather window.

Day 1 p.m. - Tuesday, August 30 - Checked out and on our way, motor pounding into the wind and waves. 2) Hydrovane pops off the rudder post at dusk in strong winds and waves. We save Hydie from falling into the sea. We detour to Malakula Island for repair.

Hydrovane after the first rescue.

Day 2 - Wednesday, August 31- We make repair by pounding post back on strut, tightening all of the bolts, resecuring the rudder. 3) Our main sail upon inspection has sustained a rip that needs repair. Glad we found it now. Repairing sailing takes another couple of hours, and we are on our way again. We have a good wind and are sailing. Hydie is working wonderfully.

Day 3 - Thursday, September 1- Good sailing, extreme heeling. Lots of stress on the rigging.

Great Sail! Extreme Heel. We pay for it later!

Harnessed into the Galley

Day 4 - Squall! 4) Engine won't start. Water in the engine. Russ de-waters engine. 5) It happens again!

Russ checking out the oil before adding to the de-watered engine.

Day 5 - 6) Head sail furler gets stuck as we need to motor into the wind. We can't roll it in. We fore reach while working on this problem in 20 knot winds and 2 meter seas. 7) Each delay tightens our weather window. We are on the ragged edge now of making it in to New Caledonia before a weather change and large seas push up from the south.

Day 6 - 8) The port dinghy davit has collapsed. 9) The dinghy and solar panels are dangling in the sea. 10) Hydie commits suicide and is buried in the sea. 11) Our gecko dies.

Hydie's gone, buried at sea.

Davit, Dinghy, Solar Panels hoisted up after a midnight rescue.

Day 7 - 12) We seek refuge at anchor. Our anchor windlass won't work.

Noumea. A Welcome Sight!

Day 8 - On our 2 year anniversary we pull into Port Moselle in Noumea. As we pull into a very narrow guest slip, our 13 ) bow thruster fails and we have to make two passes to get in with 4 dock hands assisting.

We are now in the process of catching up on sleep, calling our insurance agency, hydrovane company, getting bids, and eating a lot of French pastries. Noumea is a beautiful little city and we are going to really enjoy having our feet on the ground here for awhile.

All is Well With the Two Sail R's on the Sailing Vessel Worrall Wind

Worrall Wind Update - Living the Dream becomes a Nghtmare on this Voyage

2011-09-04T18:14:00.000+12:00

DAY AND TIME: Sunday, September 4, 2011, 1800 UTC/1700 Local

Latitude: S 22 23.139
Longitude: E 166 53.832

First off, we have arrived safely but not soundly. We are at anchor after the voyage from hell. We are pooped, just about to duck into the closest harbor for some rest. So here's the rest of the story.

September 2, 2022, Friday Day 4 Oh Crap Day continued:

From 1:00 - 3:00 p.m. in the afternoon we worked on reassembling the engine, and dumping in new oil. We were so involved in the process we missed the Pacific Sea Farers Net Roll Call. I logged on late and it was over. Hopefully, they aren't sending out the troops for us.

We were on a starboard tack which made the whole process difficult for Russ as he was now having to balance himself from falling into the motor while working. We would be on this tack for quite sometime however in order to get the right angle through the Loyalty Islands and reefs. So while it was difficult for Russ in the engine room, it was a relief from the port tack we had been on the last couple of days.

When Russ originally assessed our water problem, he checked both the likely culprits: the anti-siphon valve on the engine thru-hole (starboard side) and the exhaust, muffler thru-hull on stern by the water line. Russ had installed a bottom drain on the muffler after our last miseries coming across the Pacific from Mexico. He had opened the drain and no water had come out the bottom. This looked like a good sign. He couldn't ascertain a specific problem with the anti-siphon valve, but since it was on the starboard tack and we had been on an extreme heel we had to make the assumption that this was where the problem lay. Going from port to starboard tack would reverse the heel and hopefully the problem as well.

1530 Ok. It's time to start the engine, but before we do Russ needs to open the thru hulls which have been closed. He goes down to check the exhaust muffler one more time, there now appears to be water dripping out of the muffler. As he his laying on his stomach across the engine to examine the muffler, his words were "There's trouble in River City!" He's always so even keeled and polite. He would have made a good astronaut. "Houston, we have a problem." Me?? Oh Sh@! pretty well sums it up.

Russ disconnects the muffler and buckets of water poor out. The good news is we found the problem. The bad news, too late. Upon examining the muffler, the bottom drain had gotten plugged giving Russ a false positive when no water had drained out. With that much water in the muffler, it meant that the new oil we just put in was now contaminated and there was undoubtedly water in the engine again, plus buckets of water in the bilge. He puts the muffler back on and decides to try the motor just to make sure. Maybe the water has yet to go into the engine and he can blow any residual out the exhaust.

1600 He turns the key. Whmf. Nothing. Yep, it's time to start over. Russ has been up since 1:30 this morning with only five hours of sleep. It's 82 degrees inside the cabin and he's looking beat. I'm right behind him. While Russ works on raising the anti-siphon hose and valve higher above the water line, I fix dinner. We need a little break. It's Chilorio, Spanish Rice, and salad. A cold beer would hit the spot, but no can do. We'd both get knocked out.

1700 Dinner and second wind. With the new info about the muffler and our current position, it was time to return to a port tack. We are between NC and the southern most Island of Vanuatu, actually closer to Vanuatu. We look at the gribs and decide that even sailing to Vanuatu might be the better choice if we can't get the engine started again, Russ assures me that he will get the engine started this time.

First, he would raise the muffler exhaust and siphon system even higher. We re-secured everything that would slide to starboard. Got on our life vests, clipped in, and out to the back deck, tacked and came back in. There is no moon tonight, it is inky black out side. The wind is blowing 20 knots, and the seas are about 1.5 meters high. All in all, good sailing conditions and good angle to our mark.

1800 We connect with friend on Skylight and give them a position report. Thank you Brian and Claudia! It's good to be connected with you.

1815 Russ begins to drain oil and disassemble the engine once again. He is exhausted but keeping up a good front so that I don't lose it.

2240 He's getting faster and faster at this process, less than 5 hours from start to finish, and we are ready to turn on the motor. We double check all the valves.

2248 It's finger crossing time! Russ turns the key. Huma huma uma. The lights dim. He switches battery power and tries again. Huma Huma huma uma. He tries again. Huma Huma Huma, Huma. I'm cheering, "Come on Baby!", Huma Huma Huma PURRRRRRRRR! YES! We're doing the happy dance.

We let the motor run for half an hour before shutting it down and immediately shut the valves. I'm turning the ignition off and Russ is standing by to turn the exhaust valve. We'll do the second oil change in the morning. Just in case we are still sucking water into the muffler, Russ leaves the bottom drain open for the night.

Running the engine has heated up the water tank. Hot showers are looking good.

2400 Day 4 is finally over but we are still up trying to get things back to a little order.

Saturday, September 3, 2011 - As if the windvane and engine weren't enough!

0030 Day 5 - It's about the time Russ would ordinarily be waking up from his sleep and time for me to be going to bed from my watch, but are watch and sleep schedules are really messed up. We decide that Russ goes to bed first as usual and will sleep until 3:00, then it will be my turn.

0630 We're both back up after having 3 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period. We are making good progress towards our waypoint to entrance of channel area between Loyalty Islands. The wind is consistently about 18 knots with 1.5 meter seas, with 100 percent overcast. It's noticeably cooler this morning as we are heading south.

After breakfast and the morning net, we are ready to start the next oil change on the motor. Russ and I clean out the bilge area under the engine. There appears to be a lot more water than we expected. The good news is that it doesn't seem to be coming from the muffler. The bad news is were not sure about where it's coming from. Not to worry though it's only a couple of buckets that we pump out. Then we have to dig out more oil from various holds. We need another 2.5 gallons.

By noon, we have the engine flushed with new oil and we are ready to turn it on as soon as it is obvious we are in the wind shadow of the island.

1330 It's time to turn on the engine. She starts and we are ready to start motoring down the channel to the reef entrance to NC. We still have 100 miles to go southwest.. The channel is 50 miles across so it is still open ocean. We will be crossing it on a diagonal, but would like to motor south as far as possible close to the easterly islands so that we can sail the 50 miles to the reef entrance with a good angle. First we need to take in the jib, tighten down the main and mizzen, relieve Hydie from steering, and switch over to auto pilot. We put our vests on over our tropical clothing and head outside. This should only take a few minutes. Russ is looking forward to relaxing afternoon. I am too.

1400 Well by this time we should be done with our little tack change, but noooooo, we've got another problem. Our jib doesn't want to pull in. It's starting to rain and we've got a line of squalls ahead of us. Instead of pulling into the wind and on course, I am now way off course keeping air in the jib so she doesn't beat herself to death and keeping the bow out of the oncoming waves so that Russ can resolve the furling problem. This means he is working right on the bobbing bow. The opening to the base of the furler is on the port side, so I need to maintain a port tack so he can get into the furler.

1430 I put the auto pilot on and come inside. We had set my wrist watch alarm as a reminder to tune in on the Sea Farer's Net and report our position. I'm cold and wet. Russ is still battling the furler and has come inside to warm up a bit himself and get a utility knife. It's too noisey to hear the radio with engine and autopilot. We temporarily sail and re-engage Hydie.

He needs to hand unwrap the furling line. He has found a frayed knot on the end closest to the tie down end. He needs to cut the bad part, about 20 feet, off the line, and re handwrap while dangling over the bow. DANDY! So much for a relaxing afternoon. Russ has been suffering from shoulder problems and this is torture. Not only does he have to work on this now it also means that for the remainder of our trip to NC we will need to go to the bow every time we need to unfurl the jib as the line will be too short to run back to the fantail deck.

1530 Two hours after we started our tack change, we have now solved another exhausting problem. On our way in, our friendly little Fijian gecko is looking very sad. He is on the bottom step going up to the deck and has lost his tail, but has a little life in him. He doesn't mind that I pick him up and bring him inside. I put him in a basket and turn my net colander upside down over the basket so he can't get out. We put a lid of water with a hard candy and some apple to see if we can attract some of the little ants we have on board into his little home. We don't think he is going to make it. Sad, he's been a chirping delight to have on board.

After getting Gecko set up, we both take hot showers to warm up. I fix hot drinks and an early dinner. We alter course and plans once again. Since the seas and winds are lighter than we expect tomorrow, and we most likely will not sail using our jib as she is, we have decided that the angle of sail won't matter. We are going to motor diagonally across the channel to a way point just in front of entrance reefs. We are already 2 days behind in our weather window and large seas and a more southerly wind are forecast for tomorrow and Monday. As I finish up this report, we have about 60 miles to our NC entrance way point, and probably another 50 miles through more protected waters to Noumea. If all goes well we hope to be in protected waters by early afternoon tomorrow, and an anchorage tomorrow afternoon or evening.

2200 Russ is sleeping. Poor guy. He's exhausted. We are bounding into the waves which isn't too bad this evening. We are taking it slower than we would like, to keep the ride a little more comfortable and to not jiggle the wind vane steering post too much. Occasionally a huge wave comes along bounces over the bow and right over the cabin top. Just before Russ went to bed, a wave popped over the cabin.

I heard a thud, thud, thud on our cabin top. It sounded like a winch handle or something had come loose. Russ went outside and looked on top. Nope, without even trying we had caught ourselves a big fish. Not sure if he flopped off or we will find him on the back deck in the morning. We are both so tired, we weren't about to go outside and check it out.

Today, marks the 2nd anniversary of our cruising life. We left on Labor Day Weekend 2009 and are now seasoned sailors and official commodores of the Seven Seas Cruising Association. We've have sailed nearly 10,000 miles in many types of seas, most rougher than we expected and rewarded with incredible experiences and countless little adventures. We are living our dream most of the time. Sometimes the dream gets a little nightmarish, and we try to keep it all in perspective.

Since our initial crossing in 2009, this has been one of the most mechanically challenging trip we have been on. Overall, the weather window we picked has been pretty good. Hopefully, by this time tomorrow, we will be sleeping peacefully in a marina or calm anchorage. In the meantime, a new crescent moon is keeping me company on my watch this evening. It's been a dark journey and the light is most welcome.

0100 Sunday, September 4, 2011

I decide that I'll let Russ sleep another hour. We are still bounding into the occasional big wave. The engine is purring away. We still have all the engine boards off that usually mute the noise, the auto pilot is making its continuous course correction whines, and the waves are thudding on the bow. I've had current, waves, wind, and traffic to contend with so I've been busy the whole evening.

0200 I wake up Russ and go to the back stateroom and head to wash up and brush my teeth. I've had only about 3 hours sleep in 36 and am looking forward to the pillow. I do one last look around. I've gotten in the habit of periodically checking out the stern windows to see how the dinghy is doing. My heart stops! Our right davit has snapped off the back of the boat, the dinghy and solar panels are hanging precariously and bouncing around after every wave. I don't know when this happened and I can't even hear anything now.

I tell Russ. He looks at me as if I am making this up. There's no whistling or calm reassurances, just stubborn resolve. SH@! SH@I, I am almost afraid to beg the question, "What more can go wrong!"

We take our time getting into our foulies (as it is now colder here and the salt water is still flying over the bow.) In inform Russ that I don't care if the solar panels and davits and dinghy all go over board, he is not going done any ladders down the stern to try and do a rescue. If he can't do it from the stern, it isn't going to get done. He's too tired to argue. We cut the motor to idle. Our main is still up so we fore reach for the next two hours. We go out to examine the damage.

Not only had the welds on the starboard davit broken, the dinghy and solar panels are bouncing in the waves and OH NO! Our Hydrovane steering system is GONE! SH@! SH@I. I knew I shouldn't have asked what more could go wrong. Either the davit collapsed and took out the windvane or the windvane post released and knocked down the davits. Since we had just tightened all the bolts and gotten the windvane back in working order just a few days ago, we find the latter cause and effect the lesser probability. We won't know until we can get a closer look.

In the meantime, putting our chagrin aside, we worked for two hours hoisting and winching up the solar panels and dinghy with our jib winches. We are double harnessed and have created this crazy spider web on the fan tail to secure what we can. We get back on course, and we have the davit, solar panels, and dinghy highto pick up our speed. Since we no longer have a hydrovane to concern ourselves with, we can crank up the engine need to be efficient without overdoing it. We have only until two o'clock tomorrow to make it through Havannah Pass into New Caledonia before the tidal current turns against us.

4:45 I am laying in the sea berth exhausted and am having difficulty going to sleep. It's just been too, too much. Even the Zen meditation music I am playing on my Ipod isn't helping.

6:30 I must have dozed but am rudely awakened as I feel cold water dumping down through dorad on to my feet. The waves are honking big and are backwashing down into the dorads. We get towels and stuff them into the dorads as extra protection, but a lot of water has come through. We eat some breakfast, have some coffee, and are too tired and cranky to even talk to one another.

1330 Finally, we make it to Havannah pass. The clouds are brewing. We see rain in front of us, but we have just made it through before the current change. And the big waves that are coming this way in the next few days. We pushed this weather window to the limit. We have contacted the Pacific Sea Farer's net to let them know we have arrived and spoken with Noumearadio control to get permission to duck into a harbor for a night's rest before going into Noumea (another 50 miles away up the west coast) to check in. Permission is granted. And the solar panels are still producing amps!

1600 We anchor in one of the first protected little bays we find. Russ informs me that the anchor windless isn't working, and he may have to winch up the anchor by hand in the morning.

1630 Russ is working on the windlass. It seems to be a switch problem. The water is still, the birds are singing. My body is still moving even though the boat isn't. I examine the damage in the back. It does look like Hydie's post torqued out again, flipped up, breaking the right davit, and then sank to the bottom of the sea. Our gecko died too. It's just been the pits all the way around. We may be in Noumea longer than we planned to get a new Hydrovane, dinghy davits fixed, etc. They have far more facilities for yacht repair than Vanuatu. It's awfully pretty here (but also expensive), so it might not be a bad place to be for awhile.

Signing off, fixing dinner, cleaning up, and going to bed.

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The 2 Sail R's on Worrall Wind are grateful to be here!

Worrall Wind Update - Another Oh Crap Day - DAY 4

2011-09-02T14:52:00.000+12:00

Friday,September 2, 2011

Time UTC 0030, Local 1130
Latitude: 19 46.42 S
Longitude:166 44.661 E

Day 3 - We had a good sail on Thursday, although an extreme heel to starboard. We tied a line on the port wall in the pilothouse to back down to starboard side. Wind 20-25, seas to 7/8 feet on the nose. We have up 2/3 jib, a double reef main eased off and the traveler all the way down. We are trying to stay high of our course line so we can ease off if we have to.

Day 4 - Russ woke me this a.m. at 6:00 a.m. There was a squall approaching, and we needed to reduce sail. Nothing galvanizes me faster than a squall coming. I got up quickly, put on my life vest. Russ turned turned the key for engine backup should we need it. Cough, nothing. Cough, nothing. Oh Sh@! Here we go again! Russ has been so meticuluous keeping the engine dry with plenty of fuel because we will need it going through the reef pass into New Caledonia. Can we just sail? No, it's got to be fixed. OK. So glad we've got the windvane steering sytsem up and running. That's good, but boy would it be nice to be sitting at home in a comfy chair drinking a latte!

0700 Ok, so first outside. We reduced sail and rode out the little squall with winds never exceeding 25 knots, getting our morning shower of saltwater splashed over from the bow and a little freshwater from the rain. Next it was time to figure out the engine problem.

0730 First some coffee, breakfast, and planning. The wind shifted more to the south, the squall , current, and waves took us off our course about 13 miles during the night.

Our trajectory had been to go between the Loyalty Islands on the east side of New Caledonia, taking advantage of wind shadow from the southerly island for awjile. We were not going to make that on the current tack, so we needed to come about, but before we did we did the things we needed to do on a port tack (like pump the water and oil out of the engine, and stowed stuff (our bikes, engine boards, in the back stateroom, for a starboard tack.

0800 Russ is in the engine room assessing the problem. He starts whistling, a bad sign. Looks like the syphone for the engine didn't fair well on our extreme heel. We've got water in the engine again. I immediately took a seasickness pill, just in case, as I could feel my stomach tightening and my mouth going dry, my internal reaction to stress.

0815 We make contact with Namba Net and Brian on Skylight who will touch base with us at noon.

0930 Water is pumped out, stuff is stowed. We gear up, go out, make our tack, and are back inside within 10 minutes.

1145 Russ has engine apart, turned engine over by hand, then with key, WDD in the cylinders.

1200 Make contact with Brian and Claudia on Skylight who are currently in New Caledonia and waiting for us to arrive either today or tomorrow. Looks now more like Sunday, not sure. Time for lunch. Russ says he is half way. A little prior practice is making this process a little faster. We will soon cross over our course line and will continue in our current direction for a while for a better wind angle through the pass between the islands which is about 45 miles south of our current position. We will give them a pos

1:00 Russ is in the process of reassembling the engine. Winds and seas have been lighter this morning, but are starting to crank up. The heel to port isn't as severe as the one to starboard was. We may need to tack back a while when Russ starts the first oil flush as this is apparently better to do while on the port tack.

Want to get this posted so you know we are in the process of solving a problem. Will update if and when we get the motor started. If it doesn't start we will be busy tacking, however, I have lots of confidence in my captain and engineer. Follow us on SPOT.

All is well (pretty good with the 2 Sail R's on SV Worrall Wind

Worrall Wind Update - Repair Successful, Back on Course

2011-08-31T19:53:00.000+12:00

August 31, 2011 - Day 2 to New Caledonia

Time: 0645 UTC, 5:45 p.m. New Caledonia Time
Latitude: S 16 43.747
Longitude: E 167 20.091
Course over ground 193 at 4.7 knots
Wind Speed: 20 knots from 163 degrees South East
Waves: 1-2 meter swells from South east 8 seconds apart

We pulled into Southwest Bay at 6:30 this morning, anchored, had breakfast, made necessary repair to windvane's rudder post by 10:00 a.m., worked on some other damage control including the beginning of a tear on the mainsail, ate lunch, showered, and left by 1:00 p.m.

We are going slower as we are sailing instead of motoring which means we will probably not make it to New Caledonia until late Saturday, early Sunday. Our windvane rudder post just can't take the vibration from our engine throttled up. Hope the new weather files don't change much. We like the eastern edge on the wind as we are headed due south on an uncomfortable port tack (boat works better on starboard tack), close hauled with nose to waves off our port. The wind is good, but the wave angle slows us down. The wind is supposed to be 15 but it's closer to 20 and gusting to 27 knots. We have a double reef in the main but still have a lot of heel. The sail is much better than yesterday, but there is no two ways about it. This run even at its best is one we haven't looked forward to because of wind and wave angle. Nevertheless,

All is well with the 2 Sail R's on SV Worrall Wind

Worrall Wind Update - Sh@! Happens - Plan B

2011-08-31T08:36:00.000+12:00

August 30, 2011, Change of Plans

Time: 2155 Zulu, 9:00 p.m. Vanuatu Time
Latitude: S 166 12.173
Longitude: E 167 05.185

As you know, we left Luganville this morning (see today's earlier update)heading directly south to New Caledonia. Check our FIND SPOT Route on the blog to see our course.

As our afternoon progressed, we found ourselves in a west setting current. In order to compensate, we had to head more southeast, right into the wind and the current. The wind picked up as did the wind waves. We revved up the motor and were bucking into the sea at about a 5.5 knots. This is the closest I've come to being sea sick. The motion was nauseating. I couldn't bring myself to eat dinner, and I was in a cold sweat. Waves were crashing on the bow, so we had everything buttoned up and it was sweltering inside the pilot house, 87 degrees and 60 percent humidity.

As the sun was setting just before 6:00 p.m., Russ and I put on our safety harnesses to make any adjustments necessary. Basically, we needed to tighten down the main, grab the hand held GPS, put the throttle in neutral so we could adjust rpm from inside the pilot house for the night. Russ didn't think he was going to need me, but I harnessed up just in case. Always the Girl Scout...be prepared, even when you think you're going to barf.

He had just gone out when our "radio net" alarm went off indicating that our friend's net was going to start in 2 minutes. I made my way to the radio not sure I would be even able to speak as by this time my hand was over my mouth. I turned on the radio and could hear Pincoya and Skylight talking with one another. I was waiting for a break to call in when I thought I heard Russ shouting. I opened the slider watching for breaking waves and gully washers. "Did you call me?"

BAD NEWS

"Yes, I need help!", he shouted. Oh sh#@! Here we go. I dropped the radio, clipped on to the jackline, flipped on the deck lights as it is getting dark, and scurried out to the back deck. Russ was hanging on to Hydie's rudder post which was no longer perpendicular, but angled 45 degrees to starboard. The rudder post pin had come undone with all the vibrations of the motor. Russ was trying to steady the rudder post and wanted to go down the back swim ladder (which we never swim off of by the way)to take the pressure off the rudder. Our ladder gets a lot of traffic fixing Hydie and dangling dinghies though!

I put the motor in neutral so that we could forereach and stop the wild bronco ride W.e were still hobby horsing but not as frantically.

GOOD NEWS

Fresh air, slower motion, no time to barf, and adrenalin got rid of my nausea. Amazing, but I wouldn't recommend it!

BAD NEWS

After a couple of failed attempts at trying to lift up the rudder post and cocking it side ways, Russ was more determined than ever to climb over the back deck and down the ladder and disconnect the rudder pin. He would be on the last rung, and I remembered one other time he did this, lost his grip and swung away from the ladder. He has been suffering a bit from shoulder pain which has been trying not to exacerbate. It looked to risky. I was just as determined that he wasn't going to do that. It's scary enough for him to do that kind of rescue during the day, but by now it is pitch black. We hooked a double line through the mizzen boom and tried hoisting the rudder and post up this way.

GOOD NEWS
Yes, that worked. We secured the post at an angle and the bottom of the rudder was just out of the water. Unfortunately, once we started motoring again, the rudder would still be in jeopardy with engine vibration.

BAD NEWS
Russ was still going to have to go down the ladder and disconnect the rudder.

GOOD NEWS

But not as far. So we made our plan, got our head lamps, double harnessed Russ with a line to the winch, and he descended the ladder, looped a double line through the rudder handle on the top and over the back rail which I secured to the mizzen mast. He cut the safety line from the rudder which holds it to the rudder post in case the rudder pin breaks, and we hoisted the rudder up and over the rail. Hydie's rudder was covered with slipper green seaweed, yeck! It was a good thing it was tied on to the mast, or it would have slipped right out of our hands. Russ got back on board safely. We secured the back deck and came in side to re-evaluate our situation.

Russ wanted to stay the course and keep on going so that we could make it to NC by Friday. Nope, that wasn't my vote, and since I'm the admiral (rank does have some privileges) we are headed into Southwest Bay on Malacula Island. Yes, we probably would do a lot more motoring and wouldn't need Hydie, and it would be better for her rudder to be out of the water, and yes this does slow us down.

On the other hand, if our auto pilot or engine conks out, we wouldn't have a backup auto steering system. We may need to put Hydie's rudder on while at sea, but at least the rudder post would be secure. We downloaded some new weather files earlier and took a look at them. Surprisingly, they look better than the earlier model so our window doesn't look quite so tight. On the other hand, these damned weather files are never right! We've been waiting for an east wind and thought we had one. Nope! not yet.

For the moment, we are heading to a calm bay to reset the rudder post if possible. We are pounding straight into the waves and wind but moving slowly so that we can get some rest. I've got first watch. Russ is sleeping. We should arrive at SWB by dawn. We'll reassess the situation in the morning, and keep you posted.

All is well with the 2 Sail R's on SV Worrall Wind

Worrall Wind Update - On Our Way to Noumea, New Caledonia

2011-08-30T18:17:00.000+12:00

August 30, 2011 - Goodbye Vanuatu - Hurry Up and Wait!

Latitude: S 15 50
Longitude: E 167 90
Wind Speed: 10 knots from SE, Motor Assist
Course over Ground: 180 S
Boat Speed: 6 knots
Waves: On the nose, 1.5 meters

We left Luganville this morning. Yesterday was the perfect day to leave, however, there was an unexpected holiday that no one seemed to know about except for customs and immigration. Of course, they were closed when we got there bright and early. So we had to scrap our plans as we could not leave without clearing.

We were back at customs at 7:30 this morning with a handful of other cruisers chomping at the bit to check out as well. If we weren't back on the ferry by 8:30 to Aore resort, we would be stuck in Luganville until early afternoon. So we were on a mission to get cleared in one hour. We had picked up the exit paperwork when we checked in a couple of weeks ago and had it all filled out. Customs was pretty fast because we were prepared. We went directly to the port captain's office only to find the door locked. After sitting for 10 minutes, thinking he would be there at 8:00 a.m., we asked one of the dock workers what time the port captain opened. He told us "When he feels like it!" Great!

We went back to immigration to see if they could call the port captain. Instead, they decided to let us pay there and stamp us out....what a concept! Why didn't they do that in the first place? Of course, we have to wait in line again. It was now 8:10, and we still had to get to immigration which was on the way back to the ferry. We got to immigration at 8:15, had more paperwork to complete and then while Russ was finishing up, I hiked back as quickly as I could to the ferry dock to beg for a few more minutes. I got there at 8:24, Russ got there three minutes later. We made it with a few minutes to spare! Yes, things were looking up.

The boat was there but the captain wasn't. Swell! He was running late and we didn't leave until 9:00 after we helped him load the boat with groceries for the resort. South of the Border time makes Island time look like a speed warp. Now we had to get across the channel, check out of Aore Resort, unleash ourselves from our mooring buoy, and try to get out of the channel before the incoming tidal current got to strong. Had we left yesterday in the afternoon as we planned, we would have been carried out with the current. We pushed the throttle forward to a 7 knot cruising speed and by the time we got to the western end of the channel we were doing 1.5 knots against the inbound current. It was a little squirelly as we went through swirl pools that pushed the bow 30 degrees to starboard, we had to crab through the current. OK! We are now 24 hours behind and are going to have to push so we can get to NC before a weather change comes in by weekend. Instead of lolling at our normal slow speed, we want to average about 6 knots an hour.

Right now the wind is light and with sails only, we were only going about 3 knots, so we've got Lehman running, the main and the mizzen up, and auto pilot on. We started off with 15 knots of east wind, Hydie hydrovane steering, and were bounding along between 6.5-7.5 knots. We're hoping the wind changes back to a more easterly 15 knots which is what we thought we would have from our weather files. We'll see. In the meantime, we are off. There is a high overcast, mild wind, mild seas for the next few days, then it starts to pick up a bit. We'd like to be on the inside of New Caledolnia's reef early Friday. That's the plan for now. The wind and waves at the moment are right on our nose and we are hobby horsing down the course. But...

All is well with the 2 Sail R's on SV Worrall Wind

Earthquakes, Tsunami, Diving, Caving, and Canyonning - Another week in Vanuatu.

2011-08-23T10:30:00.004+12:00

River of Prehistoric Time

Latitude: S 15 32.231

Longitude: E 167 10.830

Sunday, August 21, 2011

We have been in Luganville environs for the last week. It is Sunday afternoon as we lounge around resting our tired bodies after an extraordinary adventure yesterday. I have a pumpkin cake in the oven, and I think a tsunami may have just passed under us.

Earthquake and Tsunami

On the net this morning we heard that there were two earthquakes in the islands near Tanna. No one knew much about them. We had felt an earthquake five nights ago while we were on our boat. A loud rumble came up the mooring chain and vibrated the boat for several seconds. We thought at first it was a nearby boat motor. When we went outside, we saw nothing and all was quiet. The following morning, some of our shore companions asked if we had felt the earthquake? At any rate earthquakes are quite common here in the Pacific Rim of Fire.

No one gave much thought to the earthquake report this morning. I was sitting on the back deck with some iced tea at 2:30 this afternoon, and I heard a breaking wave noise coming from behind Worrall Wind. We are moored in 98 feet of water along a coast line of Aore Island and tucked behind a point that protects us from the prevailing southeast waves and winds. There is a deep water channel that runs from east to west between us and the main island of Espiritu Santo a couple of kilometers away. For the most part other than some tidal currents, Worrall Wind is resting in calm waters, so this noise was unfamiliar. The boat was facing the Aore shore with her stern to the channel.

I turned around and saw what appeared to be two very long waves, no more than a few feet high, resembling the wake from a large tanker (but there was no large tanker). It looked like the waves were rolling down the channel and had curved around the protected point. It was curious, but not scary as the waves were not very big, but they were rolling and breaking in different parts as it came in our direction. Both rolled right under us in quick succession lifting the boat gently and continuing on to shore. When the waves shallowed out, we could see them splashing up on shore…then all was quiet. Gloria on Pincoya yelled in our direction…..I think that was a tsunami! Sure glad it wasn’t a big one. (postscript: the Aore Resort confirmed our observation - they just opened their email with a tsunami alert, a day after the fact! Yipes)

THIS WEEK has been busy. Luganville was the primary staging ground for Pacific Troops during World War II. Over 100,000 GI’s were here. Now a sleepy worn out third world little town, Luganville was once a thriving Quonset hut metropolis with over 50 cinemas to entertain the troops. In 1942, the SS President Coolidge, came from San Francisco with 5,000 troop reinforcements and medical supplies for Guadacanal, hit some mines in the Luganville harbor entrance, blowing holes in the bottom and sinking the ship within two hours. During that time, the captain ran the ship with the equipment and the men into shallow water on a reef so that the men could be evacuated and as many medical supplies as possible saved. There were only 2 casualties and the rest of the men were safely evacuated. The ship rolled off the reef and sank. It is now considered the premier wreck dive in the world.

Wreck Diving

We have taken two dives on the Coolidge, seeing only a fraction of the massive ship. It is quite interesting and eerie. Our friends Claudia and Brian dove upward of 30 times while they were here. They are both dive masters and wreck divers used to going down quite deep. We explored what we could without descending below 100 feet. Even that was deeper than our open water certification, but we went with experienced dive masters and extra air tanks. Our friends Gene and Gloria on PIncoya that did the Puddle Jump with us joined us on the second dive.

Our first dive was on the outside of the wreck, where we examined the coral encrusted bow, equipment on the decks, barrels with gas masks, shoes, rifles, helmets, artillery canons and ammunition. Our second dive was deeper and in cargo holds and latrines. It was weird to see rows of toilets side by side. The Coolidge was a first class passenger ship designed for 900 luxury passengers in suites. After being requisitioned by the government, during the war, modifications to the interior had to be made to accommodate 5,000 men. The rows of toilets in the cargo holds were one of the modifications.

To reach the dive, we had to walk in from the beach then descend. It was pretty windy and rough on the surface the second day we went out with Gene and Gloria. With breaking waves, it was pretty challenging and exhausting just getting our gear on. Gloria had some tank issues and ran out of air. Fortunately, the dive master had extra so she trailed behind him tethered to his air tank. We had an interesting time dropping into the holds which were fairly wide open, but somewhat dark and claustrophobic. We decided that wreck diving is not really our favorite activity.

Between our first Coolidge dive and our second with Gene and Gloria, Russ and I dove in an area called Million Dollar Point. At the end of World War II, the Americans offered all of their heavy equipment, jeeps, front loaders, trucks, tractors, to the Brits and the French for a price. The Brits and French decided not to buy the equipment, believing that the Americans would just leave it anyway and they would get it for nothing. The Americans recognized their strategy and decided to be peevish about it by dumping millions of dollars worth of equipment off the point into the sea so that no one would get free stuff!

Apparently, some enterprising Aussies were able to salvage some of the big front loaders (how we aren’t sure!) from the sea, and these became the key pieces of equipment that started one of the largest earth construction companies in Australia. The remaining equipment is a huge surrealistic junk pile with 60 plus years of sea growth. Corals and sponges have molded themselves around tires, truck chassis and warrior rubble. It’s quite surrealistic to be 100 feet down looking up at the surface of the water and seeing mauve and blue coral encrusted truck chassis with wheels suspended vertically toward the surface. Small and large schools of fish call this home, darting in and through the wreckage. We all enjoyed this dive so much more than the Coolidge. It was in the open so no one suffered from claustrophobia and the lighting was better.

Caving, Canyonning, and Swimming the River

Our friends, Brian and Claudia, on Skylight told us that one of the best things they did was go on the Millennium Cave Trip while they were on Santo. While this is an ancient cave, it has only been open to tourists since 2000, hence the name Millennium. They said the scenery was fabulous.

Without hesitation or investigation we signed up to go on this “awesome” trek and trudge. Gene and Gloria came too. We knew we would be hiking and trekking through a cave with running water and would be swimming at some point. I wore my hiking sandals as did Russ with swim suits under our shorts. Russ wore his pith helmet and looked quite jaunty. I took two trekking poles with pointed tips, as I suspected it would be muddy, steep, and slippery. It felt like we were off to find Dr. Livingston.

We expected a certain degree of rigor, but were really not prepared for how rigorous a trip this would be. It took nearly an hour by 4 wheel drive up to a high plateau to the interior of the island before we could actually get started. From there we were met by our Ni-Vanuatu guide, Christian, whose communal village owns the river and the caves. We hiked from the lower village to a higher village crossing some bamboo bridges over deep gullies.

Bamboo Bridge

The entrance fee was 2000 vatu per person $24.00, most of which goes towards school fees for village students.

Map of our Adventure

Once we arrived at the higher village, we were met by the chief who assigned to us some additional guides and dry land transporters. The chief took a look at my two hiking poles (bi-polar, ha ha) or the wrinkles on my face and determined I was “handicapped” and would need some assistance. At first I was a bit taken back and offended that he wanted to assign me with my own guide. Little did I know how strenuous a trip this would be and was extremely grateful that I had a strong helping hand along the way. With two guides, two gear transporters, and six hikers in our party, Russ and I, Gene and Gloria, and another young couple, Laurel and James, we set out on our adventure.

Intrepid Explorers - Russ, Gene, and Gloria

First off, my guide took my backpack so I didn’t have to carry it. Okay, so maybe a few wrinkles and hiking sticks have their advantage! We walked a couple of kilometers through the jungle until we reached a steep drop off. Before we descended down to the cave, our guides painted our faces with mud as traditional respect for the cave spirits. We were told to leave our backpacks and anything we didn’t want to get wet (like my camera) with some village guardians who would dry transport our gear to the cave exit. Again, I was without a waterproof camera. Drat!

The Descent

After we were properly painted and shed of our gear, we started descending down a series of hand hewn branch ladders with the rungs at least two feet apart, so each step was a massive stretch with one leg and a deep knee bend with the other. We went down, down, down, down into a canyon, sometimes hanging on ropes down rocky steeply inclined walls. My guide Sala preceded me down the ladders and the rocky, muddy path.

Guide, Laurel and James descend down, down, down

Where the ladder rungs were broken, Sala would find an alternative footfall for me. When the track was steep and slippery, he would prop one of his feet next to mine so I wouldn’t slip. When there was a rope hanging down a cliff, he would go down first, stretch out the rope and give me a taut handhold with him as an anchor at the bottom. Had it been just Russ and me together in terrain like this, I would have been hanging on to Russ and we both would have had difficulty. Russ was fending for himself and was grateful not to have to worry about me.

The Cave

Finally we reached the bottom of the cliff where there was a rocky crevice that we squeezed into, and we were inside a mammoth cave, 20 meters wide and 50 meters high with a river running through the center.

We waded in knee to hip deep water with a mild to moderate current. Once we turned the bend from the entrance crevice, it was pitch black. Everyone had torches. My guide had a big torch big enough for the both of us so that I could use my trekking poles. He shined the torch upward so that we could see the beautiful water carved limestone walls and hanging bats. Sala walks this cave everyday barefoot and knows every crevice and footfall. We were at the end of the pack. Russ was just in front of us, then Sala, and me.

For quite a while we were altogether, but eventually the front group disappeared into the dark. Our torches only illuminated the immediate area in front of us. Russ had no one to follow, so Sala asked him to drop back behind me which helped Russ better navigate the dark river bed. Sala by this time had taken one of my trekking poles so that he could grab my hand and better assist me. He preceded me and then would shine the torch in the inky water where I was to place my foot or my fanny and slide down a boulder into a pool. One step would be ankle high, the next might be up to my thighs. Russ was able to watch our path and the depth of the water so he too had a better perspective of where to place his feet and his fanny.

We proceeded this way for about half a kilometer, wading, boulder hopping, and enjoying interior waterfalls that showered down upon us. The water was probably about 65-70 degrees F, pretty chilly. Eventually we could see some natural light in the distance through a 50 meter crevice. The slit of light reflected down the length of the river illuminating the rest of our group who were just ahead of us. We all exited the cave pretty grimey and wet.

The cave waters joined another small river perpendicular to the cave, but it was spread over a shallow rocky base, so the last wade was only up to our shins, but moving fairly swiftly. The village chief spotted me coming out of the cave and guided me across the last stretch of the river. I think he was relieved to see me come out.

Lunch and Bail Out?

Once we were out of the cave, we spotted our gear on the bank of the river. Another huge group must have exited the cave only a few moments before as they too were picking out their gear and looking for their lunches. We rested on the grassy slope across from the cave and I was able to retrieve my camera for a few pictures. Fortunately, Gloria had taken her waterproof camera, so we do have some additional photos of the trek to share.

One of the village elders came and sat down beside me to assess my stamina and willingness to continue. There was a dry escape route alternative if I wanted to opt out. No, I told him. I was doing fine and yes I could swim which was the next part of this iron man adventure. There was one lady who was celebrating her 45^th birthday. She was pretty hefty. I think they advised her not to continue as we never saw her or her group again. Given some of the very tight boulder bridges we had to squish down, through, and under on the next part of the trail, I think she simply would not have fit. Once again, I had to abandon my camera and our gear would be transported back to the base where it would stay dry.

Canyonning - I thought it said canoeing trip!

After our lunch, I was looking around for the canoes! Ha! We were each given these little kiddy pink, orange, and yellow blow up rings that we were to wear around our necks while canyonning and then as an aide while swimming down great lengths of river. They were definitely not US Coast Guard approved personal floatation devices, but they did relieve a little anxiety in that we would have something to hang on to as we died of hypothermia. For the next 30 minutes, where we walk in the water when we could, but more likely than not we couldn’t as the drops through the canyon were big and the water would disappear into big holes, pools, and over cascading waterfalls.

We canyonned (climbing up, down, over, around and through) huge one and two story high, slippery moss covered boulders and deep crevices. The village tribe had carved out footholds and installed chains and knotted ropes from which to hang and belay backwards. Again Sala was indispensable as he lead the way, showing me the notched handholds, footholds, and carrying my little floaty for me. There was one part of the trek where we dropped down into a boxed crevice. It looked like there was no way out until you were at the bottom and discovered a rock you had to slither under in a doubled over position so that you could get your legs in front of you to stretch over a bottomless hole that you could hear the river rushing under. We referred to this tight bend afterward as the pretzel. I jokingly asked my guide if we had completed the “easy” part of the trek. I couldn’t imagine it getting any rougher. He smiled and said, “yeah, yeah.” Oh great! I could only hope that his “yeah, yeah” was the typical response of islanders who always wanted to agree with their guests and not really mean that there was harder stuff to come.

The Big Swim

After 30 minutes of dropping down the river canyon, we reached a more level part of the river. Finally, we would get to float. My legs have not ever had a work out like the one we had just gone through. The air temperature was pleasant and we had worked up a sweat canyonning to the river basin.

The walls of the canyon were vertical and now hundreds of meters high, and overgrown with moss and jungle foliage creating the atmosphere of a soaring arched cathedral with stained glass windows of green and blue filtering the sunlight to the canyon floor. Still pools of deep green flowed quietly through this prehistoric cathedral. The only sounds were the occasional birdcalls resonating against the canyon walls.

Float through Time Forgotten

The limestone carved by millions of years of water flow and dusted with a fine moss was an amazingly beautiful sight. Waterfalls trickled and cascaded down the sides and free fell from the overhangs showering us with crystal cold water. This is a place where time stands still, and we wouldn’t have been surprised to see a dinosaur drinking where the river widened out over shallow rocks. This is truly one of the most inspirational and beautiful places on the planet.

Our float experience was 45 minutes long of float, swim, get out and trek a few hundred feet, then float some more. By the last float, our teeth were beginning to chatter. Getting out of the water felt good, but now our muscles were cooled down and our legs felt tired and heavy. The hardest part was yet to come.

The Ascent

It was now time to deflate our floaties and ascend out of this canyon. Those 100 meter walls aren’t so beautiful when you are going straight up them. The tribe had picked an ascent route up through a waterfall where they were able to notch out handholds, footholds, ropes, chains, and bamboo ladders in some solid bedrock. Trying to hang on to these holds with cascading water numbing our hands and feet added to the challenge. By now, my legs were really, really tired as were my arms. When going up these inclines either by notch or ladder the steps are deep. When your quads start giving out, you have to pull with your arms. When your arms start to give out, your stuck. I had visions of dying on these ladders withering like a hanging vine.

The Last Ladder!

Fortunately, Sala was like a monkey. He would scamper up a few steps through the bed rock barefoot, grab my hand and give me an assist up some of the steepest parts when I simply thought I couldn’t go any further. I could hear everyone ahead of me groaning and grunting as they pulled their way up the cliff…. only a couple more ladders. … only one more ladder. Huff, puff, pull, push, groan, moan, and we had made it! If only we had the strength to do a happy dance.

There were successive victorious but feeble whoops when each person reached the top. We trudged another kilometer or two back to the village along the high plateau through the jungle. Villagers who saw us coming nodded and smiled at us acknowledging our accomplishment. If there had been a tattoo artist at the top, I would have gotten another right of passage tattoo on the spot. Fortunately, Mom, there wasn’t a tattoo artist there. I think I would have liked a volcano and a waterfall on the back of my right shoulder or a big heart that said “I love Sala!”

When we reached the base camp at the top village, there were jugs of hot coffee, tea, and sweet and juicy pumpelmus waiting for us. We changed into dry clothes had some refreshments and still had a 30 minute hike to the bottom village where our driver picked us up and took us back down to Luganville.

This was an extraordinary adventure. Had we known the difficulty beforehand, we may have opted out. Not knowing however, we went with it, and don’t have a single regret. It may be a couple of days before we can walk, sit, or go up stairs again without our muscles and joints screaming out in agony, but the incredible beauty, viewed only by a handful of people on the planet was well worth the effort.

Monday, August 22, 2011 – Waiting for a Weather Window

We are now recuperating and sitting out some stormy weather. Last night a rainstorm filled our water tanks while we played cards with 2 G’s on Worrall Wind. We taught them how to play Fiji Rummy. Gloria is quite the card shark and blitzed us.

We had hoped to leave for New Caledonia sometime this week, but it’s looking doubtful wave wise, so we may be here another week even though the skies are lighting up. Last night we had gusts of 40 knots through the channel and the boat rocked more than normal.

We have learned that whatever our weather forecast predicts, we add 40% more to the average. Right now the average is for two to three meter seas in terms of wave height and 25 knots of wind speed with a trough (unsettled weather) running right through the middle of the Coral Sea between Vanuatu and New Caledonia. We interpret this as three to five meter seas with 35 knots of wind…pretty ugly and possibly chaotic. The wind direction looks good, but that’s the only positive attribute. So for now, we are being patient and waiting. We may go on a few more dives and land expeditions while we wait for a tolerable passage window.

We will be parting company with Gene and Gloria today as they rejoin their rally group. The rest of their group tried to leave this morning for one of the eastern islands with 35 knots of winds on the nose and big seas. They all turned around because of the conditions. That’s one of the problems with being on a rally. The leader has generally made arrangements for the group at one place or another and is often driven more by schedule than weather conditions.

This will most likely be the last time we see Gene and Gloria for a while, unless we are still in New Caledonia when they arrive around September 24. Slowly but surely our Puddle Jump 2010 group is dissolving. We’ll have to schedule a reunion in 2020 for all of us in Puerto Vallarta Mexico, when we all have RV’s, live aboard sailboats, or condos, and the biggest adventure of the day is opening and closing the little umbrellas that come in our drinks.

All is Well with the 2 Sail R’s on Worrall Wind

Worrall Wind Update - Malua Bay to Aore Resort - Espiritu Santos

2011-08-13T12:13:00.001+12:00

August 12, 2011

Latitude:     S 15 32.231
Longitude: E 167 10.830

This morning, August 12, 2011 at 10:15 we tied up to a mooring at Aore Resort across the straight from Luganville on Espiritu Santos, the big island of Vanuatu.    We had traveled just a little under and hour and a half from our anchorage on Ratua Island. With a strong east setting current we flew down the channel towards Luganville at 10.5 knots!

Here’s our Vanuatu week in Review.

Monday, August 8, 2011 – Malua Bay, Blue Hole and Workshops

On Monday morning, we went into the Malua Adventist School about 10:00 a.m. in the morning. It was a sunny, beautiful day. Gerry the headmaster was waiting to take us for a hike up to the blue hole. It was a short walk of only 15-20 minutes through the jungle passed his personal garden. He said that family members of the students helped to take care of his relatively large plot so that he could conduct his work at the school. By the time we reached the blue hole, we were ready for a dip.

The hole was a beautiful deep blue green with a small waterfall cascading into the pool. Unfortunately, we had left the camera on the boat so we didn’t get any pictures. Russ and I enjoyed a cool swim. The water was a bit chilly but incredibly refreshing. Close to the waterfall, it felt as if we were swimming in champagne bubbles. It was quite lovely. On our way back from the swim we passed a garden where there were three teenage girls from the school clearing the jungle for a new garden. They had huge bush knives and were whacking away at the vines and trees. The headmaster said these girls had broken some rules (skipped classes) and were doing some hard labor as a punishment.

We returned to the school house about 11:30. School was out at 11:45 and the workshops were supposed to start at 1:15. Men were already milling around the school yard with generators, chain saws, and weed eaters waiting for the workshop.

They were eager to start. Word had spread about our workshops. Turned out that in addition to the teachers at the Malua school, five other schools were sending teachers for the professional development workshop I was to conduct.

We had a hard time getting away and back to the boat for a little break and to pick up our gear. We had promised one of the teachers Mr. Isacc and his son Joses a trip out to the boat, along with a couple of other young ladies who had enquired. One of the girls was an eighth grader (class 9). Viana said she had to get her other friends. Turned out they were the ones up in the jungle doing some hard labor punishment.

We told Viana she was welcome to come, but we didn’t think it was appropriate that her friends who were being punished should have the opportunity. So the five us, Russ and I and our three visitors went out to the boat. We had just enough time for a quick tour, pick up our gear, and pack a lunch to go before heading back to shore. As soon as we got to shore, we were escorted to our rooms.

We each had about 15 participants in our workshops that lasted until 4:15. Russ gave both a lecture about electricity and then guided the men with the broken equipment through a troubleshooting and fix it process. All of the participants, with the exception one of the men with a chainsaw, got their equipment in working order, and were delighted.

I arranged my room in a big circle so that participants could see and talk with one another. This in itself was a learning for them, as they never have the desks arranged except in a face the blackboard arrangement. These teachers face the same classroom discipline problems as in the states (bullying, fighting, disrespect of property, blurting, being noisy, walking, talking, etc.) and have only a few rudimentary techniques at classroom management and student motivation.

Most of what I taught them was pretty standard in America but very non-traditional here in rural Vanuatu.    They seemed to be very receptive, but without on site guidance I would be surprised if more than 10 percent of what we talked about is implemented. I showed them how to arrange their seating for classroom management, teacher proximity, group work, planned walking, talking.

We talked about the need for young people to talk, walk, move around, learn by doing. For those of you who are teachers, Vanuatu students rarely get beyond the second level of Blooms Taxonomy. Knowledge and comprehension are about it. We talked about the importance of the teacher to walk around the room and not sit at his/her desk. We talked about corporal punishment and discontinuing its use.

Vanuatu has quite a bit of domestic violence in this male dominant, kava drinking culture and corporal punishment seems to confirm that violence is an acceptable means of discipline and making people do what the bully wants them to do. The bully could be the father or the mother, or the older sibling, anyone bigger holding the switch.

I showed them how to play some active learning games, pattern clapping to gain student attention, caught you being good incentives, etc. By the end of the day, Russ and I were exhausted and exhilarated.

We were invited to the principal’s house that evening for a thank you dinner. Actually, the principal’s wife Irene prepared the meal but it was served on the minister’s front veranda spread out on woven mats on the floor. Irene had hoped to come to the workshop herself, but cooking a feast over an open fire took the better part of her day.

On behalf of the school and community we were presented with beautiful lays made from frangipani, and a very old, handmade traditional tom-tom. One of the teachers told us that he believed we were sent to them as a blessing from God. We were warmed by their acceptance of what we had to share with them, and never let on that we were just every day Americans who happened to be atheists.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011 – Happy Anniversary Snorkel

Originally, we planned to leave on Tuesday, but decided to spend our anniversary just relaxing and doing some snorkeling. Russ’s skin infection on his shin was finally under control and the water clarity was incredible. We had a great afternoon snorkeling and just hanging out.

We did have one visitor. One of the young men from the Joe family, and his little son paddled out to the boat in their dugout canoe. He had a converter that wasn’t working and asked Russ if he could see if it was putting out a charge. It wasn’t, and he couldn’t fix it. In so many ways, these folks are caught between the old world of their agrarian ancestors and the new world of technology that they do not really understand. Before he left in his dugout, he took a picture of our boat with his cell phone. What a kick!

Wednesday, August 11, 2011 – Goodbye Malua Bay, Hello Ratua Island

We were on our way out of Malua Bay by 7:30 in the morning. As we left, there were several school children on the beach. Russ blew our horn a couple of times, and the villagers rang their bell. This will be remembered as one of our favorite places.

The sky was a bit overcast as we left and the sea was like an undulating grey satin ribbon without a single wind ripple. We motored the entire way to Ratua Island which is on the south eastern side of Aore Island. As we came into the straight, we spied a couple of large turtles. The tide line was filled with bobbing coconuts, but every once in a while one of the coconuts turned out to be a turtle head popping up for some air.

The bay we anchored in is pretty small and there is probably only enough room for one or possibly two boats to anchor safely in deep water without bumping into a coral head. Fortunately we were the only boat in the bay. We dropped our anchor in about 40 feet of water, around noon, ate lunch and spent the afternoon snorkeling on the reef. The soft coral and tropical fish were beautiful. There was just enough dappled sunshine coming through the high overcast to see the rainbow of colors. We looked for the turtles, but didn’t see any. Maybe tomorrow.

Thursday, August 12, 2011 – Diving with Rays and Turtles

We had a leisurely morning. I made some papaya/blueberry coconut milk pancakes for breaksfast. Yum! Afterwards we took another snorkel and look around, but still no turtles. By this time, another boat Riga II from Switzerland with Richard and Gabby aboard had come into the anchorage. We stopped by to see them. They looked pretty close to some of the coral heads. Turns out they have a swing keel and could raise it out of harms way. We invited them over for some sundowners around 5:00 p.m.

After snorkeling in the morning and still not seeing any turtles, we decided to dive down off the reef where they reportedly hangout. We got out the dive gear and dinghied over to a buoy marking a huge coral head. During our dive, not only did we spot a huge turtle, four-five across, but we also saw a large ray and a cuddle fish. Mission accomplished! Sure wish we had an underwater camera. Without our friends Brian and Claudia taking photos, we can only tell you about these fish stories!

We enjoyed our evening with our anchor buddies from Switzerland. They too are traveling around the world. They left from France four years ago across the Atlantic to South America and 50 miles up the Amazon, through the Panama Canal, South Pacific, New Zealand, and are heading to Australia, Indonesia, and Thailand, then probably around the cape of South Africa over to Brazil and complete their journey in the Caribbean. It is amazing how many people are out here doing what we are doing. We look forward to seeing them again as at this point they too are planning on the Sail Indonesia rally next July.

Friday, August 13, 2011 – Moored at Aore Resort

We left this morning from Ratua Island and came around the corner to the west side of Aore Island across from Luganville on the south end of Espiritu Santos. This resort has moorings in 98 feet of water, so we don’t need to worry about our anchor. Or so we thought!

We went ashore to register and enjoy some pool time. We were keeping an eye on Worrall Wind as she seemed to be dancing all around on the mooring and stretched a long way from the mooring ball, coming dangerously close to another boat. Was she untied? We made a dash for our dinghy, hopped in, started the engine and gunned it for the boat.   The two boats were only 5-10 feet apart, stern to stern. Yipes! Normally, boats swing on a mooring like synchronized swimmers, bow to stern, but the current in the strait is swirly and the long ends of the boats were nearly touching. Too close for comfort. Worrall Wind was tied securely, but the mooring was line was stretched way out from the original position.

We quickly turned on the motor, disconnected from our mooring buoy and found another one further down the beach where we have no close neighbors. Fortunately, we had a choice as there are only four mooring balls in front of the resort.

The resort here is quite lovely, with a scheduled taxi service back and forth to the mainland. On the mainland at Luganville, there is only an anchorage that can get pretty rough with easterly winds. The moorings in front the Aore are better protected and guests can take advantage of the resort amenities. The only draw backs from our perspective is that there is no wireless Internet and our dancing partners might get a bit close.

We heard from Brian and Claudia on Skylight on our 6510 0700 UTC Friends Net. They are leaving Port Vila for New Caledonia tomorrow morning. They had some news to share with us. Brian proposed to Claudia while they were on a deep dive. He used sign language. Of course, she said Yes! Woohoo!

Tomorrow, we’ll take the water taxi across the strait to Luganville where there is a coffee shop with free WiFi. Yes!

All is Well with the 2 Sail R’s on Worrall Wind

Worrall Wind Update

2011-08-08T09:03:00.000+12:00

Worrall Wind Update from Malua Bay, Malakula, Vanuatu

Latitude: S 15 59.499
Longitude: E 167 11.033

We've been at Malua Bay now for five days having arrived on Wednesday, August 3. We are the only boat in the anchorage of this nicely protected little bay on the northeastern tip of Malakula. For the most part we have been protected from the raging winds and large swells that have been passing through. Here is a recap of our week.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011 - Arrival

After our arrival after a pretty wild ride along the coast from Southwest Bay, we were tuckered out. We did have some visitors though late in the afternoon. When we had first arrived Chief Don came out to greet us in his dugout canoe. We told him that we had some school supplies and were hoping to make contact with Issac, a name of a teacher given to us by Claudia and Brian on Skylight.

Two men in a dug out approached the boat about 4:00 p.m. and introduced themselves as Issac and Gerry (headmaster) of the school. We introduced ourselves and told them we would like to visit the school the following day. We made arrangements to arrive at 10:00 a.m.

Thursday, August 4, 2011 - Meeting the School Leaders.

The school here in Malua Bay is a Seventh Day Adventist School. It is a cinderblock school with openings for window and doors, but with no windows or doors. It's very open. There are cement floors, rustic desks, and beatup old blackboards. Students do a considerable amount of copying from softbound curriculum books into their exercise books (small notebooks with staples).

The Adventists established a mission here and are the guardians of the Bay. Unlike other villages where we seek permission from the Chief to go ashore, snorkel on the reefs, hike their trails, etc., here in Malua one seeks permission from the school leaders.

We arrived at the school at 10:00 a.m. and met with the head master, deputy headmaster, and French teacher, Mr Issac. We delivered the school supplies we had brought from Port Vila. The school leaders were thrilled as this school like most of the island schools we have visited is in desperate need of materials, reading books, supplementary instructional materials (maps, globes, charts, number lines, alphabet posters, etc.

We made ourselves available to the school should they wish to take advantage of any of our teaching skills. We indicated that Russ had a background in engineering and optometry, and I had a background in teaching, administration and professional development. We could do our standard geography lesson and related earth science lesson or something of their choice. Well, that jumped at the chance to have us do some teaching, particularly in classes 7-8-9 which are comparable to grades 6, 7, 8. The school only has a total of 120 students, so classes are small.

They asked if I would teach some social studies on world governments and economics the following day. They asked Russ if he would teach some science and geography. Russ had mentioned that he had helped to fix some generators in Southwest Bay, and would the school want to organize a workshop for some of the local people to learn how to maintain their generators and troubleshoot electrical problems with solar panels?

Why yes! What a great idea. The school leaders decided to make Monday a half-day session for students and workshops for adults in the afternoon. They inquired if I could work with their teachers while Russ was in the workshop. They wanted to know if I could help the teachers with classroom management skills……right up my alley!

After our meeting, it was decided that I would return that same afternoon to observe teachers in their classrooms and get a feel for what help they might need. I observed lots of seatwork, teachers sitting at their desk, kids in the back of the room drawing and goofing off. In the primary grades, students would scream out answers, and the teacher often did not have much control of student behaviors as they jumped around on their seats and desks. I asked one teacher what his response was when a student consistently failed to follow the classroom rules. He said he took a switch to them. Ok, so my ideas about classroom management might be a tad different.

We returned to school after lunch to gather some curriculum supplies to plan our lessons for the next day and do some observations. Later in the afternoon, we visited Chief Don in his village so that Russ could take a look at a solar, electrical problem the chief was having.

We spent the rest of the evening working on our lessons. You know what they say about teachers. We never die, just lose our class!

Friday, August 5, 2011 - Back to School - Love em and leave em teaching....nice!

Since this is a Seventh Day Adventist School, Friday is a half day. Students and teachers return home to prepare for their Sabbath which is from dusk on Friday to Saturday night. This was an unusual weekend however, in that the teachers were heading off for a retreat in a village several miles away.

Russ and I taught our respective classes and exchanged students midway through the morning. It was a very interesting experience in that these students are very shy. Getting them to speak up, ask questions, or answer questions was next to impossible. Their usual curriculum is very structured and both Russ and I were giving them more experiential experience with hands on, mind mapping, etc. The kids seemed to enjoy it, as did the teachers who commented that they too had learned some new techniques of teaching. It was insightful for me in preparing for my workshop on Monday afternoon and made me realize how much I miss being in the classroom. It was fun preparing a lesson and teaching again. But glad I'm not doing it day in and day out. Love em and leave em is pretty nice.

Because the teachers were off to a retreat in the afternoon, they had made arrangements with the pastor for us to go to church the following morning. When the final bell (several hammers on the large welding cylinder) rang, everyone left leaving the beach and school area completely deserted.

I returned to the boat and baked some bread and an apple pie. Russ visited the Chief and did some laundry in the local stream. We spent the evening beginning to think about and plan for our Monday workshops.

Saturday, August 6, 2011 - Church, Lunch, and Lots of Visitors

It was our understanding that we were to come ashore at 11:30 for church. We saw activity starting around 8:30 and by 11:00 we decided to go in earlier than our understanding so that we could change into our going to church clothes…..i.e. Russ zipped the bottom part of the legs of his shorts on to make full trousers, and I pulled a skirt on over my shorts.

Properly attired, we entered through the back of the open air church and were immediately shown where to sit. It's a good thing we went earlier than asked or we would have gotten there just as it finished at 11:35 which may have been their intention. Our 15-20 minutes of the service was in Bislama. The men and boys sat on one side of the church and the ladies, girls, and small children on the other side. When we sat down where we were guided, the ladies side did a little giggling. I wasn't sure why, but I think it was because I was the only lady sitting on the men's side.

After a little preaching that we didn't understand, Bible reading, singing, and prayer, the service was over. The Minister and assistant leaders came down the center aisle from the pulpit and indicated that we should follow their procession outside where they set up a receiving line. All of the church members came out, said hello, shook our hands and headed home.

We sat with the church leaders and few curious parishioners answering questions about our voyage. One of the families invited us to lunch with them. We accepted their invitation and followed them down the road to their home a few hundred yards away. The family has a lovely little compound with several small houses/huts for their sons and families and an open shaded area covered with purple flowers and vines.

They had bench seating around the edges of the arbor. When it was time to eat, the ladies spread out pandanas woven mats and brought out on a large cloth, a bundle of charred taro leaves with the meal waiting inside to be eaten. The women had started the meal at 1:00 p.m. the preceding day, starting the fire, wrapping the foods in the leaves, waiting for the embers and hot rocks to be just right, then dropping the taro bundle on the coals and covering with hot rocks. By the time their Sabbath began, the meal was already cooked for the following day after church.

We enjoyed yams, a huge pumpkin with coconut cream, island cabbage and sweet potatoes, fresh pamplemoose, nuts, laplap (Kasava, banana and some chicken molded into dense slabs that is eaten like a pizza). Everyone ate with their hands and just dug into the bundle of unwrapped food. As their guests they had provided each of us with plates the size of serving platers filled with food and a large spoon. The food was delicious and incredibly filling. I felt bad for leaving nearly half on my plate, but honestly it was a gigantic portion. Because these folks work so hard in their gardens and walk everywhere, even with the huge portions they eat, few if any are really overweight.

Russ asked what they did after such a huge meal. They laughed and said they often just relaxed on their beds. I bet. I was ready for a nap! We thought this might be our cue to leave so they could get to their relaxing. Wanting to reciprocate for their hospitality, we asked if anyone would be interested in visiting the boat? We thought we might get a few takers. Turns out we got the whole family plus some. No nap today!

We spent the rest of the day ferrying the Joe Family of 12, mother, grandmother, father, sons, wives, children, aunties, and cousins out to the boat for a tour. They were fascinated with everything from the stuff we consider high tech to stuff we take for granted like running water in a sink, flushing toilets, cushions on seats, raised sleeping beds, refrigeration, cooking stove with gas, microwave, binoculars, mirrors, and hot water shower. Everyone seemed to have a good time.

Belden, the family elder, asked us to stop by the following afternoon. He wanted to give us some produce. We said we would come by.

Once we had the boat back to ourselves, we enjoyed a glass of wine, a green salad for dinner, a hot shower and a video.

Sunday, August 7, 2011 - Laundry and Workshop Prep

The wind was gusting up to 20 knots in our bay today. The direction had shifted just enough that it was coming directly through a saddle in the mountain range behind the bay. We had taken some laundry ashore and washed it in the river that flows to the sea. Once we got it back to the boat, the wind was blowing so hard it was a fight to get it pinned to the clothes lines. The sheets, we pinned on the jib lines. It took several attempts and we had to use almost a dozen clothespins per sheet. The sheets flapped, spun, and snapped at us. Russ commented that in 10 minutes the sheets would be dry or in Australia!

We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon working on materials for our adult workshops the following day. About 3:00 p.m., we went ashore for a walk and stopped by the Joe family's home. They were just returning from working in the garden all day. We had brought them an assortment of herbal teas and ginger snaps. They loaded us down with pamplemoose, limes, and fresh eggs.

On our way back to the boat, we stopped to visit a new neighbor in the bay. The boat Kakadu that we have seen in several anchorages in Anatom, Tanna, Port Vila, and Awei had anchored on the north side of Malua Bay. As many times as we had seen the boat, we had yet to meet the cruisers. We met Ann and Graham from Nelson, New Zealand. They are on their way to Southwest Bay.

So tomorrow, we plan to hike to the blue hole on the river and conduct our workshops. If the wind continues to calm down, we plan to leave for Santos on Tuesday or Wednesday. We've had a fine time here.

August 9, 2011 will be our 42 wedding anniversary. It hardly seems possible that two years have flown by since our retirement and bon voyage party at the Berkeley Yacht Club.

All is Well with the 2 Sail R's on Worrall Wind

Worrall Wind Update - Arrived and Anchored at Malua Bay, Malakula

2011-08-03T17:11:00.000+12:00

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Latitude: S 15 59.496
Longitude:E 167 11.035

After looking at the grib (weather) files, it looks like the wind and waves really pick up on August 5, 2011 for several days. We decided to leave Southwest Bay and make it as far as Malua Bay where we will hang out during the blow. We decided not to stay for the "cultural festival" advertised for August 10-11. No one including the chief of Limpinwen village seemed to know much about a festival. It may be happening and then again, it may not. There are other villages around the bay and maybe one of them is planning it. Nevertheless, we felt it was time to move on.

The gribs said we would have 15 knots of wind and 2 meter seas. When we started in the morning this was true, but by noon we had 25-30 knot winds and 2-3 meter seas. We were glad to tuck in, and are now anchored in this bay. It's a bit rolly and overcast, but we will be protected from the increasing southeast winds and building seas. We were greeted by Chief Don in his dugout as we came into the bay. He immediately asked us of if we have a light for his solar powered battery. Ugh!

I think that the villages we just left was one of the best. No one asked us for anything. They were just genuinely welcoming and giving. Not one dugout approached our boat the entire time we were there. It was a refreshing experience. There is a school here and a man named Issac that is a teacher here. We have some school supplies and a hammock from Brian and Claudia to drop off to him.

All is well with the 2 Sail R's on SV Worrall Wind

Worrall Wind Update - August 2, 2011

2011-08-02T18:13:00.000+12:00

Southwest Bay, Malakula Island, Vanuatu

Latitude: 16 29.523 S
Longitude: 167 25.887 E

On Saturday, July 30, after a great week visiting with friends Brian and Claudia on Skylight in Awei Bay in the Maskelyne Islands just south of Malakula Island, we headed north and Skylight headed south. Once we left the protection of the anchorage, we encountered a mild sea 1.5 meter swells, and no wind. We motored about 30 miles north to a Bay called Southwest Bay. The bay is about 5 miles across and there is a lot of room for boats to anchor both on the north and south sides. Directly in the middle of the bay close to shore there is a reef. Most boats from what we understand, drop anchor in about 30 feet of water. Boats are well protected from the south and north winds, moderately protected from south east winds, and slightly protected from westerlies. The bay is open to the west and there is some reef along the outside of the entrance points that modifies the ocean swell.

There are several villages around the arc of the bay with stretches of sand, cliffs and jungle that drop right to the water. We anchored off the island on the south side called Limpenwen. To the left of the village there is an estuary that leads in to a huge lagoon. Limpenwen claims ownership of the Tisri Lagoon and visitors must receive permission from the chief to enter the lagoon area.

We arrived in the Lagoon in the afternoon. There was only one other boat anchored in the entire bay. We decided to stay on board and relax. Sunday morning, the weather was a little rainy after thunder and lightening most of the night. Fortunately, the weather was around us and not on top of us. Nevertheless, the first two nights in the bay, our computers, sat phone, etc. lived in the microwave and oven. Sunday is church day in Vanuatu with family gatherings. Our boat neighbors had left early in the morning. We finally heard from our friends Ken and Lori on Trim. We knew they were leaving Fiji, but hadn't heard from them. Apparently, they had a horrific crossing with very unstable weather conditions, 30 foot seas, and 40 knots of wind. Now they are in Tanna, sitting out the rain. Glad to hear from them and that they arrived. Brian and Claudia on Skylight are in Havannah Bay just outside of Port Vila.

We didn't want to impose on the locals on a Sunday, and since the weather wasn't great, we stayed on the boat and reorganized all of our food supplies, in preparation of entrance to Australia in a couple of months. Since there are many foods that are confiscated in Oz (grains, flours, egg products...even egg noodles, freezed dried meats, frozen meats, etc.) we need to be efficient about what to use up and eat. By consolidating all of the food, we have a better idea of what to power eat before we lose it. We handed off some food to Brian and Claudia before we left Awei Bay and now for the first time our food lockers are beginning to look reasonable. For a while we had enough to supply a fleet of ships!

Monday, August 1, 2011 - Funeral today

We went ashore around 10:00 a.m. on Monday morning. The village was quiet, there were only a few families around. We met a man named Harry who was about of our age. When we asked him to show us the way to the Chief, he informed us that there was a funeral in a neighboring village and the chief and most of the villagers were attending. They would be back in the afternoon sometime. Harry gave us a tour of the village. He is one of the deacons of the Presbyterian church and was especially proud to show off the well kept and newly constructed church. We had an opportunity to meet his daughter Helen and her son Joey. Harry told us that if we wanted to see the lagoon, we would need to come back and meet the chief. We indicated that we would probably come back the following day.

The weather on Monday was lovely. Blue sky and hardly a ripple on the water. We took the opportunity to buzz around the shoreline. Just off the southern entrance point of the bay is a reef that we thought would be fun to snorkel, but we would need permission from the village on the southern tip. We thought this might be a good place to go at sunset and were planning on eating lunch, hanging out on the boat, and going out to the reef as the sun dropped lower into the sky.

About mid afternoon, Russ was reorganizing our backpack and realized that our hand held radio was without its antenna. To keep the antenna safe from being bent in the backpack, I had unscrewed the antenna and put it along with the radio and my camera in a waterproof ziplock bag. Apparently, when I had pulled the camera out of the bag, the antenna had been a hitch-hiker and jumped out. We remembered that I had pulled out the camera shortly after we had beached the boat at the village.

Without our backpack or any of our gear, we jumped in the dinghy and went ashore to look for the antenna. We just pulled the dinghy up a little ways onshore without an anchor line. Russ spotted the runaway antenna within 30 seconds and we were just getting back in the dinghy when two men with big smiles came out of the village and hailed us down. They introduced themselves as Collin and Chief Cedric. They heard from Harry that we had visited in the morning and wanted to know if we wanted to go for a ride into Tisri lagoon. The time was good right now as the tide was coming up and the river into the lagoon more passable. Sure, but first I wanted to get my camera which I left on the boat.

Both Collin from a neighboring village and the Chief, got in the dinghy and returned to Worrall Wind with us while I picked up the camera. In all the years that these men have been in the village, this was the first time they had ever boarded one of the yachts. They were thrilled we had invited them and were of course interested in our Honda generator, solar panels, flush toilet, etc. Russ showed them a few of the projects he was working on. One of the projects was repairing our converter. He explained that you had to be a good fix it person if you lived on a boat because anything that can break down usually does.

After a short tour and a camera grab, we were off to the lagoon. Collin and the Chief really knew their way through the lagoon and all of its coves and islands. The lagoon is all sea water, but does get some run off from the steep mountainsides. The water clarity because of the rain was not real good so we could not see the bottom. With both men frequently pointing this way and that for Russ to follow, we were able to navigate this extensive inland body of water without running aground or hitting any rocks. I think both Russ and I anticipated a 1/2 hour tour. We spent the better part of the afternoon in the lagoon.

We asked the chief if we could buy some pampelmoose (huge grapefruit, but sweeeter), limes, and island cabbage. The chief wouldn't hear of us buying anything. He wanted to give us the produce. He directed us to little cove dotted with palm trees on the south bank of the lagoon. We climbed into the jungle where he and Collin found the cabbage trees. They harvested a huge amount of leaves, wrapped them in a big banana leaf and tied them with some natural vine fibers.

By the time we left the lagoon the sun was just setting. We dropped of Chief Cedric and Collin (who is a nurse at one of the local clinics in a nearby village)on the shore. We think Collin has family in this village and was spending the night here. Collins wife whose name is Roselyne is a school teacher and lives across the bay where the school is. During our lagoon tour conversation, Russ had mentioned the fix it workshop Brian had conducted in the Maskelyne Islands. Collin lamented that his generator wasn't working well and was wondering if Russ might take a look at it. We told him that if he could take us over to meet his wife at the school in the village where she lived the following day Russ would take a look at it. Collin had the day off because of the funeral and had to return to work the following morning, but said one of the men from the village could take us to his wife's house the following morning. We said our goodbyes and promised to return the next day. Chief Cedric said they would have the limes and pamplemoose for us in the morning.

Tuesday, August 2 - Rainy and windy again!

We returned to the village in the morning, but it was too rainy and windy to find anyone who wanted to go with us (and we didn't want to go either!) over to Collins village on the far side of the bay. We had kind of figured that we wouldn't be making the trip, so Russ had left his tools on the boat. Not to disappoint us though, the chief had lined up a few other generators that needed fixing! Great!? But first he took us to the pre-school that his daughter had established for the children 3-5 years of age. Russ and I spent about half an hour singing songs with the children and teaching them a few new ones. We had peaked in the windows of the school the day before which had been closed due to the funeral. It is quite ramshackle and dilapidated. At one point I believe it had been a malaria control clinic funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, but was no longer used as Malaria is pretty much under control here now. It's amazing how the happy little faces of children brightened up this dim, dilapidated building.

Russ spent the rest of the morning and the afternoon, looking at generators. Just before lunch, we returned to the boat laden with about 20 pampelmoose, ate lunch, Russ to collected his tools to return to shore. I stayed on the boat to do some baking (part of our power-eating strategy) and Russ went off to fix a large generator that was refusing to start. His plan was to guide one of the handiest men in the village to fix it and who would then have the knowledge to help get Collin's generator going, if it had the same problem. Just as I was pulling a papaya coconut cake out of the oven, Russ returned trimuphant. The generator's carburator was dirty, air filter oily, and spark plug needed some clean up. Tim, the village handyman, with Russ's guidance got it fixed and promised to look at Collin's generator when the weather got better. Russ suggested to the chief, that he might want to send one of the men to a technical school in Villa to learn how to fix all of the technology that villagers are acquiring. They use their generators to charge their cell phones and run their DVD players in these remote little villages that would otherwise be considered just a step above the stone age.

When Russ returned from the village, we loaded the dinghy and decided tomorrow would be a good day to leave. The winds are supposed to really pick up in two days from now, and we would like to be in a more protected bay when that wind event occurs. There is supposed to be a cultural festival here the end of next week, but Russ wants to move along and hopes to be in Luganville on the Island of Santos by then. This is where we will check out of Vanuatu before heading to New Caledonia. Our plan is to get to NC by early September, and we've learned that we need to start watching for good weather windows sooner than later. They seem to be few and far between. So when the going is good, we're leaving.

We'll see what the morning brings as it seems to me that the wind is blowing pretty good right now (wind generator is spinning), and this is a protected anchorage. The clouds are beginning to disappear behind us, and we might have a nice sunset.

All is well with the 2 Sail R's on SV Worrall Wind

Worrall Wind Update - July 26, 2011 from Vanuatu

2011-07-26T17:50:00.000+12:00

Latitude: S 16 32.046
Longitude: E 167 46.167

Wednesday, July 20, 2011 - Goodbye Port Vila

We left Port Vila early afternoon for an overnight sail to Revelieu Bay on the Island of Epi. We had a chance to connect via Skype with Garyn, Ted and Marian, and Mom and Dad during the morning before we left, letting everyone know that we would not have Internet for a couple of weeks.

Our trip to Epi was uneventful (just the way we like it!). The seas and the wind were so calm, we ended up motoring most of the way. The mainsail was up but it really didn't do much good. The moon was late coming up around 10 p.m. and on the wane. Nevertheless the moon is such a great friend on the dark sea at night even when she is only a quarter.

Thursday, July 21, 2012 - Hello Epi

When I woke up around 6:00 a.m., we were just lolling off the entrance to Revelieu. As soon as the sun came up a little more and my eyes were focused, we headed into the Bay which is protected to some extent from swells because of a horseshoe reef just under the surface of the water.

Our friends on Skylight, Brian and Claudia, had stopped at this bay and had given us the name of a lady with whom that had become friendly. They asked if we would say hello to her from them. Armed with her name and a bag of school supplies, we headed into shore around 10:00 a.m.

We met some children on the beach and asked why they were not in school. They told us that the teachers were in a workshop and they had no school today. We asked if they could direct us to the lady named Lucy. One of the boys said that Lucy was his mother, and he ran off to get her.

Within a few minutes, Lucy came down from the village. We introduced ourselves and she asked us to follow her. We spent the morning at her house meeting her children and some of the neighbors. Her eldest daughter Alex about 10 years old was peeling and washing a stack of manioke (casava root), with a huge bush knife.
Her brother Ben had a sling shot and was trying to find fruit bats to kill.

Once the roots were peeled and washed, Lucy got out a huge grater and grated the white roots into a gooey mound. This mound is actually what we think of as tapioca and can be used to make puddings, thicken soup or stews. Her plans for the manioke was to mix it with chicken meat and stuff cabbage leaves. Then it is baked, loplop, in the ground with hot stones. The chicken already had its neck wrung. It would be thrown into a boiling pot of water to loosen the feathers from its body, before being butchered for the loplop. Growing and preparing food is an endless cycle for the women in the village.

Lucy told us that the school was an hour's walk from their village. Her children got up at dawn each morning and walked to school so they could be there for the 8:00 start. I was a bit reluctant to hand over the school supplies to her as the children were clamoring all over me for the contents when I pulled out the backpack that had Nemo the fish on the front. I explained to them that this was not for them, but for the school. Lucy promised to give the bag of supplies to the head teacher, but I'm pretty sure the school would receive the supplies in a plastic sack or basket and one of her five children would get the backpack. No worries, the supplies are for the children so however it worked out, it would be okay.

While we were visiting, Russ fit two of the older ladies in village with reading glasses, and we blew up our globe to show the children and neighbors where they were and what our route was from California their little village. We gave out a few balloons and lollies (hard candy) to the children and the adults. They seemed to enjoy our visit as they continued their work preparing loplop.

One of the visiting neighbor ladies had two children that both had some deformities. Perhaps their genetic pool was too closely related. Her one son of three or four years of age had six fingers, one poking out of his thumb like a chicken claw. Her youngest son, between ages one and two, had huge testicles (the size of grapefruits) and another appendage that looked like a second penis. We only got of glimpse of him when he took of his shorts to go to the toilet. The mother kept him covered while the older son was not wearing any pants at all.

Before we left, we were given limes, pamplemoose, and, kasava root. We took two of the children out to the boat for a visit, Ben and a bright little girl named Namba. They were incredibly tactile on the boat touching the fabrics, running their hands over the wood, picking up and examining objects. They noticed some children's books I had in the v-berth. They picked out one that neither of them could read and could have easily been read by children of the same age in America, so I read it to them and gave them a little reading lesson as we went. Neither of the children had honed prediction skills, even though the picture book was written in a way that begged the question, "what do you think will happen next?" Namba was better at reasoning than the boy. Critically thinking is not something that is either taught nor practiced. We enjoyed our visit with the children and took them back ashore and said our goodbyes as we would be leaving early the next morning and heading to the Maskaline islands at the bottom of Malacula Island, where we were looking forward to meeting up with our friends, Brian and Claudia on Skylight.

Friday, July 22, 2011 - Goodbye Epi, Hello Manacula

We pulled up the anchor around 9:30 on Friday morning and once again found ourselves motoring north towards Manacula. We were going to an anchorage off of one of the Meskaline islands at the bottom end of the larger island of Manacula. Our weather files indicated some strong winds were coming that would be shifting from all directions so we wanted to find an all weather anchorage well protected from wind and waves. It turned out that our friends were in just such an anchorage.

We arrived in the anchorage between Awai and Avok Island around 1:30. We had our anchor down less than two minutes, when Brian and Claudia jumped in their dinghy and came on over with big smiles and huge hugs. Oh how wonderful to seem them! We last saw them in Fiji before we left for New Zealand last November.

As the wind kicked up we settled in for a great afternoon of visiting and sharing dinner together. I made a shrimp and papaya curry. Claudia brought the rice, some pan fried fish she had caught earlier in the morning. It was a feast!

Brian has become known as the generator fixer here in the area and has gotten four of the twelve broken generators working. These people have so little money but they save up to by generators so that they have some electricity. The generators they are buying are from China and while the generators are still basically "new" they break. The metal in the generators from what I understand hasn't been tempered correctly and the fittings are blowing apart. Perhaps these are seconds from China, but it is terrible that these folks are throwing their money away on these junk generators.

To make matters worse, the Ni-vans here in these remote islands are clueless about how things work and have few tools even if they did know how to make things work.

The main technological tools the people in these villages have are the big bush knife, some pots and pans, a few fishing hooks, rakes, and some plastic bottles. We saw one man with a plane smoothing a dugout canoe and another man with a screwdriver.

The people here in Vanuatu, at least in these remote little villages, are by western standards, are well fed but incredibly poor and lacking in basic maintenance and repair skills for some of the newer gadgets that have come to them….cell phones, generators, solar powered lights. Anticipation skills, much like we learned in Tonga and Fiji to a lesser extent, are not a part of their daily lives. They live from hand to mouth. The people in the remote villages don't even have a money economy although they are forced to do something to collect vatu because they must pay school fees for their children.

The average Ni-vans in Port Vila, we were told, made about $100 a month US. Those who have a skill or degreed may earn $1,000 a month. Just within the last two years, school for children through class six is free. Families with children going to high school and some of the private schools, pay about $300 a quarter per child. For people in the remote villages, even $100 US a month would be considered a fortune as they basically do not sell handcrafts or other items that would generate any income.

Saturday, July 23, 2011 - Preparing for Children's Day

We spent Saturday morning cleaning up the boat and relaxing. Several families in dugout canoes stopped by the boat to trade. They were looking for children's item to give to their children the following day which is Children's Day in Vauatu. While the families went to their gardens to bring back produce to trade, Claudia and I dug through the v-berth on Worrall Wind for kid things.

Our one v-berth locker was filled with school supplies and other stuff we brought from home, paper weights, stuffed animals, ceramic knickknacks, frisbees, mardi-gras beads, wooden ball and paddle, rubber duck, costume jewelry, hair bands and combs, little mirrors, hotel soaps, lotions, and shampoos, small packages of nose tissue. I also had some plastic tumblers and plastic containers with lids, dish towels, balloons, candy, pencils, erasers, stickers, etc. Claudia had some stuff on her boat and another boat Emily Grace came in that also had balloons, whistles, and bubbles.

When the family from Awai island returned, we gave them gifts for each of their five children and received some pamplemoose and bananas. Only two families live on Awai island. Another boat from Avok Island had stopped by and asked for children's items as well which we traded. Avok Island is a larger Island with 400 people and where the children of Awai go to school during the week. It is about a ½ hour dinghy ride from the anchorage.

I have been carrying around from my teaching days, a Bingo game with about 80 bingo cards, waiting for an opportunity to be played. With the huge assortment of "stuff" we had, I decided it would be fun to play Bingo and make the stuff prizes. We asked if we could come to the village the following day which was Children's Day to play the game. It was recommended to us that we come on the Monday after Children's Day, as it would be a holiday and all of the villagers would be available including the children. We were a little disappointed not to come on Children's Day, but apparently this is family day and is celebrated with church activities.

We got together later in the evening with Brian and Claudia for left overs from the night before and I also stir fried up some chicken strips, cabbage, and grated manioke. Both of us had baked brownies too! Another feast. Then we spent the evening teaching Brian and Claudia how to play Baja Rummy! We had a good time.

Sunday, July 24, 2011 - Yipes what is that big thing?

We decided to take advantage of the sunshine to go for a snorkel late Sunday morning. on the reef in the middle of the channel that we had skirted around when we came in the day before. Along with Claudia and Brian on Skylight, and Tom, Kim, and Emily on Emily Grace, we dinghied over to the reef and dropped our anchors. The skin infection that Russ had on his shin was finally clearing up and this would be the first time we had gotten in the water for a snorkel since leaving Fiji. The water was only about 81 degrees and on the cool side so we were all wearing our dive suits. Quite a bit of the reef on top was dead, but where it dropped off down along the sides into deeper water we did see some nice coral and a lot of fish.

At one point I was in fairly shallow water when something huge and grey started to swim by me. I turned my head quickly thinking it was a shark and my adrenalin spiked as this creature swam past me about 10 feet away. It was a dugong! This sea cow was probably 12 feet long and 3-4 feet wide. S/he was swimming quickly and by the time I lifted my head to shout to the others and stick my head back in the water, I could just see her dropping off the shallow shelf down deep and out of sight. Wow! We knew they were about, but it was still a surprise to see one.

After our snorkel, lunch, and a short nap, we visited the little island of Awai with the two families. The families came to the beach to meet and greet us. All were dressed up in their Sunday clothes. We were given a tour of their village which was very orderly and neat, quite a contrast from the one we had visited in Revelieu Bay.

As we were about to leave the village, one of the men showed us fishing buoy that had washed ashore. It looked like a plastic mushroom, little space ship. Fisherman set these out on nets that float about. The units are pretty sophisticated and are costly. When the fishing boats come to retrieve a buoy and get within proximity of where they think it will be, they locate the gps signal it sends off and if they are in range, remotely switch on the diode lights inside the mushroom. There is a solar panel that charges a battery which in turn lights ups the buoy so the fisherman can find the nets.

The guys examined the unit and were asked if it could be converted to a light that would work in a house? Russ, Brian, and Tom said they would work on it and carried the unit back to the boat. Claudia, Kim, Emily, and I meandered back picking up little shells and seeds to use as markers for the Bingo game the following day. We picked up quite a few not knowing how many we would actually need.

Claudia came over late in the day and we made corn tortillas for tacos. We had yet another feast, and played a grudge match of Baja Rummy. Claudia and I lost again!

Monday, July 25, 2011 - Bingo or Bust

We were all in our dinghies at 8:30 and motoring across to Avok Island. We were loaded with prizes and a Bingo game. As we got close to the Avok there was circling reef and the tide was low. It didn't look passable. We waited to see if anyone would spot us and lead us in. Sure enough, a man in a dugout poled his way across the reef towards us.

It was too shallow for us to use our outboard motors without risking damage, so we lifted the motors, stood up and hand paddled and poled the dinks across the reef. We were met on shore by about half a dozen people.

Word spread fast that we had arrived. The men who greeted us took us to a large green area beyond the beach that had a cement stage. The floor was clean and accommodated about 50 children and several adults. Emily from Emily Grace started of the fun, but demonstrating how to make origami "fortune tellers". She had enough origami paper for about a dozen children to fold and participate with her. We used to call them cootie catchers when I was kid.

The kids loved it. When she had finished with her activity, it was time for Bingo, but we had to do some teaching first. First I taught them the song BINGO, only to find out that they already knew a similar version of it and caught on very fast. They wanted to keep singing the song over and over. I quickly lost my voice.

Then we passed out the bingo cards. First I had to teach them the quiet sign and raised my had and explained that I was losing my voice and could not talk over all of their talking. By this time we had 70-80 people on and around the stage. Most of the smaller children were sitting cross legged on the stage with just enough room to put a bingo card in front of them. It was obvious that we did not have enough markers for this huge crowd, so Emily and several of the local men quickly gathered pebbles for the crowd. Some of the older boys chose to play Frisbee with Brian and Russ. Tom was busy taking photos of the whole event.

With some practice we were all playing Bingo! What a sight! Everyone was so engaged and having fun. Even the adults were playing. Some of the men were trying to stand off to the side acting like this may have been a sissy game. There arms were crossed and the bingo cards were on the ground by their feet. The first person to get a Bingo was one of the men, and he was so excited! Russ had brought some D-celled batteries and we had two West Marine over-the-shoulder insulated beer can carriers we had gotten during the Baja Ha Ha. The beer carriers turned out to be perfect sheaths for their bush knives!

We just kept playing the same cards until all of the numbers were finally called and everyone somewhere along the line got a bingo. Claudia and Emily called the numbers and Kim and I checked the Bingos and helped the kids. It took over two hours! After the first Bingo, Russ set up the prize shop. The excitement was incredible. When someone got a Bingo, they took their markers and bingo card to Russ who let them select a prize.

The ladies wanted to play another game and we had to beg off as we had run through almost all of the prizes and it was after lunch and all of us were getting hungry and ready to return to the boat. As we left the village, there were kids playing Frisbee, blowing whistles, playing with balloons, blowing bubbles, girls with hair bands, ladies with earrings and necklaces, men with plastic containers, bush knife sheaths, and D cell batteries. What a lot of fun we all had.

Russ and I returned to our boats, had lunch, and got on our dive gear. Both Brian and Claudia are dive masters and were excited that we had gotten certified. They wanted to get us back in the water and diving. We went back to the reef we had snorkeled on the day before and took a lovely, leisurely dive. The sun was out and the sky was blue. The colors of the coral were vivid and the water clarity was about 100 feet. Quite nice. We saw a giant yellow nudibranch, a school of something that looked like barracuda, a sea turtle, and two giant clams that were wedged open. The clams were probably 2 feet wide. Each of the clams had different colors of lip from yellow, green and brown to aqua, blue, and black.

By the time we finished our dive, we were exhausted, but decided to dine together again and convert the left over taco fixings into a taco salad. Claudia made sone fresh cornbread. By 7:30 we were all ready to hit the sack. It had been a busy day and we were exhausted. No cards tonight.

Brian had been recruited to do a fixit workshop on a neighboring island the following morning and the boat would be picking Claudia and him up at 8:00 the following morning.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011 - Potluck tonight

The day isn't over as I finish this log, but it's time to get it posted. Brian and Claudia left early for their workshop. I've organized a potluck on Worrall Wind tonight with the four boats in our anchorage, WW, Skylight, Emily Grace, and Karina with Philip and Leslie. Russ is over at Emily Grace doing chart talk with Tom, and I need to get busy making spaghetti sauce and a dessert.

The weather forecast looks pretty dismal for the next couple of days with strong winds and some significant rain starting tomorrow. So we will just hunker down here a few more days before we head north and take leave of our friends. It's been fun!

All is Well with the 2 Sail R's on Worrall Wind

Leaving Port Vila and Internet Land

2011-07-20T15:48:00.001+12:00

Looks like we've worn out our welcome. Little did we know when we were invited for lunch that we would be the lunch! Just Kidding.

Just a note to let everyone know we are leaving Port Vila this afternoon and heading for the island of Epi. We will have no Internet service for the next couple of weeks, so please send important correspondence to our sail mail address.

We went on an all day Island tour on Monday and had a great time. The Ni-vans we have had contacts with are lovely people. Once we got out of Port Vila, the potholed roads - known locally as corruption roads, turned into a beautiful 2 lane highway all around the island. Our guide made sure to credit the countries and primarily America for building the road and paying for its maintenance. We were glad that America's 65 million is actually being used appropriately, but question our foreign aid when we have to borrow China to pay our bills. China on its own is quite an investor in Vanuatu along with Australia, New Zealand, and Japan.

As we leave Port Vila, we will be taking bags of school supplies north that have been donated by a local person.
We'll send periodic updates via the radio. Follow our track on Find Me Spot.

All is Well with the 2 Sail R's on the Sailing Vessel Worrall Wind

Port Vila - The City

2011-07-16T15:12:00.000+12:00

Port Vila is a bustling little capital city here in Melanesia. Tour boats from Australia routinely stop here, disgorging more passengers than there are local residents. The Lonely Planet tour book is kinder on Port Vila's appearance than we have observed. It's not a pretty-well kept city, but a duty free pitstop for large cruising boats. The mural above is of days past or might possibly still be seen in villages in remote islands.

Today, the men wear western dress and the women are clad in loose fitting, missionary coverups with some island flare, mostly in the way of fluttering scallops reminiscent of grass skirts. The seamstress business seems to be thriving.

The city in general is not well maintained (roads, sidewalks, garbage pickup, litter) and pollution from burning and vehicles is thick. We have heard the same excuse for litter here as we heard in American Samoa. "The people are used to throwing peels, skins, etc on the ground after eating because traditional foods are biodegradable." thus it's reasonable for them to continue throwing trash on the ground. Education and incentive is lacking.

What we noticed is that there are few public receptacles for trash and garbage which would be a real encouragement to locals to properly dispose of their trash. We tuck our garbage in our backpack and often have to walk miles before we can find a legitimate place to drop it. The locals just toss it on the ground. Too bad. Vanuatu is trying to be very accommodating to tourists, but the lack of good trash maintenance is very distracting.

This is the first city that we have been in since French Polynesia where driving occurs on the right side of the road as we are used to it in America. After driving so much in New Zealand with the steering wheel on the opposite side of the car and driving on the left, the cars and traffic actually looked a little odd to us. The roads are potholed and in very poor repair. We read in the local paper here that America has given Vanuatu over 65 million dollars for road maintenance. The USA built the first road around the island during World War II. We're curious where the road maintenance dollars are going now, and think our congressional leaders ought to be as well. Seems odd that America pays for road maintenance here.

The people we have met are generally friendly. We took the walking tour around town and enjoyed the open market and museum the best. Yams are definitely a staple of the islands. Food in the grocery stores and restaurants is pretty pricey. We've eaten out twice for a modest dinner and it has cost us over $50.00 each time. Two bags of groceries, mostly perishables from the grocery store was $116.00. So yams look pretty good, especially if you are on a tight budget. There is a lot of filling nutrients in a yam for the vatu.

Yams in a Basket, 600 Vatu, about $7.00

We loved seeing the cafeteria style lunches being served in the market. Cooked food was laid out on banana leaf covered tables then wrapped in banana leaves to go. Ladies with pandanus and bamboo-like switches swished constantly over the food to keep flies from landing.

Chicken on a bed of taro leaves and yams

Meals wrapped in biodegradable packaging

Vanuatu Kava is reportedly more potent here than in any other island country. We have seen little root, but a lot of powder for sale, probably for tourist consumption more than anything.

One of the most interesting items for sale were the fruit bats. Guess they are good to grill and are inexpensive enough for the locals to buy. The traditional way of preparing them is to stuff them into fat bamboo shoots and grill over an open fire. Not even sure they are skinned first.

We preferred the French pasteries. These could definitely be the end to our waistline!

Breakfast - Better than Bats, but appx. $30.00 (6 bats)

While we eat, we enjoy watching the people and reading the local newspaper which is a mixture of English, French, and Bislama languages. Sometimes you can almost think you understand it.

Our trip to the museum was very informative. We enjoyed the music, sand art,

Finger is never removed from sand..one continuous line over line.

artifacts (masks, drums, statues, pottery, baskets, etc.)

and the hour long video of the land diving (original bungie jumpers) in Pentecost. Unfortunately, we won't get to see that activity in person as the season for this ritual activity has past. It looks brutal. Men and boys dive off of high towers with vines around their legs. The vines are measured to just stop before the men break their necks.

We applied for our Australian Visa's yesterday at the Australian High Commission. These should be ready for us early next week. When we have these in hand, we will be leaving Port Vila for northern islands. A local donor dropped off a lot of school supplies in bags at Yacht World's offices. We are taking several bags with us to the northern islands when we leave.

Tomorrow, we are taking a tour via a van around the island to see some cultural activities and do some snorkeling. Hope the weather gets better. It's been overcast with clouds and smoke since we have been here. It rained last night. Hopefully, the sun will come out tomorrow!

All is Well with the 2 Sail R's on S/V Worrall Wind

Worrall Wind Update - Arrived in Port Vila

2011-07-11T20:23:00.001+12:00

July 11, 2011, UTC 0800/1900

Latitude: S 17 44.854
Longitude: E 168 18.263

We arrived safely today in the Capital City of the Vanuatu Islands, Port Vila on Efate. Had a lovely, uneventful sail, and arrived before the big waves that are pushing up from the south. Hope to connect to the Internet tomorrow. We will probably be here for at least 4-5 days, maybe longer. It's a bit of a cultural shock after being in rural islands the past few weeks.

All is well with the 2 Sail R's on SV Worrall Wind

Worrall Wind Update - On the Way to Port Vila

2011-07-10T18:43:00.001+12:00

July 10, 2011, UTC 0630/1730
Latitude: S 18 42.049
Longitude: E 168 50.263

Left Tanna early this morning, Enjoyed a beautiful dawn as we sailed away from Mt. Yasura. We have decided to bypass Erromango and head straight for Port Vila. The weather, wind, waves are lovely and just want to take advantage of the good sailing under a waxing moon. We should arrive tomorrow morning.

All is well with the 2 Sail R's on SV Worrall Wind

Vanuatu - Tanna - Mt. Yasura Volcano

2011-07-09T21:56:00.003+12:00

Worrall Wind Update from Tanna, Vanuatu
Tanna - Mt. Yasura , Volcano

From our anchorage at Port Resolution on the Island of Tanna, we can see and sometimes hear the eruptions form Mt. Yasura. Plumes of white and black smoke tower above the ridge, and there are occasionally and distant wumpf! On our first morning here, Tuesday, July 5, I got up around 4:00 a.m., having crashed the night before at 7:30 p.m. after our sail from Anatom.

I looked out the pilothouse in the pre-dawn hour, and there was a glowing cloud of apricot orange looming above the ridge. It changed colors with varying degrees of reds and yellows periodically as the volcano rested and erupted, rested and erupted. It was fascinating to watch. We planned to visit the volcano while staying in this anchorage. Mt. Yasura is the primary attraction. We were both nervous and excited about the prospect, as we knew we would be able to get fairly close, closer than we would be allowed anywhere in the states to an active volcano.

We made arrangements to visit the volcano on Thursday, July 7, arriving at the rim before dark but close to sunset so that we could view the volcano from both day and night. The one hour 4x4 truck ride to the volcano was an experience in itself. I felt like a rag doll being tossed around inside the truck as we negotiated the most awful road you can imagine. There were huge ruts, drop aways, and steep inclines. I was glad to be sandwiched in the cab between the driver and Russ so that at least I was not hitting any metal surfaces as we bumped along.

I can hardly wait to post some of the pictures we took while we were visiting the volcano. The experience was spectacular, mesmerizing, and terrifying. We climbed up a steep trail to the outer rim of the crater, where there is a flattened area where visitors congregate. There is an activity number given to the volcano from 1-4. Anything over a 2 is too active and volacano viewing is shut down until the volcano, Mt Yasur, quiets down. The week before our arrival, Yasur had been closed.

While we visited it was considered a strong 2, almost a 3. Even during a 1 or 2, an unexpected blast or increase of activity cannot be ruled out and it is a very risky business. The blasts from the volcano were less than a minute apart. Molten lava in the form of strings, plops, and boulders were being thrown high above the crater's rim. Within the first five minutes that we were there, there was a particularly large explosion that shot up hundreds of meters above our heads and the volcanic debris was coming our way. Everyone started to panic not sure which way to turn. When you are looking up and seeing these big boulders flying overhead, it is hard to determine to how to get out of their way.

Our guide told us not to run, but to keep looking up and carefully step out of the way! Right! One glowing rock the size of a double oven made a huge thwump behind us, halfway down and on the side of the trail that we had just hiked up. Boy that got everyone's attention and notched up our anxiety. Some locals decided to start a bonfire with it.

I was duly terrified. Some of the tourists were having their pictures taken with the volcano erupting behind them. There wasn't anyway, we were going to turn our backs on this monster if we had to be watching for flying debris. One of the eruptions just before sunset was like a nuclear explosion and the grey black smoke rose like a mushroom cloud.

When we looked up, we saw the most amazing sight! The sun shining through the smoke illuminated a halo like a smoke ring. We don't know what the scientific explanation is for this phenomenon. I took a picture of the ring and have showed it to local people who all believe that it is some sort of sign from the god Yasura.

Our driver/guide said that the last time he saw this ring several years ago, an old man in his village died. He was sure it was a bad omen and that someone else might die. I looked at him, and asked, "David, are you saying that no old men or other people in your village have died since then?" He looked at me quizzically. "No, other people have died since then," he admitted, but he was still sure it was a bad sign. Another man we showed the photo to thought it was a good sign for good weather, and he pointed to the blue skies we were having on the day we showed him the photo as proof of the sign.
When the sun dropped below the horizon, the eruptions became more brilliant against the inky blackness of the night and the crater. There are two higher trails on either side of the flat perimeter for better viewing of the inside of the crater.

Originally, our guide was going to have us walk up the left hand trail, but as most of the debris seemed to be aimed at that side, he took us up the right hand side to look down. There were probably 30 tourists on the rim. One explosion was so huge and terrifying I was frozen and couldn't take photos as I was scanning overhead for flying debris. We could smell the blast and feel the tremendous heat against our skin. Our guide encouraged us hurry up and to take our photos so that we could move away from this side as it was not safe either.

We took some video footage and photos and hiked back down to the flat part of the outer rim and then down towards the truck. Wow Wow Wow! That was definitely worth the price of admission.

Exploring the Villages
During the days between Tuesday and Thursday evening, we explored
neighboring villages around the bay where we are anchored. The Melanesian people here resemble the indigenous people of Fiji, although it appears that many of them have lighter hair. Most, however, have very dark skin and would most likely be identified by the casual observer as African. The Ni-Vans (the indigenous people of Vanuatu), speak English which they have learned in their schools; some speak better French than English; and all speak a pidgin English called Bislama. Every island also has multiple internal languages and without Bislama or English, the people would not be able to speak with one another.

Port Resolution has one four wheel, rutted road leading out of it to the main island town in Lenakel on the opposite side of the island. Getting to Lenakel takes three hours one way of torturous bumping along in truck. We were delighted to check in at Anatom as cruisers who check in here at Port Resolution usually must take this round trip, 6 hour ride to Lenakel to present their papers for check in.

When we checked in at Anatom, we cleared quarantine and paid our fee. Customs could clear us, but not collect the Vatu $. We were told we would have to pay that in Lenakel, but they would send someone over to Port Resolution, and we would not have to make the ride over. Immigration came to Anatom the day before we left and stamped our passports, but the agent could not take our Vatu because he had forgotten his receipt book. To keep corruption down, each agency collects their own fee and must deliver a receipt with a registration number on it. The people are very nice but not very organized.

The Customs man in Anatom said he would make arrangements for customs and immigration to come to Port Resolution for us. We thanked him, but had little confidence that this would actually happen, and decided that if they did not come across the mountain from Lenekal we would just pay our Vatu when we got to the capital city of Port Villa on the Island of Efate.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010 - Checking into Tanna
Tuesday morning about 10:00 a.m. we took our dinghy to the island and hiked up to the Port Resolution "Yacht Club". It is an open air building that has a very casual restaurant (you let them know a day in advance that you are coming and what meal you would like to eat and they will fix it for you). Otherwise, they serve cold beer and that's about it. They have a couple of bungalows (burres) to rent.

There was an NZed family and asingle man at the little resort. There are only a couple of other boats in the bay, so the tourist population here is quite sparse. The father of the little family that was at the resort had crewed on a yacht from NZ and his wife and children had come over to visit with him before all of them returned to NZ.

We brought over our customs and immigration paperwork and asked when the customs man would be coming. Both the yacht club manager and the former crew member laughed and said they rarely come to Port Resolution and that we would have to go Lenekal. The Yacht Club manager said that the officials were supposed to come on Thursdays, but he had yet to see them this season.

Well, Okay! We kind of figured this would happen. We were ready for plan B which was to pay up in Port Villa. Within ten minutes of our arrival and before the laughter and discussion of the disorganization had died down, the Yacht Club manager swung his head through the window and exclaimed, "I can't believe it; customs and immigration are here!"

Well, Okay! Back to plan A. By 10:30 a.m. in the morning we had paid our fees and were completely checked in and paid up. Turns out that there was a super yacht with paying passengers that arrived during the night and they had called in requesting a visitation. We were "lucky" due to the other ship and readilly took advantage of it.

For other yachts coming this way, luck can go either way. Although to be fair, quarantine, customs, and immigration, returned on Thursday when they were scheduled...but guess what? There was another super yacht in the harbor. We would like to give some sage advice here, but there isn't any. Just be prepared to be flexible if you sail here, but save yourself a lot of grief by bringing Vatu with you.
There is no place to get Vatu here and you cannot pay with credit cards or any other currency. When we left Fiji, we had about 18,000 Vatu ($200) which has been just about right for clearing in quarantine, customs, immigration, buying some vegetables, and paying for a trip to the Volcano. Another yacht came in Thursday night and went to Lenakel to check in on Friday and were exchanging another $100 for us.

They left at 7:30 a.m. in the morning and didn't return until 7:30 p.m. that night. (Ordinarily, the truck returns about 2:00 p.m in the afternoon). Friday is payday and the truck bed was packed with people including the cruisers and the NZed Family going home. People were dropped at the airport, picked up checks, went to the bank, customs, immigration, shopped, etc. On the way back, the truck was still full of people, but the truck bed also had cargo. Apparently at one point, everyone had to get out of the truck and push the truck when it got stuck. It was a long and tiring day for everyone. So maybe some good adivce for cruisers is don't try to check in at Tanna on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.

Originally, our cruising friends from Island Sonata, Ruth and Kelvin, were planning on returning early in the afternoon and then we were all going to the John Frum religious service in Sulphur Bay. Jon Frum "from America" is a man who came "emerged" from the sea to the islands many years ago prior to World War II. The people believed he was a reincarnation of an ancient diety, and would one day return to their island with an abundance of wealth for them. They await the "second coming of Jon Frum.
World War II brought to the island, Americans, many of whom were black like they are", in possession of apparent wealth fueling the fire of this "cargo cult" that Jon Frum would indeed return. From the WWII ambulances and medical center, they liked the red flag with the white cross and adopted that as their official symbol. We thought it was a Swiss flag.

The people who subscribe to this religion believe that Jon Frum told them to throw away their money, kill their pigs, and leave their gardens uncared for (sounds like another man-made-god religion that justifies being lazy and waiting for something). There is evidence on the island of those who subscribe to this creed and evidence of those who do not. The Jon Frummers are also the group of people that express themselves with less inhibitions with song, dance, and music. Their religious "services" are on Friday evenings from 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. on Saturday morning with continuous song, dance, and music. Sounds like a party! The Frummers welcome visitors and we were looking forward to attending.
However, the truck that was supposed to take us on Friday evening did not return from Tanna until very late as previously explained. The driver was too exhausted to take us anywhere, so we had to miss the party. We were disappointed, but this is Vanuatu and such is the fabric of cruising. Don't worry, be happy, go with the flow.

A Day at School
Yesterday, Friday, July 8, we visited the Port Resolution School and visited the middle school where we gave a geography and science lesson to the students. Science is definitely lacking in the school curriculum here. We talked about planets, and informed the teacher and children that there are only 8 planets. Scientists have decided that Pluto is no longer considered a planet.

So instead of saying, My Very Enthusiastic Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles, which is a way to remember the names of the planets in order from the sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. We created a new way for them to memorize, My Very Enthusiastic Mother Just Served Us Nuapue (coconuts). We told them about tectonic plates, volcanoes and the Pacific Ring of Fire. The students were raptly attentive. I think I like being a drop in, drop out teacher. Fun to teach when students are attentive, and then we say emam, which means goodbye in their local language.

We have met some very lovely people here. They have been very generous trading with us. They have given us bread, fruit, vegetables, and baskets in exchange for Vatu, D cell batteries, gasoline, air tight containers, t-shirts, shoes, eyeglasses. We took school supplies to the school. These people have very little. Electricity is scant and run by a few sputtering generators. Clothing is a wonderful trade or gift item, especially children's clothing. Solar powered lights are also very much appreciated. Sometimes the people will ask you for things that you have that you do not want to give them, like your "Ipod" or "DVD" player. "I'm sorry, but I do not wish to part with this. It is mine." For the most part, the people are very shy and respectful, but there are some who may think we are from the land of Jon Frum bringing them the wealth they have been foretold.

Leaving Tomorrow for Eeromango and Port Villa on Efate
Today is our last day in Tanna. We are finishing up little projects, printing off photos for people, and we are going to hide a geocache here at Port Resolution. There was a geocache (earth cache) at the Volcano that we will log, but we wanted one that was a place that travel bugs could be left and retrieved. We are leaving Cruising 1 travel bug here and hope another cruiser will pick him up and carry him on.
It's a 55 mile trip from here to Eeromango, and then another 80 miles to Efate. We currently intend to spend a night at Eeromango before pushing on to Efate and Port Villa.

All is Well with the 2 Sail R's on S/V Worrall Wind.

Worrall Wind Update - Happy 4th of July

2011-07-04T17:40:00.001+12:00

Volcano Cloud in the Background

Date: July 4, 2011
UTC/Local Times: 0500/1700

Latitude: S 19 31.522
Longitude: E 169 29.760

It is late afternoon, and we have just arrived in beautiful bay called Port Resolution on Tanna Island in the Vanuatu Islands. We spent over a week at Anatom Island and were able to go ashore due to weather (wind and rain) only 3 times, twice to the main island and once to an outer island called Mystery Island that we had all to ourselves, long white beaches, coconut palms, blue lagoons, and sea turtles.

Mystery Island - Across lagoon from Anatom

We made some new yachtie friends, Derek and Bella from Australia on the sailing vessel Pandana. They are veteran cruisers having been to Vanuatu, Papa New Guinea, Solomons, and other ports of call in Melanesia. We spent a couple of evenings with them including my birthday. They brought over beer they had brewed and some flowers from the island. It was very lovely. Last night we bid them good-bye and hope to catch up with them at another anchorage. They were generous in sharing waypoints, tracks, guidance, and charts with us.

It was difficult to get out of bed by 4:30 this morning, but we got ourselves ready and pulled up the anchor around 5:30 a.m. just so that we had enough light to follow our tracks and get a visual on the reefs on either side. Our ride over was pretty nice today. For most of the day we had blue sky with some clouds, 10-15 knots of wind, 1 -2 meter following seas and a nice broad to full run doing about 4.5-6.0 knots. It took us a little over 9 hours to make the 50 mile run. In the distance as we approached the island, we could see the volcano periodically sending up dark plumes of smoke. This will be the closest thing we get to Fourth of July Fireworks this year. The way points that we had brought us safely right into the bay. We are anchored in about 15 feet of water with a sand and mud bottom, sharing the anchorage with 3 other boats, two sail boats and one power boat.

We are glad to be here and look forward to doing some exploring and visiting the volcano. Hope all of our American family and friends have a great Fourth of July.

All is Well with the 2 Sail R's on S/V Worrall Wind.

Birthday in Vanuatu

2011-07-02T16:59:00.000+12:00

Hello from Vanuatu. We have been anchored off Anatom Island for one week, having gone into shore only twice as the weather has been windy and rainy. One of our two Dell's suffered a disk error the other day and we could not fix it. So we had to pull out our backup computer (brand new loaded Dell) and are now working off of that until we can get the other Dell fixed. Hopefully, between now and the fix, nothing happens to this computer. There is a bit of terror associated with each keystroke less we do something that would knock this computer out too and we would be without our navigation system, radar and chart plotter.

It is quite lonely here with no access to the Internet. We feel very unplugged and have no idea what's going on in the world beyond this little island. Please drop us a short note to our sailmail address (not our gmail address) and let us know what's happening and how you are so we don't have to worry about you. It may be weeks before we have any Internet accessibility. We are talking very REMOTE and primitive. The last act of cannibalism on these islands was in 1969, the year Russ and I got married. Yipes, not that long ago!

Since our computer went down, I have had to reconstruct our address list. I'm not sure I got the one to the blogspot right. Please check worrallwind.blogspot.com to see if this entry got posted and let me know. Thank you.

Today is my birthday and there aren't enough candles on board for my cake.
Here's a little birthday poem I wrote today while it rained.

Happy Birthday to me! I am now a young 63!
I may no longer be the youngster I was at 62
But still young enough to enjoy Vanuatu.

It's been another busy year since my last birthday
Right out the chute, it was Abby and Neal's Wedding Day.
After three weeks of celebration, family, and home
We headed back to the Pacific to continue our roam.

We sailed from Tahiti to an atoll called Suwarrow
We stayed in paradise with no rainy tomorrow.
Alas to Samoa and Tonga we finally did sail
Where we snorkeled coral gardens and swam with a whale.

As the days grew longer, we blew to the west
And in Fiji, trenched Worrall Wind for a seasonal rest.
We flew to New Zealand and lived on the land
Traveling every direction in a little camper van.

We saw fjords, sounds, penguins and 92
of 101 things Kiwis Must Do.
As the cyclone and wet season came to an end
We returned to Fiji to awaken Worrall Wind, our faithful old friend.

Between raising her sails and cleaning the mold that seemed to thrive,
We took some time to learn to dive.
Now we can descend below the waves
To explore brilliant sea life and to peak into caves.

We sailed away from Fiji, each with heavy heart.
The friendly people were hard for us to part.
We love wherever our anchor is set,
But these were the loveliest people we have ever met.
Vinaka Vakalevu Fiji.

So we blew to Vanuatu
while I was still 62.
On Anatom Island our anchor has set.
Some of the nicest people we have ever met!

More palm trees, blue water and friendly faces.
Come explore me, call these exotic new places.
Beside me is my love and soul mate Russ.
In tempest tossed waters, he has courage for both of us.

Happy Birthday to Me.
I am a young 63.
How will this year unfold for me?

All is Well with the 2 Sail R's on Worrall Wind

Worrall Wind Update - Anatom Island, Vanuatu

2011-06-28T15:14:00.000+12:00

Latitude: S 20 14.266
Longitude: E 169 46.606

At Anchor:
Wind Direction: 25-35 knots from the SE
Sky: 50-100% Overcast

Update: Hunkered down in the wind (June 25 +)

It is Tuesday, June 28, 2011. It's been blowing, blowing, blowing for four days. Sunda night was the worst. We recorded sustained winds of 30-35 knots for several hours. Our little anchor track alarm has kept with a tight pattern, so we are pretty confident after these winds that we are good and stuck on the reportedly sandy bottom here in the Lagoon of Anelacoahat on Anatom Island. Russ has replaced the anchor bridle twice due to chaffing.

This lagoon is not well protected from the wind, but it is from the swell for which we are grateful. Nevertheless, there is a constant white cap fetch from the wind, licking and bouncing the hull of Worrall Wind as she pulls back and from side to side on her anchor.

Saturday, June 25 - It's in the mid 70's and cool with the wind howling. We took hot showers and slept in our stateroom with a coverlet. It felt like a cozy refuge. I was alseep at 7:30 and didn't wake up until 7:00 the following morning. How easy it is to take a good night's sleep for granted and such a decadent joy when having been deprived for a few nights while on watch or trying to sleep when not on watch in the bowels of a washing machine.

Sunday, June 26 - It's a high carb, comfort food day. Made blueberry muffins and hot cocoa for breakfast. The wind is howling still and it's very overcast. There are six boats in the lagoon and most of them have stayed close to their boats today making sure that their anchors hold. We had turkey chowder and cornbread for dinner. Finished listening to the Golden Compass. It was much more interesting than the movie, darker too. We are looking forward to the next book in the trilogy. Our time on the boat with this blow reminds us of the northerly we experienced on Isle Partida in the Sea of Cortez when we first got to Mexico.

Monday, June 27 - Our wind generator has been busy! We are actually producing more amps than we are using. The sun has been out today a little as well. Still blustery and the forecast looks like it is going to be like this for a week! At some point I guess we will venture off the boat. Russ has been working on the dinghy davits and repairing the dinghy. We are a half a mile from shore, and the chop and wind make a journey to land look rough and wet. Snorkeling, hot pools, local school, hike to the waterfall, and exploration of Mystery Island (where the locals believe spirits wander at night) are waiting for us when we muster the gumption to get off the boat. We're reading, working on little projects, and listening now to Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods. It's pretty funny, and we are getting a few chuckles out of it. We're just happy to not be in the open ocean! We talked to Skylight and Sidewinder on the radio tonight. Sidewinder is waiting for the wind to subside in Fiji to make a run across Bligh water to the north island. Skylight is tucked away in a protected harbor in northern island of Vanuatu. Trim hopes to leave Fiji for Vanuatu around July 10. We have not heard from Gene and Gloria on Pincoya for a few days, so not sure where they are or what they are doing right now.

It's been one year since we came home from Tahiti for Abby and Neal's wedding. We can't believe how the time has flown by. Abby was to have finished her residency this weekend in Las Vegas. She and Neal hope to meet up with Garyn and Jessica in Washington, D. C. over this Fourth of July weekend.

Tuesday, June 28 - We still haven't ventured off of the boat although we are getting "cabin fever". For about 15 minutes earlier today we were contemplating a run for shore when the wind dropped below 20 knots. Then we heard a "pan pan" (emergency) call from one of the other yachties. It was clear and close by, but we couldn't see the person who was calling. It sounded as if someone was calling on their hand held from an adrift dinghy that lost its engine power. The caller said he would get back with a position. With our binoculars we scanned the seas and saw some activity here and there with some intrepid folks venturing out, but nothing looked amiss. The caller never got back with a position report so we can only hopefully assume, he got his engine started.

It's still blowing 20-25 knots and dark clouds are rolling over the top of the lagoon. We're safe, cozy, and looking forward to some calmer conditions, although the forecast looks like the winds may last for several more days. The family on M/V Emily Grace have been here a week and are anxious to leave tomorrow and find a calmer anchorage. I think they will find one on Tanna, but nothing would get me back out there until the wind calms down. Even after the wind calms, it takes a while for the waves to subside. Veteran cruisers tell us that it takes patience for the right weather window. We're still learning. In the meantime, Russ is busy with projects and started another book. I too am reading, learning Photoshop, and enjoying hot tea.

All is well with the 2 Sail R's on Worrall Wind.

Worrall Wind Update - Day 5, Arrived and anchored in Vanuatu!

2011-06-25T16:11:00.001+12:00

UTC/Local Time: 0217 Saturday June 25, 20011/1317

Latitude: S 20 14.275
Longitude: E 169 46.606

Update: So Glad to Be Here!
According to our weather forecasting information, the winds are supposed to pick up to 25 or more knots later today and last through tomorrow. Our plan was of course to get here before the winds. Well, guess what? They came a day early. Along with the 25+ knot winds came 2-3 meter rolling seas. Last night was just darned uncomfortable as we were between a beam and a close reach with the angle of the wind.

The reach kept us well heeled, but when those rollers would hit us on the beam, we were rolling into the exiting waves and getting a lot of water on the lee deck, squishing through the doors.
As we approached Vanuatu, we also started getting some traffic. I kind of like having the big old ocean all to ourselves and get a little (very) tense when I spot traffic, particular fishing boats with bright lights as it is difficult if not impossible to see which way they are running. I woke Russ up just as he was drifting to sleep around 8:00 o'clock because there were some big white lights in front of us getting closer and closer. There was no AIS identification signal coming from their boat. We could see them on radar and had a visual.
Because the large waves, the radar image was bouncing and we couldn't see a clear direction of their course overground.
Visually, if we see a green light on their bow, we know they are moving across our path from port to starboard (left to right). If we see a red light on their bow, we know they are moving across our path from starboard to port (right to left). If we see both a red and green, they are coming at us. If we see white lights, we know we are coming up on their stern.
Fishing boats are so lit up with white lights, it blinds the eye to any other colors. We know they are either standing still or moving, but don't know which direction. When the waves are big like they were last night and we are on a close reach and moving fast, the approaching boat lights disappear while they are in a trough or we are in a trough, then they reappear and are bigger than the last time we saw them. We know we are closing the gap quickly.
Since were on a close port reach and the traffic was about 1:00 on our starboard side, it would be a close squeeze by if they were moving towards us. We decided to give Hydie a rest and hand steer. After watching them on radar for awhile (they were within 3 miles of us), Russ thought we could probably pass safely and stay on course, but it would be a tight pinch. Every time I tried to angle away from the vessel and more into the wind, the sails would luff, we would lose boat speed and not accomplish a good measure of distance.
Since I was at the helm and a nervous wreck thanks to our friends on Trim who had just written an article for publication of a near-death experience with an out of control fishing trawler, I chose to fall off so that I had more course options, and we would pass them on our port side with a greater margin of space. Little by little, their lights got smaller and we passed them to port. Better safe than sorry.
After that, we started to see more AIS traffic signals, but none that came any closer to us than 20 miles. When Russ got up for his watch, we needed to make some sail adjustments. The wind was shifting around and we were moving too fast. We would reach our destination too early in the dark hours of the morning. We reduced sail and eased off the trim.
An examination of our trailing dinghy presented us with another little Uh oh! The metal loop on the front of the dinghy to which our painter line was tied had snapped off. Now the dinghy was being trailed by a thinner anchor line which was the backup. We said our goodbyes to Avon as we were sure she would be a goner some time during the night. The waves and wind were steadily increasing. We had hoped from our weather information that we wouldn't see these winds until the following day. No such luck.
When Russ woke me at 6:30, I looked out the portholes through sleep blurred eyes to see mountains of water, and oh yes, a real mountain in the distance. We were getting close to Anatom, but had still been moving so fast that we overshot our entrance mark while it was still dark and Russ let me sleep in. Now we had to reduce sail some more and do some back tracking. Russ's first plan was to do a controlled jibe. My plan was to turn on the motor and come about. We decided to go on deck and see how bad the waves really were. It might be too risky to jibe. Our little Avon, believe it or not, was still tethered to us. Jibing would temporarily put the wind and following waves at our back. I was afraid the Avon would wind up on top of our bimini if we jibed.
Once we were on deck, we realized the best thing to do was to bring the boat into a fore reaching position, nose into the wind, slow her down, and still trail the dinghy behind away from the propellor, and prepare the rigging for a sail change. When we were ready to go, I gave the motor just enough throttle to get us out of the fore reach and make the turn. Done! Now we were ready to go on in. Russ called for port control on the VHF. Ha! No one on the island has a VHF. The only response was from a fellow cruiser, Emily Grace. He gave us some encouragement getting through to the harbor and where we might want to anchor.
By 9:30, we were in the bay and anchored with our yellow quarantine flag flying. The bay is a horseshoe of sorts with low lying reefs protecting it from the swell, but not so much from the wind. At 10:00 our first official came out to the boat. He was the quarantine official and we were lucky that he was here. He had just checked out a cruise ship the night before and would be returning to Tanna in less than an hour by way of plane and the small landing strip on the atoll side of the island. We weren't sure whether the officials worked on the weekend. Some do and some are only on the island periodically. The quarantine man was very nice. He asked asked about fruits, vegetables, meats, on board. Nothing seemed to be a problem except he asked us to keep our food on board and not take it ashore. Also, please take any garbage to Tanna and throw nothing over board. He also assured us that the mosquitos on this island did not carry malaria. Nice to know as we had read in an older cruising guide that malaria was a problem in Vanuatu. Seems as if this may now be better controlled. Our quarantine fee was 3,000 Vatu (appx. $35.00). Not sure if this is the standard fee or the weekend fee.
While our "We're here!" adrenalin was still in gear, we cleaned up the boat. It really gets thrashed on a passage, ate some lunch and were finally just laying down for a rest when the customs official came aboard. We chatted with the official, offered him some cola, and got our paper work completed. We have to pay a customs fee in Tanna and go through immigration at that time. Anatom has just recently become a check in port. The custom official is a trainees and not all of the procedures can be completed here yet. Since we are planning on going into Tanna anyway, this won't be a problem for us. As long as we have now cleared quarantine and part 1 of customs, we can come to the island....and yes, we still have a dinghy to get us there.
Snorkeling in the marine reserve and hike to a 50 meter waterfall are the big attractions. This is a very remote little island with no motor vehicles and no grocery store. We'll probably be here 4 days or so resting and enjoying before heading north. Now that we are here, I may not do a daily report, but will keep you posted. Thanks for sailing with us.
All is well with the 2 Sail R's on Worrall Wind.

Worrall Wind Update - Day 4 Fiji to Vanuatu - The expected unexpected happened

2011-06-24T16:35:00.000+12:00

UTC/Local Time: 0000 June 24/12:00 p.m. June 24

Latitude: S 19 42.456
Longitude: W 171.21.108
Course Over Ground: 240
Wind Direction: SSE 18 knots
Sea Swell: 1-2 meters
Sky: 100% cloud cover

Update: I hated it when Russ says Uh OH!

Yesterday afternoon the wind, waves, and cloud cover increased. Grey skies, grey seas and occasional dribble melted into the blackness of the night. Neither of our watches was remarkable other than the fact that we knew we were going above our course line, and would make a sail correction in the morning. Our starboard, green running light stopped working, and we switched over to our mast tri-color. Ordinarily we try not to use this one as it takes too many amps, but we had the Honda switched on so it didn't really matter. So, fix the starboard running light got added to the short list.

After we had eaten breakfast this morning, I got my inclement weather gear on. It was still spitting rain. Both of us put on our gloves and life vests. The wind was blowing about 18 knots and the seas were 1-2 meters. It was time to go out, un-pole the jib from its beam and broad reach position, and pull more into the wind for our course correction. I was at the helm keeping on course and working the back lines while Russ went forward took down the pole, and adjusted rigging for the jib. We positioned the boat into the wind and had the sails set. We had one last thing to do and that was to re-adjust Hydie to her new wind angle after I got her on the right course.

Russ went behind me to adjust Hydie 2, and I heard a mild-mannered mumble "UH OH!"! UH OH translates into OH SH@#! in my boating vocabulary. "What's the matter!" I asked partially turning around as I was trying to keep one eye on our compass heading and the wind. The dinghy which usually fits snuggly under the solar panels had completely snapped from its bow cable and half of the back cable had broken off. So essentially the three of the 4 connections holding the dinghy out of the water had failed. Our Avon was dangling vertical by one cable. Her stern was high out of the water and her bow was bumping and dancing over the waves scooping in water. It's bottom side was facing us while the interior of the dinghy was facing way from us.

Not only was our dinghy dangling, but we had had all of our snorkel gear (masks, fins, snorkels) , 4 floating cushions, dinghy anchor, paddles, dive flag, and emergency hand pump in the dinghy. Time for a deep breath! Ok, it's not the end of the world if we lost all of that stuff. Let's concentrate on what to do. By this time, it is now starting to rain and the beam seas are splashing on our port side.

We had had a similar circumstance when Hydie's wind rudder blew a bolt last season between Suwarrow and Samoa, and we had to make a temporary repair by taking the rudder off and dismantling Hydie in high seas. Russ went into the engine room, opened up the exhaust valve and engine thru-hole and turned on the motor. We didn't really need the motor, but our plan was to bring WW into a heave-to position and it's nice to have the engine as a backup. On the other hand, it's not nice to deal with the exhaust when you are working on the back of the boat, but the benefit in the event of Russ going overboard and me executing a quick rescue with the engine running was higher than the risk of the fumes and sputter.

Once we had the boat in a heave-to position, into the wind with the jib back winded and the rudder hard over, the stern of our boat was now in the lee of the wind and most of the waves. She could basically float in this position with little or no attention from us while we concentrated on rescuing the dinghy. We secured Russ's harness onto a line and secured the line with some slack to a stern cleat so that he could climb down the back swim ladder (it's about a 10 foot drop down the stern from the fantail to the water) and grab the dinghy's painter so that she would be secure in at least two places.

Before Russ went down the ladder, he cranked down the dinghy's stern cable; the Avon was now floating on the water but still high enough that the water was not flooding through the plug hole in the stern. We always take the plug out so that if it does rain, the dinghy doesn't become too heavy and will drain out the rain water naturally. Once the dinghy was floating, we could see the interior of the dinghy. Surprise! All of our stuff (with the exception of two of our floating cushions) was still in the boat! Our snorkel gear was in a shallow box that had wedged itself under the cable bridle in the bow of the dinghy. Everything else had also slid to the bow and was wedged into place. Lucky! Lucky!

Russ descended the ladder while I payed out his harness line. The dinghy was alternately sliding away from the boat and snapping at the end of its cable then rebounding and slamming against the stern. The bow of the dinghy was pointed away. We were dragging the dinghy by its stern, and need to grab its bow line. I tied Russ down to the cleat so he wouldn't go flying off the swim ladder while I telescoped the boat pole and handed it down to him. After getting a sense of the rhythm, he was able to snag one of the sidelines of the dinghy and pull it forward enough to grab the painter.

We tied off the painter so the dinghy was now parallel with the stern. Russ was going to have to get into the dinghy pretty quickly, once I further lowered the stern cable so that he could push the plug into stern hole. Then we would completely disconnect the cable. I released his harness enough to give him the slack he needed, lowered the cable, and he climbed into the heaving dinghy. He got the plug into the hole and released the cable so now the dinghy was hanging on by her painter. Then he started to hand up piece by piece all of the stuff that was in the dinghy.

The first thing he handed up was the dinghy anchor and line. It was a mass of spaghetti that needed to be untangled, so that we could use this line as a secondary tie. (Does it ever seem like we as humans spend an inordinate amount of time untangling things?? lines, cords, necklaces, computer cables, Ipod earphones, hangers?) Anyway, try doing this in the rain and bucking seas. Bit by bit everything got handed up with the exception of the emergency pump. Russ pumped out the several gallons of water that the bow had scooped up while dangling. At one point, the boat seemed to be filling with water faster than Russ was pumping. I noticed the plug in the back had popped out and indeed the boat was filling with water.

We got as much water out of the boat as possible. We had two lines on the dinghy. It was time for Russ to come up. He suffered a little bump on his head and gash on his thumb. It may come to pass that the dinghy has to be cut free if the seas get too rough and she fills with water, but we'll tackle that if it happens. For right now, she is skimming along behind Worrall Wind with her painter and secondary line secured nine feet up on the fantail. This keeps her bow high out of the water. The Avon has lasted an incredible amount of years and has an able bodied backup waiting in the wings should we lose her. I am not sure why we didn't notice the dinghy dangle earlier when we first went out, unless it happened while we were actually out there adjusting the sails. Sometimes in the roar of the wind and sea, you can't hear everything as it happens. Given the fact that we had lost so little out of the dinghy, I can't imagine, it had been dangling long before we noticed it.

Worrall Wind is back on course, the sky is lightening up, the seas are calming down, and we are about 24 hours out from Vanuatu. We hope to make landfall tomorrow morning. Only one more night watch! Yeah!

So the expected, unexpected happened, and once again we faced the challenge and resolved the issue within an hour. We hope it's the only one this voyage.

All is well with the 2 Sail R's on Worrall Wind.

Worrall Wind Update - Day 3 to Vanuatu - Thursday, June 23, 2011

2011-06-23T16:08:00.000+12:00

UTC/Local Time: 0000 June 23, 2011/12:00 p.m.

Latitude: S 19 23.423
Longitude: E 173 15.800
Course Over Ground: 240 @ 4 knots
Wind Direction: E 12 knots
Sea Swell: 1 meter
Sky: 100% overcast
Temp & Humidty: 83 F, 71%
Barometric Pressure: 1016

Update: Calmer seas more gentle winds - Booby Hitchhiker

When Russ took over at 1:30 a.m. this morning, and I went to bed, we were barreling along between 6.5 and 8.00 knots depending on the push from following waves. The seas were still 6-9 feet high, the moon had risen an hour earlier. We went out to the fan tail occasionally to adjust Hydie's course fully jacketed and tethered to the the jacklines.

As the sun had set earlier the previous evening, a juvenile booby decided to land on our port spreader and relax from his fish hunting during the night. The boat was rocking so much, he would slide from outside tip toward the mast when we rolled to starboard and then back to the outside tip with each wave rebound. With one of the waves, he got knocked off the spreader and grabbed frantically and unsuccessfully with his webbed feet to the shroud that has the flag halyard attached. His neck got caught in the flag haylard and he was hanging as if by a noose. Russ had just gotten on his life vest to rescue the booby, when he untangled iw own neck and slid down the rest of the way to land clumsily on the deck. He hopped up on the box that houses the dorad and maintained a precarious perch with his webbed footing over the port side if the box. Each time we rocked to port he would lean back. Each time we rocked to starboard his little webbed feet held him.

There were plenty of more protected places on the bow he could have been had he been smart enough to explore, but he stayed where he was until I went to bed at 1:00. Occasionally, I would turn the head lamp on him to see how he was doing. I don't think he slept much as he seemed to use this time to pick at his molting feathers and whatever creepy little critters live under his feathers. I asked Russ to take a picture of him in the morning light if he was still on board.

As the night wore on, I slept very well. The seas were laying down and the wind growing more gentle. When I awoke at 6:30 a.m., the booby had just flown off. Bye-bye Booby. He left a dreadful amount of booby poop on the bow deck as a thank you. We had 10-12 knots of wind, 1.5 meter seas, and our speed had reduced down to 3.5-5 knots. We were going to have to do a deliberate slowdown (reducing sail) anyway as our anticipated time of arrival in Vanuatu would be o'dark hundred tomorrow evening. By deliberately slowing we would stretch out the trip (something we really hate to do), but at least we would arrive Saturday morning during daylight hours. The island of Anatom that we plan to check into is surrounded by reef so we need good light.

Right now there is 100% cloud cover and we are running downwind. The cloud cover is severly reducing our solar panel power generation from 30 amps to 10 amps. While we are running downwind, our wind generator produces nothing. Since our total amps are down and our refrigerator and freezer continue to pull on the energy, we just got out the Honda generator and put it on the back deck. This would have been impossible yesterday because of the roll and waves. When the Honda gets rolled (off balance)it automatically kills itself. We contemplated running the engine for awhile last night, but decided the Honda is more economical and we would pull it out today if we needed to.

We checked in the HAM Seafarer Net yesterday to report our position, between 0300-0400 UTC on 14.300. Our HAM call sign is KI6YHE for any of you HAMS that want to try and connect with us through Saturday. We were also able to make radio contact with our friends Gene and Gloria on Pincoya last night on 6.510 at 0700 UTC. The copy was very light. We think they said they hoped to be coming into Savusavu on Fiji sometime today. We'll try again this evening to reach local folks on 6.510 or 12B or 12C at 0700 UTC.

If you want to know where we are, check out FIND ME SPOT on the blog. It's working here and hopefully reporting there. Cheers!

All is well with the 2 Sail R's on Worrall Wind.

Worrall Wind Update - Day 2 to Vanuatu - Wedenesday, June 22, 2011

2011-06-22T14:51:00.000+12:00

UTC/Local Time: 2300 6/21, 2:00 p.m. 6/22

Latitude: 18 45.447 S
Longitude: 175 14/676
Course Over Ground: 250 @ 6.5-7.00 knots
Wind Direction: East 20-25 knots
Sea Swell: 6-9 feet
Sky: 80 percent cloud coverage
87 degrees F and 65 percent humidity

Update: Good wind, confused seas

I really don't know how we manage to pick such lousy wave patterns for our crossings. The wind has been constant and we are plowing forward into big seas at 6.5-7.5 knots. When the waves are on our stern we get a good push (10%) of the time, when they are from the stern quarter, we yaw (rock, roll, forward, back, and the bow rounds up then back (80%) of the time, and then just as we are getting used to the rhythm of the yaw, we are whapped on the beam by a wave determined to go through us rather than under us (10)% of the time. When hit on the side, we do an extreme roll to starboard and just as we are at the bottom of the roll, the wave pops up on the downwind side and floods the decks, often squishing salt water through the sliding doors. We have towels stuffed in the doors and of course all the ports and hatches are locked down tight, with the exception of our skylight, which we have open a few inches to get some much needed ventilation. Yipes! just got a beam hit that sent a salty splash through the skylight.

It is rough and unpleasant, but we are getting used to these conditions and Worrall Wind seems to handle it just fine. I think it is a myth though about good winds and small seas. I guess we'll keep on searching for those idyllic conditions. Hydie 2 is holding us on course and we are making good time.

Hints from Helloise: I discovered a good housekeeping trick last night. We keep the cabin dark to conserve electricity and for better night vision. But we do wear headlamps when moving around. While making my rounds last night, I could really see the mold growing in places that look clean in the daylight, so I did a little anti-mold cleanup at midnight last night.

We are currently listening to Phillip Pullman's, the Golden Compass, keeping glued to our seats as much as possible, taking cat naps, and making the most of being disconnected from the Internet. Ouch that hurts!

All is well with the 2 Sail R's on Worrall Wind.

Worrall Wind Update - June 21, 2011 - Happy Solstice

2011-06-22T01:50:00.000+12:00

UTC/Local Time: June 21, 2011 1040/2240

Latitude: 18 11.082 South
Longitude: 176 37.446 East
Course Over Ground: 242 at 6 knots
Wind Direction: S/SE 15 knots
Sea Swell: 2-3 meters 6-10 seconds apart
Sky: Starry and clear

Update: Last Day in Fiji, June 21, 2011 - Happy Solstice

Neither of us slept particularly well last night. Knowing that we're going on a journey, good, bad, or ugly makes for a restless sleep. Cruising the ocean is an adventure. It is an uncertainty and challenge that makes for restless nights.

We were up by 5:30 a.m., did our final prep, said goodbyes to our slip mates, and motored out of Vuda Marina by 8:00 a.m. There was no wind and the sea inside the reefs was calm. We had to motor an hour an half in the opposite direction from our course to Vanuatu in order to check out in the port city of Latouka. When we checked in last November, it was so casual that no one even came out to our boat. Russ had hoped that we could check out the day before and took a taxi to the port office. They completed all the paper work and then the immigration officer said he wanted to come out to the boat to make sure that I was on it. (Usually Russ takes in my passport and crew list, gets them stamped and we are on our way). Sometimes I come along, sometimes I don't. In this case I didn't. Well the immigration official wasn't happy that I wasn't there and insisted we bring the boat back the following day.

Even though we got there at 9:30 and the paperwork was completed,it was almost 11:30 before the immigration officer arrived at the boat. He boarded, looked around to make sure that not only was I there, but no one else was either, and was gone within 1 minute. We hurriedly raised up the dinghy, weighed anchor and headed south on our course. It would take at least 4 hours to get to the pass which would put us with low sunlight as we threaded through the reefs on both sides getting out to the open ocean. It was dark an hour and half later. In the southern hempisphere, we too are celebrating the winter solstice. After tonight, the days will get longer and the nights will get shorter.

Our trip to the pass was uneventful. It was just 4:00 p.m. as we made our way out to the open ocean. As soon as we were clear of the island and the reefs we were met with 18-20 knots of wind and moderate 2-3 meter seas on our beam. We pulled the boat into the wind, raised the sails, turned off the motor, got out Hydie 1's little chubby sister Hydie 2, and got her set up. Hydie is our hydrovane wind steering system. She is wind sensitive and drives her own rudder to keep us on course. Hydie 1 is tall and slender. She was always bumping her head on our bimini (sunshade) last season. Headbanging didn't affect her performance, but the constant banging on the bimini and chaffing on Hydie's wing was annoying. Hydie's little sister is shorter and broader, same wing area. Short and stout is doing the job just fine, and Hydie 1 is resting.

Hydie 2 is hard at work as I write this update, and Russ is sound asleep as I have first watch from 8:00 p.m. to 1:00. With a nice constant wind of 15 knots and waves on our beam, we are rocking and rolling as we are moving between 5.5 and 6.5 knots. It's a bit uncomfortable and I started off feeling a bit queezy, but am feeling better after eating some dinner. The galley when it's rolly is a bad place to be. Russ tied some water jugs outside the galley window on the deck, blocking my view of the horizon, not good. We'll have to change that tomorrow. With a port tack, I used my trusty sink harness to keep me from being thrown against the starboard side and the horizon line keeps me from getting dizzy. I couldn't get out of the galley fast enough, and it has taken a few hours to recover, but all is well now.

Sure glad all I had to do was heat up the spaghetti. I bought these spiffy little plates with lids. Good thing, too. We had some leftovers and put the lids back on just in time as a roller came barreling underneath us and knocked one of the plates upside down on the floor....nice save!

The moon seems to be lazy coming up tonight. It's quite black, but there are millions of stars overhead. Some of the brighter ones twinkle on the waves.

All is well with the 2 Sail R's on Worrall Wind.

Goodbye Fiji

2011-06-20T14:43:00.001+12:00

Courtesy of M/V Emily Grace

We are really sad to go. Fiji is by far one of our most favorite places....primarily because of the wonderful people, beauty of the islands, and abundance of sea life.

Looks like tomorrow, Tuesday, June 21, Solstice Day, will be the day we head out to Vanuatu. First thing in the morning, we will head to Lautoka to checkout. Russ tried to take care of that detail today, but was told we had to bring the boat over because immigration wanted to board and make sure there were only the two of us on board as we leave.

So that's what we will do in the morning. Hopefully if all goes well we will be out the pass and heading to Vanuatu by tomorrow afternoon.

Our last week here has been filled with running errands, provisioning, cooking meals for the voyage, taking care of projects on the list (reattaching Hydie our Hydrovane rudder, downloading podcasts, updating software, filling propane tanks, getting fuel, water, etc.)

Veggies purchased, washed, and ready for packing

But we have also had time to go diving. We saw the beautiful lion fish out at the pinnacles dive site. Lori and Ken from Trim, Scott and Kate from Beachhouse joined together for a dive last Wednesday. It was a glorious day. We met up with Suzi and David from Sidewinder and Jules and Lewis from Simpatica. Jules and Lewis have sold their boat and were selling off some of their gear. We picked up two more air tanks from them. Originally, we were interested in their dive compressor. Unfortunately, we just don't have the room to store it conveniently, so we opted instead for some tanks. We have seven tanks now which should be good for 3 dives each, plus 1 extra for anchor dives.

Clockwise from 1 o'clock: Lori, Ken, Lewis, Jules, David Suzi, Roz at 11 o'clock. Russ (12 o'clock) is taking photo

Yesterday morning, Russ and I took an early morning walk around First Landing and Vuda Point
committing the beauty and the fun we have had here to our heartfelt memories.

I spent most of the morning in the galley, making take along (frozen) meals so that cooking is minimal while underway. I have two spaghetti and meat ball dinners, two coconut, curry, beef meals, precooked taco meat, extra spaghetti vegetable sauce, and bbq'd chicken and steak for salads. We spent the afternoon swimming at the pool, then playing cards with Lori and Ken.

Our card game has become a cut-throat version of Baja Rummy. We call it Fiji Rummy and it has two distinctive differences from Baja Rummy. Coups and Cannibals! You can either win big or be gobbled up by your opponents. At some point, I'll publish the rules.

After our game, the First Landing musicans and staff who have become quite accustomed to our afternoons at the bar playing cards, sang us a farewell song, bitter sweet! It's hard to say goodbye to a place that seems like home. We sure hope to come back!

We'll Miss You, Too!

For the next couple of days while we are at sea, our only communications will be posts sent by radio. Family and friends, please use our sail mail address if you need to get in touch with us. Check out FIND ME SPOT for tracking our progress and location. We'll be back on the net again sometime once we get ourselves established with some telecommunication in Vanuatu.
All is well with the 2 Sail R's on the S/V Worrall Wind

New Friends, Old New Friends and Back to Vuda

2011-06-11T21:37:00.000+12:00

We have been in the Yasawa Islands now for two weeks. Most of that time has been in the Blue Lagoon, Nanuya Sewa Anchorage. The natural beauty of these islands is spellbinding and the friendships we have made here are very precious. It has been difficult to say goodbye.

We are now headed back toward Vuda Marina where we may make a brief stop to do some re-provisioning before heading out to the Mamanuca Islands, Musket Cove. It depends if we can pick up some fresh vegetables somehwere along the way. Our plan will be to stay in Musket Cove a few days before checking out of Fiji in the port city of Lautoka and heading off to Vanuatu.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011 - Baked Brownies

In anticipation of our dinner with Tui's family in Matakawa Levu Village on the opposite island from our anchorage, I decided to bake some brownies to bring over for dessert. I spent most of the morning on Skype with Adobe Software talking to a very nice man in India who led me through some pretty complicated procedures to get my licensing to work again with my design suite software. When my old Mac crashed and I migrated all my software and documents from my clone drive to the new Mac, the Adobe stuff didn't work right anymore. It's taken several weeks to fix this particular aspect of the migration. Anyway, it was all a success. It's quite amazing that while I am in Fiji, a man from India can take remote control of my desktop through a Skype call, and get the computer fixed up.

After brownie making and computer fixing, we decided to go for a dive on the reef shelf at the end of the island. It was our second dive without an instructor. There was a gentle downward slope that dropped down to 18 meters. We saw some beautiful soft corals, huge clams, puffy stars, purple stars, parrot fish, lion fish, and powder blue damsels. At the end of our dive, we were feeling more confident with our skills and our equipment. As we were leaving the dive site, a man was waving us down on the shore. His name was Sosi. He had heard that we had reading glasses and was wondering if he could have a pair. Dr. Russ and his eyeglasses are a big hit. We told him, we would come back the following day and bring him a pair.

After our dive, we scooted around the anchorage to welcome a couple of new boats, Verite and Pickles. We haven't seen Pickles since we all went to the Nuapapa School in Tonga together. It's nice to see familiar faces. We returned to the boat, took showers, gathered our gear, turned on the anchor lights and headed toward the opposite shore. It would be dark when we returned in our dinghy. Fortunately, the wind was almost non-existent our ride was very smooth across the lagoon. Tui and his niece Kuna met us as we pulled our dinghy on the shore. He welcomed us and reminded Russ as we headed toward the village to remove his hat.

Tui introduced to a few of his neighbors as we walked toward his home. When we reached his home, we met his family, his parents Ralulu and Livia, and his wife Kelera. We took off our shoes, or I did, Russ has gone so native he doesn't wear shoes anymore. We walked through the kitchen to the living room where we sat with Ralulu and Tui and learned about their village and Tui's school days. He had once attended the Somo Levu Catholic Mission School that we had visited a few days earlier. From his home to the school was a daily walk and swim. It would take him over an hour to get to school, 20 minutes of it was swimming across the bay with his school uniform held high over his head. While we waited for dinner, we brought out a few gifts for the family. We gave Kuna a balloon and a wind up music box,

reading glasses for Ralulu and Livia, brownies, and some fishing hooks for Tui.

We enjoyed a lovely meal prepared by Kelera and Livia. We had snapper in a coconut sauce, skip jack wrapped in Taro leaves in a coconut cream, breadfruit, and kasava root. Everything was delicious. The family and people in the village grow all that they need. After dinner, we returned to the living room where Kelera spread a cloth on the floor mats and set up after dinner tea with fresh sliced bread and brownies.

Kelera, Tui, Tui's cousin, and Kuna (the young people) sat up while we were instructed by Ralulu that the older people lay down on their stomachs. We were given some pillows to make this easier. It is a little challenging to drink tea from this position, but we got used to it and had a great time.

Livia presented Russ and me with some jewelry that she had made. Russ's necklace is made from shark's bone and mine is made from hematite. Tui said he, Kelera, and Kuna would bring us some fresh scone bread in the morning before our shark dive. We said our goodbyes and headed back to our boat. The water was calm, the moon was shining and the sky was filled with stars.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011 - Shark Dive
We were up by seven and the tea kettle was boiling just as Tui, Kelera, and Kuna arrived at 7:30. They brought a basket filled with papaya "popo", limes, and the brownie container filled with a moist scone bread. We enjoyed a nice breakfast with them before we said our goodbyes. The Ralulu's headed back across the lagoon and we headed toward shore and the dive boat.

The Wednesday morning boat was filled with divers. A university class, organized by the University of Utah, was aboard the dive boat. About 15 students had taken the open water diving course and were earning credits in sustainable, ecologically friendly tourism. The shark dive was the grand finale to a weeks worth of learning and diving.

Everyone was just a bit nervous about this dive, who wouldn't be, diving with sharks? When we got to the dive site, we were instructed to descend down the buoy line, then swim to a horizontal line stretched between two coral heads. We all wore enough weights to sink us to the bottom so that we could stand easily and not drift away. We formed a wall of human bodies behind the line.

Once everyone was settled, the dive masters started bringing down big garbage cans of fish parts, chum, which they emptied out about 15 feet from where we were all standing. Before they even emptied the cans, thousands of fish were gathered for the feed. We saw wrasse, bass, snapper, and lots of little fish. After the chum hit the ground, a frenzy of feeding began. Pretty soon the sharks started to circle. First the black tipped and white tipped reef sharks appeared.

We could tell when the big boys were coming because the smaller fish would split off and away from the chum like a synchronized swim team. The lemon sharks were huge. I'm guessing they were at least six feet long and weighing 250-350 lbs. Some of the other divers with under water cameras have promised to send us copies of their photos or links to their photos, but in the meantime, here is a photo from Wikipedia:

There were a couple of times when I nearly swallowed my whole regulator. The big guys would pickup a large piece of fish they couldn't quite get with a single swallow, and toss it about a bit until their jaws could get it positioned for a gulp. As they would do this twitchy little dance with their teeth flashing, they would swim right towards the human body line and would get within a couple of feet of us before turning.

Fortunately, the sharks really do prefer fish, and if there wasn't enough dead fish for them, there were plenty of nearby appetizers with fins, dorsal not swim fins.

Our dive and shark show lasted for about 40 minutes and then we headed back up to the dive boat. All in all it was very exciting, and the best part....we lived to tell about it. We returned to the boat, ate lunch, and did some reading. Russ took the dinghy to shore to deliver a pair of eyeglasses and to drop off some garbage. We returned later in the evening for a glass of wine and dinner with new friends, Denise and Thomas. We had lovely last evening at Blue Lagoon.

Thursday, June 9, 2011 - Goodbye Blue Lagoon, Hello Soso
We got up early and started to stow things away for our departure. Our plan was to hang around until at least 10:00 in the morning when the sun was higher in the sky, better to see reefs. We heard a boat approaching around 8:00 a.m. and thought it might be Tui, but it was Sosi and several other men from the resort. They were bearing departure gifts from Va and her family. She sent out a beautiful bouquet of flowers, a coconut bowl and woven stand that she had made the night before, a bag of limes, and lemon leaves for tea. I think she thought that we would be leaving without coming to shore again.

Once we had almost everything ready to go, we went into shore one last time. We needed to pickup our dive gear at the dive shop, pay our dinner bill from the previous night, and say our thank yous and goodbyes to all of the lovely people at Nanuya. And of course, we wanted to stop and say good bye and vinaka to Va and her family. Va was delighted to see us, and we both had tears in our eyes as we gave each other parting hugs. Yes, we would definitely come back to see her if we come back to Fiji. As we left, she wanted to give us one last gift, a beautiful snail sogasoga shell.

We lifted the dinghy up on the davits, weighed anchor at 10:20, and headed south towards Naviti Island and Soso Bay. We had met some other cruisers in Blue Lagoon, Ernesto and Vera on Libertee, who had given us some good waypoints for the eastern side of the island. Worrall Wind spent the rest of the morning and early part of the afternoon playing connect the dots until we threaded our way through the reefs to Soso Bay on Naviti Islands.

This bay is not as protected as Blue Lagoon and the wind has picked up a bit blowing in some clouds. As I write this blog this evening, we are getting gusts up to 20 knots and we are bucking about a bit. We were planning on just spending on one night here, and heading out early tomorrow for an all day motor sail to Musket Cove, but it looks like that won't happen now until Saturday morning. We went into shore this afternoon to bring kava to the chief and do a sevusevu with him, and were invited to come back tomorrow to visit the village and school. Somehow, we can't pass by a school without a visit.

The Chief and his family were thrilled to receive the kava as well as several pairs of reading glasses for the elders. As we were leaving the village today, a man came up to the shore in a boat and called us by name. "Do you remember me?" he asked. Of course, we did. It was Leve, the man who called his ancestors the Manta Rays and made it possible for us to see at least one. He is now an old, new friend.

Friday, June 10, 2011 - Naviti School, Village, and Popo Scones

This morning we motored over to the village in our dinghy so that we could visit the school. Taru, one of the chief's granddaughters escorted us to the school. Two of the teachers were either ill or out of town, so classes 3 & 4, 5 & 6, had no school. Class 1/2 was in session as was class 7/8. We spent an hour at the school visiting the two classes. The school in Naviti is one of the best equipped schools we have been in.

The children in class 7/8 ranged in age from 12-14. They were working on geometry and coordinates. Talking latitude and longitude with them fit right into their studies. And as usual the globe was a big hit as they found their island. Just like American tweens, the boys were pulling their pens apart, poking one another, and were balls of energy confined to a classroom. The girls claimed that they worked harder than the boys and from the looks of it they were much more attentive to their studies.

Class 7/8 in Naviti

The children in class 1/2 were very sweet. They too loved the globe and sang several songs to us.

After our visit to the school, we walked around the village with Taru taking photos of the church and buying some bananas and papaya (popo).

Taru and Russ in the Methodist Church

A larger group of visitors was expected after 2:00, and we were invited to return to the village in the afternoon as the ladies would have their handcrafts on display for sale and the village entertainers would provide some entertainment. Russ and I returned to WW for lunch. I took a short nap as the southeast tradewinds blew through the boat.

Preparing for Lunch Party in Community Hall

We returned to the village around 2:30 and tagged with a group of 10 or so other visitors from a touring schooner who had paid for a sevusevu ceremony with kava and some entertainment. We passed on the kava ceremony, but did enjoy the singing and dancing provided by the local entertainers.

After our entertainment and the large tour group left, Russ and I hung around and got a lesson from Taru and her Aunt Aggie on how to make papaya scones (cake). After you husk a coconut, you grind up the white meat, mix in a bowl with soft papaya, add water and squeeze out the milk. Pour the wet coconut/papaya through a strainer to separate out just the milk.

The coconut/papaya milk is mixed into a dry mixture of 4 cups flour and 8 teaspoons of baking soda until a sticky batter is made then spooned into a buttered pan. We were given a pan full of batter to take back to the boat and bake. Taru had been such a gracious guide to us all day, we were happy to give her a ride out to our boat as she had expressed an interest in a visit.

Taru and Roz

Before I baked the papaya scones, I still had one very ripe papaya that I wasn't sure what to do with. I don't particularly like the taste of ripe papaya. I cleaned out the seeds and scooped the soft papaya flesh into a sauce pan, added some sugar, butter, cinnamon, and vanilla. I used half of the hot papaya mixture as a chunky sauce over the cake mix. The other half, I added some potato flakes and made a mashed potato papaya mixture to serve with our bar-b-qued chicken kabobs. It was delicious and so was the cake.

Tomorrow morning we will take bake the cake pan with half of the cake for Taru and her family along with some photos we have taken of them. We were planning on heading to Musket Cove but are now planning a return to Vuda Point tomorrow. Apparently the buoys are booked for an incoming NZ race group.

Saturday, June 11, 2011 - Goodbye Naviti - Back to Vuda
We got up this morning and prepped the boat for a long day back to Vuda Point. The sky was clear and we had a nice breeze. Before we hauled up the dinghy, we motored to shore to say goodbye to the people in the village and to return the cake pan. We had printed off some nice photos of some of our new friends and wanted to give them as parting gifts.

After our goodbyes, we made our way back to the boat, raised the dinghy and weighed anchor by 9:20. We were on our way back to Vuda. We motored, we sailed, and we motor sailed all the way back, following our waypoints like a faithful dog with his nose to the track.

Have you got a Big Mac to go?

It was a beautfiul day. Our only surprise was the little man in a homemade corrigated metal canoe who paddled like crazy to intercept us a couple of miles off shore. We were undersail moving about 6 knots, but his intent was to catch us. We slowed the boat and pulled into the wind so that he could paddle along side. Had Russ and his eyeglasses traveled this far? No, but did we have any food he asked? He had been out fishing all morning, hadn't caught anything, and we looked like the drive through window of a fast food restaurant. We happily handed over some crackers, cheese, cookies, bananas, and water. He was very cute and most appreciative.

We returned to Vuda about 4:00. The marina office was closed, but our friends on Trim said there was a space open next to them, so we glided in, tied off, hooked up the water, plugged in the electricty, took showers, and headed to the bar! Nice to be back in port for a few days.

That's it for now.

All is well with the 2 Sail R's on Worrall Wind

Busy Having Fun!

2011-06-06T16:03:00.000+12:00

Since our last update, we've been busy having a lot of fun and doing nothing! Tomorrow we have been invited to dine with a Fijian family in a neighboring village. Wednesday, we are finally getting to do our shark dive. We plan to leave on Thursday and head back to Latouka and Vuda Marina.

Monday, June 6, 2011 - Cave Diving
We visited Sawa-i-lau Island about an hour's boat trip from where we are anchored. Our boat captain, Tui, skimmed over shallow reefs with the greatest of confidence. We would have had a heart attack in our dinghy. When we got to the Island, we descended into the caves for a swim.

There was the main cave, and another one that we had to dive under a rock to get to. Yipes! Can't say we enjoyed that. We had our snorkels and masks on, but no fins. The tide was high so there was absolutely no air space under the rock. I am so buoyant that I hit the top of the rocks, and our guide had to pull me through. It was very claustrophobic, and I thought my lungs were going to burst.

It was pitch black in the second chamber, and we couldn't see a thing, except for when one of the other people in our group took a flash photo with their underwater cameras. We followed our guide's light into a smaller chamber that had an open chimney to the sky. Interesting, but I think I could have done without that second chamber.

The main cave was quite lovely. It was colder water than the sea as it was a mixture of fresh and salt.

Our boat captain Tui has invited Russ and me over to his village tomorrow night to have supper with his family. The Fijian people are incredibly friendly and generous.

Sunday, June 5, 2011 - Diving at the Zoo
We signed up for a a dive to a place called the Zoo. It's a reef and deep shelf where huge fish hang out. Saw some Spanish Mackerel, Walou, Shark, and Lion Fish. Our dive master also pointed out some soft coral that changed colors when we touched it. Very fascinating.

We bar-b-qued chicken marinated in fresh lime juice given to us by Va and her family. Also made a wonderful cucumber, onion, pepper salad with green coconut shavings, coconut juice, and limes.

Last night the moon was gorgeous. It looked as if it were smiling down on us.

The Blue Lagoon cruise ship was anchored further down the beach from us. The combination of the moon, tiki lights, star light, and Fiian music being sung on the beach, and a gentle sea breeze was magical.

Saturday, June 4, 2011 - Climbing the mountain at Nacula Island

Russ and I took our dinghy to a neighboring island about 2 miles across an open pass to a place called Oarsman Resort. Manase, Va's brother, is the village chief and operational manager for the resort that the clan owns here.

Laite, Russ, and Chief Manase

We gave him kava for sevusevu and climbed the mountain behind the resort.

Turns out there was yet another higher mountain to climb, but since we had started late in the day, we were satisfied with our hike and the photos we took from the tops of the lower mountain.

Grass was 7-8 feet tall

Later in the day, we snorkeled around the reefs close to the boat and had a wonderful dinner at the Nanuya Resort.

Friday, June 3, 2011 - Fresh Produce at the Farm

As we were getting low on vegetables, it was time to go shopping Yasawa style at the local farm owned by Toki and Meri.

We used the waypoints we had established on our first trip to the school with some modifications. It was low tide when we arrived, so we anchored in the middle of a muddy bay and walked to the Bay of Plenty Resort, where one of the employees took us on the trail to the farm.

We picked peppers, onions, eggplants, corn, and cucumbers. We also packed home some fresh bananas. Yum!

Thursday, June 4, 2011 - Boat Chores

We hung around the boat most of the day, catching up on reading, doing laundry, baking cookies, working on the computer. I made up some new fliers for Va and her family. And of course, we enjoyed a lovely sunset.

All is Well with the 2 Sail R's on Worrall Wind

It's a Small World After All

2011-06-02T15:56:00.003+12:00

Wouldn't you love to give them the world?

Thursday, June 2, 2011 - The weather for the last three days has been overcast and the lagoon has been an unwelcoming slate grey. Last night we had quite a thunder and lightning storm with strong winds from the north that turned the boat on its anchor 180 degrees toward shore. Fortunately, our anchor held well and we didn't drift beyond our safety perimeter.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011 was a day of firsts for us.
We made our first dive without an instructor. Basically, we descended down our anchor chain and explored the area around our boat. We followed the chain to the anchor which was nestled deeply in white sand. We dove to 14 meters for about 25 minutes. We tested our new equipment, saw a few fish, examined the bottom of our boat, and felt pretty exhilirated by our first dive.

We experienced our first sevusevu. Sevusevu is the ritualized greeting of visitors to a village. Visitors present local village, in this case it is a family whose beach we are anchored off of a large bouquet of Kava root wrapped in newspaper. We had purchased three bundles before leaving Latouka for occasions such as this. We had purchased the highest grade of kava root which happily accepted with three claps of their hands. Sevusevu is a respect gift brought to the village chief who in return upon acceptance offers his friendship and help to the visitor. Sometimes, if the visit is late enough in the day, the kava drink is offered.

Va preparing coconut leaves to make a floor mat.

Our new friends, the Naivalu family and their friend Bill welcomed us to their beach and for a small fee offered to bake us fresh bread, dispose of our garbage, serve us tea, do our laundry. We were welcomed to walk on their beach and visit them any time. We are the first yacht of the season to make sevusevu.

From L to R: Lai, 2 yr old Ane, Big Semi, Little Semi 5, Va, and Peter 6

Va, the matriarch of the family has books for every year since 2003. She shared the books with us and asked if we would make a page to put in the book. Since we were the first yacht this year, we offered to start a new book for 2011. Va looks after her two grandsons Semi and Peter while they attend the school at Nosomo Levu, which is a catholic boarding school about a 30 minute boat ride down the bay. Peter and Semi are in class 1 (equivalent to kindergarten). They were excited to learn that we wanted to visit their school the following day. We left with 2 coconuts, 4 limes, and leaves from their lemon tree which were to pour boiling water over and steep for tea. It was delicious!

Wednesday, June 1, 2011 - School and Family Visits.
School
We had intended on visiting the school and the farm in Nosomo Bay, but spent so much time at the school that we postponed the farm for another day. The Nosomo Levu school is a Catholic boarding school. Children from several islands come and stay at the school or are boarded with friends and family in nearby villages. Peter and Semi attend this school, but come home every night to their grandmother Va's home. Russ and I arrived with a bag of school supplies (pencils, notepads, binder paper, stickers, shampoos, hand soap, nose tissues) at the school shortly after lunch and were able to visit several classrooms.

We started off in class 3 (grade 2) where the head teacher met us and invited us in. The children were copying addition problems off of the chalk board for their homework. They were working on adding columns of three digit numbers, very similar to what second graders would be doing at home. As usual our inflatable globe with our marked sail route from San Francisco to our current destination was a big hit! The kids love that globe, and can't believe how little their "world" is in comparison to the rest of the land masses.

In one class room, we tossed the globe from one child to the next and they each told us their names. In another class, Semi and Peter's class, I taught the children a song, "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands."

In every class, the children were excited to show us what they were working on whether it was adding sums, telling time, writing in their journals, or making arts and crafts.

As the school wrapped up for the day, the children in all classes were busy cleaning and sweeping.

Hanging on the Outhouse Door!

Outside of the school there were several outhouses. The children had branches that they were batting against the walls. We couldn't quite figure out what that was intended to accomplish, but outhouse cleaning looked like quite a sport!

The school is better off than the ones we saw in Tonga, but not by much. Makes me feel very appreciative for all that I had to work with as a teacher. I admire the teaching that goes on in these little South Pacific schools with so few supplies. We had an opportunity to visit the boarding village side of the school to see the church, dormitories, dining hall and kitchen.

School Kitchen - Large wood stove accommodates 3 big pots

Dining Hall

Girls' Dorm with Mosquito Netting

Lovely Setting for a School

he children eat a lot of rice and dahl, split peas. The head master said they would really like more fish to serve, but depend on local people to donate fish. Sometimes it happens, but most often it does not. When school was out, we followed the school boat back to Nanuya. It was much faster than we were. Just as we reached the anchorage, the rain came down in buckets. Fortunately, we had taken our ponchos with us.

We arrived at the Naivalu Family's Bure where we were invited in for tea.

Lemon tea with sugar and crackers

We brought some color crayons and paper for the children and eyeglasses for Va. She was delighted to be able to read her Bible again.

Before we left for the day, we took photos of their family so we could use these as the cover for the new book and fliers we were making for them. If the sun would just come out it would be perfect! Maybe tomorrow.

All is Well with the 2 Sail R's on Worrall Wind

Blue Lagoon

2011-05-30T18:12:00.000+12:00

UTC/Local Time: 0600/1800 Fiji

Latitude: 16 56.570 S
Longitude: 177 22.080 E

Update: Monday, May 30, 2011

We spent a lazy day relaxing in paradise and going over our new dive equipment. Talked to Ted and Marian on Skype, took the dinghy to shore, had a cola at the resort bar, walked along the beach, and met a few local folks. Came back, watched the sun set, posted some photos on the slideshow above, and now it's time to make some pizza. Phew! What a day!

All is well with the 2 Sail R's on Worrall Wind

Worrall Wind Update - Safely in Blue Lagoon

2011-05-29T18:40:00.001+12:00

UTC/Local Time: 0600/1800 Fiji

Latitude: 16 56.570 S
Longitude: 177 22.080 E

Update: Sunday, May 29, 2011

The beautiful red sky last night brought a downpour of rain throughout the night and a strong east wind. We woke to an increasingly overcast sky. We were planning on leaving this morning, but Russ detected some engine coolant at the bottom of the engine room. We weren't going anywhere until, he figured out and fixed the problem. We certainly didn't want to have our engine go down while threading our way through the reefs.

After a couple of hours, Worrall Wind was back in order. The leaking coolant and Russ's keen eye was a good omen because we were able to prevent a catastrophe that would have happened when we needed our engine most. The coolant was coming from the hose near the clamp. While examining the clamp, the camp broke in Russ's hand.

Rusted

This is where sweating the small stuff is worth the sweat!

By the time we pulled up the anchor at 11:00 a.m., the wind was blowing about 10-15 knots and a high overcast was forming. It looked like it was clear in the east (direction of the wind), so we decided to take off. Russ had set 45 way points into the GPS. The overcast, 1 meter wind waves, and gusts up to 20 knots, and sea spray over the bow, added to our tension as we snaked our way up the island chain to Blue Lagoon. There were breaking reefs on the right, on the left, and in front of us. We motored the entire way.....and didn't hit anything! Yeah!

I am so thankful that we took our reconnaissance mission three weeks ago on the ferry to chart the trail. Every point was spot on! And we were both grateful that we caught the hose clamp breakage, before it became a huge problem.

We reached Blue Lagoon around 3:30, dropped anchor in 43 feet of water, let out 160 feet of chain, and are catching up on things. Yes! Our data stick works here! Internet feast!

All is Well with the 2 Sail R's on Worrall Wind

Worrall Wind Update-Swam With Giant Manta Ray Today

2011-05-28T18:47:00.001+12:00

UTC/Local Time: 0600Z

Latitude: 17 10.309 S
Longitude: 177 11.233 E

Glorious Sunset

Update: Saturday, May 28, 2011
We may have refreshed our memories yesterday with why we love to sail, but last night was not an idyllic memory. Fortunately, the anchor alarm only went off once when the boat drifted beyond the perimeter we had set. But what kept us from a good night sleep was the constant rock and roll of the swells coming in from the west. After being in the flat waters of a safe harbor, we had forgotten about the constant movement of the boat while at anchor.

The stars last night, however, were fantastic and the sea was calm enough even with the swells to see the reflection of the stars twinkling in the water. We woke up with a beautiful apricot dawn,

enjoyed a leisurely morning on the Lido deck (fan tail of the boat), sipping coffee, eating our cornflakes, and reading our books.

After lunch, we lowered the dinghy and followed one of the work boats from Manta Ray resort through the Manta pass. We left WorrallWind and Rubber Ducky floating in the anchorage. Ducky let us know the water was 89 degrees F. Awww!

We caught up with the boat driver Leve. He was looking for the Mantas so that he could bring some divers and snorklers out. We searched with him for awhile. He showed us where the pass was and suggested we drift through with our dinghy as the current was fairly swift. We spent the afternoon, doing three drift snorkels through the Manta pass.

The fish and coral were beautiful, but we didn't see a manta ray and were pretty disappointed. We caught up with Leve at the Manta Ray resort about 3:30. We were just getting a glass of cold white wine and a beer. He called us by name and told us that he was taking a group of snorkelers out and would we like to follow him. He was going to call his ancestors to appear...the ray! Well, okay!

We left our wine and beer with bartender and told him we would be back later. We hopped in the dinghy and made our way out to Manta Ray pass one more time. Leve and the snorkelers jetted in front of us and we followed in their wake. We tied our boat off to the dive boat as Leve called the rays. Manhoney, head manta finder slithered into the water and snorkeled around while we all waited in silence. Then he gave us the sign to get in.

Sure enough, a huge black manta was only 10 feet below us. His fin/wing span had to be twelve feet across and his eyes stuck out in front of him like head lamps. It was thrilling! We swam along with him until he went too deep for us to see. Mahoney, born in Manta, can hold his breath up to five minutes underwater, and we saw him dive easily to thirty feet. He was almost as amazing as the ray. We gave Mahoney a ride back to the resort as the snorkeling guests were still in the water, and Mahoney needed to get back and help unload the supply ship that was coming in. We asked if they were able to see rays everyday? No, and today's ray was the first and only they had spotted. We felt very lucky, but obviously Manta Ray Bay is named for it's home team.

When we dropped off Mahoney, we sat in the remainder of the sunlight, sipping our beer and wine. We watched as seven young men formed a "bucket brigade" to unload the supply skiff. From the boat to the beach, they tossed boxes, sacks, and bundles of goods with practiced synchronization from one man to the next.

Everything is Imported to these Outlying Islands & Garbage is Exported

One of the men Naka from the village of Soso on the next island over, wanted to know if we had a lightbulb and socket that he could have so he could demonstrate to the children at the school. We said we would look and see what we had. We told him we might have an extra light bulb, but a socket wasn't something we usually carried with us. If any of you cruisers are coming to Soso, maybe you can help out with this electrical science experiment.

The clouds are developing over the island this evening. It's been a beautiful day and the sunset was magnificent.

Red Skies At Night, Sailors' Delight! Not Always True.

We'll leave for Blue Lagoon tomorrow.

All is well with the 2 Sail R's on Worrall Wind.