Tintin in Australia!

Reflections of a Galley Slave 2

Sue's Reflections post Atlantic have been copied here. 

© 2002-2003 Sue Campbell-Ross except certain photographs taken by Rich Macey and Brian Basset. 

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We made it!    12 Dec 02

We have made it!  We have crossed the Atlantic.  Our first ocean crossing and probably not our last!  It was amazingly exciting to see the outline of Martinique at sunset last night.  Just to say "so long" to us, the sky gave us a sunset to remember forever.  Most spectacular so far.  As we all sat watching it with a glass of wine (or coke .... depending on age) we saw in the distance a big square rigger sail boat and an aeroplane was flying around.  The children (and me!) were standing on the deck shouting "Come here aeroplane"!!  And so it did, it came towards us really low and past on our port side.  It goes without saying that we all waved like mad and raised our glasses.  Then it turned around and came back over the top of us - and then turned again and came down our starboard side!  It was a smallish plane, probably a 8 seater.  The children found it terribly exciting.  It took about another 4 or 5 hours to go round the top of St.Lucia and then into Rodney Bay.  During that time I showered the all the children, dressed in our Tintin kit, had supper and listened to the boats coming in ahead of us and waited......  It began to pour with rain as we sailed into Rodney Bay and over the finish line.  Marcella and Carmine (from Timetama) were jumping up and down on the pontoon as we came up to it and in no time at all we were all hugging and congratulating and drinking our rum punches with the ARC people on the pontoon.  We had done it - sailed 2800 nautical miles in brilliant time, coming in 99th overall!

As we drank that wine, we made some toasts.  First we drank to Tintin who sailed so well and kept us all safe, then we drank to St.Lucia and to good times ahead.  Rod and I drank to our crew, the Brians, who have been simply brilliant, hard working, considerate and very responsible members of our Tintin family.  We enjoyed sailing with them and having the opportunity to spend 17 days squashed into a tin can with them.  We all drank a toast to our Skipper, Hairy Rod, (now sporting a fuzzy beard!) who kept the whole shabang on the right course and climbed up the mast for us and fixed and welded and sweated blood to get us here (!!), and we toasted the children who have been so amazing on this crossing.  We were all very proud of them. 

So a general feeling of satisfaction and success on Tintin!  We have neatly forgotten the first few days where the seasickness, the incessant rolling and the depression made us miserable.  It has been a good experience.  I am so glad I have done it!  It was an adventure which exceeded our expectations and will never be forgotten. Thank you, thank you, thank you to all our friends and family who supported us with all those wonderful, encouraging, thoughtful and often, very funny emails.  I think it was probably the emails and the thought that you were all rooting for us that made all the difference!

Now it is the time for concentrating on Christmas and the coming year.  Here is to all of you.  Thank you for "staying with us" and lots of love to everyone,
Sue

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Happy  New Year!      31 Dec 2002

Wallilabou Bay, St.Vincent

Dear Everyone

You cannot believe the beautiful place I am in now - this bay with high cliffs at the sides, a beach with black sand and palm trees, the sun is going down for the last time in 2002 and the gentle, pastel sunset colouring the cirrus strewn sky leaves me humbled and grateful and happy to be here.  Timetama and Tintin share this bay with very few others and with the help of the twins, Ron and Ronnie, we are planning to celebrate in this little piece of paradise.  We arrived here last night from St.Lucia.  For one reason and another, we were held up in St.Lucia and instead of being in Mustique for New Year, we only got this far..........  and decided to stay.  It was 10 o'clock and pitch, pitch dark as we came close to the bay.  We radioed Timetama and Carmine flashed his spotlight so that we could get a bearing.  He then came out on his tender with a very helpful local called Ron (not to be confused with his twin, Ronnie) and they guided us in and took a line ashore to hold us in place.  We slept fitfully, not completely sure that we were going to be in the same place in the morning!  But we were and it was a nice place to wake up in!  After a breakfast on Tintin with Timetama, we decided to stay here and take up the offer of New Years Eve dinner at Ron and Ronnie's restaurant, "The Golden Spoon".  Marcella and I walked up to it with the children to have a look at the menu, finding that it was simply his verandah with "The Golden Spoon" painted on the wall!  Just perfect!  The menu was eagerly being drawn up in the depths of the house and so was not ready, "I'll bring to you later"!  We then came and piled the tender up with all our beach toys (or "crud" as the Skipper describes it), and went to the beach.  A curious group of children came and watched us and realising we were friendly, all came and jumped in the water fully clothed and full of enthusiasm.  Once introduced to the beach toy bag, they pounced on it like ants on jam and tried everything.  Almost all of them had at least one arm band on!  We played a kind of beach volleyball/football/water polo game - the little boys doing spectacular dives into the water to save the ball and all 4 of them diving onto the ball at once, everyone very good humoured even when head butted.  Later, we built an amazing castle with walls and palm trees and a paved road.  One little boy paid special attention to the yard and kept it immaculately raked and tidy.  I was most impressed with his devotion to the task.  When Marcella talked about some pasta for lunch on Timetama and we packed up to go, the sad faces and slumped backs as they wandered off really made me feel like a spoilsport.  It had been such a fun morning. The little village, rather, the little cluster of buildings in this bay are at present being transformed into Jamaica, circa 1700, for a film "Pirates of the Caribbean" which is going to be filmed here in January and February by Disney.  The effect is really quite surreal, but does add somehow to the magic of this place.  The concrete and prefabricated houses that used to exist here are now covered in stone cladding and reed roofs.......  it's that Disney world perfection of what paradise coves should look like.  I like it.  Reality is round in the next bay but I will stay here and pretend.  We left Tania in St.Lucia on Tarok and picked up Moosh, who had flown in from Barbados where he landed with Trust Me on Boxing Day.  The children all reclaimed their favourite positions on his shoulders, head and lap and we were all so thrilled to see him.  He will spend another 2 weeks with us before heading off to see family and friends in America.  Timetama have a guest too.  A wonderfully charming and ebullient man called Lucio who will add much flavour and laughter to tonight's celebrations!  Isn't it funny?  Yesterday as we traveled here from St.Lucia, I started to write a letter and found myself feeling so down and miserable that I couldn't really find the words to write.  The last 10 days has been wonderful.  We have adored having Candy and Bill Jones and their family in St.Lucia for Christmas but as ever with me, it is so hard to say good-bye, especially when the future is so fluid and we don't know when we will see each other next.  That feeling of "aloneness", which is the one challenge that I find hard to overcome living this lifestyle, creeps over me and takes a place like Wallilouba and people like Carmine and Marcella to shake off.  We also had to say good-bye to the beloved Brians in St.Lucia.  There was a big gap in our family and rum punch just doesn't taste quite so good anymore without them to enjoy a glass or two with.  But as I always have to remind myself, "Don't cry because its over, smile because it happened".  We had a great time, a really, really happy time and we were so blessed to have done our crossing with such lovely people and spent our Christmas with such dear friends.   So, tonight as I look over 2002 it is with a happy heart.  What 2003 holds for us is a mystery, a blank canvas waiting to be coloured.  I can't say that I don't feel weak with trepidation and fear.  I just hope I am able to stand up to the challenges and experiences ahead.  Once they are over, I always look back on them and think, "if only I had known how easy that was going to be from the beginning!"  I must remember that now. 

Well, now my daughter, all 10 years of her, has just walked up here into the cockpit all dressed up and ready to go out to dinner.  She is so beautiful and sweet and has tried so hard to outdo nature.  Her experimentation with make-up, without the guiding hand of Tania, has resulted in the post boxing match look and our observation of this has sent her rushing to the front of the boat to be alone.  It is New Years Eve and Ron and Ronnie won't care about her blue-green eyed look and so I am going to make my apologies to her and make her smile.  It is also time for me to do something about my appearance and put on something that's comfortable to dance in.  Ronnie told me he has some good music for tonight!

So HAPPY NEW YEAR to all - may it be a very, very good one

1 January 2003
Admiralty Bay, Bequia

Last night was probably the most bizarre evening I have known - some have quite close, I will admit, but I think this one takes the biscuit.  At about 8 ish last night we tied our tenders up on the jetty in Wallilabou Bay and wandered up the steep hill to "The Golden Spoon", to be welcomed with the broadest and happiest of smiles from Ron (or it could also have been Ronnie) and he showed us to our table.  It was one of the two available.  They had gone to such trouble to decorate it with bougainvillea in a jam jar (with Table 2 painted in black paint on it) and he had little bowls with chopped up local fruit and coconut from his garden.  We had brought our own drinks and so we helped ourselves and waited in anticipation for the freshly barbequed tuna, the local dishes, the music.  We were aware of the strong smell of marijuana wafting through the restaurant and then when one of the twins appeared we realised that he had been sampling the goods with the what seemed like an endless stream of men walking through the restaurant and out the back.  Every now and then a vacant, stoned individual would come and stand and have a long look at all of us.  The children by now had been waiting an hour and a half for their chicken and chips - they had been read to, had drawn pictures, had run up and down the road, played with the dogs on the step, cried, fallen down, fought over toys, climbed under the tables and generally had a very wild and exciting time.  Rod had broken two of the plastic garden chairs that we were sitting in.  The first one broke sounding like fireworks on Bonfire Night, the second a more discreet smash and bang sound.  Not to make Rod feel awkward, Carmine's chair broke too!  Ronnie brought out his photo albumns and we spent a while paging through all his photo's of the different marine engines he has worked on over the years, his dogs - past and present, and one of him standing at the wheel of a yacht ...... "You see, Captain Rod, I am a international sailor"!  Our tummies are rumbling and we are all drinking on empty stomachs - I am beginning to feel that if I don't eat something soon I will slip off my chair onto the floor.  Finally the food came out plate by plate with great ceremony and style!  Ron and Ronnie were trying so hard and doing very well considering how stoned they were.  The food had all been cooked several hours before we arrived and had obviously sat on the kitchen counter waiting for us to arrive.  It was very cold and the tuna was very hard.  But the presentation was fabulous!  We ate what we could.  Harry was obviously suffering the effects of the ganja fumes and he lay down on the floor and went to sleep.  Pippa on the other hand sank into an emotional low and spent much of the evening with her head on the table sobbing.   No amount of comforting could console her.  Now that dinner was served, Ron and Ronnie relaxed, if that was possible, and with their rum punches in one hand and one big "roll" or "zol" of ganja in the other ("a gift for you, my customers") they came and joined us at the table.  For the smokers on our table this roll proved very effective in altering their state of mind - Lucio lined up the wine bottles in front of him and conducted an imaginary orchestra, and Mosh sat in his chair,
giggling, with a smile that worryingly looked like it would split his face.  For the rest of us, it only added to the atmosphere.  Pippa sat up and said "Hey Ronnie, you said I could have ice-cream", so he staggered off and came  back with ice-cream for everyone.  Almost without us noticing it, the clock was about to strike 12 - so we grabbed the last bottle of champagne and cracked it and toasted and celebrated 2 new years - Ronnie's watch was faster than Lucio's.  Once finished, we collected up our sleeping and weeping children and followed Ron's torch as he led us back down the road to the dinghies on the pontoons.  I got back to the boat, put my babies in their beds and then sat down next to a sleeping Emily and burst into tears thinking "what the hell am I putting my poor children through?" - how can they grow up into solid, good citizens when they spend an evening of total confusion and ganja smoking with their parents?  I think that they ganja fumes had worked on me and I was reacting to it just like Pippa did! 

Early this morning, there was a knock on the side of the boat and there was Ron (or could have been Ronnie) with two freshly baked loaves of bread.  I said "Ron, you wonderful man, how kind of you..................." and he said "No problem, you can just give me 15 EC's for them"!  There is no such thing as a free breakfast! 

We left later on in the morning with the Ronnie's waving us off, shouting "come and see us again soon" and paddling alongside us on their battered and broken surf board.  What a fantastic pair. We sailed down here to Bequia with wonderful, strong winds - an exciting sail.  Skipper and Moosh in heaven!

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Mr. Fabulous      30 Jan 2003

Hog Island, Grenada

Dear everybody

I know, I know, it's been awhile.  So much has happened and as I sit here reflecting on where we have been, what we have done, who we have met, I am simply exhausted at the thought of writing it all down - so I will have to be selective and only put in the juicy bits.  Suffice it to say, there have been moments of pure joy and  wonderment, laughter and fun and moments too of frustration, anxiety, exhaustion and sadness.  Please don't any of you think this life style is all about gin and tonics and sunsets!  (Although saying that, there is abit of it here and there..............)

So.  The juicy bits.  Well, after such a fascinating New Year everything else seems tame.  We sailed on down to Port Elizabeth, Bequia and spent a good couple of days there eating lobster and playing on the beach.  It is a very pretty and relaxing place.  We had a good lunch at "The Whaleboner" - a restaurant where the bar stools were whale vertebrae and the bar made from a huge bone from somewhere else inside a whale.  We sailed out of P.E and went around the point to Friendship Bay.  Anchored in the bay was a huge yacht, Parsifal, and it didn't take Pippa and Harry long to notice (with the help of the binoculars) that there were children on board climbing all over the rigging. Carmine (from Timetama) was sitting chatting on Tintin and was cajoled by my persistent children into taking them over to say hello.  He did.  He came back later minus P and H saying that they were just about to go on the "banana" with the boys from the yacht, and he thought it would be a good thing if I just went over incase there were any problems.  Exploiting any opportunity to see inside a luxury vessel, I jumped into my dinghy and went right over there.  I was offered a nice cup of tea by two of the women on board - and then sat down and got stuck into some serious chatting with all on board.  It was a very enjoyable afternoon.  The "big honcho" was a man called David and his wife was Polly and they had 7 of his 8 children on board.  My cup of tea turned into a drink which then turned into an invitation to supper.  Rod had by this time come over to Parsifal to see what was holding me up.  We were standing chewing the cud with David when I said, "So David, what do you do?",  he replied "I am in rock band", abit gob-smacked I said "Oh.  Which one?" and he replied, "Pink Floyd".  The only response I could think of was, "Oh. What instrument do you play?"  He said "I sing, play the guitar, that sort of thing."  I was utterly lost for words but Rod managed to neatly step in and change the subject to something completely different like Hobie-cats and light aircraft and we carried on chatting.  Moosh had given Rod a Pink Floyd CD for his birthday in October and so I could not wait to get back to Tintin to collect Moosh and bring him back to Parsifal for supper.  And of course, to grab the CD and look and see who David was.  It turns out that he IS Pink Floyd just about.  We had a very delicious evening with everyone sitting around the table on deck and periodically someone would pick up their guitar and strum away, sometimes someone else would join in harmonising (not me I must add, I have no tone although I was tempted at times - humming is a much better medium for me).  I loved the way David and his children all played their guitars and sang together - it was very beautiful.  There was a real sense of family and unity and of course, David turned out to be a normal man and was slumped fast asleep in his seat by 10 o'clock!  David and Polly's boys all got along very well with Harry and they spent alot of time on Tintin.  They would start calling us on the VHF first thing in the morning and ask if they could come and play - nothing on this trip has tickled me as much as the fact that those three boys had 112 foot of unimaginable luxury and comfort, not to mention the 6 crew members and their nanny, but they only wanted to be on 44 foot, very scruffy Tintin with no crew, except poor, old, long suffering mother dear and playing with Harry in his funny, little cabin - all cavorting with laughter. When we left Friendship Bay, we lifted anchor with Parsifal but we couldn't understand why they weren't leaving and were hanging back waiting for us to go....... they were videoing us!!  That really made us laugh.   We saw them several more times along our journey through the Grenadines and kept seeing other boats who would say to us that there was a boat called Parsifal that had been calling us and calling us!  What a scream!  They were great people, we had some fun with them and I really enjoyed meeting them.

Saltwhistle Bay in Mayreau is one of my most favourite places in the world. Such an incredible beach.  At one end of the beach the sand thins down to just a strip and there is another bay on the other side.  The other bay is the wild side with rolling waves and banks of seaweed.  Sitting on the beach, you can watch the pelicans gliding over the sea and marvel as they make a death defying dive into the sea to catch a fish.  It was such a magical place.  For me it was paradise.  We anchored very close in on the beach and could swim to the shore through turquoise sea.  Pippa did some snorkeling with Marcella and she saw some incredible creatures.  Harry is like his mama and found the window into the sea too "in your face" and would hyperventilate and get hysterical whenever a fish swam past.  My reaction, just perhaps not so vocal, was just the same and I decided that looking at the view and watching the pelicans was more my style.  Call me a woosey, but I would rather not know what is down there.  One evening, some ineffectual knot tying on my part resulted in our tender coming loose and drifting off - it was well on its way to Venezuela by the time we noticed it was gone.  It was a disaster for us as a tender is your life line to the shore.  Luckily we were with Timetama and they were very good and patient and carried us to and fro whilst we made enquiries about a second hand dinghy.  In the Grenadines there are these boats that come out to the yachts at anchor and provide various services - selling fruit, lobster, bread, water taxi or they help you into anchorages or onto moorings.  None of this is done from the kindness of their hearts.  No, no, they need to be paid handsomely for these services - but it is worth it just to see them.  They are always brightly coloured - the Rasta colours being the most popular - and their names all very individual and original.  Our particular favourites were "Mr. Fabulous" (with his dog), "Jesus saves", "Let them talk", "Why worry", "Don't give up" and finally, "Orgasm"!  The guys from "More Future" took on our case with great enthusiasm and they were determined to find us a replacement tender.  The result being that we went on many a wild goose chase that ended up with us looking at deflated, filthy, completely broken dinghies that would take more than a pot of glue to get them back into the water!  They are such characters, such desperado's, racing around in their boats and bringing so much noise, energy and colour to the otherwise peaceful anchorages.

We finally made our way down to Grenada where we managed to find a second hand dinghy, almost identical to the one we lost.  We met up with our friends from Trust Me, we bumped into Tarok and saw Tania again, very briefly for one evening, we said a very tearful farewell to our beloved Moosh and just prepared ourselves for a visit from Suzanne.  Tintin was (is) in a dreadful mess and needed sorting out, so we went into True Blue Bay Marina so that we could empty all our lockers onto the pontoon and sort them out, repack and tidy up before Suzanne and the girls arrived.  We had hardly been there an hour, when, as I was crossing the passarelle from the pontoon onto the boat,  it buckled and so, because I had Emily on my hip, I grabbed the rope and tried to hang on to prevent her from falling into the water.  I slipped right down on the rope into the water giving my hand the most terrible rope burn.  Emily was pulled out before she really realised that she was in the water and then two big, strong guys hoiked me out, soaking wet with my dress around my neck and hand feeling like it had been stuck into a pan of boiling oil.  I had some awful blisters and my hand was wrapped up and in no condition to clean up a boat.   So - Suzanne and the girls arrived to a Tintin in her natural state of disorder and mess!  After the first few days of feeling queasy, the girls all settled in and we had an incredibly happy, if not very drunken, week together.  Suzanne took an instant liking to rum punch and found she even liked it for breakfast!  We did a island tour with taxi driver, Ken, had beach barbeques, did some shopping...................  We came and anchored up in Hog Island and met another boat called Wanderer.  They had two girls the same age who provided more entertainment and fun for Pippa, Clarice and Esme. Trust Me and Timetama were anchored with us so Harry had the boys to keep him happy and Emily had Milo to play with.  Rod put up the swing from the spinnaker pole so that they could swing out into the water, Suzanne and I being unable to move from the sheer strength of our rum punches, were just forced to sit in the cockpit and watch them whilst we drank another one.  Supper provided us with an opportunity to try out all those tinned foods I promised I would never eat unless I was desperate.  All we needed to do was to heat them up in a pan and slap them on a plate and then the children stopped complaining that they were hungry and we could settle back down in the cockpit!  Pippa and I were heartbroken when they left and later, once back on the boat, their plane flew over us and we screamed and jumped up and down waving wildly with tears rolling down our cheeks.  One week flew by far too fast. 

My tears were dried away by the arrival of Camar with my fabulous Georgia and Francesco, and little Andrea.  We had not seen them since before Christmas and it was like being back with old, dear friends again.  They are still with us and will stay here until the last moment when we leave Grenada.  After threatening to leave for about 5 days, Trust Me finally left to move back up North today.  Harry has lost his "best friend in the whole world", Christopher, and has been a very sad boy today.  This is a life style of good-byes.  It can sometimes overwhelm you.  Another "good-bye" has been to Tania.  Tarok have taken her.   She will now be with her Jakob and since they are all such wonderful Vikings and we love them so much, we won't hold it against them!!  I do miss Tania - she is such a lovely girl and has been part of our journey almost since the beginning.  

So now we prepare ourselves, our boat and our charts and set off on the next stage of our voyage in the direction of the Panama Canal.  We hope to stop off in Bonaire, Curacoa and Aruba before we cross over to the San Blas Islands and then on to Panama.  We seem to have found some temporary crew, a young English couple who will travel with us to Panama and we are in contact with some other people to carry on with us from there on.  I am full of my usual pre-voyage anxiety and angst, but I am sure once we set off I will cope far better than I am now and the mood swings will stop!!  But first we have a deck being painted by hard-working Skipper, parts to await delivery and as much time as possible to be spent with Georgia before we leave.  It's a hard life.

Much, much love to everyone
Sue

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The road less traveled    6 Mar 2003

San Blas Islands
Panama

Dear Everyone

Prepare yourself for a letter in book form.  This will take days to read!  I have so much to tell.  We have taken "the road less traveled" and stepped out of the world as we know it.  Incredible, amazing, terrifying................... nothing I write will possibly do it justice but I will give it a try!!

We left Grenada finally - and not a moment too soon.  We had had every hold-up known to man and "Caribbean time" was beginning to take its toll on our collective sense of humour.  Together with our English couple, Kate and Leo, as crew - we set off to La Blanquilla, a very remote Venezuelan island. It took us about 24 hours - of which I was sick for about 22!  Blanquilla was a welcome sight and will always be remembered for its beautiful and reassuringly calm anchorage, and the enormous fish that we caught there.  It was a 25 kg Wahoo which reached up to Rod's chest - much bigger than Emily! We anchored in a bay with one other yacht and lots and lots of pelicans, all going about their business of diving and catching fish.  The island itself was near desert - stunning in its rugged bleakness - but the beaches were unspeakably beautiful.  Next stop on our journey was Los Roques which are a group of Venezuelan islands, most uninhabited.  We went to Caya Agua which is an uninhabited strip of land - just a beach, lots of mangrove trees, coral, pelicans, pelican chicks, boobies and booby chicks.  Rod, Pippa, Kate and Leo all snorkeled and saw incredible fish and sea life.  In the evening we had a barbeque at sunset - the sun set over the sea, the sea birds flew around us, it was balmy and warm and we had our drinks waiting for the green flash as the sun goes over the horizon.  There was not another living soul for miles and miles around us.  It was an incredible moment in our lives.  The bubble burst however, as our dinghy drifted off from the beach in the dark, carried quickly out to sea by strong winds and current.  It all happened in a matter of a few minutes and although Rod swam out after it desperately trying to get it back, it was of no use.  We had bought a new engine in Grenada, a 15 horse power engine, which was on the dinghy and so we lost it too.  Personally, I felt that of all the things that could have gone wrong, loosing a dinghy, although a very expensive mistake, was inconsequential and could be replaced.  Rod was devastated!  But by the next morning we had put it all in perspective and carried on.  We went  on to another island called Aves de Barlovento which is named after the huge numbers of birds that make it their home.  It was like being in an aviary of sea birds - quite incredible.  Again we were all alone but for a few fishing boats in the next bay.  The last leg of the journey was an exhausting overnighter to Bonaire.

Call me ungrateful and a philistine, but there is nothing better than a few good shops, a well stocked supermarket and inviting restaurants to make me positively bristle with happiness.  Bonaire provided all that.  It is an amazingly friendly and welcoming place.  It is efficient and clean and well organised (it is Dutch!).  What a culture shock after 3 months in the Caribbean!  Years ago, the people of Bonaire realised that the success of their island was dependent on their coral reefs and sea life.  They had the foresight to make very strict environmental laws to protect their natural world.  It shows.  The marina, normally water you would not want to dip your toe in, had crystal clear water and simply leaning over the guard rails and peering into the water would reward you with spectacular and exquisite fishes.  Again, the island itself is incredibly dry and covered with cactus and shrubs and salt pans.  The wonderful thing about the salt pans is that they attract flamingos which was a very pleasant sight!  We met up with our Italian friends on Timetama in Bonaire - they were waiting there for us.  It was great to meet up again ................... and commiserate over the loss of dinghy number 2!  Pippa took the chance to do a diving course with Kate and Leo which she absolutely loved.  I admire her so much - I am far to frightened to do it!  I could easily have stopped in Bonaire and still be there now but for our pressing schedule to keep moving onwards and westwards.

And onwards and westwards meant Aruba.  In Aruba we collected our new dinghy and engine,  passed Leo and Kate over to Tmetama and welcomed our new crew members  -  Bob and George.  Bob has come to help us sail and help with the work load on Tintin and George, all of 7 years old, has come to play with Harry!  We allowed them one night to get accustomed to life aboard and also the opportunity to enjoy the delights of the Aruba carnival.  They were both so exhausted but they put up a good fight!  The carnival was amazing – hours and hours of entertaining, brightly coloured, dancing and gyrating individuals.  I was amazed that Aruba had enough people to man all the costumes, although on closer inspection we did notice that many of the groups had had to pull granny, big fat cousin Juanita and old Aunty Bonita in to fill the gap.  But I don't need to tell you who enjoyed themselves the most - never before have I seen more grooving grannies and more fat girls enjoying the limelight.  It was fabulous.

Now that we felt Bob and George had rested for the night, we set off for Cartagena, Columbia.  A small detail that the skipper forgot to pass on to me, was that this crossing was noted as one of the most dangerous and temperamental of crossings........................  It took us 3 days and 2 nights of howling winds of up to 52 knots, huge seas - which occasionally broke in the cockpit flooding down the steps into the saloon, sickness and vomiting and a very, very, very miserable Skippers wife.  I made him pay for my misery in serious tongue-lashingly angry tirades and lots of very dirty looks.  I must say it was particularly awful and there were times when I felt afraid.  Our newly acquired crew were desperately sick and poor little George cried and cried for his mama.  Fortunately, we arrived in Cartagena in one piece and found that it was the most exceptional place – Spanish colonial mixed with South American heat and passion and sensuality and style.  It is an oasis in an anarchic country where the government is waging war on the guerrilla's and drug traffickers.  I walked from street to street with my mouth hanging open in wonder at what I saw.  I loved it so much. The Colombian people I met were so open and warm, and such good people.  It is hard to imagine that violence cuts through this society.  Cartagena has so much history and colour.  We learnt that Drake came to Cartagena, that an Englishman called Vernon almost took Cartagena but finally, with a navy dying of malaria and yellow fever, decided to withdraw, that the Spanish inquisition was very active  .............................   so much to tell.   One night in a children's play area in the park, I met a man also there with his children, who came to talk to me to practice his English. When he found out I was from South Africa he was overjoyed as his passion in life is South African music.  He told me that if he ever made enough money he would like to take his family to South Africa, to Table Mountain especially and to listen to the music of Africa.  I told him that if he did my family (hope you don't mind me volunteering your hospitality there!!)
would show him everything.  He was almost in tears by this stage and we parted as very dear friends.  The reality of the situation is, of course, that it takes years to get a visa to leave the country and the likelihood of him ever earning enough to travel are very slim.  I am privileged to have been to Cartagena - I doubt I will ever return there, it was so hard to leave.

Another god-forsaken journey of 2 days and a night to reach this complete and utter paradise.  Words cannot describe this.  This is truly the palm covered islands, white sands, turquoise seas of every man's dream.  Here in the San Blas islands, the Kuna Indians live.  They have chosen to maintain their traditional way of life as much as possible and live by a strict code of rules of behaviour.  They adore children and when we visited the nearest village, Nagana, they only have eyes for the children.  The Kuna children are also very friendly, curious, mischievous little things.  There was a group of children all running along after Emily shouting "Emaleeeeeee" and loving her and carrying her around.  Harry and George were invited to sit down at a table of men and were arm wrestling and burping like the best of them.  We took the dinghy up the river into the rain forest and although the children were very disappointed that we never saw any seawater crocodiles or any white faced monkeys, dodging all the submerged trees and seeing the birds and fish in the river seemed to make up for it.  Kuna women traditionally make these incredibly intricate embroidery designs called molas, which they use in their dress.  The work that goes into these works of art is unbelievable and I absolutely adore them.  Every dug out canoe that comes by with a pile of molas for sale gets a hearty welcome on Tintin. Sadly, we are almost out of dollars and my obsession with molas is going to have to stop.

Tonight, we have had yet another feast of seafood -  it was crabs (provided by Timetama) and one side of a huge fish - name unknown (provided by the Argentinean boat next to us), so we are not struggling to scrape together a meal.  We have run out of beer which is a slight disaster but we still have some coke and if I dig down to the bottom of the locker I can probably find some rum.  All Rod's Spanish rot-gut wine in cartons is finally coming to an end, thank heavens, because I don't know how much longer we could stomach it - alot of the cartons exploded and festered, whilst most of the rest quietly turned into vinegar which Skipper has rigourously knocked back.  The children have spent the day playing in the sea on a deserted island.  They have frolicked amongst star fish and rays and hundreds of little fish. Timetama, plus Kate and Leo and Lucio, have been frolicking too, plus another Italian boat called Oruwa.  Oruwa is a catamaran owned by Ricardo and Elena - they are a wonderful couple.  At the moment they have a young Italian girl staying with them called Caterina.  I think Rod and Bob would describe her as very pleasing to the eye, especially since she usually only wears a thong ............. no bikini top to speak of.  Well, there might be one but we haven't seen it!  She is showing alot of interest in Lucio, who is absolutely terrified and when asked what he thought of her, he said, "Yes, she is very healthy" (!!!!) "Very big personality, very big smile................."  Very big boobs is what he meant.

So now it is just another week of island hopping, days on the beach, get togethers on other boats, barbeques at sunset - I can't complain.  This is unreal.

But as always, we must press on and move towards the Panama canal.  Bob and George have a big decision to make - whether they stay on or leave us in Panama.  Bob is so sick on the crossings and George, aswell as being sick misses his mother.  Harry and George are the best of friends and life is so different for Harry now that he has a companion.  But it is in their hands and it is their decision to make.  One way or another, Tintin and her crew will press on.  For now life is simple and pleasant and we will deal with tomorrow when we get to it.

Thinking of all of our friends out there and hope to hear from you soon.
Lots of love
Sue

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Eau de Colon   26 Mar 2003

Balboa Yacht Club
Panama City

Dear everyone

I must say that tonight I really could do with falling into my hot, stuffy, little berth and getting an early night - I have had a tiring day - but we are leaving Panama City soon (and, I suspect, all forms of communication) and beginning a new chapter in our adventure and I need to finish off the last chapter, so that we can begin the next one!  First, I will tell you why I have had a tiring day.  Panama City is a hot, dusty, higgledy-piggledy place and whilst you walk from one shop to another to find all the provisions and all the "boat bits" that we need, you have to watch your back (and your bag), you are offered a ride by every available taxi passing by, you have to negotiate the street layout and the broken pavements, not walk over any of the street hawkers and dash between the cars ............... but that is not actually the tiring part.  That the interesting part!  The tiring part is trying to find all the bits and trying to plan what you are going to eat and to need for the next 5 or 6 months.  Every little corner of Tintin is stuffed with cans, rice, pasta, toilet paper.......  There is no space left and I still don't think I have enough to feed my crew for the next month, let alone 6 months.    I think I will have to go back to the supermarket tomorrow to get more stuff! Tomorrow is also the fresh fruit and veg day.  Where I am going to store all of that is anyone's guess.  Each time we come back from the supermarket with bags and bags of provisions we worry about where it will go, but somehow Tintin swallows it all up!  Once fully victualled, Tintin will pull away and begin the Pacific chapter of our journey.

The San Blas Islands were magical and beautiful - a very special place.  We had a wonderful time there.  We sailed away from the San Blas archipelago and on to another island on the Panamanian coast called Isola Linton.  There were already quite a few boats anchored there and no sooner had our anchor set, than a dinghy came bouncing over with some children in it.  You can always tell the "genuine" boat kids.  They have an unbounded, wild, perhaps a little desperate, happiness at the sight of other boat kids and these kids showed all the signs!  They were very welcoming and offered to take us to the beach to see the monkeys.  What an offer?  We all clambered into their dinghy and went ashore.  There were monkeys in the trees and on the grass, who, as soon as we stepped onto the grass, came rushing towards us on their hind legs waving their arms, tossing palm leaves and screeching wildly.  The children all ran screaming down the pontoon and jumped into the water.  The monkeys hate the water so they didn't follow them in.  Once the monkeys had wandered back to their posts, the children, full of bravado and false courage, walked back towards them and they all rushed forward again and the children screamed off down the pontoon.  Both parties seemed to be enjoying this immensely.   I noticed that one monkey did not join in.  He had a deformed foot and no thumbs on his hands.  He watched all the screaming and running with interest and joined in by baring his teeth periodically and adding the odd yelp or howl to the noise.  Then he looked straight at me, pursed up his lips and went "hooooo hoooo hoooo" - of course, I pursed up mine and went "hoooo hoooo hooooo" too.  We looked at each other for a long moment and I felt we connected on a spiritual level.  The next morning we went back to the beach and all the young monkeys were gone, only the handicapped monkey was there.  He came walking quickly towards us, pointing at me and pursing his lips and "hooooo"ing frantically.   He wrapped his arms around my legs and made happy little sounds, and then climbed up my body and sat on my shoulders with his hands clutching my face and bearing his teeth (very lovingly!) at me.  I must admit, though I felt loved, I also felt quite frightened and very worried about his very big willy dangling down my shoulder.  I motioned to Rod to get him off me, but when he tried, my admirer screamed very loudly and hung on even tighter.  Fortunately, some workmen came to my aid by tempting him off me by offering him a banana. What an immense relief.  From then on, I had to keep one foot in the water to keep him at bay.  He didn't want to come too close to the water so we would hold hands - both our arms stretched out.  By the next day, I was able to sit on the floor and he would stay next to me (resisting the temptation to sit on my shoulder) with his hands holding onto my leg and his tail wrapped around my back.  I loved that old howler monkey and he loved me. The sad truth is that only monkeys who are deformed find me attractive these days.  Oh, and the old Skipper is quite keen on me too - but he has been for a long time.

My broken heart was quickly mended by our next port of call - Portobello. This incredible, crumbling, mystical place was at one time the richest port in South America.  All the Spanish treasures, silver, slaves and more was traded and sold in those early, desperate days.  The English caused the Spanish a lot of grief and aggravation so they built spectacular forts and walls to hold them off.  Sir Francis Drake, the famous English hero who took on the Spanish Armada, known in these parts as the famous English pirate, actually died of yellow fever in Portobello and is buried on the aptly named Drake Island.  Christobal Colon (Christopher Columbus to you and me) was blown into the bay in a storm and it was here that he made his first step onto American soil.  The place is so dripping in history,  so full of decaying relics and monuments from a violent and greedy past.  It was such an important centre in that period of history, yet we had never heard of it before - and all around the history, the locals scratch a living in slum like conditions.  I still have so much to learn!

If poor old Christobal knew what a dump had been named after him, he would not be amused.  It is not an honour to have Colon named after you.  Colon is a pitiful place.  Guide books simply say, "don't go there".  Unfortunately, if your wish is to avoid Cape Horn by transiting the Panama Canal, you have to visit Colon.  This visit cannot be fleeting because the good men of Colon, realising no one wanted to hang around for too long, decided to make the beaurocratic preparations and paperwork for transiting the canal so tortuous and complicated that you are compelled to spend at least 4 days there just to fill out all the forms and visit half a dozen offices to hand them in.  Our skipper lost his will to live on many occasions and at one time was saying that Cape Horn seemed more attractive an option!  All yachts at anchor in Colon, actually anybody in Colon for that matter, is forced to endure what we called, the Eau de Colon.  The burning rubbish smell from the rubbish dump drifted over in acrid, ashy clouds all day, making breathing unpleasant and probably dangerous to your health.  Bob and George managed to escape the worst of it by finding flights back to Iowa.  It all happened so fast and without us really coming to terms with the fact that they were going, they were gone.  Harry was, and still is, bereft without his pal George.  (We miss you George...how are we going to get by without any armpit farts or man-sized burps?)  Finally, we were given the go-ahead from the canal authorities and we joyfully left Colon at 4.30 am last Friday and set off into the canal.  We went through the locks rafted up to our friends on Rapparee and it all went very smoothly and without any delays or hold-ups. At first, it seemed as if we would not have enough line handlers for the locks and we began to panic - the upshot of it all was that we ended up transiting the canal with 12 people on board - the 5 of us, Rich (our newest crew member, richaroundtheworld.com), two Spanish back packers, a long-haired Aussie hippy and his Austrian girl-friend, Eric the hired line handler with attitude and a hang-over, and the personality devoid canal pilot, Edwin.   A real mix of characters and countries!

Lying at the other end of the canal from Colon, is Balboa.  Normally not a place I would wax lyrical about, but when compared with Colon... lets call it heaven.   The yacht club even has a pool!  Luxury!   But, the main thing is that we are now, well and truly, in the Pacific ocean.  From here we begin our second 7500 miles to Australia.  We are half way there!  There is a lot of sea and sailing to be done, and as we all know this is not my favourite way to spend my time ...... think of me!  I can't complain though, because I am on my way to the Galapagos islands and the mystical South Seas (only 3 weeks in a boat from the Galapagos) and heck, that is quite nice. So I will grit my teeth, take my seasickness tabs and try and imagine I am already there.   Please remember to write to "Lonely of the Pacific Ocean" and keep me sane.

So from all of us here in sunny, sweaty and sultry Panama, it is "Adios" and much love from

Sue

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Ahoy Neptune!    5 Apr 2003

Pacific ocean (80 nautical miles from the Galapagos Islands)

Dear everyone

It's like floating on a lake out here.  There is not a breath of wind - well, there is a small puff or two of wind, (9 knots - pah, useless!) but certainly not enough to power us along at the speeds we would like in order to get to the Galapagos in good time.  Actually, today has been very pleasant and relaxing.  One of our crew members, a young English guy called Leo, who has been with us on and off since Grenada, is celebrating his 19^th birthday today.............................  We like nothing better than a really genuine excuse to have a party!  All morning was spent cooking up a storm in the galley - roast smoked chicken, roast potatoes and pumpkin, creamed spinach, pudding, birthday cake and then we decorated the cockpit with paper chains and happy birthday banners, and had a lovely lunch.  After lunch, Skipper dropped all the sails and threw some lines off the back of Tintin and we all went for a mid-Pacific swim.  It is spooky to think that you are swimming with 5000 metres of water below you ............ of course, all I can think of is all the creatures that are dangerous to my very existence who lurk in the darkness below and I tend to stick very close to the boat, hanging on to the stern line with a firm grip. Everyone else on Tintin is dive bombing and cavorting in the sea with complete abandon and exuberance.  The sea is quite cold but very invigorating and welcome after 4 days of imprisonment on the boat.    Up went the sails again and we sail slowly along.  The birthday cake is decorated and we have a nice sing song and cup of tea and slice of cake.  In about an hour we will sail over the equator - 0 degrees - Richroundtheworld.com (our crew member, Rich - we just call him that!) is planning a some sort of a "do" and apparently we have to sacrifice something (or someone) to Neptune to keep him sweet on the rest of our journey.  After that, tonight's activity is going to be Pictionary.......... so much excitement!!!

The crossing has not been completely stress free though.  On our first full day out, I was laid low (as always) with seasickness and was aware that Emily was complaining of a sore tummy.  I thought she must be feeling abit seasick aswell and just let her lie down with me and gave her seasickness remedy That evening she was in alot of pain and discomfort.  She writhed and rolled, was restless and crying out.  All signs pointed to appendicitis. Our nearest port was over 200 miles away on the Ecuador coast.  Rod tried several emergency frequencies and could raise no one.  Our medical books suggested stabilising her situation with antibiotics and then try to get her to a hospital as soon as possible.  We wanted to speak to someone first but eventually decided that the antibiotics would do her no harm in the long run, so mixed some up and tried to give them to her.  The first dose she vomited up after about 2 minutes, then the replacement dose came up and finally the third try ended up in more vomiting, so we stopped trying. Although, once she had vomited she seemed to settle down and went to sleep for a few hours.  She was pale, lifeless and had a temperature.  Rod and I felt anxious, helpless, so desperate and utterly alone.  In the morning we had a pre-arranged appointment on the SSB radio with our traveling companions, Timetama and Oruwa, and they sprang into action.  Timetama have a satellite phone and were able to phone doctors, they spoke to other Italian boats, they spoke to people already in the Galapagos about the hospital facilities there and rescue services, and they spoke to us every hour on the hour.  I was weeping with relief.  Our feelings of isolation and desperation were over.  They told us how to cope with her until we got help, what help we could call on and just made us feel alot better.  During the course of the day she improved, no tummy pains, her temperature went down and she began to sit up and play.  Since then she has got progressively better and is back to her usual self, but still periodically complains of a sore tummy so when we get into the Galapagos I will try and find a doctor to give her a check up.

On day two we ripped our main sail - a very big rip right across on the seam and down vertically to the next seam.  It was taken down and a fantastic repair job was carried out, mainly by Rich, and in two days the sail was back on the boom in full working order.  On day three, in the early hours of the morning, we came to an abrupt halt right out in the middle of nowhere! We had got caught on a fishing net from a trawler which was on the horizon. Rich and Rod got the boat hook, grabbed the line, cut it then retied it and threw it in.  By this time the fishermen had realised something was up and had put their dinghy in the water and were making their way towards us. Knowing that fishermen get very angry with yachts who cut their lines, we decided to get out of their way.  We pushed the engine to full power and got as far away as possible.  They followed us for a while but eventually gave up.  Who knows, they were probably very friendly, amiable people who only meant well .................  but we didn't hang around to find out!

Once we finally left Balboa and Panama City, we sailed over night to a bay on the Panamanian coast called Ensenada Benoa and anchored there to rest for a day and a night before we did the longer crossing to the Galapagos. Timetama and Oruwa were also anchored there and rather worryingly, there was catamaran recently wrecked on the beach.  Just a little warning to the skipper to never take his eye of the ball!  We spent the evening on Timetama and on the way back to Tintin in the dinghy, noticed that the phosphorescence in our wake was very bright and active.  Back on board, the men all decided to see what would happen to the phosphorescence if they jumped into the sea.  Immediately, there were big splashes and they were all in.  Each dive bomb would throw up a million sparks, like fireworks.  If they dived in, their moving bodies under the water looked like underwater torches.  As they moved in the water, the phosphorescence sparkled and it looked like the world was inverted and they were all swimming through the stars.   We were all squealing and whooping like we were watching a fabulous fire work display.  We were watching a fabulous display!  The next morning on the beach I got chatting to one of the guys from another boat in the bay. He told us all about the salt water crocodiles that were on the little island just next to us. He suggested we don't allow the children to swim from the boat as he had often seen them swim right alongside his boat!

Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador 9 April 2003.
My tapping at the computer was interrupted by the Equator.  I had to stop and take part in the little ceremony and sacrifice made to Neptune as we crossed over it.  We asked for a safe passage and good winds on our journey and then Pippa poured a glass of some of Rod's rot-gut rose wine into the sea, apologising as she did for the poor quality of the beverage.  Our offering did nothing to help the lack of wind situation and so I can only surmise that Neptune did not like the rose' either.  If it was me I would be insulted too!  We sailed, or rather, motored through the night and arrived at Santa Cruz first thing in the morning.  As we came into the anchorage we saw all our sailing flotilla already here (blame it on bigger engines and no stops to swim in the sea!), plus some other boats that we haven't seen for a while.  There was much shouting of names and waving and jubilation!  We were so excited to see them, especially our friends on the catamaran "Tortuga". They were just leaving when we arrived, but engine trouble forced them to turn back, so we were able to spend a really good evening together that night and catch up on lots of travels and excitements.

In the Galapagos, as you would expect, you are suddenly aware of all the animal life.  Seals swim around the boats and jump up onto boats' swim platforms to sun themselves.  Pelicans, blue footed boobies and frigate birds are all flying around and diving for fish all around us.  On the jetty in town, the marine iguana's all sit in the sun with the Galapagos red crab scrambling about all around them.  It is wonderful.  The first thing we did when we were off the boat and on land, (apart from going to a restaurant for lunch) was to hot foot it up to the Charles Darwin Institute and see the giant tortoises and all the other tortoises that they have at their breeding centre.  It was such an incredible sight to see them.  They are amazing to look at so close up - really prehistoric and extraordinary.  The park rangers, however, on seeing the children with us, followed us around, watching us like hawks saying, "don't do that", "get off there", "not too close".  What did he think we would do? These tortoises weigh in at 250 kg's and have a hard shell!  Did he not understand what exertion was involved in reaching this place!  Would we have made the effort to come here if we didn't love animals and care for the environment?  I suppose he was just doing his job!  Good man in that case.

We have spent a few days doing all our land jobs - internet, post office, supermarket, launderette.  Yes, even in exotic places like this the mundane jobs need doing!  We are seeing doctors and having blood tests for Emily and hopefully will be able to find out what is making her tummy hurt so much. The medical facilities are primitive but clean and the hospital staff try very hard to help.  Whilst we are rushing around dealing with the mundane, Rich has taken the older children to the beach and has taught them to surf. Yesterday, the Galapagos Surf Champion gave Harry some impromptu lessons aswell.  Harry has found his calling.  He is a surfer.  He wants a surf board for Christmas.  This is what he likes best, he says.  Pippa loves surfing too and by all accounts, does it really well - just as long as someone else will carry her board to the beach!  We are booking up a couple of day trips to the uninhabited islands and planning to see some more of this strange and wonderful place.  Watch this space and I will come back and tell you all about it!

Lots of love to everyone
Sue

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I love Boobies!    27 Apr 2003

Mid-Pacific Ocean, 1633 nautical miles to the Marquises Islands


Dear everyone

My present circumstances are not really conducive to sitting and typing up a nice long letter. Tintin is heeling at an angle, the waves are hitting us from the side which causes us to lurch from side to side periodically and to stay seated here at the chart table, I have to take on the posture of a contortionist just so as not to fall off my seat. I have my legs wedged in at two separate points and I have to hang on with one hand when things get desperate. But the thing is, I am on my own on my night watch - I have the time, the radar is keeping a careful eye out for any passing traffic (to date we have seen one boat in 8 days!) and my head is spinning. I need to tell you about the Galapagos. If I don't write it all down, how will I know, years from now, that it wasn't a dream. That it actually happened to me. Little old me. Sue from Ladysmith. I saw it - I was there. I stood on a beach with sea lions sunning themselves and gazing, really quite affectionately, at me. I watched baby sea lions play in the mangroves - throwing sticks up and then diving down to catch them and bring them back. I watched blue footed boobies dive bomb all around me. I can't capture all that happened. I can't capture the atmosphere and the light in the evening and the sense of being somewhere quite different and special - but I can try to tell you about it.

Arriving in Santa Cruz island was wonderful - the bay was pretty, the town invitingly close and the air teeming with welcoming birds so different from anything we had seen before. A bird with bright blue feet!! Never seen that before, have you?! Another joy and delight was that we knew so many boats already in the bay. I just knew that my next few days would be very social, lots of fun - and I would walk down the street of town and be able to say hello to people I know! What a feeling! We busily sorted out Emily's stomach problems and got all the essentials done. Then it was time to explore....

The Galapagos is not in South America for nothing - all the same "rules" apply, most notably the one that says everything is against the rules but the man at the top is capable of bending the rules if the price is right. For visiting yachts, it would be incredible to be able to cruise from one island port to another, but that is not possible. Against the rules. Once you have cleared in to one of the ports in the Galapagos you are not allowed to visit another one. What you then have to do is to leave your boat anchored and see the islands in the local tourist boats at vast expense. We had great plans - quite extensive plans to visit as many islands as possible and SEE the place. But two things happened. Firstly, the costs involved caused a huge sucking in of breath and secondly, we went in a local tourist boat and the experience sort of put us off going again! 

We organised and paid for a trip to a small island off Santa Cruz and when we arrived to board our boat, were told that the boat was full but we were going on an extra boat - actually just one of the harbour taxis. We set off at speed ahead of the tourist boat and were at the island in good time. On the way, I thought "I wish I had brought Emily's life jacket", as all the life jackets were on the other boat. I remembered her arm bands in my bag and began scratching around for them. We were moving through a throng of slippery, shiny, diving, dancing sea lions. As we watched them we went very close to the rocks on this volcanic island. We warned the driver and he reversed hard and we moved off. But he brought us in close again and this time we were swept onto the rocks. We were pinned on a rock like a pivot - the wooden side of the boat crunching and snapping. As the swell pulled back and exposed the rock, we hung suspended by the hole in our bow, then the swell came in again, swung us around and we then hung down sideways almost, almost, almost tipping over. Rich, Kate, Leo and Rod were all high siding from one side of the boat to the other as it swung, to keep it from tipping over and throwing us all into the sea or onto the rocks. All this has taken a matter of minutes, but it was surreal, like living a nightmare, thinking "This can't be happening to me" and feeling totally helpless, hanging onto my wailing children, waiting for the inevitable fall into the water. The driver jumped out onto the rock and as a swell came up, pushed like hell and we swiveled and plunged back into the water. He took his T-shirt off and stuffed it into the hole and started to bail. Leo put the spluttering engine on full blast and we sped off as fast as we could. The men were all bailing now but the water was coming in too fast. We were a long way off and the likelihood of us making it to shore was getting slimmer and slimmer. As if by magic, another speed boat came roaring past us. I must have looked like a woman possessed when I hailed them and frantically called them over. We all transferred to the speedboat and the guys from the speedboat transferred to our boat to help the driver get the boat back. They made it in to harbour, just driving the boat full speed right up the slip way. We were so grateful. We were so shaken. Harry was still hysterical. A coffee at our favourite cafe helped to calm us all down. 

Rich went and got all our money back and rebooked us with a very upmarket, even more expensive boat (the boat looked solid, not overcrowded and life jackets were standard) and we pulled ourselves up and got on with it. Emily handed me a life-jacket and I zipped it up - she stood back and looked at me with satisfaction, "Mum, I love you in that life jacket"!! We had a fabulous time, saw lava lizards, great blue herons, lava heron, marine iguana's and Rod and the crew swam with the sea lions. The guide was fantastic, Alberto - a big, jolly man with the physique of a boxer - he did a great job. Alberto was also the bouncer at the local night club and he gave us free tickets which we made use of a few nights later to go and see a Colombian band. The old Skipper and his galley slave salsa-ed the night away with most of our flotilla of yachts, plus extra's; what a night!

We went inland and walked around the two volcanic craters on Santa Cruz, walked through a lava tunnel and saw Giant Tortoises in their natural habitat. (Actually, we hiked for nearly 2 hours, carrying Emily most of the way, through a jungle maze and saw 2 tortoises in their natural habitat. They hide!!) It was amazingly lush and green. We went to a National Park hut for a drink afterwards and sat and watched the sun set over the islands on the horizon. It was so peaceful. Like we were the only ones on all those islands. I had to pinch myself. The next morning Kate and Leo left Tintin to head home to England. They had been such wonderful crew and we loved having them on board. All we were left with was Rich (who we picked up in Colon, Panama) but he is big enough, in every way, for the job! 

We heard through the yachtie grapevine that if we wanted to go to another island, the Harbour Master of Isla Isabella was turning a blind eye to yachts coming and staying a couple of days. That was all we needed to hear.Up went the anchor and off we went. Isla Isabella was what we were looking for. In Isabella you didn't have to take a tourist boat anywhere - you just had to look. We walked along a path past a channel in the rocks where 6 foot White-tipped Reef Sharks come in to lay their eggs. There must have been 20 of them slowly swimming up and down. Kneeling on the edge of the water, the sharks were swimming past literally centimetres from us. Sea lions were swimming in this calm passage and came up onto the rocks at our feet, looking at us with intense curiosity and friendliness. A few steps further and a group of locals were swimming - completely unphased by the sharks. We walked on further to a beach full of sea lions - gorgeous, big, macho and loud males, adorable, wide eyed and downy babies, sleek, shiny females. They were all there, in and out of the water. On land they seem so clumsy and heavy, but in the water they are so full of grace and fluidity. There is that space in-between when they ride the wave onto the beach, get dumped and then try to regain their composure and lumber out of the waves, barking and groaning and telling the whole beach all about it. It is brilliant to watch. Further along the beach we must have walked past a hundred marine iguana's all huddled on rocks, clinging on with their massive hands. In each group there was the unmistakable "Big Daddy" - looking like he had seen a few battles, as well as a few years, and with the look of a wily, old cowboy. To clear the excess salt from their systems they blow, or spit, it out of their noses and generally at you as you walk towards them! It is there unique adaption to living in sea water. On a big clump of rocks near the boat was a group of Galapagos penguins. They dart around the bay, very busy little animals, their little heads popping up from time to time to see what's happening. We saw turtles and white spotted rays and wonderful, small, bright fish when we went snorkeling. A group of 4 dolphins had for the past few days played with a group of sea lions at a place where there is a current through the reef from the sea. Amazingly, it seems that the animals are all playing, diving and jumping together just for fun. The locals had not seen it happen before and there was alot of interest. Rod and Rich swam with them - an amazing experience. No amount of attention seemed to worry them. They were having such a good time! I think the  creature that entertained us the most (we never tired of watching them) was the Blue-footed Boobies. They are the Kamikaze/demon racers of the bird world. Sometimes there would be a feeding frenzy and we would see big groups of Boobies all dive bombing and crashing into the sea like madmen. But it was also as good to catch the "lone ranger" belting into the sea. I always loved the way they would pop back up to the surface and shake their heads, as if they were thinking to themselves, "I must try and slow down a little on entry next time - that one hurt abit"!! There was wonder and amazement at every turn. It became so common to find yourself amongst such diverse and extraordinary wild life, but it was impossible to take it for granted.

The Harbour Master at Isabella gave us 3 days, so we saw what we could and enjoyed every minute of it. Up the anchor went again and we set off on our longest crossing of all - three thousand miles across the Pacific. I had been led to believe (I won't mention by whom) that this was going to be "an absolute doddle" of a crossing. The Pacific means calm seas and easy crossing .................. hhmn. I am reserving judgment on that one. At this point, I feel that the Atlantic rollers were more comfortable! And (had you been there you would really understand this) that is saying something!! Today I have been dumped on by a wave three times. I dread stepping out into the cockpit for fear of another dumping! We had a little panic one night when we found that the saloon floor was under water - desperate checking of the sea cocks and pumping of the bilge pumps until finally the culprit was found to be the water maker. Old Mr. Resourceful, our Skipper, fixed it and now we are taking no water on board and the watermaker is back in operation!

We have been very successful with the fishing gear and a steady supply of fresh fish has been deposited in my galley. We have put the fishing lures away for a few days because 2 days ago he caught a 25 kg Wahoo. We had Wahoo for lunch and supper for two days running. I pickled enough for another 2 days eating and we still had half of the fish in the freezer! Wahoo is the best fish for eating in my estimation. But I must say that the thought of some meat tonight instead of fish is quite tantalising!! 

The children are fine and coping extremely well with their confinement and circumstances. School takes up much of our day and we are finishing work we should have done a year ago! Rich has taken on the challenge of teaching maths to Pippa and it has been a great success - she is listening to him and learning more than I have managed in a year of home schooling. I think that the difference is that he is a big, strong man with whom she flirts all day - she is only 10 ........... nearly 11!!

My sister-in-law, Angelique, will be joining us in the Marquises to sail with us for 6 weeks. I don't think she realises it yet, but I think she has bitten off more than she can chew this time! It should make for interesting reading further along from now! We are really looking forward to having her and introducing her to the gypsy way of life.

Anyway, we have the mystical south sea islands a mere 10 days away. My Pacific Sailing Pilot says it is the cruising sailor's dream! Lovely! Thoughts of that and of seeing Angie will keep me sane and happy through the rest of this crossing as I brace myself against the sideways lurching, down another G&T and scan the horizon for land!

Lots of love

Sue

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Apataki            23 June 2003                                    

(A little warning ................. this is very long!! And way overdue!)

Oponohu Bay

Dear Everyone

What you are about to read is true! I know you will read this and think, "surely she is exaggerating", or think that places and people like this don't exist. Well, I kid you not! The world is a truly beautiful and wonderful place when you get out there and look at it!

So on that note, let me finish off my rather unfinished previous letter - the last island that we visited in the Marquises before leaving them and heading south to the Tuamotos, was the island of Oa Pou (pronounced Wapoo). It is a small island with spectacular, high peaks and spires - a dramatic coastline. A woman from one of the other boats in the bay came over and told us that the local mayor of the town, a man called Etienne, had invited all the boats in the bay for lunch at his house the following day. We were planning to head off in the morning but instantly changed plans so that we could attend this little gathering. In the pouring rain we rowed over to the village dock - a wave neatly picking us up and planting us, at a jaunty angle on the dock - with Ange (my sister in law), the children and I holding on to our seats and understanding in one instant why the Skipper insisted on rowing and not putting the outboard on the back of the dinghy! We waited at the meeting point and got wetter. Etienne arrived in his battered truck to fetch us - we grappled, dripping, with the broken seats, lack of windows and suspension, but none the less enormously grateful for the ride up the hill to his house. The dash from the car to the front door in the continuing tropical downpour, (plus the lack of windows in the truck) meant that Etienne was now wet through like the rest of us, but unlike the rest of us who sat steaming and drying off through lunch, he just took off his shirt and sat bare chested (it was vast)at the head of the table. We said grace and then ate - us, all the new faces from the other boats, the shirtless mayor and his wife. They both could not have been more welcoming and we had a great time, apart from Ange who was suffering from a stomach upset and found the lack of a door on the bathroom very inhibiting. 

We arrived in Fakarava, in the Tuamotos, after the 4 day crossing with one sister in law who was very ready to get off the boat and fly home! The crossing, though calm and uneventful, had been a stretch of her endurance. For me it was exhausting, with Skipper and I sharing the nights and not having much sleep. No sooner had we dropped anchor, than a weather system moved over us and trapped us in very uncomfortable and volatile conditions for 2 days. We were pitching and rolling at anchor, with the wind howling around us and the coral heads and reefs lying menacingly close should that anchor slip..... Once the weather cleared sufficiently for us to be able to move through the pass out of the atoll, we lifted anchor and left Fakarava. So far our experience of the Tuamotos had not been good. Apart from the wind, the sea and rolling, a new quay was being built in the village and we woke to the thump of the pile driver and the groaning of the earth movers! We had not found the South Seas Paradise and quite frankly, we were thinking of just leaving and going to Tahiti. Timetama convinced us to come to the next atoll, Toau, and meet up with Rapparee there. Imagining there might be a possibility of a good get together, we just couldn't resist and followed them like an obedient puppy!

Toau is a small atoll and we had to make our way through a rather temperamental pass in order to get inside the lagoon. We called Timetama and they said it was quite frisky, but manageable. Imagine a small bit of cork floating in pot of boiling, frothing water ............ that is what it was like! Once through the pass, all wild eyed and screaming, "We did it!", we called Timetama and Rapparee and said, "We are through Thunder Mountain and heading in your direction"!! Then began a couple of idyllic days in total isolation - we had a day on the beach with a big barbecue, children and adults swimming and snorkeling, walks along the shore finding shells and coral, cracking open coconuts and drinking the water, making dens out of palm leaves................. absolute perfection. The following day, Ange and I went with Carmine in his dinghy, smashing and bouncing around, hurtling along over a choppy sea to a small island belonging to a young woman called Pamela. (Ricocheting through the waves with an Italian driver and his dinghy is a truly unmissable experience!) 15 minutes later, we arrived at the island, we were totally drenched and our sides were aching from laughing. We had heard that Pamela would trade items for black pearls. The Tuamoto's are the main black pearl farming area of Polynesia. Meeting Pamela, was yet again on my travels, an occasion when I am humbled and touched by a person's kindness, hospitality and open friendliness. Not only did we trade for some pearls, but also left laden with more pearls given as gifts, beautiful shell wall hangings - basically anything she could find to give us. Her and a gorgeous young man, called Velto, (She swears they are only good friends. Impossible. He is irresistible!) live alone on this island, miles and miles from anywhere else - they farm pearls, they fish, they live happily and productively. Velto had caught 9 coconut crabs - big, bright blue creatures that are supposedly the pinnacle of crab gourmet. Velto opened up the cage to show us the crabs, took one out and after a quick photo session, turned around to find that the rest of the crabs had all escaped and were scrambling all over the place to try and secure their liberty! Two of them were successful and were never seen again! Velto also caught us some lobster and casually asked us if we would like an octopus. Carmine's eyes lit up. He has a brilliant recipe for octopus and pasta. Velto simply stepped onto the rocky shore of his island, stuck his hand in the water, whipped out an octopus, flipped it inside out and hung it on a tree. Pasta and tinned tomatoes here we come! It was beginning to get dark and we had our forbidding journey back to Tintin in Carmine's dinghy to think about! Wrenching ourselves away from Pamela and Velto, we picked our way through the coral heads, waving madly all the time. Pamela ran from one side of the island to the other as we passed, waving her pareo and blowing kisses.

Back onboard, it was the ugly business of cooking the crabs. Learning from past lobster cooking experiences, the skipper was instructed to cook them outside on deck on the camping stove. It took the entire evening - in desperation, I finally cooked beef stroganoff and we ate it AND THE CRABS STILL WEREN'T COOKED YET!!! At one point, one of our crabs climbed out of the bucket. We thought he must have escaped into the sea, but he was found hanging onto the back of the boat grimly with his huge pincers, was then returned to the bucket to await his fate. In the bucket the three of them turned to open warfare with one another and had to be separated! The pan fell off the camping stove, the water spilt and the crab scrambled up the steering wheel, they stubbornly refused to die forcing the lid up and making their way out of the pot. Things seemed to reach an all time low when Ange came in and said, "Sue, now he is trying to drown the crabs"! All through this experience, Skipper had invaluable and priceless advice from his first mate, Harry. It was amusing to listen to and observe, but quite an ordeal for the crabs and for Rod who really hates killing the things! They tasted great - but what alot of effort for just a morsel of meat.

Our last stop in the Tuamotos was an atoll called Apataki. We went through the pass, paused momentarily in our tracks (we were getting the lines ready to tie up to the quay in the village) and dropped our jaws in sheer awe at the beauty of the place. Turquoise sea, houses on stilts over the water painted in pastel colours, open fishing boats moored, palm trees. Two men came along and took our lines and told us we could stay on the quay for a few days because they weren't expecting the next ship until Wednesday. They showed me where the water spiggot was, pointed in the direction of the store and generally made us feel very welcome indeed. Ange and I grabbed the washing basket (a plastic bucket)and headed off, armed with our Omo washing powder, for the tap. I had just begun to wash, when a man came running up to me, smiling broadly, and said, "Madame, non .... come with me". Always obedient, and curious, I dropped everything and ran after him. He stopped, shuffled me round and pointed to my washing. I was most confused. However, through a combination of sign language and my very poor French, we discovered that he wanted us to come to his home and use his washing machine! Oh right, BRILLIANT!! Without giving him a chance to change his mind, Ange and I grabbed the washing and scrambled after him. He had an old twin tub out the back of his house. He stuck our washing in, filled the twin tub up from the garden hose and switched on. Much less back ache that way, I can tell you! We sat on his steps chatting, a few of his cronies had joined us by now, and they told us that they worked on a pearl farm. We showed adequate delight and interest obviously, because at that point he dashed inside and brought out a little bag of pearls and told us to choose some. Ange and I were completely taken aback - he was washing our clothes AND giving us his pearls! What was this place like?!!

By the time Ange and I returned with our washing, there were a lot of children around the boat - mine, Milo from Timetama, and lots of local children - some playing cricket with Harry and Pippa, some playing on the scooters with Emily and Milo, some riding bikes and running around, and a small group just standing next to the boat looking in through the windows. At the end of the day, when all the games were over and most had gone home, two children still stood looking in, so we asked them in. They were gentle, loving, enthusiastic and sweet - and played until long after dark. The following day, the little boy returned with about seven of his pals and they all wanted to come aboard. Someone had just stolen Rod's flip flops from next to the boat, which were, unfortunately, his only pair of shoes and one's that he had "walked in"! (Therefore even more special to him!) He was feverishly looking for the culprit, marching purposefully around inspecting every person's feet looking for someone who might stupidly wear a pair of shoes he has just stolen! Need I say that it was a fruitless search....... Hence, our Skipper's feelings of generosity of spirit and his "open house" policy was immediately withdrawn and the 8 little boys had to content themselves with standing and looking in the windows!

After lunch, we threw the left over rice over the side and became aware of how many absolutely, unbelievably beautiful fish there were under our boat. We were tied up to the quay with a very strong current passing by, so Rod threw a line out for us to hang onto, and we put on our goggles and jumped in. It will be one of the most amazing experiences of my life - I have never seen so many species of fish, one more beautiful than the next, in my life. Not even in an aquarium! We just hung onto our bit of rope and looked down at an ever changing selection of fish. Harry, who usually finds snorkeling too frightening, found it made him feel secure to have the line to hold onto and the boat so nearby, and he spent hours with his head down, enchanted by what he saw, pointing out extra-special ones .... until I pointed to a green moray eel poking his head out of a hole in the quay wall! He was out of the water like a bullet. I must say, I didn't linger much longer myself!

Every afternoon, when the fishing boats came in just near our quay, a group of woman would gather to gut and fillet the fish. It was always a colourful, noisy place to go and hover around. One afternoon, the fishing boats had brought in some amazing fishes. Two huge, bright blue and turquoise Napoleon fish - the children loved their big, jelly like lips. As the fisherman gutted the fish and threw the insides into the sea, rays and a nurse shark swam over. This sent the many children gathered around into a frenzy of excitement and they all ran along the quay throwing stones and yelling at the shark. As the quay narrowed down to the slipway, we noticed a black Moray eel sticking his head out, so we got some fish heads out and threw them at him and he came out and grabbed it - all accompanied by yelps and screaming and hysterics from the children. One boy, obviously needing to affirm his place as the He-man of the play ground, jumped in to the water a this point, with a shark, two rays and a moray eel. (I must admit that once his body touched the water, there was a "walking on water" style return to the side!) The crowd went wild! Then other boys who didn't want to be outshone did the same! The shark and the rays just gently swam away and the eel slipped back into his hole ..... perhaps the boys knew that already and that is why they did it!! I was reeling with excitement and delirious with the crazy, dementedness of it all! As all this was happening, one of the fisherman had the job of taking all the fish gutting left-overs out to sea in his little skiff. He motioned to Ange and I - did we want to go with him? OH Yeah! (The "devil may care" attitude of the boys had rubbed off on us!) We jumped into this little boat with all the fish heads and set off at hight speed - at that point we realising that we were going to have to go through the pass, and if all the surfers were anything to go by .............. those waves were big enough to surf! It was a thrilling ride but probably the last time I will volunteer to go and take the fish heads out.

Now, this bit is hard. I can't do it justice. We went to an anchorage where a family live and farm pearls, vanilla, chickens and fish. They are the family Lau, headed by Ah Sang (pronounced Assam)and Mimi. This is the world's loveliest couple. Look at me now, I am actually crying just thinking about them. I am all choked up. I loved those people. They were so good to us, so loving and so completely giving of their time, their food, their home and precious water. They made us feel so welcome. We had such a good time there. Mimi had "tamed" two nurse sharks and they swam around the pontoon and waited around for any tit-bits of fish that she brought to them. It took a while for someone so conditioned to see huge DANGER signs when simply the word, shark, is mentioned, to walk into the water, wait for the shark to swim up and then stroke and pet it. They liked a nice scratch on the top of the head! Ange and I even surprised and stunned ourselves by snorkeling with the sharks........... How is that for facing your fears! Bloody hell. I was very impressed with myself. And so was Ange. With herself. Every evening, Rod and the children, plus Tim and Jim on Rapparee, Philip and James on Abracadabra and so on, would all be collected by Ah Sang and his son, Alfred, and they would go fishing. It was such a precious moment for Harry - to go fishing with the guys! One evening Mimi did supper for all of us. We sat at a low, long table down on the beach with bouganvillia and frangipani all twisted down the middle of the table. They had lights hanging in the trees and candles down the table in jars. Ah Sang put a bunch of fish heads on a peice of fishing line and he threw it into the water, slowly pulling it to the shore. A collection of sharks and amazing fishes trailed behind it. Harry would then run down the beach, just at the water's edge, with this crowd following along after him. I had to stop and pinch myself later in the evening when I said to the children, "Come on, why don't you go and play with the sharks"! When Emily got tired, Ah Sang went and got a mattress and put it on the ground near the table and first, Emily, then Harry, went and lay down on it and went to sleep. Mimi went and got a blanket and covered them. We sat and talked, Mimi asking us all to tell her about ourselves, where we came from and how we grew up and where our parents were. I learned alot about the people at the table and about real hospitality and goodness. One evening, we had supper with Alfred. Earlier in the day he had taken us to the pearl farm to see how they lay the new lines and string out the oysters. He brought some oysters back and after supper, opened one up for Pippa to show her the process of retrieving the mature pearl. Pippa looked into the oyster shell and saw the small, black, shiny pearl sitting there. She squealed with delight. Alfred took it out and put it in her hands and said, "For you". It was such a touching, generous moment. She watched her very own black pearl being born.

Whilst in that bay, Ange and I went to a "girls night" on Rapparee. Tim and Jim were sent off their boat and had to come over to the comforts of Tintin for the evening to watch a DVD with Rod and the children! We had great artistic activities planned for our girls night, but in the end spent the evening eating, drinking and bitching about our husbands. Girls nights are the same the world over! In our case, we had the world in one cockpit - we had one Italian, one Russian, one Dutch, one Spanish, one American - plus, Ange and I, the South African contingent!

We left on a Sunday and Ah Sang and Mimi had gone into town to church. Ah Sang is the local pastor. We passed them as they were returning home. Mimi went to the bow of their boat and waved and blew kisses. We ran to our bow and waved and blew kisses. We continued to wave and blow kisses until they were just specks in the distance. A few minutes later, Rod went up to the bow to put up the spinnaker but the wind took it and wrapped it around the genoa. I was sitting with Emily on my lap in the cockpit, so I put her down and ran forward to help Rod unwrap it. As I did the spinnaker filled out and the line was in the boat. It whipped past me almost knocking me overboard and as I turned around, realised Emily had followed me and the line whipped her up and carried her out over the sea........... she was hanging on with her hands, stark naked, with a look of absolute terror on her face. We screamed, "hold on Doodie" and bless her, she held on with all her might. Rod pulled the line, we grabbed her and she went straight into my arms. Everyone rushed to put their arms around her. Rod said "Are you alright?" and she said "I was quite scared daddy". It was hard to get the image of her hanging there out of my mind - it was a terrifying moment. A small reality check.

With Apataki behind us, we sailed on down to Tahiti.......... Another whole story!

Lots and lots of love and gratitude to all you who have managed to wade through all of this and have got to the end! It was so long - but as ever, there is so much to tell!

Sue

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