Things I like...

I like the phone...
I like not paying ridiculous phone bills...
I like being able to chat with people on the other side of the world...
I like VOIPBUSTER!


We have been using skype for over a year now to make international calls. It started out so so cheap, but recently there have been many new costs creeping into the bill.

A friend mentioned Voipbuster. Don't ask me to say it three times fast. I believe it is a Swiss company. They have super cheap prices and a special running at the moment where you can call the US and Europe (mobile or land) for free!

This makes me very happy!

Check out:http://www.voipbuster.com

Now if I could get a better connection and not get the funny delay I would be set.

Happy chatting!

OK, BUT NOW WHAT?

So I bought a local tuber at the market thinking we could expand our palate and support local growers. It was purplish on the outside with a rough skin pictured below and appeared to be much denser than the western potatoes or yucca for that matter. It was totally overpriced roughly 3 times what an imported potato costs. I definitely got the tourist price on this one. I thought I could bake it or make French fries with it (we have a deep fryer, but that’s another story) or possible bake it.

I began by peeling it, and discovered it was pink and bright purple on the inside. It would have been my dream plant had my color palate from when I was six remained. I then set about to cut it into French fries only to discover that was not possible as it was just too dense.. Instead of slicing it vertically I cut it into round slices. I also soon discovered that it, like many other tropical plants secretes a white milky liquid which proves to be quite stick and hard to get off hands and cutting implements. The slices revealed further the tubers intricate structure (the picture below). The colors are amazing, but leaves me to ponder… OK, BUT NOW

TIJABAOU

TIJABAOU the local cultural center had it's opening the other weekend with performances and new exhibits. It was a lot of fun and we ran into almost everyone we know (I guess it is a small island).

It is a gorgeous center designed by Renzo Piano, whose more famous works can be seen in Paris. Here is the link to the center and below are some photos from the day.

http://www.adck.nc/

COMING HOME

It has been a while, and we are settling into Noumea. Still looking for a car, but we are just being incredibly picky.

It is official!.. I will be heading back to America to visit family and friends, while JP will remain in Noumea to work (sorry JP if I could work I would, but the visa says no). I leave April 30, one day before my visa ends, with a two day layover in Sydney. I had no choice (sure you say), as I am using my frequent flier miles. I am feeling very lucky to have been able to fly at all using my miles as this was all done within less than 90 days from departure (something I haven’t done in a while).

AMERICAN EXPRESS VS. AMERICAN AIRLINES
WHO WILL BE THE WINNER?


DEALING WITH FREQUENT FLIER COMPANIES

I think I should first thank Skype for being able to call American 800 numbers for free and to Valerie Morrison the lovely American Advantage representative who spent an hour on the phone with me allowing me to get back to the US.

The Plan
Fly from Noumea to New York using frequent flier miles. Could it be done?

The plan originally was to use my parents American Express points, because they had enough points and save me from having to buy miles from American Airlines. In the end American Airlines won out as they had seats and far less hassle (so much for a surprise ending).

The Saga…

I had stalled in using my frequent flyier miles because I was 27,000 miles short and didn’t want to have to buy that many miles. My parents checked with American Express, and though they were short by about 10,000 points because they are long standing valid customers they were allowed to have a points deficit. Thus allowing me to fly from Noumea to New York for free!

Great!...BUT, the first challenge was to transfer points. I have an AmEx card, but not one with a points plan, so that had to be dealt with.

The second challenge is to determine which airline will fly the route I want to go while allowing me to use American Express points. American Express boasts so many options, maybe you can fly with any company in the world, yet the routes these airlines allow you to fly using American Express points is very limited. I thought Quantas would be no problem, but they only allow you to fly from the US to Melbourne or Sydney. My trip begins in New Caledonia and ends in America squashing all chances of that being an option. I then called Air France thinking they certainly fly from New Caledonia to many places. I then learned that in order to use American Express points you must transfer them to the airline company. Once you transfer the points or miles cannot be transferred back and are valid for I believe up to three years. I had to first determine if there were seats available. There are many seats still available, but not using normal point allowances, there were seats for using double points! YIKES! Double points actually cost more than the seat itself. Would my parents be in points debt forever? I believe the better question is, are my parents aren’t valued enough to have a points deficit of 170,000?... apparently not (I learned this fact later). I asked when the next available normal point allowance seat would be available? When the answer finally came I was floored…. September! Super yikes! My visa ends in May and none of this was looking like an option. I just took a deep breath thanked the person on the phone and hung up.

American Express was out!

OK, hello American Airlines. I called them knowing it was possible to fly from Noumea to New York and the number of miles 75,000. The first person I spoke with said this wasn’t possible, but with some perseverance it all worked out.

The next question and the question of the moment, is there a seat available for me to fly out not too much before, but not after May 1. At first things seemed fine, but then she took a better look and the flight would have me fly out May 3 – NOT POSSIBLE. Then I had no problem getting from Noumea to Sydney, but there were no flights from Sydney to New York. There was one moment where the representative said “There is no way for me to get you to the US at all during April or May. I have tried you flying through Sydney and Aukland.” My heart hit my stomach. Again another deep breath and I meekly responded… OK, but can you get me anywhere in the US and I will work from there. Her response was how about Hawaii? Imagine my heart sinking even deeper into my stomach. Hawaii is still in the middle of the Pacific and so far from New York. As far as I was concerned I might as well sail back at that point. I kept her talk and then we starting talking about LA and Japan. Japan was out (not allowed), but LA was proving to me an option.

Finally after 1 hour on the phone (THANK YOU SKYPE) we had things worked out. I had a flight reservation, good until March 17 midnight. All I had to do was by the remaining 20,000 points. I had received 7,000 points from my credit card just for mentioning I might cancel it, and they said, “How about 7,000 points and why don’t you think about it”, so I said “sure, I think about it.” The 7,000 points saved me $200!

It’s official paid for the miles, tax, and have the Australia visa (booked online)!

Noumea

So it's about time I posted some pictures of where we are living. Here are a few pictures of the waterfront taken from a walk on one of our increasingly common cloudier moments. The wet season seems to be coming. We are not too upset about that as it cools things down and gives us some reprieve from the incredibly strong sun. I do think we have much of an ozone here. Even JP has managed to get sunburned. I am discovering all sorts of lovely hats or sun cover combinations. It makes me imagine that women throughout the Middle East must have the most amazing skin as it is completely covered from adolescence on. Should women be covered? I think it is a choice, and I think I would opt to be completely covered here if it didn't block my ability to see. For now I will apply copious amounts of sunblock.

Work & Visas

We have some good news.

JP found work! He will be working at the local chain of Casinos. I guess our gambling days are over. He is not dealing cards, but rather dealing with the machines between the two casinos. His work is on the waterfront, but I don't think he will see much daylight.

Noumea is a funny combination of big city and small island. The casinos bring in millions of dollars a year and most from local people. One would think that money is the only interest, but becuase New Caledonia is small and everyone talks, the casino knows it would be big news if they just started bankrupting families. If they happen to have a regular player who begins to lose money they take him/her aside and recommend they take a break. That is defiantly different than Las Vegas.

I am waiting to hear about jobs I have applied for It took JP two months to sign a contract, so nothing seems to move too quickly. In the meantime I am waiting to see if I will be granted special permission for a visa extension. If not, I will have to fly to Australia and wait there for what could be over a month until I receive a new longer visa. So keep your fingers crossed for me and hopefully the visa gods will be nice.

More pictures on the website. Check out our trip to Yate. It's a small village on the east side of the island.

PHOTOS...FINALLY!

We are doing well and living the quite life looking for work, getting to know Noumea & New Caledonia, and meeting new people (some of whom are not on a boat!).

I am working at posting more pictures, and slowing working through the enormous backlog of photos we acquired while crossing the Pacific. Check them out at:

http://new.photos.yahoo.com/sbermanl

Click on the albums and you can see the Marquesas, the Society Islands, and Niue!

Cuisine ~ Culture

Happy Holidays Everyone!

We have been exploring New Caledonia with a bit of camping and looking for work, but as it is the holidays some of the latter has been put on hold. New Caledonia looks a lot like the pictures of New South Wales, Australia with the red earth, hot & dry climate, and flora are very similar. The fauna is the greatest difference. It would be nice to have kangaroos and koala, but we are quite pleased to not have the populations of alligators, snakes, and spiders which Australia boasts.

Beginning on Christmas things are looking a bit more promising on the job front, so hopefully in a few weeks we can post some good news.

In the meantime we are getting to know our neighbors who seem to mostly German. Maybe my German will improve more than my French. I invited one couple over for Hanukkah. I think we were both a little surprised about the similarity of cultures foods. I served them latkes, and they said, “oh our grandparents used to make this for us all the time”. I had invited them over for traditional German food from circa WWII. It makes sense as so many Jews lived in Germany and Yiddish has so much German in it. Then we were invited over for Christmas Eve on another boat, where I have yet to find a practicing Christian. They served what I would consider traditional Jewish food of fresh smoked fish and horseradish for the appetizer. It was lovely to have freshly smoked mackerel caught by the hosts themselves!

Last night I expanded my culinary horizons by learning how to make bananas flambé, from our neighbor Olivier, who happily declares himself an expert. What I can say for my skills at the moment is, while the carmel was pleasing to the palette, the flambé effect needs further practice in order to achieve the appropriate amount of the “ahh” factor by the dinners.

So I guess I will have to practice and make others "suffer" to help me perfect my flambé skills. Olivier and Carol is his wife are happy to oblige.

Noumea

Greetings everyone, How is everyone. We would love to hear how people are and what everyone is doing, so feel free to drop us a line at zayasail@gmail.com

We arrived in Noumea, New Caledonia in late November. It’s defiantly a city, as even the French will tell you how French the city is. It is interesting because the native ethnic population, the Kanacks are seeking independence from France. France does not want to give up New Caledonia easily because of the money generated from the nickel mines and other businesses. It makes for an interesting cultureral dynamic The downtown itself is very pretty with a large park which boasts a fair every Thursday night with live music, food, and crafts from locals who hail from many other overseas French departments and territories and throughout the world. We found people from Reunion for JP to speak Creole with.

Upon further exploration we found the beaches and beach front cafes which has a striking resemblance to the French Riviera I am told. We saw part of the world championships in kite surfing the other day which is quite impressive watching people literally fly through the air. We also learned that there is a nude gay beaches in the area. We were just going for a walk to get a better view of the ocean, when we learned we could get a view of “other things”. Well, we saw the nudity, and later learned about its sexual orientation.

We are now officially staying in a marina which is wonderful because we have easy access to town and can move about independently. No more braving the weather or the sea conditions in the dinghy or having to coordinate when we go into town. It also means neighbors which is something we are not used to. We had been spoiled in Baltimore being at the marina because people were rarely on their boats.

I am posting pictures and will coon begin to show you our travels over the last few months!

Our address is:

Sara Berman or Jean Philippe Chabot
Capitainerie de Port Moselle/Voilier Zaya
B.P. 2960
98846 Nouméa Cedex

BOTTOM JOB

We have been talking about hauling out and redoing the bottom paint since we passed through South Carolina almost a year ago. Meanwhile every place we have stopped in has been passed over for various reasons. We came close in Jamaica having bought the paint which we have been hauling around with us for thousands of miles. So in Fiji we finally did it! We took the boat out of the water for the first time since JP bought the boat in Feb. 2005. We came out with a plan to paint, do some small repairs and be back in the water in 4 days. When we came out we quickly realized we were in for a lot more than we bargained for. The many layers of bottom paint Zaya had accumulated over the years from various owners had outlived their lifespan and were now in many areas flaking off. We had two options simply put more paint on and do a bigger job later or do the job now. We decided that Fiji would probably be the cheapest place to do this and there was no point putting off the inevitable. We decided to take off all the paint down to the gel coat.

So we hauled out at Vuda Point Marina just a few miles south of Lautoka. The hauled out itself went quite well as the Mo and George who run the travel lift did an excellent job as the dove on the boat to make sure the straps holding the boat did not damage our skeg rudder. They showed considerable attention to detail. This after the Frenchman in Riatea warned us that "every in Fiji are cowboys".

Throughout the entire process we asked advice of many people in the Yard who were working on their boats. One guy thought we should fill the gaps in our ablative paint with epoxy filler. We didn't bother asking him what to do when the rest of the bottom paint where off (as ablative paint is supposed to do). He also thought that bottom paint should be bright yellow so when a boat rolls over the coast guard can spot them easily. Sailboats generally roll back over as they are designed to do. Again this is not a situation we care to think about and obviously not something anyone plans on as such paint does not exist. People also frequently commented on how the bottom "looked good" after being in the water for almost two years. We didn't quite know how to take this comment. When you hauled you generally have the bottom powerwash so all boat bottoms should look clean. I think it is just a nice thing to say to people in order to make conversation.

Even after a few hours of feeble attempts at scraping the paint we thought maybe 6 days at most. We very quickly learned what we had gotten ourselves into. We stripped half the boat using scrapers and chemical stripper (so nasty we had to be fully covered lest the chemical burn ones skin and wear respirators). The local contracting company said they would be happy to do the job plus take off all the gel coat for a mere $3500 Fiji. We decided that one we didn't want them taking off the gel coat and that we didn't feel like handing them over that much money. They seemed to know what they were doing as they had just done a similar job on a Canadian boat (who couldn't stop saying how wonderful and cheap it all was). Our major concern was that every time we asked the owner of the other boat what they had done his story changed slightly and when we asked the contractor what they told us another story. They also seemed to lack an interest in subtly, i.e. they wanted to take off all the gelcoat. I think they like things in terms of all or nothing. It is much simpler for the workers to understand as we learned later.

So we stripped the boat with the help if various local workers. We hired the guy in the yard who is the cheapest and very quickly learned why his price is so low, as you get what you pay for. Needless to say that JP was much better than anyone we hired, but for the sake of his hand we got helpers. This is not to say I didn't help, but JP did excel in paint removal. So for a week we started working at 6 (as it's cooler then) and worked until dark. Finally we realized that we did need the help of the professionals. Our little palm sander was a joke in comparison to the powerful orbital hand sanders. They did in one day what would have taken us a week.

Then we had them spray the barrier coat on. Zaya looked very nice with a white bottom. Then we finally put the paint on which after taking the old paint off seemed like a breeze. We raised the water line so we will not have to do nearly as much scrubbing in the future.

All in all we spent 16 days on the hard. Then one in the marina to clean all the dirt Zaya acquired during her time on land. Then we were finally free of the Marina! We felt a bit stranded there as the bus takes an hour each way and only runs a few times a day. So our dining It is nice to be closer to town. Though the we are anchored near an island with a hotel so we take the hotel ferry to town. This saves us a long dinghy ride, but puts us on a funny schedule.

I PROMISE WHEN WE GET TO NOUMEA TO POST PICTURES. THERE I SHOULD HAVE A BETTER ACCESS TO INTERNET.

NO SOCIAL GRACES

we went to the opening ceremony for the melensian cultural festival. when we arrived 30 minutes early the stadium was already full, as we had been warned. we were told to try and sit on the side, but i went around and tried to sneak in through another entrance. jp, being the ever upstanding citizen was not pleased with me, and refused to try and be discreet behind a rather large pillar and opted to stand in view of the security guard. we had however made our entrance into a seated area near the vip section with a woman and her two children. within a few minutes of our not so stealth entrance she took some seats in the back and motioned for us to do the same. we started talking at it turns out she is from papua new guinea (PNG). she had told the security guard that they were "representatives from png here for the festival". she and her family have been living in fiji for three years as her husband works for an international company. she is very nice and we started talking between various announcements and music. her name is sarea, and she is very funny with great insight into melenesian & fijian culture. i asked a bit about png, her family, and her life. i then complimented her on her purse. it is a multi colored hand tied bag. she said it is from a particular region in pgn known for its beaches. she then promptly emptied the conents of the bag into a plastic grocery bag and gave me the bag i just complimented her on. i was dumbfounded. in western culture women complement each other on personal items as a way to connect not to gain new posses ions. jp was not pleased with my social faux paus, and shook his head. he asked if i had read the section in the guide book stating that it is not unusual when giving someone a complement on something to have them give it to you. needless to say i must have skipped that paragraph. i thanked her profusely and before the festivities were over we had exchanged contact information. i also found out where she worked, so the next day i paid her office a visit where i left a necklace i have made with the receptionist. she sent a fast email response thanking me for the necklace. though i know this was not necessary, i felt better sharing something with her. who knows maybe we will bump into her again.

WHOSE BOAT IS THIS ANYWAY?

another assumption we both have encountered is that we are sailing our parents boat. my mother says she would buy a boat when hell freezes over. jp's response is that hell is where it freezes (the logic of an island boy).
i was talking with an american boat in panama and joking about how young i am to be doing this. a little while later the husband gave me a ride back to zaya. after seeing which one was our boat he asked "is this your p' paren' [pause] is this your boat?" my response was yes this is our boat, and there is no way either of our parents would own a boat. this may be due to the fact that we have what what our friends call a 100 ft boat, or rather our boat looks really good from 100 ft away and then as you get closer you see that we could really use a new paint job (something i would not recommend for any boat about to go cruising). another boat in panama who was anchored about 500 ft away actually asked when we got our boat painted. we just laughed and said they had not come close enough to see the reality. the reality is jp got the boat for a good price because of the aesthetic deficiency of the boat (mechanically it is fine). the previous owners put a few scratches on the hull and did not keep up with the bright work (the teak trim). it took them a long time to sell the boat, as most people in america buy a boat which looks nice in order to show off (just a little). when you go cruising you want a boat which sails well and worry about the aesthetic later. as we have learned you either sail the boat or work on the boat. the really shinny boats don't tend to go anywhere. i can't imagine how stressful it would be to go through the panama canal or sit in certain commercial harbor throughout the world with a new paint job. some boats were quite upset going through the pumice, for us we only hoped it would clean out waterline (which it did a very unsatisfactory job!).

jp also had a woman in the Marquesas assume this was his parents boat. she is 23 and is living at home preparing to get teacher certification. we are roughly her age, and she had not concept that one could own a boat. many people were surprised that we could own a boat at our age, but when asked about the price of their car it was almost three times as much as zaya due to VAT, Polynesian duty, and transport costs of getting a suv to a remote island.

MY LOCAL TOUR GUIDE

if anyone isn't aware of this jp is multiracial (i.e. part indian, chinese, & french). Upon leaving reunion island he has been mistaken for everything from middle eastern, north african, to south american. this trip has been no different. it doesn't help that roughly 99% of people cruising are white, so people do not expect him to be on a yacht combined with the fact that we are about 25 to 30 years younger than the average cruiser, he is truly a minority.
The following are some funny encounters we have had along the way:
JAMAICA
jamaican: where are you from?

jp: africa

jamaican: but you don't sound african (because obviously all africans sound the same) from there a conversation would ensue about how jamaicans are pure africans with jp given quizzical looks as to the verity of his previous statement.

jp would then explain where his island is and they would often feign knowledge.one time we were walking through a little village and this came up to me and started hitting on me in front of jp, and finally we realized that he assumed jp was my tour guide. this is where i began joking jp was my perpetual local guide.

Panama
upon ones arrival in colon every boat checks in with customs at the yacht club. we walked in and the customs official took our passports. she looked at mine without a second glance. she opened jp's and a huge smile crossed her face, and said "francia es mulatto, es bueno!". she told us we had to come back to her when we checked out. we found out later it was just because she wanted to say goodbye.
in order to cross the panama canal every boat must have a captain plus three line handlers. this for many boats means getting three volunteer crew members. we line handled on two boats prior to our transit. it is actually very helpful as it prepares one for ones own transit. every pilot who came on board assumed jp was a hired local or"professional line handler", for they assumed that all yachties are white. most of them understood immediately that jp is mutlti-racial as a few of them are. one even went so far to assume that jp must be part lebanese (as others have done in the past).
jp's ability to blend was definitely a benefit as we never got hassled walking around certain areas of panama. he would just dress well in proper shoes, jeans, and a button down short sleeve shirt, none of the flips flops, shorts, and boat shirts of the other yachties. everyone once and a while i would hear someone speak to the person next to them and ask how that guy got a gringa girlfriend... we would just laugh.
ECUADOR
we did a lot of provisioning in ecuador in preparation for the pacific. this meant MANY trips to the market and various supermarkets in Manta. On one occasion we were walking through the market and JP was carrying a large plastic container filled with various items we had just purchased. someone went up to him and asked him how much he wanted for certain items. he was confused for a minute, and responded with the price we had paid. the guy thought about it for a minute, and said no and walked away. jp was further confused and then realized he had been mistaken for one of the locals who walk through the market trying to sell just a few items at a time. at first we thought this was funny, but then we wondered if we didn't get a good price for the items we had just purchased, if we couldn't sell them on the street.

Marquesas
in hiva oa we went on a tour of the island with another boat. there were seven of us piled into a small landrover defender (our tour guide, his brother, the other couple plus there daughter, and jp and myself). we were having lunch on the far side of the island. sitting having a picinic near the water. some kids from the nearby village wandered by playing various games and one even riding by on a horse. then one child came up and shook hands with our tour guide, jp and i, and finally the brother (in that order). he completely ignored the boat (who happened to be white). we later asked our tour guide and his brother if people would assume jp was a local. their response was a resounding yes, as he must be because he is not white so he can't be a tourist.our first day on the island of ua-pou we were surprised to see so many french, i.e. white people. this was in july when they have celebrations all month with singing, dancing, and a bit of drinking. people sit around the town center playing bachi and hanging out. it's quite nice. the first person to strike up a conversation with us is a frenchman from Marseilles. he started telling jp about how he arrived on the island by dating a local woman and all the trouble that got him into. he then explained he came to the Marquesas for tax evasion due to business problems in france. he then asked how we arrived on the island. jp pointed to zaya, which was in view from the village center. his next question was if we were in the marquisas for tax evasion purposes as well. jp said no, and thanked him for his offer of a drink, but declined as we didn't want the rest of the population to make a similar assumption (guilt by association).

NIUE
Niue has to be the only island we went to were people knew jp was not a local. that has to dependent upon the fact that there are only 1500 people on the island and they all know each other by site (we can only assume). though there are indians from india on the island who work in agriculture doing jobs the locals do not care to do. a few did not seem to be enjoying it as there is no thriving social life and the money was not as good as they had been promised. they asked us where we were from and if we would take them to france (we don't have plans to go to france). we told them it would take months of sailing to get to france, and this was something they were quite shocked by. then they asked us to take them anywhere else. they offered to pay us and sleep on deck (something i would not wish on anybody) and said they would work very hard. we thanked them but declined as this is very illegal and we really don't have the space for two twenty something indian guys whose grasp of the english language seems to end at "my country india" & "you like niue?...really?!".

FIJI
it is not too far fetched for someone to mistake jp for a fijian as a significant percentage of the population is indian. as there are so many indiands there is a thriving economy surrounding around indian goods. we are thoroughly enjoying the clothes, food stuffs, and movies. this is purely an assumption, but the indian business drive creates wonderful competition keeping prices low (something we have not seen since south america). jp has found the hindu language very interesting and decided to but a book in order to teach himself a little hindu. the girl at the counter immediately asked "why don't you know this, aren't you from here?" he has to explain that no he was from another island in a different ocean. if he tells people that he is from mauritus next to reuion, another island with british ties and a significant indian population they know it immediately, but Reunion being french is still a mystery to many. we spoke to a woman from papau new guinea (PNG), who asid jp looked like he could be from fiji, but had lived overseas by the way he carried himself and dressed.

we have met one other non white male who is the second black man to circumnavigate. he had the poor timing to show up in south africa during the fall of apartheid. he was the first black man to ever be served at the durban yacht club bar, where he was honored. when he showed up in capetown the officials thought he had stolen the boat. he has a great sense of humor and seems to have taken it all in stride.

The East...

Greetings from FIJI!

We are officially in the Eastern Hemisphere!

Hey all,

We crossed the dateline at midnight on September 23 bringing us right into the 25! JP had wanted to cross on the 27 and go straight into the 29th in order to skip his birthday. He turns 27 today on the 28th of September. Arriving in Fiji was quite a wet experience, as people say it can rain almost 356 days a year (we can certainly attest to both the the frequency and severity of showers).

Our last passage was what the guide book would call boisterous sailing conditions. We had about twice as much wind as we really care for a steady 25 to 30 knots with gusts and squalls higher. We were fine, but our genoa did not fair as well. It developed a tear due to some poor sail handling on my part, so we sailed the final 180 miles under storm sail which was a better amount of canvas.

What made the passage truly unique was upon leaving Tonga waters we were met by a strong sulfur odor from the south. Tonga like many of the islands in Polynesia and Melanesia have a volcanic past and sometimes this extends into the present. South of where we were sailing there are some active volcanic vents and small islands. There is little information on them aside from our charts saying it began again in 1995 and the guide book saying it's status is undetermined, and "one should be aware when approaching it." We decided to give it a wide birth as we have a fiberglass boat which does not do well with hot water. The further south west we went we were met by another effect of the volcanic activity as we sailed through streams of pumice. It comes in various sizes ranging from very small pebbles to larger pieces the size of a baseball. It was interesting for every time we had a wave crash on deck we would hear the pumice making its way onto the boat and into the cockpit. I guess one could say the boat had an in passage exfoliation treatment. Some boats reporting it taking off their anti-fouling. We can see some effects on our body paint. I am glad we do not have a new paint job, for that would be quite upsetting to have it ruined by pumice. Even with cleaning upon our arrival we are still finding little pices throughout the boat.

Oh, if your wondering about Tonga. We stopped briefly and waited out some bad weather and continued on. The islands did not look terribly inviting when we arrived, though the waters are well protected. I guess one might call Tonga a foil to the Chesapeake Bay. It has extremely well protected waters and many boats going from anchorage to anchorage (as they are all very close). Here the water is very clean, clear, and deep. The guide book tells one to anchor in 20 meters! One would be hard pressed to run aground as can often be the case in the Chesapeake with it's mud, silt, and shallow water.

We are presently anchored in Suva. I guess one might call this little India, as there are so many Indians. Though there are far fewer due to the politics over the past 20 years. Many have moved to other countries, though one could hardly tell as they seem to be the majority of the population in Suva. We are thoroughly enjoying all the wonderful food, colors, and sounds.

We have spent our first two days tasting our way through the city, but tomorrow we move onto boat projects!

Cheers,
Sara & JP

NIUE

we are in niue. the smallest nation in the world (east of tonga, north of new zealand, and south of samoa. it's amazing to visit this tiny island in the middle of the pacific. the name literally means i discovered a coconut. the island is primarily limestone surrounded by a tight reef which serves to filter the water, and because there are no rivers the water quality is amazing. we are moored in 120 feet of water and can easily see the bottom!

there are 1,500 inhabitants who are interested to know how long we will stay. the many caves and chasms have kept us busy as we toured the island by motorbike. there is very little traffic so we felt quite safe going around.

our plans of the moment are tonga, fiji, and staying in new Caledonia for cyclone season. the weather prevails so we shall see. so many more countries in the next few months, but i am looking forward to getting settled somewhere for cyclone season and getting to know an area well.

cheers,
sara

THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS and TAHITI

Our voyage into the Pacific

The gritty details: August 10, 2006


Hey all We are well

ok, I have received some requests for more information on our crossings.

So here goes.

First let me provide some background so if you are planning a similar trip and are interested in provisioning, this may make more sense.


ZAYA is a Pearson 365, and is 36 ft long, carries 50 gallons of fuel, 150 gallons of water, and a considerable amount of storage space that we have allotted for food. The “piece de resistance” is a full-sized shower. We have room for a serious amount of books as we have developed a cooking and reference section plus a growing collection of numerous recreational books. At one point, we had two full sized bikes, which proved a bit too cumbersome, so they were sold in Ecuador to two really happy security guards. We have equipment for hiking, backpacking, and not one but two guitars - one full sized and the other for travel. As we have discovered, there is a lot of space and with a fiberglass boat, one can cut open new sections and discover entirely new storage areas (like under the stove!).


Electronics:

Because we are all becoming more and more dependent on electronics, I would recommend having one dedicated computer ( extra batteries) which never leaves the boat that has very few extraneous files or unneeded software in order to allow the computer to be as efficient as possible. In choosing a laptop, try and find one that is very energy efficient. We learned there can be a considerable difference in power consumption between various models. As we learned, boats and electronics do not always mix. We had one laptop screen decompose in while in Jamaica (we assume due to humidity), and then another laptop had chips burnout in the Pacific. We were lucky to have had three computers and thanks to my parents who were kind enough to ship one to us in the middle of the trip. We also had copies of charts for the Pacific, and made sure that we always printed out our landfall prior to departure in case any of the electronics went down. We also had a small home printer in order to print crew lists and print detailed landfall information.

Computer Software:

We used MaxSea for charts, MScan Meteo Fax, and Visual Passage Planner while we still had paper charts or printouts for where ever we went.

SSB

We have an Icom 700 Pro SSB with appropriate tuner. It does a good job, but we were both quite frustrated with the Marine model as you can't tune it by using a dial. You have to punch in the station each time. Therefore there is no way to search for stations, for say news. It also means one cannot adjust the level of output and therefore save power. I would recommend a Ham radio if one has a choice. Along with the SSB, we have been using a Kamtronics KAMPlus modem. It uses a radio protocal called Pactor 1 meaning it is very slow for email, but it gets the job done and the $125 +/- versus $1,000 (for the more modern Pactor III) really meant there was nothing to consider.

Here is are two great sources for antennas and cables etc, Both are very decent and honest folks who were very helpful in getting the right cables and materials for making the correct antenna for our boat.

Buck Communications email support@buxcomm.com
http://buxcommco.com
http://packetradio.com/
115 Luenburg Dr.
Evington, Virginia 24550

tel. 866 300 1969
tel. 800 726 2919

"Mike Spivak"
Mike's Electronics (1-800-427-3066) in Florida.
1001 NW 52nd St.
Ft Lauderdale, FL 33309

Tel: 954-491-7110
Fax: 954-491-7011
Toll Free: 800-427-3066


The SSB is a lot of fun on passages in order to listen and participate in many of the communications on the nets. Here you can sign in give your position, weather conditions, sea state, etc. It was nice to hear how other boats are doing and where they are. During our Pacific crossing we were checking in the morning and evening with the same boats. JP thought it was a bit ridiculous to talk to people every 40 or 50 miles. For those of us who do talk and enjoy speaking with other people beyond our sailing partners. It is fun to hear who caught fish or has had good wind. There are numerous nets for each region. We know of some boats whose crew signed onto 5 nets at a time. This would take hours and you could certainly spend your entire day on the radio.

VHF

We have both handheld and mounted VHF radios. For the handheld VHF, we keep a battery adapter and numerous batteries in the ditch bag in case we ever had to abandon ship.

GPS

We had a Garmin 72, another Garmin, and an another older VHF from the previous owners which we kept in the ditch bag for emergencies.

Getting Weather

In the US we used the VHF primarily with the US coast guard. These are generally accurate, but the recordings are not updated as much as the weatherfax is. In the Bahamas we listened to Chris Parker. We contacted South Bound II, Herb Heidelburgh for advice on our Jamaica to Panama crossing. Although, he has been reported to be quite short with people, he was much nicer than people had described, he did want us doing all sorts of manuevering in order to find the ideal conditions. After Jamaica, we used Weatherfax, Meteo Scan primarily with the laptop. In the Pacific, we began to use Grib files. Weather forecasts in the Bahamas and the Caribbean are much more accurate than the Pacific. I am not sure if it is because the areas being covered are significantly larger and or there is less interest. The weatherfax stations themselves are considerably weaker in the Pacific. Its ironic when one needs to cover more distance suddenly the kilowat output of these stations drops in half.

Steering:

People may picture sailors at the helm braving all sorts of conditions, but really for cruising, one spends very little time steering. We have two forms of steering mechanisms. Our primary approach was to use the Windvane that we named - Inca. We also purchased a Windpilot, for the simple reason that another Pearson 365 circumnavigated with one. We figured, if it worked for them, it would surely work for us. Inca our trusty windvane worked in all but the lightest airs where the apparent wind was less than the SOG. The boat also came with an ST4000. This is a small above deck device. It does not have the strength to handle bigger seas, but works well in light air. We sometimes used this with the spinnaker, as it made the whole process much easier. I am not sure of the age of our ST4000, but it certainly demanded more attention than “Inca”.

We hand steer when raising or changing sail configurations and in squalls. On our initial Pacific crossing, we experienced a number of squalls, but only one necessitated hand steering and only for about 30 minutes.

Water:

150 gallons is a lot of water for the size of the boat, and easily can keep us in good standing for well over a month. We carry 4, 6 gallon jugs on deck in order to refill the tanks by hand. This means 6 trips in the dinghy back and forth. We were always pleased when the trip wasn't too long or too rough. It was a very rare occasion when we took ZAYA to a dock in order to obtain fuel or water.

This means being frugal with our showering and use of dishwashing water but never with our drinking water. We have three tanks one under each settee and one under the V-birth (sleeping area in the bow). Some people have storage underneath their settees...we have water! This makes access to food a bit more frustrating especially while underway, but in the event of having to access your water tank you might actually thank the designer for such a design. I would recommend enlarging the access to the tanks as it makes cleaning the tanks more efficient.

Side note: Our starboard tank developed a leak that necessitated refinishing the tank with some fiberglass and re-applying epoxy in Panama. Luckily, we had bought some water tank epoxy in Jamaica to use for priming our bottom. I am glad we never applied it on the bottom of the boat for the humidity in Panama (which often reached 90% in the boat) meant that it would take over two weeks to dry! If given the opportunity, I would try and pressure wash the tanks in order to remove any mineral build-up.

We always use the bow tank first as it makes sailing more comfortable. Especially when the bow is not plowing through the waves. With the 365, one never has to worry about the ground tackle being too heavy as there are 50 gallons of water weighing the bow down even before you add any chains or anchors. To further stretch our water supply, before we left Ecuador, we bought a hand held compression sprayer that is normally used for spraying pesticides in one’s backyard. With this, we saved water showering and cleaning dishes.

For showering, which was most often done in the cockpit, we would rinse ourselves in salt water taken with a bucket into the cockpit, soap up and rinse using the sprayer. This way, one can literally take a 1 liter shower comfortably (sans a hair wash). We would also would wash the dishes, first in salt water and then rinse in fresh water using the sprayer. Using this method, we didn't even use a full 100 gallons over our 29 day passage. Though I did fill up every possible container plus we purchased a number of jugs of bottled water before we left Ecuador. Thus bringing our water capacity at the time to just under 200 gallons.

For water security and health we bleach all our water and put our drinking water through a filter. The filter is a necessity as water develops a unique flavor in the tanks and the movement of being offshore reminds us how old our tanks are.

Food:

I wish I could tell you how many cans of food we had on the boat at our max, but I would always lose count, as I would do a major shopping and then as I saw space, I would add a few here and there. When we left the US, this meant filling both our cars with supplies plus numerous other trips to the grocery store. It had to be several hundred cans of fruits, vegetables, beans, meat, fish, soups, drinks, etc.

We made the decision to not use our fridge during the trip, as the it would take a considerable amount of energy to run it which would then necessitate needing solar panels and / or wind generation (we estimated it would cost us $2,000 to run the fridge or running the engine A Lot!).

Then the question is what did we eat? We had eggs, fresh produce as long it kept.

Generally when something goes bad it all goes bad at once, so suddenly one was eating lots of bananas, oranges or cabbage. We had some cheeses, UHT milk and canned cream. Breakfast was Espresso, yes we had a stovetop espresso maker. Bialetti makes a wonderful little stove-top model which makes 2 cups perfectly. The challenge was keeping ones espresso in the cup as the boat rocked. I gave up on our espresso cups offshore for larger glasses, but JP was always determined that a proper espresso necessitated a proper cup. We were very sad in the middle of our Pacific crossing when our supplies of Italian Lavazza espresso beans finally ran out and we were forced to use a much lower quality. I didn't think it would be so hard to find whole coffee beans in Central and South America, but almost everything we found was already ground. One can see espresso was a very important part of the day. Then there are eggs or occasionally pancakes for breakfast.

Lunch was generally rice or pasta with some combination of canned vegetables, beans, or meat. Dinner was often soup that came in powdered, canned and paste varieties. If we were feeling industrious, we occasionally made bread, but bread making meant using the oven for long periods of time. Unfortunately, this tended to made the boat quite hot. When I did bake a bit, I usually made cookies, small cakes, and various other desserts.

We also had all the usual cookies, crackers, olives, juice, soda, beer, alcohol, wine, candy, chocolate, etc. We are lucky to have a sizable oven and a three burner stove (although, we can't use all three burners at once) which made baking and cooking quite comfortable.

Fishing

We supplemented our provisions with fishing. We learned it is best to have two lines out in order to make the fish think it's really a school of fish they are chasing. We got pretty good and would catch fish until we had no interest in eating more fish and then we would take a break. The fish seemed to like to bite early in the morning when I was on watch so there I was, at sunrise gutting the fish or waking JP up for him to gut the fish, for it really makes a difference to eat the fish as soon as possible.

Our sushi skills have vastly improved! We ate so much we ran out of Nori in the middle of our Pacific crossing. JP now considers himself a Master Sushi Chef. We were mostly eating Dorado and Tuna. The average length of the fish that we caught was a meter long, so one never felt bad about being picky with the meat used for sushi. We would have rolls and sashimi (we would literally each get a bowl full of sashimi to dip in our wasabi and soy sauce...hhhmmmmm. Then we would make a fish curry, a fish fry, or a soup.

Friends of ours who also didn't use their fridge, had the same problem. We had trouble figuring what to do with all the fish before it went bad since neither of us had refrigeration. They gave us a recipe for drying and salting fish, which was excellent. Unfortunately, it necessitated hanging the fish out for days. Then the question remains where to put it when it rains or overnight as you don't want it to be exposed to moisture. Unfortunately, this means bringing the briny fish in the boat. We were always happy when we had numerous days without rain so the fish would dry faster in the sun rather than the boat.

Passages:

We each took on a watch while under passage so someone is always up and looking around. At night, we would do 3 hours shifts, which seemed to work for us. This way both people get 6 hours of sleep while it was dark. Then during the day we always took naps. It is never very fun to wake the other person up, as it seems someone is always in a half conscious state and always accusing the other of shortchanging their sleep.

During the days someone is in the cockpit on watch. We may be together for weeks at a time, but there is a considerable amount of time for oneself. I have found that time is generally consumed by reading, and depending on the state of the sea small boat projects.

On our Pacific crossing, JP spent the first few days working on his sextant skills, which are now quite refined. He developed a series of equations for sun sights, which do not necessitate numerous books or plotting. I used the cooler weather that we experienced while in the Humbolt current to do some knitting. I actually used up almost all my yarn, for I cannot imagine wanting to get near it in warmer temperatures. Mostly we both did a lot of reading.

We have several areas where we keep books. I didn't keep track of the number of books I read on the long passage, but it was a considerable amount. We still had more books to read upon our arrival. It was exciting to see other sailboats in order to trade books with them. I have to say my standards have gone down a bit, but I haven't been reduced to romance novels yet! We would occasionally watch DVDs on the computer as well. This meant one of us would have to look around every few minutes. Thus the movie takes bit longer, but still truly enjoyable.

Seeing ships really depending on where we were. For days after leaving Panama, we saw a continuous stream of ships passing us in both directions. After leaving Ecaudor, during the first few days at the start of our Pacific crossing, we saw many small fishing boats, but then it dwindled down to only a few large fishing vessels from relatively far away.

Friends of ours on Uhuru said they spoke to one of the vessels and learned where they go and for how long. Unfortunately, all my attempts at ship to ship contact where given the cold shoulder.

We have learned one thing for certain when making plans for a passage when we finally would feel confident in determining our ETA (estimated time of arrival) the wind would die and easily add another day onto any trip.

Projects:

1. ZAYA came well equipped, but I do know JP replaced a considerable amount of plumbing.

2. The wiring was not a complete disaster, but someone was obviously color blind when they installed much of it. The Pearson 365 came with a nice headliner, which is great aesthetically, but challenging when needing access to the wiring, so we weren't keen to strip it all out. Numerous owners over the years have left their own marks on the boat, as we have numerous devices that have been left, but are no longer in use making the wiring all the more interesting.

3. We added the wind vane a few months before we left.

4. Our hatches have given us continual challenges with on–going leaks. One hatch appeared to be warped and the other just old. In retrospect, I would have replaced them prior to our departure.

5. A few months before we left, JP and a friend took ZAYA out only to discover that the transmission was completely stripped. This took a considerable amount of time, a hydraulic press, and finding someone who could fabricate parts to fix the plates.

6. In Ecuador we realized we had some leaks from the bow pulpit. We thought it would be an easy job to reseal the stanchions only to learn we had some deck rot as well. So repairing that involved fabricating some fiberglass and gutting the balsa core of the deck. JP was a bit shocked with himself as he drilled holes in the deck in order to strengthen it.

We also learned that a previous owner had used wood wedges for the wedging the mast We discovered this as they fell out piece-by-piece, so we looked in Nigel Calder’s book and discovered that we needed rubber. We also re-did the mast boot, which had seen better days.

PACIFIC CROSSING

JP spotted land first thing this morning and we are still 50 miles off. Under normal winds this would take just a few hours, but with the light winds that we had been experiencing, it took all day, and we arrived at night. At least it was an easy entrance into the anchorage.

We are now ending our longest passage (ever I hope). We are at day 30 (technically 29.5) having covered almost 3700 miles from Manta, Ecuador to Hiva Oa, Marquesas.

This does not make for a great average cruising speed, but it has meant a fairly comfortable trip. The beginning and the end have been quite slow with daily averages of 100 miles a day (a snail’s pace). Our fastest day was 160 miles, with a lovely current to push us along. I can now say that under normal winds our cruising average seems to be around 135 miles a day. The trip included a few squalls, rain showers, and a large swell, that refused to dissipate until a number of days later.

30 days at sea and we still have books on board which we haven't read. Hopefully, we will meet some Anglophile and Francophile boats who have books to trade. Our days were spent reading, doing little jobs on the boat, that could be undertaken while under way (which there are a surprising number of ), watching a few DVD’s, listening and speaking with people on the SSB (single side band radio). There was a point where I was checking in every morning and evening with the same few boats. We would exchange position, weather, fishing (triumphs and losses). JP again thought this to be a bit excessive to broadcast your position every 40 miles or so, but it made the passage much more enjoyable.

It was also frustrating when boats would do better mileage than us. Sometimes we would have to reassure ourselves and say that their boat was 10 ft more or in some cases twice as long as ours. All in all, we made decent time in relation to other boats. One boat that is twice as long as ours, only made it here only 3 days faster. I am also going to blame our slow speed under the light conditions on what I can only assume to be a very dirty bottom of the boat, as we can see a fair amount of growth from this passage at the waterline already. Even the Wind vane has a nice layer of slime on it. We have these funny creatures that have attached themselves to our transome. When out of the water they are closed, but once submerged the open up and enjoy the ride. I will send a picture in hope that someone can help me identify them. Once we arrived we found a nice shark free zone to swim and clean the bottom.

Ahh swimming I can't wait! 30 days of water and no swimming.

There has been some wildlife on this trip. We had three separate dolphin sittings. The first was just west of the Galapagos Islands where we saw the most enormous dolphins and what looked like small whales - all swimming together. This should have been an amazing site, but throughout history there have been a number of boats that have been attacked and sunk in these waters. So we watched the animals with quite a bit of trepidation.

Our second encounter was with only dolphins and there were literally hundreds of them! They were jumping and playing with the boat. It was an amazing site as we watched the sun go down. Our final dolphin citing was today as we got within a few miles of land. Our arrival was trumpeted by a school of dolphins playing back and forth around the bow. It made the island all the more enticing. Not that seeing land after 30 days is ever painful, but Hiva Oa is truly impressive as it erupts out of the sea – reaching 3,000 ft high and it is only 10 miles in diameter.

Our other wildlife encounter was not as exciting. We always trade lures in the hopes of catching fish. For a few days there were birds who seemed quite interested in our lures, but never diving for them. One night while I was on watch, suddenly the line went out. I am thinking, maybe a tuna and am I going to have to gut it at 3 am? Then the next thing I know, the line goes straight up. Well I guess we had ourselves a flying fish? No unfortunately not, we caught ourselves a bird. I had to wake JP up for help to get it off the line. We let him stay on deck until he recovered and flew away on his own.

For a moment I thought we might get some fresh fowl, but that just seemed like a messy and cruel job. I hope the bird survived. We were quite a distance from land and I can't imagine a hook in the beak to be good for him. Eventually we did catch more fish after losing quite a number of lures and fish. Apparently Yellow fin tuna are quite wily. We had to devise a double and triple hook system so as not to lose them while on the line. It is always quite depressing when you’ve almost landed a gorgeous fish and you lose it at the last moment, and you know there is a good chance they won't live.

There was a 10-day period where I seemed to be on watch from 4 - 7 am and invariably we would get a fish around 5:30 AM. So here I am at just before sunrise, gutting a fish in the cockpit not wanting to wake JP up. It did make for some amazing sushi and sashimi. Our sushi skills have greatly improved on this trip, but we have already run out of Nori (hopefully we can find some in Tahiti). Friends of ours on a German boat caught a fish 165 centimeters long ( about 65 inches 5’ 5” ) The wife is only 155 centimeters long, so they spent the next few days drying, or attempting to dry the fish in the cockpit while contending with a large cross swell. The husband joked that the entire boat smelled like a fish market and it's a hard day when your main concern is that your fish isn't drying.

MARQUESAS ISLANDS

After one has traveled thousands of miles from the east, The Marquesas Islands are a group of colorful volcanic islands that appear to erupt out of nowhere.

I am writing this as we are motoring to our anchorage as there is still no wind. Hopefully within a few hours we will have dropped the hook, had a beer, and getting a full night’s sleep. Tomorrow... tomorrow we get to go to land, trade for some fresh fruit and vegetables (ours ran out a few days ago), and maybe a hike to a waterfall (if we can handle walking a distance greater than the length of the boat.

Our next stop was to Hiva Oa to make our official entry,. There we learned as an American, there is no way for me to get out of paying the obligatory bond of entry that is required for all non EU citizens. JP thought that he could vouch for me as a French citizen. This is in theory possible as there is someone who as a service in Tahiti does such a thing, but apparently the average French citizen off the street is not vested with such powers. This entailed numerous trips to the bank, as we had to put down over $1300 for a theoretical plane ticket to make sure I can leave the country if need be. Of course our banks weren't able to be contacted in order to raise our withdrawl levels and they only take Visa credit cards (which they didn't mention to tell us) the first three times we were in their offices. Eventually after four days we were officially in France.

The village of Atuna on Hiva Oa is the second largest village in the Marquesas. It boasts numerous shops, a few hotels and restaurants. Here we were able to obtain freshly made baguettes for the first time. They were delicious and one of the few inexpensive things on the island. We were shocked to find eggs costing $5 (US) a dozen, American generic brands were surprisingly more expensive than the name brand items. We were in Atuna for the Bastille Day celebrations. They were a lot of fun – consisting of traditional dancing, drumming, and of course the Miss Hiva Oa beauty contest. It was a bright and colorful time. It really was fun to see the little kids dancing and trying their best to remember all the routines.

We arrived in Fatu Hiva at midnight to find three boats in the sheltered harbor surrounded by rocky cliffs that are covered with palm trees and rocky spires seemingly all erupting out of the water. We anchored in the Bay of Virgins. This harbor was formally known as the Bay of Phallices (due to the rocky spires), but upon the arrival of the French Missionaries and due to the delicate sensibilities, the name was changed. It is not an official point of checking in, but we where given 3 days by the gendarmes to register.

We arrived at midnight under an almost full moon which provided us with sufficient light, but not enough of a perspective to know how far the rocky jagged wall of surf was from us. The Bay is a safe calm anchorage with good holding that can be easily entered at night so we were not too terribly worried about that. As a rule, we rarely make night entrances unless it is a very easy straight-forward process. The information we had was correct as we found a good holding, protection from the prevailing wind, and the land breeze not to be too fierce.

Upon dropping the hook we had a well-deserved beer and commiserated if we were too close to the breaking surge off to port or to our neighbors behind us. It was nice to be in a calm quiet anchorage the like’s of which we had not seen since May.

The noise of the surf and the unaccustomed proximity to land made me uneasy. Although I had the ability to get a full nights sleep for the first time in a month, I wasn't able to do so. I think my body had gotten used to the night watch shifts (for better or worse) and didn't know what to do with the idea of seven hours of un-interrupted sleep.

There is no airport of the island of Fatu Hiva, but they do receive regular shipments of food, mail, and supplies from an assortment of vessels that created a network that go between all of the islands in the chain. The island kids were home for summer break. I believe that all children over the age of 12 go to school in Papeete, as most of the islands are not large enough to support high schools.

Our first morning, we met the “Ohuru”, an Austrian boat that we had seen in Colon, Panama (on the Caribbean side). We had gotten to know them over the SSB while under way. They came over to our boat first thing to talk about our passages and tell us about the anchorage and the island itself. They were very interested in all we had encountered and excited to share information with us (as we soon learned this is their normal state). They told us of their 46k hike over the mountains to the other village in pursuit of a cold beer and a baguette. They also showed us their wounded feet as they had made the trek in flip flops. Apparently, they had lost their land legs and marveled at our stiff they were. They said in Austria their friends would laugh if they were to complain about such a short hike.

We happened to arrive when a small cruise ship arrived as well. This ship luckily is tiny by normal cruise ship standards, but it meant that supplies would arrive from Papeetee shortly. The local store would soon be full of goods. Upon our arrival JP was as always mistaken for a local. We would be asked if he was the mechanic from the ship. We laughed later when he joked that he should have said yes, he could have made some spare money by fixing things for people.

This cruise ship with its roughly fifty guests provided us with ongoing entertainment. We enjoyed watching all the people who were dressed as only tourists to tropical climates, with their pasty legs, dark socks in their brand new sandals, can appear. They were quite shocked to hear that the four boats in the harbor had arrived from the other side of the ocean, when they felt themselves quite adventurous for having journeyed on a vessel 100 meters long when the longest of our boats is only 14 meters (the ZAYA being 11 meters). Their visit generated a local scheduled dance performance. It was fun to watch both the girls and boys dance while men and older boys of various ages drummed on the side.

The islands are really lush. JP and I marveled at all the lime trees, grapefruits, chili bushes (which don't seem to get used), and the tallest palm trees ever. They are so high no one seems to climb them, so they wait until the coconuts drop in order to harvest them. They eat only the coconut meat that grows in the middle and not the perimeter which is what we are used to eating. When we told people that we eat the edge of the coconut they thought us quite strange. The village runs through the valley along one of the streams that eventually flows into the bay.

We saw some lovely large carvings, but they were all too large for the boat, just as the stone tikkis don't really have a place on a sailboat.

We traded some boxed wine for grapefruits, oranges, limes, and a chicken. I have to agree with the reports that the Marquesas Islands do have the best grapefruits in the world. Fruit grows in such abundance that often you find it rotting on the ground underneath the trees.

Our second day, we hiked up to a local waterfall with the crew of a Belgium boat and three local kids. It was interesting to get a glimpse of Marquesian Island culture through their eyes. So many things are shared it is assumed that once one is invited to something you are expected to enjoy it wholeheartedly rather than being squeamish about having only one of something. Of course, everything should be shared and finished completely. Nothing is left uneaten.

An example being, the kids having seen the biscuits that we had in the backpack promptly decided that we were obviously going to share the biscuits with them. We have since experienced that adults on the islands can be very generous as well, but again if a cake is put out, it seems almost insulting to the hostess not to finish the entire thing in one siting.

TAHITI

We arrived in Tahiti, and found the entrance into the lagoon to be quite easy. We weren't sure how the state of the seas would be, since for hours before reaching the island, it was surrounded by squalls and rain, rendering it completely invisible.

The lagoon itself looks lovely, but upon on our arrival, we found the island itself to be a bit overrated. The bungalows that we saw are right on the water, there is no beach to speak of except for a little man made one next to a very obviously man made waterfall. It was a rather entertaining idea of paradise.

Our first exposure to Pappettee has been wet, as it has raining since we arrived. It has been funny to be stunned by all the cars whizzing by. It has been nice to see all the little French cars which makes sense as gas prices are over $6 a gallon.

Tahiti itself does not seem to have the strength to be able to maintain its traditional culture that one finds in the Marqueses. This makes sense as cities have much more international exposure.

It is funny what has been created for the tourists, as the central market appears to be almost entirely dedicated to tourists. But I am sure it is only the locals who are buying all the gorgeous flower arrangements.

It was also very nice seeing some of the women walking around with flowers in their hair in traditional and modern versions of island dress.

We spent one day going around the island by bus and hitch hiking. The road that circumnavigates the island is roughly 120 kilometers (78 miles). In fact we got rides from some very nice teachers. One woman was so nice, that when she found out that we were going to miss a certain waterfall (as there are only 3 on the island), she drove us there herself.

Another person talked about the local interest in securing independence from France. The president of French Polynesia is not a big fan of Chirac or the French occupation. I believe that if French Polynesia got itself organized and with some assistance from France, it would really benefit from independence. It receives very little support from France that actually gets to the people. The French have created a very extensive infrastructure that they have to maintain. Which appears that they are having trouble doing so.

We have now eaten many baguette sandwiches, lots of cheese, and pate. It was really very nice to have easy access to a proper western grocery store.

Now we move onto the rest of the Society Islands.

WE ARRIVED IN THE PACIFIC

We arrived in Balboa and are presently anchored near Flamenco Marina. We have check into Puerto Balboa and have continued the paper work danse!

The transit went fairly well. No problems for any of the boats. We were quite pleased that Murphy´s Law did not rear it´s ugly head and play a role in our transit. The two previous transits we had done at least one boat had engine problems, but we are happy to report that our hull and rigging made it through safetly. Our one concern was the catamaran we were transiting with did not appear to be well skilled in his manuverability which could have potentially put the boat in a dangerous position. He also had ¨profesional linehandler¨, which seem to be over paid Panamanians. I say overpaid as they don´t know how to tie a knot to save their life and there were a few moments where I really feared for our boat.

We were originally told we would depart the anchorage at 4pm, this quickly became 5pm, then 6, and our advisor finally arrived at almost 8. Despite all my concerns of getting a mean poorly trained advisor, Roderick was very nice and a very well trained tug boat captain. We up locked tied to a catamaran who was tied to a tug boat. This made for a very stable trip. We got to the Gatum Lake after midnight for a late dinner and to get a little sleep before the next advisor woudl arrive early in the morning.

The next morning his friend another very nice tug boat captain arrived at almost 7. We arrived at the Miraflores locks at 11, and were out of the canal by well before noon. It was certainly the fastest transit we did. We down locked tied to the wall by ourselves as we didn´t want to have to rely on the catamaran. Our linehandlers, who were people from other boats waiting to go through, were very nice, helpful, and accamodating in dealing with rain, a stuffy short night´s sleep. Everyonewas happy to arrive after a long, hot, and wet(only in the morning) day. JP and I were happy to have arrived safetly. We had drinks on a French boat who we had help with their transit earlier.

WE'RE TRANSITING! MAY 4TH & 5TH

HEY ALL WE ARE TRANSITING MAY 4TH AND 5TH. WE BEGIN THE EVENING OF THE 4TH AND FINISH DURING THE DAY ON THE 5TH.
IF YOU WANT TO SEE US GO TO PANCANAL.COM AND LOOK AT THE WEBCAM!
LOTS OF LOVE,SARA

PLAGUES

On Tuesday I felt we were being punished for some unknown deed. I woke to a pounding rain. Upon checking everything outside was meant to get wet I discovered that are dinghy was filling with water at an incredible rate, so I got out the ¨Big Guns¨, the hand pump, and spent a good while getting most of the water out so the paddles would no longer be floating from within the boat!

Then I realized the cockpiut could use a good wash and took down all our rain protection as everyone waking up was putting up theirs. I spent the next while sliding around the cockpit soapy and soaked. The rain finally dissapated and the anchorage was a dead calm (which is a highly unusual event due to all the tanker traffic). It was quite pleasant until the second plague hit...

Swarming bugs! Mind you we are anchored out about a third of a mile from land, so my only thought was that somewhere along the way some insect had impregnated our boat with eggs. There was a nice swarm of of winged insects hovering aboud the stern of the boat. They appeared to die pretty quickly leaving their wings everwhere and ruining my clean cockpit, how dare they! Later we learned they were flying termites come all the way from land. Luckily our boat is not wood, but does have word trim and wood interior, so there was some cause for concern. It turns out they come out after the rain and enjoy the calm moments. Our friend Stephen thought them rather James Bond like. Coming from land, landing, dropping their wings, and setting themselves up. In the meantime we have killed a few more and it looks like things for now, are OK (knock on wood- as long as we still have some).

Our transit date is still May 3rd, but we shall see. Apparently if you look at the www.pancanal.com on May 4th in the afternoon you may be able to see some images of us transiting. We are the light blue hulled boat.

TRANSITING

The question on our minds at the moment is when will we trasnit, i.e. go through the canal. There is a considerable waiting period for sailboats as there is no incentive to get us through the canal with any speed. We have been told if you pay for a pilot at a cost of $2500 you only have to wait three days, or if you pay for an agent roughly $800 you get through in less than a week, but as we have more time than money we wait. These prices are on top of the $600 dollars we pay to the canal authority to transit. We were first told our date was May 3rd, but that has since been pushed back to May 6. We are not pleased, as we had been told to call and see if we could move up and not back.

We are told that the back up is becuase there are a limited number of advisors to be on the sailboats and line tenders to walk the boats through. This seems a bit odd for in my limited experience in Panama there seem to be no shortage of individuals looking for work. These jobs while they may require some trainning do not involve skills along the lines of brain surgery or rocket science leaving me to wonder if we aren´t being held hostage. It would make sense to keep sailboats here for a number of weeks. We have to pay the yacht club to use their dinghy dock and then to pay for the priviledge of using their other serives. We all do a lot of shopping here so it does put some money into the Colon economy. It would not be hard for this whole process to be made much faster and effective. All it really does is add to the lore around the canal.

They make each boat have an advisor, which from our one transit experience is a bit excessive especially when the only thing they appear to do is contradict one another. Sailboats transiting southbound from the Caribbean to the Pacific begin the transit at night. You up lock through the Gatum locks, spend the night on Gatum Lake where one advisor leaves and the next morning another advisor arrives. This means that the three extera people you need as line tenders on your boat need to spend the night. This is no easy task for boats of our size. Luckily people are understanding of each other circumstances and everyone makes the best of it.

Our first transit was made more entertaining as one of the couples who came with us brought their three year old daughter. She was very cute and kept all the adults entertained. She even had the advisor playing with PlayDough, which makes me wonder just how necessary he was to have one board for the long stretch of motoring between the locks.

So now I will call and see if we can get our original date back. The only thing that makes this whole process less frustrating is that there are many yachts waiting with us and we have met some very nice people.

Please excuse this entry as I am writing this on a Spanish keyboard.