Navire's blog

Life in the Anchorage at Funafuti, Tuvalu November 2015 (posted from Majuro Jan 2017) Position 31.491s 179 11.376e *** Nov 18 "Doesn't look like we'll be going anywhere fast," I said to David, after my morning weather analysis. The viable weather window we had anticipated for the coming weekend had evaporated, and light north-east winds and calms prevailed. "So we stay longer," said David, sipping his coffee and playing cards on his laptop. I felt uncomfortable still being in the hurricane zone, albeit at the outer limits of it. However we couldn't just motor for a week to get to Kiribati. The anchorage had emptied out as most yachts had sailed to the other end of the lagoon for a few days, but we had locals coming to visit so we stayed put. Then three more boats arrived including, Menkar who we'd met at Rotuma, Free Spirit and Clara Catherine. Clara Catherine had a guitar, mandolin, bones, and piano accordion. We immediately booked a music making session. We were nine boats in the fleet and our community was flourishing. We shared dinghy rides; I learnt more about weather from Deanne; the doctor in the fleet has been helping one of the group with an infected foot; I was writing a letter to customs for a boat that couldn't get back in time; some of us women went foraging for food together; and one volunteered her son to climb palm trees and get drinking coconuts for us. *** David - email to a friend As I write there is a large vessel parked off the town busy pumping the lagoon seabed onto the foreshore with the plan of reclaiming several hundred metres of shallow sea to add to their small landmass. Already there is a sizeable beach where on Tuesday was a rocky shoreline. They have previously pumped miles of sand onto a large strip of land further along the atoll, raising this by about a metre, and upon which is planned new housing. There are significant water storage facilities at every dwelling and, fortuitous for us, a glut of rain at present. We found, when searching for laundry facilities, that one could hire a washing machine as one might a power tool but no one was willing to let their water be used on a commercial basis. Not much use for us yachties who have all resorted to hand washing in the gallons that have been falling. A week-long conference among the leadership of these islands, recently concluded, was focused on sustainable development - solar power, water management, prevention of erosion. This week opens a two-week long Trades Fair presenting the wares of the private commercial sector here. It's hard to know who is regarded as the audience for this fair. Surely not us transient yachties or the few other visitors. Are there businesses unknown to the residents? Still, it speaks of effort for the future, of hope, optimism. And perhaps more money given than they know what to do with. Last night we had a sumptuous Mexican dinner among three of the yachts. One being the music one with a piano accordion and sundry rhythm instruments we made some promising music. Dinner the evening before put on by Kailopa and his friend Timoani. *** Nov 19. 0700 Janet journal entry What a bloody awful night. First I got too drunk on Margaritas at the Mexican dinner (fun though). Then we were up at 0230 shipping the dinghy because of squalls. Are you getting the idea that the sailing life is not always conducive to good sleep? 1900 Oooh, I don't like this. The wind has come up, clocking up to 25 knots, from the wrong direction, and we are on a lee shore (land downwind of us). We are bucking up and down over the short steep waves that are hitting us head on. There is seven miles of fetch (unfettered distance) across the lagoon for them to build up. We are planning to move to the other side of the lagoon tomorrow and settle in to a sheltered (relatively) spot to see out a low arriving at the end of this week. I wish we'd moved earlier today but its too dark to go now. I'm sitting at the chart table monitoring the GPS and the depth sounder to check if we are dragging at all. Earlier today we'd been safely dug in to a spot, confident our anchor was holding, but at about 5pm the guys working on the sand dredging came and told us we had to move, they wanted to dig up our nice safe bit of seabed. We reanchored further along the beach but were really uncomfortable about how close to shore we were, so in the dusk we anchored again, a bit further out. We may not get a full night's sleep tonight. Whenever we start the engine we check the engine water intake basket to make sure the water is flowing in freely and doing its job of cooling the engine. When we were about to move and reanchor the second time, we needed to do it quickly. I checked the basket, and there was a large piece of something that looked like white plastic in it. Bloody hell, I hoped it wouldn't block the water intake. The engine would overheat very quickly and that's the last thing we needed on the lee shore. "There's a boat moving out there," David called from the cockpit. Peering into the falling light we figured it was Menkar, the French yacht. "They are anchoring right ahead of us, right on top of our anchor," David muttered, and swore at them. "Looks like we'll be on anchor watch tonight " I said. I check our position again on the GPS and record the figures. Still in the same place. Good, but I feel a bit queasy, from the rocking and the stress. *** November 20 Janet journal entry Kailopa and his brother-in-law came for lunch today. First time on a mono-hull for Temoani. I commented on how many people are overweight here and Kailopa said that one reason was because there was so much money here. One major source is leases i.e. government buildings on leasehold land, and another is money given to the country from Australia, New Zealand, China and many other countries because of global warming. "People are eating a lot and not doing anything," Kailopa said, lamenting that even kids don't climb the coconut trees in the morning anymore. When he was young the boys would fetch 60 coconuts from the trees, and lop the tops off ready for drinking for the day. "Now they drink Coke and Fanta and tea," he continued. *** November 21 Janet We woke at 3.30am to found ourselves facing a nor-wester, on a lee shore, again. I got on Sailmail and did weather gribs and forecast for an hour then never really got back to sleep. I reviewed our options. We could stay here or move around the lagoon grabbing the meager amount of shelter the low lying islands and reef provide. Or, check out and go north to Kiribati and get ahead of the low that we were trying to avoid but right now there was very little wind to sail with. We had filled up with diesel but we didn't know how good the supplies were in Kiribati. Or, we could leave the following week and catch the edge of the low but that meant sailing 20-30 knots and rough seas. And of course that could all change with the next forecast. We opted to stay in Tuvalu and just as well we did. =20 =20 =20

Kioa Picnic (Posted from Majuro January 2016) Sat Nov 14, 2015 Funafuti, Tuvalu Janet We struggled to get the dinghy up the steep coral-strewn beach. Just through the coconut palms we saw our Tuvaluan friends, Kailopa and Joseph, standing in a large open fale. It was the annual gathering of the Kioa community. These were the descendants of Kailopa's Tuvaluan people, who had migrated to Fiji sixty years ago. Earlier that morning David had collected Kailopa and his grandson Joseph from shore and brought them out to Navire where she was anchored in the lagoon at Funafuti in Tuvalu. On calm turquoise waters we motored down to the south-western end of the atoll, Joseph up the mast on bombie watch, Kailopa directing us to the far end of the island. With the dinghy well secured to a pandanus tree and Navire safely, so we thought, gently rocking on her anchor, we strolled over to the fale where Kailopa eagerly introduced us to several of his friends and family. "This is David and Janet from New Zealand," as he introduced us eagerly. "I came from Fiji on their boat." "Talofa, Talofa," they said nodding in welcome, as the story of Kailopa's passage on Navire was already widely known. I headed into the fale to check out the picnic. I was hungry. I wanted Tuvaluan food.=20 When I visit a country I need to taste it. Small groups of people were busy preparing food. A large woman in a bright yellow floral dress, sweat dripping down her face, was flouring and deep-frying chicken. The oil bubbled in a cauldron over a portable gas cooker, the chicken sizzling as it hit the oil. Sweet and sour, she told me. Doesn't sound very Pacific I reasoned. Tuvaluan culture is heavily influenced by that of Samoa, and Samoa has a strong Asian influence in their food, using rice noodles, and soy sauce in many of their dishes. Next to the sweet and sour lady a man tended two large pots, one of taro gently simmering, and another of white starchy chunks of cassava, both used in the same way we use potatoes. Outside in the midday sun several men sat under a Dr Seuss-like drooping pandanus tree playing cards and gambling with beads. I wandered over to another group of men standing around talking and laughing by a fire pit. Nearby was a man carving up a carcass and throwing large chunks into a large red plastic bowl of pig parts. One of them explained to me that they were preparing a lovo, similar to a New Zealand hangi (cooking in the ground) in which to cook the pork. "Local pork?" I asked one of the men. He made a gesture of a knife across his throat. "Still warm," he said, and grabbed my hand and laid it on the pork flesh. I swear I felt it quiver. It must have been 30 degrees already, and humid. I stepped back into the relative cool of the fale I wiped the sweat off my face with the back of my hand and dug out my water bottle. "Would you like a coconut," a young woman asked me. "Yes please!" She reached into a cooler and selected a pale drinking coconut from amongst the ice. Picking up a knife she deftly lopped off the top and handed it to me. I gratefully raised the coconut into the air, put the rough shell against my lips, tipped my head back then poured the chilled, sweet contents down my throat. Better even than a cold beer. And just as well as there was not a drop of alcohol in sight. People slept on mats on the bare concrete floor, and babies dozed on pillows. Young people wielded smart phones. But not on Facebook though, as 3G had yet to arrive. Someone set up a stereo and island music filled the air. Looking around it was obvious we were the only palangi, white people, here. Lunch clearly wasn't going to be ready any time soon so I sat under a frangipane tree and inhaled its scent, my favourite perfume. Under the next tree a man started playing a guitar and two other men joined him singing Pacific songs in three-part harmony. Meaty roasting smells wafted over with the smoke from the firepit. It doesn't get any better than this, I thought. =20 It was nearly 2pm before lunch was ready and I was salivating over the platters of food laid out on the seven metre long table. Chop suey, stir-fries, mutton curry, and platters of cassava (which they buy peeled and frozen - no land or soil to grow it in) lay beside the sweet and sour chicken, tuna and baked pork. About forty people gathered in the fale and an older serious looking man said grace, a mandatory practice in the deeply religious Pacific. Then it was all on. I eagerly dug into the trays of food, especially the pork, not carved, I ripped chunks of flesh off the bone with my hands. Next to it was a bowl of bright red sliced chilli. I copied the woman in front of me and sprinkled some on my pork. I inhaled the sweet yeasty aroma of freshly baked home-made bread. I wished I could eat it, but my wheat intolerance was a barrier to this treat. However David ate my share with relish and pronounced it indeed 'good bread'. It was the fresh tuna that made the meal, particularly as I'd learned to eat it in the 'correct' manner. They don't dally around with marinating it in lemon, or serving up wasabi, soy, or pickled ginger, it was just hunks of raw dark red fish. It was more about texture, its smooth firm flesh than flavour. "My husband caught it yesterday, " a woman behind the buffet table had told me in response to my query about how fresh it was. Looking at my plate I noticed that everything on it was imported, except the pig and tuna. There was not even a trace of lettuce or bok-choy from the local Taiwan gardens we had visited the day before. I realised it was probably going to be like this for the next six months till we got back to Fiji and lots of freshly grown produce. We could get scurvy. I needed to figure out how to use the dried seaweed in my pantry, and start growing sprouts again. Eating with my fingers local style, I paired a chunk of pork, with a chunk of cassava, relying on the pork fat for lubrication. The pork had notes of strong flavour, real pig flavour, dark and meaty. The chilli hit and I broke into a sweat, the heat nearly lifting my head off. But the flavour leapt up, it sang. Alas the pork was a little tough, needed more salt, and to be cooked longer so it was falling off the bone. =20 After lunch we piled into the back of a truck to go and watch Joseph's team play rugby. Walking across the muddy rugby field I marveled at the dark moist soil under my feet. Sitting in the stadium, carefully avoiding the rotting boards of the bench, wondering how structurally sound it was, I pondered, how come they weren't growing vegetables in this soil? How do they get this quality of soil on this sandy atoll? Kailopa sat down next to me. "You know where this soil comes from?" he asked me. "No." I scratch my head. "Fiji," he said. "It came in a barge over the open ocean." They'd bought it off an Indian guy in Lautoka. Turns out he didn't even own the soil. There is a court case under way about it, but its not as if they'll repossess it! *** 1900 It's dark out. I'm sitting naked in the cabin, listening to a Beethoven concerto, about to pour a much needed whisky. Navire is gently rocking on her anchor. What a life these two lead, you may be saying with a slight twinge of envy. Gorging themselves on local pork and tuna, drinking fresh coconuts and enjoying a local rugby game, set amongst coconut palms and tranquil turquoise waters. Well, an hour ago you wouldn't have swapped places with us. Sitting in the stadium watching the rugby, I noticed the sky getting darker and darker. At first I thought it just a squall coming through, a frequent daily event at this latitude. I looked up and stared at a long smooth dark cloud stretched across the sky. It looked more like a front than a squall, but different to storm fronts I'd seen further south. I started to feel uncomfortable. Navire was several miles away, anchored quite close to shore, near the fale. After all, we had thought, we'd be right there and could keep an eye on her. The wind started to rise. "I'm worried about the boat," I said to David. Kailopa immediately organised us a ride back to the fale. All the way back along the thin strip of island I watched the increasingly choppy sea. Time slowed down, each minute felt like an hour. At the fale I jumped out of the truck and looked out into the lagoon at Navire. She was bucking on her anchor, stern to shore, waves crashing on the beach alarmingly close. The waves threatened to swamp the dinghy as we launched her on the steep beach. David rowed hard to get us clear of the rough coral shore. It was difficult getting back on board Navire as the dinghy violently bucked up and down alongside. Aboard, David tied the dinghy off the back and went straight to the bow to raise the anchor as I started the engine and hastily turned the instruments on. I motored forward into the short steep waves as David started winching the anchor in. Once the anchor was off the ground, but not yet up on deck, it was hard to keep the bow of the yacht facing into the wind and waves. I motored ahead slowly but the bow would drop off and I'd have to increase the revs to get it back up, but then drop the speed as I didn't want to run over the chain and have it shredding the paintwork on the bow, or make the bashing up and down movement any worse for David. Meanwhile behind the boat the short steep chop was bouncing the dinghy around smashing it into the wind-vane. I hauled it alongside and tied the painter to a winch all the while trying to keep head to wind. I noticed our boarding ladder was being wrenched out of its fittings by the waves but neither of us could leave our posts to rescue it. Anchor up, we bashed through the waves back towards the main anchorage, the light dropping fast. Because we'd had our local navigator on the way over we hadn't had the GPS on and had no handy track to follow back. The howling wind clocked 30 knots. With David back in the cockpit and steering I quickly rescued the ladder before it succeeded in its bid to escape. Unable to see most of the rest of the yachts in the heavy rain at the anchorage we found a space and dropped the anchor but we were not finished yet. We had to get the dinghy up on deck, a difficult job in the high winds. Twenty minutes later the wind dropped and the sea calmed, just like that. It was a salutary lesson on how vulnerable we were in this area of the Pacific. There was no real shelter from now on, no land higher than two or three meters. I took a sip of my whisky and pondered the many flavours of the day. =20

Rotuma to Tuvalu Posted from Majuro Dec 23, 2106 (THIS ONE SHOULD BE BEFORE THE ONE I JUST SENT - MY FAULT THIS TIME) Position 8 56.91s 17178 59.56e Nov 6, 2015, (Posted from Majuro Aug 2016) Ahead the ocean was completely empty. Behind me the hills of Rotuma were growing smaller by the hour. Probably the last hills I'd see for five months. We were bound for Tuvalu 260 miles north, 65 hours sailing at four or five knots boat speed. The sea was pretty tame, a deep royal blue half metre swell, with a light chop on the surface. Two fishing lines trailed behind us in David's endless quest for that elusive tuna. Back in Rotuma we had a salutary lesson on eating the 'safe fish' up here. Many South Pacific reef fish carry the disease ciguatera. If you eat this fish you may get ill with flu-like symptoms that can be quite severe and sometimes last for several months and there is no cure. Sylvan off the French boat, and Tim off Exodus came back from spearfishing two days ago with a huge barracuda, a red snapper and a trevally. We asked Kailopa if any of the fish were not safe to eat and he said the snapper could be poisonous. We heard the French ate the snapper anyway. I saw Sylvan at the wharf just before we left and he didn't look so well. Gilles' philosophy, "You must try things. Sometimes good. Sometimes not so good." He gave a French shrug. *** November 7, 0130 My watch. I'd woken hot, sweaty, and itchy. I quickly gathered up my things vacating the bunk for David. Dropping my watch bag on the deck I sat in the cockpit while he briefed me. The main thing he told me was to avoid accidentally going about, definitely a risk with the auto-helm which holds the course set regardless of wind direction. If it backed a little more we'd go about. The mechanical wind vane, on the other hand, holds the boat at a constant angle to the wind. When the wind shifts the boat moves with it. But these winds were too light for that instrument. David went below to collapse into his bunk for six hours shut eye. For a moment I envied him. I glanced at the sail and saw it was nearly flat. We were hard on the wind. I checked the horizon for ships (in the whole 1500 miles to Majuro I think we only saw one). More importantly there was no sign of any squalls. Squalls meant rain, good. But often they came with sudden wind shifts and large increases in speed, bad. Then I have to act very quickly and adjust the sails. I'm not very confident at that and occasionally have to wake David to help. I really hate disturbing his precious sleep. *** To pass the time I made a meal out of the last dregs of fresh produce on board. A piece of slightly soft cucumber, sprouts, a little brown on the ends, tinned corn and my new best friend, red onions. They last for ages without refrigeration and bring life to any kind of salad. I finished my snack off with brownie from the freezer and a banana. Some of you sailors may gasp at this terrible risk we take. We sailors have a number of superstitions. Carrying bananas on passage is supposedly bad luck. I guess if you carry them for long enough some bad luck may occur, says David, but we've got this far safely with them on board. We have some ocean sailing friends, normally sane-minded people, who will absolutely not carry bananas at sea, nor leave port on a Friday, another nautical superstition. One that has come down through David's step-father, a naval man, is no whistling at sea or you risk a dramatic jump in wind speed. I've tried whistling when becalmed in the ocean and it doesn't work. Replete, I settled into the cockpit. Blast, the wind started faltering and coming more from the east. At the beginning of my watch it was a pleasant 18 knots, propelling us along at 4-5 knots. The boat was much harder to sail in the light fluky winds. I whistled for a few minutes, to no avail. *** 1830 Sitting in the cockpit watching an ocean sunset I was feeling pretty intrepid. Only about 15 yachts each year take the northern option, sailing up to Majuro for the hurricane season. The weather conditions are so different in the area north of Fiji compared to between New Zealand and Fiji and Tonga requiring us to learn a new set of rules. And there is no real shelter to be had. We were still in the hurricane zone, we needed to be north of 5 degrees south but we were still at 11 degrees. We had to keep going. We hoped to arrive in Tuvalu the next day but knew we may need to heave to overnight in order to go through the pass in daylight. David talked to Exodus on the radio. They were way back in the dark cloud behind us. It was nice to hear a familiar voice. (I know, we'd only known them for a week but that's a lot of history around here). They reported that Sylvan, from the French boat was taken by ambulance to hospital with severe dehydration. From ciguatera we suspected. *** Sunday Nov 8 Cumulus clouds towered all around the horizon, fortunately none bearing down on us. We were a happy ship for a while. Kailopa was grating all our coconuts into thick sweet cream. If we caught that bloody tuna I would make ceviche. The sun was out and the breeze gentle. Too gentle alas. We commissioned the iron sail and resigned ourselves to motoring all day in order to get us to Funafuti, the main island of Tuvalu, before dark. We had goat curry from the freezer for lunch. Excellent. But the night before wasn't so excellent. I got five hours sleep in a row, superb, but came up on deck to really changeable conditions. A squall hit with 33 knot of winds and I had to get David up to help me reef. On the plus side we had heavy rain and I collected two bucketsful. The wind jumped around in speed, 22 knots, 8 knots, 20, and direction eventually settling in from the north-east. I accidentally went about. In my attempts to get back on course I lost all sense of direction. I didn't know which way to turn the boat nor what to do with the sails. When David came on deck to see what was going on we were heading back the way we'd come. He started the engine and got us back on course. I could have done that! Just would have taken me a while to figure it out. Alas when the GPS is on there is no hiding tactical errors, my delinquent path showed up on the electronic track that followed us across the screen.

Arrival in Tuvalu November 8, 2015 (Written from Majuro August 2106) REPOSTED DEC 23 AS IT DID NOT SHOW ON SITE Position 31.491s 179 11.376e "Dolphins!" I cried. They danced around us as if saying "Welcome to Tuvalu, well done, you made it." We easily traversed the comfortably wide reef-entrance into the waters of Funafuti, Tuvalu's main atoll. After crossing the unfettered lagoon, no hull snagging coral bombies lurking just below the surface, we dropped anchor behind two other yachts already settled off the town of Fongafale. We easily fell into our arrival routine and dusk fell quickly as it does close to the equator. David had already raised the Tuvaluan flag and Kailopa was cleaning the barracuda we'd caught in the pass. With Navire safely secured to the seabed I slid into the water and rinsed off several days of sweat. *** "Eight hours sleep in a row," David declared as we fell into bed at 8pm. But sure enough at 2.30am we woke to heavy rain. We leapt out of bed excitedly. One of our logistical concerns about this trip north was whether or not we'd get enough fresh water in Tuvalu to see us through the 1000 trip to Majuro. In the cockpit by the light of our head-torches we were a finely tuned machine. Buckets out, hoses up. The four 10 litre buckets filled in minutes, and the showers, and every available pot and bowl, our naked bodies illuminated momentarily by the lightning that blasted the sky. Unfortunately the rain filled the dinghy too which we'd left tied off the back, so I bailed it, and hoisted it off the side, taking the bung out to prevent it filling again. It was hard to get back to sleep and I'd finally dozed off when it was time to get up and listen to the weather forecast. We were very interested in monitoring the low-pressure system nearby that must have been responsible for all the rain we collected. I also kept an eye on a band of clouds lurking near the equator east of us, that area being a potential cyclone spawning ground. *** The next morning we cleaned up the boat in case customs and immigration wanted to come out to clear us in. "There is no way they are coming in out here in our dinghy," said David. Its quite small and tippy, and adult Tuvaluan men can be quite large. We erected shade cloth over the boom to attempt to get some reduction in temperature. Twenty eight degrees and 82% humidity. (Ha! Luxury, I think now as I write here in Majuro in 32 degrees) *** Excerpt from David email: I write this in Tuvalu with droplets of sweat running freely down my arms and gathering on my upper lip. And this is with the weather overcast and drizzling. On a sunny day my shirt is constantly wet through. But somehow it's not unbearable.=20 Funafuti is not the tawdry, litter-strewn town I had been led to expect. The place is thick with mopeds ridden by all - large mothers, infant in one arm, throttle in the other, pillions balanced side saddle or holding a tuna by the tail, drivers balancing ladders, suitcases, umbrellas in the rain, trays of food. The place is overwhelmingly friendly, lush and green, with a vibrant energy in the air. And, thankfully, lots of rain this season. But best of all Kailopa is related to half the population here. We have been swept up in their enthusiastic welcome and some of the awe with which they regard him for having found his way aboard a Palangi vessel and crossed the hazardous open ocean. I expected Tuvalu to be friendly. We, of course, had doors flung wide by delivering Kailopa, one of their own. There was much anticipation and anxiety about his arrival. We stayed in Rotuma nearly a week which they had not understood (Kailopa had hoped to keep his visit a secret but his village in Fiji let it out). So there were frequent scans for yacht arrivals and some were asked if Kailopa was aboard. His nephew was on the dock as we came ashore. The usual round of tedious bureaucratic arrival formalities became a round of family reunions.=20 Kailopa's feat of getting aboard a Palangi yacht and crossing hazardous ocean at his advanced age, just 67, has given him a kind of celebrity status. It's 10pm and still I perspire. I carry a facecloth everywhere to wipe off the rivulets. I seem not to mind the heat but droplets on my glasses, in my eyes, running down my arms, dripping off my nose, that's uncomfortable. *** Janet Fongafale, the main atoll of Tuvalu, is a long narrow island barely extending beyond the road in places. As Kailopa's nephew Edmoni was driving us to the customs office we came to an area of raised sand, reclaimed land, about 1.5 metres high. "This is a New Zealand project," Edmoni told us. "The tides were eroding this area and no one could build here." I'd noticed many houses built up on poles. The ugly spectre of global warming lurks here. We stopped and met Jonathon, Edmoni's dad, going the other way on a step through scooter. At customs one of the two men in the office was Kailopa's cousin Telito. We didn't have a form from Fiji, no problem, health forms to hand in, leave it with me. All done. The easiest clearing in we've ever had. Edmoni drove us back towards the dinghy dock and dropped us at a house where two young women were delighted to see Kailopa. We went in to what was a Jehovah's Witness house and met another nephew Jona and his wife Sue, then Joseph, a grandson. They invited us for dinner. I felt warmly welcomed. We were in Kailopa's hands now. Back at the boat we had a swim, then a drink on Exodus and swapped passage stories, before heading back into town to the mission house. We sat and chatted with the family. No food in sight. We told them our plan to hire a motorbike and explore the island and that we have one in New Zealand. "Okay we go now," said Sue gathering up her handbag. We all trooped downstairs and outside to where a phalanx of motorbikes were parked. Jona handed us a key. We had our own bike! He showed David how to operate the lights and gears. Our two-wheeled convoy wended its way through the balmy evening air. David couldn't get the bike to change down a gear but we soon learnt that you just do everything in third. The bikes in front turned into the yard of a large house with dozens of people milling around. We were at a funeral feast! No one seemed at all concerned that we didn't know the deceased's family. We were invited to sit in an almost empty room on a mat. Gradually other people wandered in and sat on the floor. It dawned on us that this was the "old people's" room. Other people, the younger ones, scurried around with large platters of food. One of which held two roasted whole pigs. We were interlopers but because we were Palangi visitors we were invited to help ourselves to the food laid out on the table first. My mouth was watering. Chunks of pork fell off the golden baked carcass onto my plate, then I loaded up from platters of various beef stir fries, cassava, and dalo (taro). *** Nov 10 Spent the morning cleaning up boat while David fixed various leaks made apparent by the heavy downpours. As always almost the first thing we seek out on landing is internet but here its hard to connect, expensive and super slow. Just buy a card at the store and enter the password we were told. An outrageous $10Aus for 250MB. We bought the card but couldn't get a connection. We headed to the Telecom office. It was like the Post Office in New Zealand in the 1970's. A rough hand painted sign graced the door. It was immediately evident that the woman behind the desk was not a techo, in fact there was not even a computer in sight. She didn't know anything about internet problems and after trying to go through obvious stuff regardless of what David told her, eventually directed us to another Telecom building. We walked two blocks. The girl at 'security' box told us "No one there, all gone, back later". David grilled her to no effect. I abandoned David at the government office, went back to first Telecom office and explained that there was no one at Telecom base. She called them and said, "line busy, so must be someone there." Back to Telecom base. "Oh yes," said the girl in the security box, "someone there." Thank god David wasn't there, it wouldn't have been pretty. Inside a large shed a young man said yes, he could help David. Back to government building and sent David back to do battle. A job that would have been dealt with in five minutes in New Zealand. *** Nov 11 The Fleet I sat at the dock waiting for David to collect me. It was so hot I just walked into the sea fully clothed to cool down. The water was not cool but the breeze now wicked heat away from my body. I could see eight yachts anchored off the town. One was heading south, the rest for Majuro, and there were a couple more to arrive yet. Quite a fleet. We would see a lot of each other over the next few months. For some time I'd harboured a dream of having a community in Majuro, in the Marshall Islands, our final destination for this leg of our trip. I was excited about seeing the same people for more than a day or two instead of fleeting connections before our new acquaintances sailed off to another bay or even a different country. In my dream I had a cooking club and a writers group, and regular people to play music with, three of my favourite activities from life in Wellington. Well the community was happening now! In Tuvalu. Deanne from Exodus suggested we set up a daily radio sched for the passage to Majuro. At 0800 each morning we would all tune in to frequency 8173 and report in with our positions, how many fish we'd caught, distance covered, weather conditions and how we were faring. It became one of the highlights of the day once we were underway.=20 True Blue V, an Aussie boat arrived at dusk. Our fleet was nine strong. Meanwhile we waited to see how a nasty looking low developed. It promised up to 40 knots of wind by end of the week. But for now there was little wind and it was bloody hot. *** Nov 12, Janet journal Really hot today, trundling my trolley of groceries through town, sweat pouring down my back. No taxis in this town. Spent the morning at customs trying to negotiate outer island visits. Shopping done I settled in at the Filomena 'hotel' overlooking the runway to get internet. Suddenly the fire engine appeared and sounded its siren. Then everyone from the hotel moved next door to the airport, the twice-weekly flight was coming in, a much anticipated event. I gave up on trying to connect and had lunch and cold beers with some of the fleet. Sleepy after the lunchtime drinking we had a quiet night at home collecting buckets of rainwater in passing squalls. Still no sign of wind to take us north and out of the hurricane zone, so we waited. I put the last of the old potatoes from Fiji in the oven and made barracuda lolo, using Kailopa's coconut cream, tinned cherry tomatoes, garlic, last of the fresh coconut cream, and red onion. Fry the fish then put it in lolo. Yum. *** The boat was infested with bugs that were eating me. I didn't know what they were and they were keeping me up at night with insanely intense itching. Hopefully they would disappear when we left the land. However it looked like we would be in Tuvalu for at least another week. There was very little wind predicted and what there was would come from the north. We fully expected to spend time wallowing out there on the ocean but we wanted to pick at least a zephyr of easterly to leave with. Well we got the Easterly but it was a bit more than a zephyr. =20