Animals – Page 4 – Coast Guard Couple

November 22, 2010

Polynesian Snorkeling

(Continued from previous post… Tahuata, French Polynesia)

As we continued to travel north along the island to our next anchorage, Hanatefau, reportedly the 3^rd prettiest in Polynesia, we saw some spectacular waterspouts along the shoreline.

Upon arriving we found that the anchorage was indeed gorgeous. Beautiful living reefs no more than 10 feet below the surface on each side of the anchorage, a pristine white sandy beach, crystal clear water with 30-50 feet of visibility, and gorgeous sunshine. A Manta Ray swam right past our stern. It was amazing. Tiff started off the day helping out a fellow cruiser by free diving 30 feet straight down to get a dropped piece of equipment, which is a rather impressive feat. (Actually, I started it by swimming some banana bread over to Rod and Elisabeth on Proximity, and when I swam back, I saw the Manta Ray fly past our boat! ~Tiff)

As thanks for helping them out, Michael and Gloria of Paikea Mist, a beautiful Beneteau Custom 50, (www.PaikeaMist.com) invited us out to go snorkeling with them. Now, again, I am still learning how to use this camera well underwater. That being said, there are some absolutely amazing parts of sea life just wandering around a few feet below the surface. This is a taste of what I saw:

Unfortunately for us with this much unrestrained beauty below us, perfect warm, clear water all around us and a baking sun above us, it is quite easy to lose track of time. We did just that, much to both of our extreme regret.

Let me tell you, it hurts. It hurts a lot. A LOT! I took a shower, used a wash rag and some warm water by accident two days later and was laid out on the bed for a good hour writhing in pain as it felt like someone was jamming broken glass into my spine. It took two ice packs and not moving much for the rest of the day to bring me back to a degree of normalcy. Needless to say, a bottle of waterproof sunscreen has been permanently added to my ashore backpack. But such are the risks for living in paradise.

Needless to say the tiny island of Tahuata was supremely amazing, well beyond any of our expectations or even our imaginations.

– Greg

November 15, 2010

Stopping over in Tahuata, French Polynesia

Tahuata was going to be a quick, overnight anchorage on the way from Fatu Hiva to Ua Pou (all still in the Marquesa group of French Polynesia). Hardly worth noticing, probably about a sentence or two in the next blog post. We pulled into the first anchorage and set down for the night not expecting the quiet little island a stone’s throw from Hiva Oa to have much for us in the way of lasting memories.

…and then we woke up early the next morning to go swimming with the wild dolphins who had just popped by to say hi and handle some business.

That little comment by Tiffany at the end make you feel a bit voyeuristic? Imagine being 15 feet from them and watching. I was serious about them handling some business.

Now I apologize. Dolphins are faster and more maneuverable than me in the water and I’m still getting used to the whole “filming rapidly moving objects in the water while bobbing like a cork on the surface and unable to see my display screen because it’s in a waterproof bag” thing. I will endeavor to improve. Please bear with me.

So after what was agreed on by all to be a most auspicious start to our day we thought it could not possibly get any better, but you’d think after our first shocker we’d stop underestimating this little island of nirvana-like joy.

We sallied forth onto land and found the picture perfect village of Hapatoni. The whole island’s population is around 650 and this is the tiny village next to the big town, so I do mean small.

You may have noticed during that video that there was a streetlight above the street Tiffany and I were on. This may lead you to the question, “Gosh Greg, how do they have power out there?” Tiffany and I were curious so we took a look around and found the island (or at least the village’s) main and only power plant.

We also saw a really nice little local church. Did I mention that French Polynesia is by overwhelming majority Catholic? They have a couple of assorted Protestant churches and, interestingly enough, one island that is predominantly Mormon. Ha ha! Yes, I learned French, I play the ukulele and I’m Catholic. I’m almost a local!

– Greg

November 8, 2010

Polynesian Mountaineering

(Continued from previous post… Fatu Hiva, French Polynesia)

Secondly, speaking of local kids, getting humiliated by the locals in an afternoon volleyball game. I feel no need to elaborate on this point. They play this every day. Some of the women also do what appears to be Jazzercise, so how’s that for Americanization?

Thirdly, hiking. Fatu Hiva is an amazingly beautiful place, though it is not without it’s dangerous predators

Assuming you have the wit and the skill to overcome these dangerous jungle creatures (oh yeah, and the heat – bring water, a lot of water) then you are in for a visual smorgasbord. With sights that easily rival Ireland in lush greenness, a 2 hour hike through to the waterfall in Fatu Hiva does not disappoint.

Not to mention, you can take your lunch with you and picnic at your own private 100 foot waterfall. This is merely a bonus. (We didn’t go swimming because not only had we heard about the eels and the crawfish living in the water, there was some sort of scummy foam on the top of the pond. Bummer 🙁 ~Tiff)

As Tiffany mentioned at the end of the video and as you might surmise about the topography of an island formed by a volcano, this place is steep. We found out how steep when we decided the next day, without any idea what the heck we were signing up for, to hike to the top of one of the mountains. We also found out why all the travel guide books say that only 4×4 vehicles are allowed in the Marquesas.

There were no flat parts, by the way. After crawling up this mammoth for 3 hours and gaining a new appreciation for the Fatu Hiva roadwork department, we finally got to a pinnacle that provided the views we were looking for:

-Greg

November 4, 2010

Fatu Hiva, a French Polynesian paradise!

After what could easily be qualified as a “bumpy” night transit south, against the wind and the waves we find ourselves on the island of Fatu Hiva in French Polynesia. (For our non-sailing friends, it’s called “bashing” when you drive into the wind & waves. It sucks. A lot. This single fact alone actually explains why the entire international cruising community constantly sails to the west; in order to avoid bashing as much as humanly possible.)

We anchored in the Bay of Penises. Now wait one second. Before you get all uppity on me, look, don’t blame me that the Polynesian people came up with overly descriptive names for things, because that’s the freaking original Polynesian name, alright (well, the English translation at least). It’s due to the rock towers that surround the bay. I’m serious, look it up. (Tiff’s note – the name of the town is Hana Vave in Fatu Hiva) For those of you too lazy to look it up, I explain the whole issue (inserting my own obvious bias and providing nice views of the anchorage, but not of the male reproductive system) here:

Having arrived at what arguably could be the most amazingly named place on the entire planet, we spent our two days here:

Firstly, by exploring the village. Being as the total island inhabitants number at about 650 split between two villages, this took about a grand total of 15 minutes. We did however discover some precious little tidbits. Such as, everyone eats coconuts here and I mean everyone.

Also, speaking of chickens and coconuts, you may want to think twice before you buy that “all natural” tropical coconut meat or coconut oil in the grocery store.

Polynesians do have cats and dogs…lots of cats and dogs, but they also keep other interesting animals on leashes.

We also ran into an interesting event going on as we arrived: all the school aged children were leaving. Because of the minimal population, there are only grade schools on the island. Anyone wanting a high school education has to travel by ferry 10 hours or so to Hiva Oa. The nearest college is in Tahiti (again, about 2000 miles away.) So kids who want an education spend a lot of time away from home from the 8^th grade on.

– Greg

November 1, 2010

Cruiser bikes and exploring Hiva Oa

By the second day of doing the 3 kilometer hike every day, Tiffany and I decided to break out the cruiser bikes. No, not Harleys. Cruising bikes have a slightly different meaning in the sailing world:

They look like clown bikes because they fold (the better to store inside a boat). We managed to find our way down to the beach in Atuona where we encountered some beautiful corpses rotting in the sun…

…ran into the world’s largest rainstick

…observed the elusive Marquesan ninja jumping crab

…stumbled upon a Marquesan dance practice (they didn’t look like they needed practice though)

As a final note of the extreme distance we are from anything even closely resembling civilization, I leave you with Tiffany & Alison’s observation of some powerboats that made the same trip we did. The prices they are discussing in the video reflect the amount of money each boat paid in US dollars to refuel with diesel fuel (which is cheaper than normal gas in case you didn’t know) at Hiva Oa after transiting from Mexico.

We were that far from the last gas station, just so ya know.

– Greg

October 18, 2010

All that’s missing is a Kracken

Despite our best fishing efforts, pickings continue to be rather slim

(If you watched that…I apologize. My only defense is that when you’re this long out to sea some things seem funnier than they are.)

We did manage to hook a deepwater fish. Before parting the strongest line we had onboard, our finned friend hung around long enough to make sure I received an extensive education why I need to keep my big mouth shut when I think about talking smack about a sport I know nothing about.

What’s on the dinner menu for Greg? Looks like a double portion of humble pie.

To pile on the humiliation, it appears that my role as a B-movie sci-fi horror flick victim was prophetic in nature. Either that or the booby birds have enlisted the help of their fellow sea creatures. Either way, the ship’s cockpit is becoming a nightly target for the beasts of the sea.

In that video I mention the term ITCZ. This is sailor slang for Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone. Basically it’s this place where all the horrible weather from the northern hemisphere has gigantoid WWE style thrown downs with all the horrible weather from the southern hemisphere. If you take Michael Jackson’s music video “beat-it” replace the street thugs with rain squalls and take out the really cool dancing and hit music single, you have a good idea what it’s like.

Despite seemingly every creature of the briny deep, with the notable exception of an actual edible fish, deciding to make our ship their vacation home, morale remains high. Just a few days ago we took solace in the stoic example of Captain James T. Kirk as we conducted another installment of our mandatory ships training regimen.

Even though we have not seen dry land for weeks, we remain confident God has not flooded you all out of house and home.

That’s a Bible reference yo. Noah, from that first book. Told you I was listening to it.

-Greg

October 11, 2010

A Day in the Life

Tiff thought we would start out by giving you some perspective on what we see all day, every day. (PS- don’t watch this video if you are prone to seasickness.)

[Tiff thinks this one is better 🙂 It’s kinda long though, I was having editing issues.]

My daily schedule basically looks like:

Noon – wake up, shave, brush teeth

12:30PM – eat lunch, do dishes

1:30PM – personal projects (like sewing zippers in my pants pockets, doing laundry, showering.)

3:00PM – Stand 4 hour watch

7:00PM – Get off watch, eat dinner

8:00PM – Do dishes

8:30PM – wrap up personal projects, putz around

9:00PM – Practice ukulele

9:30PM – Practice French (usually involves me making spitting sounds at my computer)

11:00PM – Pre-watch nap

12:45AM – wake up, stand 3 hour watch. Listen to Bible on audio book.

2:30AM – midnight snack time! More Bible on audio

4:00AM – Get off watch, go to bed

Aside from occasional interruptions for critical ships business

… and pods of dolphins using our bow as a jungle gym

Our days are much the same. This would drive some people mad, but I love the relentless progress I make daily toward mastering my ninja-like French-Bible-quoting-while-playing-Beethoven-on-ukulele skillz.

But heck, I sleep until noon every day, so they could all be learning kung-fu and naked tribal dancing in the morning for all I know.

– Greg

October 7, 2010

Keeping Busy

I want to convey to you our daily life. Have you ever had a personal montage? The underway life is a daily existence of extreme ritual, when you allow it to be, and that ritual allows you to focus on whatever you want with unprecedented clarity. For 30 days of my life I have the opportunity to dramatically increase any skill set I want to study. I describe it best to my mother when I emailed her:

I am spending my time sewing zippers on clothes and reading the Bible

(I feel like a monk)

…and learning French

(a Franciscan monk)

…and learning the ukulele

(a Franciscan monk with a toy guitar)

…and talking to Tiffany

(a Franciscan monk with a toy guitar and a wife….ok, fine, bad example)

This is my life for the next month…no Gregorian chanting though.

Allan spends his time developing his at sea tech support business …

… and getting an “A” for effort in his many attempts to land “the big one”.

Tiffany and Alison spend most of their personal time focused on the inspection of our cookie stores …

… and the restocking of our cookie stores (a chore in which I am sometimes impressed into service).

– Greg

October 4, 2010

The truth about food on boats

We dine like gods out here!

To give you an idea, I offer for your consideration this typical evening “crew ration”

Stuffed peppers, avocado, fresh tomato salad and hand-made garlic bread… All par for the course for our dining experience (trust me, were you here you would not dare to dishonor the glory of our consumption rituals by addressing them as “meals” either). Any fool who told you that people lose weight on long voyages was either a liar or someone who did not give proper respect to the culinary creation process. Translation: they did not have a duty cook, which is one of the major advantages of having more than 2 people on your boat.

In this sailor’s opinion, Allan probably made the best call of his ship captaining career when he took our advice of assigning a duty cook. He actually did it cunningly well. We have 2 duty rotations each 12 hours in length: Day watch and night watch. During night watch, each of us stands a 3 hour and during the day watch, three of us stand a 4 hour shift and the 4^th person’s sole responsibility for the day is to make sure the rest of us eat meals that would make Bacchus envious. Tiffany and Alison typically take this burden on and they have done a fantastic job. The reason for this is that Allan and I have both stated that Ramen noodles and a can of coke every night sounds like a fun experiment. Alison agreed with this idea, however her idea of Ramen noodles is a travesty of college gourmet cooking.

Back to the duty cook thing. The real advantage here is that the cook easily spends 4 hours (the length of a watch) preparing lunch and dinner. Everyone realizes this, so none of the other watchstanders feel like the cook is shirking duty. Also, because the cook doesn’t have to worry about a watch during the day, they can spend a lot of time creating excellent meals, despite having to deal with problems straight out of Das Boat:

Also, this way no one gets overworked between standing watches and preparing meals.

The cooks almost got a fresh sushi reprieve when we landed our first fish of the trip until we realized it wasn’t a good “eating” fish (what the heck else are fish good for!?)

– Greg

September 30, 2010

Repelling Air Pirates!

Our last communication ended with our loyal crew recovering from a blitzkrieg-style home invasion from the booby birds.

Tiffany, Allan and I quickly devised a counter-strike offensive. Luckily, between Tiff’s years of nautical experience, Allan’s fighter-jock skills (no, really – F-16s!…these birds seriously picked the wrong boat to mess with…) and my supreme knowledge of the multiple uses of sailing line we routed the enemy and chased him squawking into the night.

With the main thrust of their attacked repelled, their forces routed and in shambles, the enemy made a final, desperate play for a beachhead on our extremely delicate solar panels, which our reserve forces quickly repelled.

Unfortunately they kept coming back, growing so bold as to land on the boat hook as we attempted to poke them with it! Eventually, with both sides weary from literally hours of intense non-stop action, our side proposed a truce: One bird on the dingy, as long as no one poops. Of course he defecated easily twice his own body weight onto our small boat and at first light his fellow bombers attempted to join him, so we rejoined the battle this time determined to offer no quarter…

Though we survived the brutal hand-to-halyard combat of that night, our boat still carries the scars of the battle …

… and, as you can see from that video, we must remain constantly vigilant for skirmisher forces lying in wait to catch us unawares. For we are alone, cut off from other allied units, hundreds of miles from shore and should our efforts fail, we would be overtaken before help could arrive. There is no truce, no peace. That is the lesson the “night of the attack of the boobies” taught us. A lesson we pass to you, my friends, from the front lines. Pray for us as we battle on…

– Greg

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Category: Animals

Polynesian Snorkeling

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Stopping over in Tahuata, French Polynesia

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Polynesian Mountaineering

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Fatu Hiva, a French Polynesian paradise!

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Cruiser bikes and exploring Hiva Oa

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All that’s missing is a Kracken

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A Day in the Life

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Keeping Busy

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The truth about food on boats

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Repelling Air Pirates!

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