I was just thinking about the really interesting people that you meet while traveling. Last night was no exception. What made yesterday more interesting was that the people I met were also sailors or interested in sailing in one way or another. Now I'm a part of that community (international community?) of sailing enthusiasts, swapping stories, this charter experience being my first one.
We were supposed to pay our tab this morning but to our dismay, the Yacht Club didn't open until noon, as it was Sunday. Because we had to cross over to Raiatea, we left and later send an email to give them our billing information.
We had full sails out on close reach half of the way and motoring into the wind the other half. It was actually quite a great sailing day and the only thing that could have made it better was if the winds could have carried us all the way there. We were doing a constant 6-6.5 knots with sails.
Everyone was pretty wiped out from the night before except me, so I helmed most of the passage. This time around now that I had experience, I trusted the autohelm which made things much easier.
Ben was partially functional and felt better after he heaved over the side. All of us decided not to mess around and take the ondansetron Mike brought which really helped. I never really had a problem with sea sickness, but then again, I guess I had never sailed unprotected waters. Today's crossing was no as bad as going to Bora Bora, but you could definitely see the swells, like huge gigantic waves in an enormous bathtub.
Everyone else pretty much slept the entire way and didn't emerge from the cabins until Ben and I had docked out boat in Uturoa about five hours later.
It was a ghost town. The only activity was singing in the church being a Sunday. The Shell station where we were hoping to fill up our outboard tank was closed at 11:30am, about two or three hours ago.
Us guys walked about the two main streets of Uturoa and discovered the hospital immediately south of the Shell station on the roundabout. The emergency department was staffed by one doctor and the radiologist was just on his way home, but insisted that we bring Chantelle in for an x-ray.
So it worked out pretty well that we got an x-ray right away. Chantelle won the ankle lottery an didn't have a fracture!
On the boat we had prepared Shannon's famous shrimp linguine for dinner. Flies tried to share in our meals, and each time a motor boat would speed by our yacht would pitch against the dock. We couldn't wait to get off the dock. Some old guys, probably drinking buddies, were sitting along the dock the entire time, just watching the day go by. They were here since we docked to us leaving and hadn't moved from under their tree. I guess this is island lifestyle.
As we were sailing south towards Ile Tauro to anchor for the night, we passed by a Princess cruise ship docked at Uturoa. It wouldn't have been a great stop since nothing was open on the Sunday in town. We waved at the passengers looking out at us on board.
I imagined that they totally wanted to be on a catamaran like ours sailing themselves, being their own cruise captain rather than being stuck on the cruise ship. When Ben and Chantelle were checking in at the St. Regis, the receptionist told them that she had always wanted to sail around the Society Islands. Which reminds me of how lucky I am, and how lucky all of us are.
There were three areas of around 5 meter depth soundings just east of the pearl farm on Tauro. We chose one of them and anchored for the night.
No comments:
Post a Comment