by KC2RIY, on July 11th, 2010 (
Society Islands)
Mid Saturday morning we lowered the dinghy and headed up the nearby stream. We were unable to go too far up the river before it became to shallow so we tied to a tree on an island in the center of the river/stream. We walked up the island only to discover the only decent wading point was back where we left the dinghy.
Having cross the stream we made our way inland following the crude path there. Soon the path took us away from the stream and up through some rocks. A short while further we entered the grotto. This was an area with cliffs on all sides with water dripping everywhere. Ferns, pink ginger flowers and variegated shrubs made the area look lush pretty. On one side the running water had made a cave that went down and under the cliffs. We followed the footpath, which was running with water, down under the cliffs. It was pitch black in there and we wished we’d brought a torch. In time our eyes grew accustomed to the darkness allowing us to see an underground pool.
Retracing our path we found our way back to the stream and decided to follow it upriver. We found our way into an open section where we didn’t have trees overhead. We continued upstream wading often hoping to get a new view on some of the waterfalls we could see from the boat. We reached a point where we could see the stream exited a steep walled valley where the trees again would obscure the view. We decided it wasn’t worth the effort to continue and turned back.
In the afternoon we spent a short while prepping the boat for the next days trip south. Anticipating possibly rough seas we used the docking lines to secure the dinghy tight to the back of the boat. We set one reef in the main in case the winds remained strong. We didn’t want to be reefing in the dark in over strong winds.
In the evening we finished watching the fifth series of House MD before retiring. Perhaps due to the excitement of the eclipse I found it difficult to get to sleep but in the end I managed.
We woke this morning at just before 5 am. We quickly secured all hatches and ran one last inspection. We raised the anchor in the pitch dark and followed our previous GPS track safely out of the pass. The winds were subdued so I released the reef before raising the mainsail. Soon we were sailing south to our destiny with the eclipse. This is a day we’ve been planning for since long before we set off on Dignity so the anticipation was quite great.
Around 7am we passed over the line that was the further extent of the totality. At 7:20am, using our special specs bought in London over a year ago, we were able to see the first notch taken from the sun by the encroaching moon. At this point the sun had already risen above the cloudy horizon into a promising blue sky. Over the next hour and 10 minutes the moon continued its inexorable covering of the sun. The brightening day began to return to darkness and the warmth left the sun. Shortly before totality I experimented by creating small gaps between my fingers and viewing the resultant patterns on the deck. As expected I saw a series of images of the crescent sun. I have heard of this when people watch eclipses beneath trees (of which we had none nearby).
To our dismay, as the totality approached a large cloud formed and headed towards the sun. We were able to see the ‘diamond ring’ where we could see the suns corona in a ring around the moon plus a tiny amount of brilliant sunshine before the cloud covered the sun. Through the thin parts of the cloud we were able to see the suns corona and we again saw the ‘diamond ring’ when the sun peeked through it’s first valley on the moon. The the daylight began to return as the moon moved on slowly uncovering the sun.
Having the cloud cover the eclipse for most of the time was a little disappointing but it did help us view the eclipse directly without use of our glasses.
Shortly after the totality was over we jibed and headed back to land. It is now 9:30am. The last sliver of moon is left covering the sun. Full daylight has returned. With the speed we’re making we’re heading for the pass at Maraa where we stopped for the first time after leaving Marina Taina at the beginning of the month. Tomorrow we’ll complete the trip back to the marina ready to pick up Ben on the 13th.