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Kenutu

On Monday morning Helen and I took a stroll ashore. Ben stayed ashore as his feet are sore due to a few coral scratches and some sores from when he went snorkeling without boots on. There was a grass/sandy track just behind the beach on the NW shore of Ofu that ran along the edge of the village. It was well kept and even as we walked along locals were sweeping and cutting down the grass to keep it that way. We walked from one end of the village to the other before returning to the dinghy along the beach.

Shortly after returning to the boat we up anchored and moved around the bottom of Ofu and anchored off the west side of Kenutu. There are still a few boats around but there is a great sense of isolation here.

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In the afternoon we went snorkeling. We cut the trip short as it wasn’t that good. Instead we went ashore and hiked the short trail over to the east side of Kenutu. We explored around a while to see if the trail went anywhere else and found some more interesting sites. The east coast faces the prevailing winds and seas and is hence quite rugged – reminding us much of Niue.

In the afternoon I inspected the drive batteries. The batteries that were originally the house batteries are all 0.1V less than the ones left in the drive banks. This may be because I haven’t really pushed them all to full charge and held them there for a few hours to equalize. I’ve decided to stop cross charging the house bank for a while and use the generator a bit more to top up the house and in turn pushing up the drive banks at the same time. After a week or so of this I’ll retest.

One thing I neglected to mention is that the net I started when we left Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas ended last Saturday. We had originally intended the net for the trip down to the Tuamotus but it caught on. My belief is that the guys who put the effort into doing the weather every day drew in the crowds. However, the weather guys were getting tired. Two of them were on their way to Australia and behind us in time. Also, in this region, are established nets which have been running for years and give weather too. It seemed the right time to call it quits. Rather than just cut everyone off we spent some time gathering info on other nets in the area and compiled info on gathering weather for oneself. We gave out most of the information several times over the last week and put it up on our website for reference. You can see that info by going to http://www.aboarddignity.com/pacinfo.html.

Recovered

My original plan to retrieve the dinghy was to wait until the tide has risen sufficiently to float it off the patch of sand/reef it was stranded on. John from Tyee called me to say he’d rounded up enough able bodied men from the boats around to lift it off the reef sooner. Realizing that most of the nearby boats were planning to leave and that if my plan A failed I would have no help I agreed. After all, if lifting it off turned out to be impossible then I always had my original plan to fall back on.

John arrived with Andy from Zephyrus and a father and son from a Gangada. With our Ben along we headed over to the other side of the bay – nearly 2 miles away. Getting onto the reef was a challenge but we made it although we had to leave John in his dinghy as there was nowhere to anchor. The dinghy was further away than we remember but nicely sitting on sand. The patch of the reef nearest the water was festooned with small urchins and plenty of pits and hollows which was a little forbidding.

With the outboard locked on (key on boat) and with anchor chain and safety chain aboard it was all pretty heavy. We were able to carry it though with three at the back and one at the front. Each position was tiring so we would rotate after each short walk. When we reached the treacherous part we would carefully plant our feet and shift it forward one or two feet at a time. Soon we had it in the water and afloat. The engine fired up cleanly – a big relief. We then had to retrieve our helpers from the reef which took a little coordination. We gave plenty of thanks to our helpers and returned our separate ways.

Later in the morning Ben and I went back ashore to Ben and Lisa’s island. I had left my camera ashore – Saturday was not my best day. We met Bill and Johanna there from Visions of Johanna. Bill is a doctor and was visiting Ben who had fallen out of a tree the night before. Hopefully he’ll be ok.

On the way back from the island Ben and I dropped of at Tyee to say thanks again. While there we were able to help them fix a laptop which would not start up so all of us ended up happy.

The afternoon we just relaxed. We really are pooped and tired from the last couple of weeks and needed the down time.

Sadly we have still not received any communication about the latest tracking number for our charger from CatCo. It has taken six weeks so far and we have yet to overcome the difficulties this end. I have reached the point where if they’ve not sent it already we need to figure something else out. Tremendously disappointing. With no other issues getting to NZ with 1/6 of our charging capability lost is not that big a deal. It’s hard to fathom how so little can be accomplished in six weeks.

Found !!!

Tyee are anchored nearby and once we saw them awake we gave them a call to see if they could help. John came over and took me over to the other side of the bay. We almost didn’t see it but our dinghy was up on the exposed coral tucked into a mangrove. No doubt it drifted off around high tide last night and floated into it’s current spot. There was a couple of hundred feet of exposed coral bed between the dinghy and the deep water so we left it there for later. High tide is around 2pm local time. Our current plan is to wait until around midday and take Dignity over and make an attempt to retrieve the dinghy. I still feel like an idiot but at least it’s a relieved idiot now.

I feel stupid

We had a nice leisurely morning waiting for the sun to climb. To get out east one needs to navigate the pass a mile or so south east of Tapana. To maximise visibility this needs to be done around midday. Our timing was pretty spot on as we made it through the zig-zigged passage just a few minutes past. Our destination was the tiny island of Fetoko where Ben and Lisa, two of the regatta organisers, live. Our Ben had made good friends with them and Saturday evening was their post regatta wind down to which they’d invited a few of the folks involved. We actually anchored slightly to the south off the island of Ofu as we thought we may go ashore to explore.

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In the end we stayed on the boat for the afternoon going ashore shortly after 6pm. We had a pleasant evening with Ben and Lisa and their friends, most of whom we already knew or at least recognized. At one point they played some video taken of the regatta and mostly of the Full Moon Party which gave everyone a good giggle. Maybe it will go on YouTube one day.

Our Ben stayed on the island for the night and we returned to Dignity. Disaster. Our dinghy had gone. Quite unbelievable we hadn’t properly secured it and it was no longer there. Ben (island Ben, not ours) took me out for a while to try and find it but we had no luck. The search would have to continue in the morning. He had lost his before and it turned up ok. Downwind of us it is all land and reef so hopefully it will turn up somewhere. Now it’s the morning I’ve been out and scanned with the binoculars but cannot see it. I’m feeling pretty stupid for not properly securing the dinghy when we left it. It was not as though I could even give the lame excuse of having had a few beers at the time as we’d laid off it.

Fingers crossed we’re not facing a big bill and a lot of awkwardness.

Mariner’s Cave / Beach BBQ

Around mid morning Ben and I took the dinghy over to the small island of Luakapa to snorkel as we’d read it was supposed to be pretty good there. The water was certainly clear and it was quite interesting. We’d brought the spear guns just in case there was something worth taking back to eat but there was none of that.

On the way out and on the way back we popped by a few of the boats we knew to invite them to come with us to Mariner’s Cave in the afternoon. It was about 3nm away which is quite far for dinghies. It was recommended to go by boat – perhaps sharing to make it easier. In the end we had quite a few agree to come up – 16 folks in all from Delos, Inspiration Lady, Vagabond, Callypso, Ludmilla, Anthem, Jackster, Imagine & Arctic.

Gary and Jackie from Inspiration Lady were a great help. Not only had they agreed to be the dinghy dock but they also came along just for the ride and social giving us someone to man the boat while everyone got in the water.

At 2pm we had everyone aboard and we motored off to the cave. We found it easily enough as there were two other boats there when we arrived although they left shortly after. Our drop off was a bit far from the cave so we had a bit of a swim to get there. To get into the cave one has to swim down a few feet then along about 12-14 surfacing in a sealed, dark cave. The entrance tunnel was quite large so by going deeper there was no risk of bumping into anything. Inside the cave it is quite amazing. Despite being dark it is well lit from the outside. The surf created changes in pressure that could be felt in the ears. When a partial vacuum was created by the surf going out a mist would form inside the cave momentarily.

There was a second entrance which I’d heard about before. It was about 40 feet down and a little longer – about the limit of what I can do underwater. Forgetting that I’d just done a fairly long swim I went for it. This turned out to be a scary moment as I was gulping for air even when I still had rock over my head. Reaching the surface took forever. I decided to remove my weight belt to help. Just before doing so I realized I shouldn’t do it over the deep water outside of the tunnel exit so I swam over the roof of the tunnel to let it go. In hindsight I could probably have reached the surface in that time. Nevertheless I am here to tell the story but I’ve learned my lesson. The longer underwater stuff can only be done when I’m totally relaxed and not after an exertion. I was soon back in the cave spending a lot longer inside this time with everyone else who were now all inside. Feeling more relaxed I again exited via the lower tunnel finding it a lot easier. Ben also made the exit the same way.

On the way back Ben entertained us by playing on Bamboozle’s piano which we still have. We’d dragged a couple of dinghies out the the cave as a few folks wanted to visit Swallow’s Cave on the way back. We let them go about half way back and headed in.

We agreed to have a beach bonfire/BBQ at 6pm. A few of us went ashore to collect wood while others prepared food. Soon we had quite a crowd ashore and two fires going. We stayed quite late with chatting and some music – mostly furnished by Fergus from Paleides on his hand organ. It was well after midnight before we were finally back aboard. Ben went back to Delos but it looks like he swam back at some point as he’s aboard and there were wet foot prints all over the cabin this morning.