Aloha 6th graders!
We have departed from Auckland - left yesterday afternoon from the immigration dock about 3:00 p.m. Just like when you fly in or out of a foreign country, when you leave by ship (or canoe), you still have to go through immigration and get your passport stamped! The forecast for wind looked really good for us for the next few days, but we're having a slow journey out of the Hauraki Gulf. We had to motor most of the night, alternating with sailing at about 3 knots. We have 11 crew on board: Titaua (captain) from Ra'ivavae, Kalepa from Hilo, myself, Moeata from Tahiti, Fatiarau from Tahiti, Herve from Fatu Hiva, jean-Baptiste from Ra'iatea, Rainui from Tahiti, Brenda from Honolulu, Matani from Ra'ivavae, and Tamati from New Zealand. We are working 4 hour shifts with 8 hour breaks. Because our crew is small, Titaua and Kalepa, as captains, are taking 6 hour shifts to supplement the crew on deck. Right now, as the wind is light and the sailing is easy, it isn't much of a big deal, but as we hit stronger weather, it will be nice to have the extra hand.
We just got a new freezer for the canoe which will help us keep meats longer; previously, we took what fit in a cooler and hopefully ate it before it went bad. We do have three big coolers with ice, and are planning to use our freezer to make sea ice (frozen salt water), which lasts longer than normal ice and should help keep fresh fruits and veggies, as well as the rest of our meats fresher. It's nice to think we'll have fresh food beyond the first week of the trip.
Last night we saw a few dolphins in the gulf, and in fact a few came quite close to the canoe in the dark...we only knew they were there because we could hear them blowing as they surfaced. It's still cold, although yesterday was generally warm enough to wear t-shirts and shorts...until the clouds covered the sun and it got cold again! At night we're pretty bundled up. My watch is Fati, myself and Herve. Fati and I bought knit animal hats at a flea market: hers is a panda and mine is a tiger. We debuted them on night watch last night. Herve had his own hat, so we clipped clothespins on top of it to look like ears so that he matched us.
Our position currently is 36 degrees 26 minutes S, 175 degrees 12 minutes E. See if you can find us on Google Earth! Once we are clear of the gulf, we will be on a course of 11 degrees north of east, or the house of La in the Hawaiian star compass. That should aim us at the island of Rapa for a while. It looks like staying more south should give us better winds, even though we all are looking forward to warmer weather up north. Hope everyone has recovered from camp!
Ms. Fuller
No comments:
Post a Comment