Life on a Sailing Canoe

Aloha 6th graders! I hope you're enjoying class day today - I would really like to be on a sunny, quiet beach right about now...one that isn't rockin' and rollin'.  We have spent the last 24 hours sailing in 30 kt winds and 12 ft seas.  We're currently at 20'13" S and 168'38" W, heading for a waypoint at 20 S and 170 W.  At that point we should be turning north for Samoa.  Life is a little different on a 72' canoe.  You have to get used to having everything sliding back and forth in the swells.  Food, especially, you have to hold on to.  Even dishes and lids get caught in the roll, and blow off.  The size of the swells means that they wash under the hulls and shoot through holes in the deck, sometimes fountaining to 3 ft or so.   Every day, someone is surprised by a spurt of water.  In this kind of weather, there are also waves constantly washing over the deck, so your feet are constantly wet.  Small cuts on feet don't heal until you get to land.  At night, it's a nice feeling to have your feet slowly dry as you lie in your bunk.  We get very good at grabbing ropes as we walk across the deck, swinging like Tarzan.  Going to the bathroom is an adventure in itself, as you have to drop a bucket over the side and catch water to flush.  You also have to do this when you want to bathe or do dishes.  The higher your speed, the harder it is.  In fact one of our crew lost a bucket yesterday, as the pressure grabbed the rope right out of his hand.  The bathroom faces the bow, so there's a good chance, in these conditions, that you'll get washed going in or out.  We had one big wave break over the starboard side this morning, all the way into the fare, dousing the stove.

Life on board also comes with a variety of chores.  Dishes constantly need to be washed and dried, the deck needs to be washed, the fare needs to be cleaned, as does the bathroom.  Four people share a hatch entrance, which collects water, dirt and hair, so it also needs to be scrubbed out. Cooking is a group activity, and everyone chips in where they can.  In addition, we're all on four hour watches, meaning that we work four hours and have eight off.  While you're on watch, you steer and make any sail changes that are necessary.  With the conditions we are in, sometimes our sail changes are involuntary, as the steering is very difficult and we shift course slightly because of the swells.

I've gotten used to wearing the same clothes a few days in a row, and bathing every other day.  Saving your clean clothes is of utmost importance, and often I'll just wash the clothes I'm wearing by bathing in them and then hanging them up to dry. The morning ritual is to put on a hat, sunscreen and my sunglasses. At night, I just want to wash my face so that I lose the sticky sunscreen salt layer before I go to sleep.  It's a very minimalist way of life.

Having eight Maoris on the canoe is interesting as well, and I'm acquiring new vocabulary. A meal is a "feed" or "kai", when something is really cool, it's "mean as", and when it's really good, it's "sweet as".  When Greg, the captain, agrees or likes something you say or do, he says. "Ka pai." When food is really good, our girls say, "Beayoootiful!"  If you're interested in something, you're "keen".  I may come back sounding a bit Maori myself. Slippers are called "jandals", as slippers are what old women wear around the house.  A flashlight is a "torch", and a cooler is a "chilly bin".  "Tea time" is dinner and the bathroom is the "loo".

We also have a crew member from Papua New Guinea, so we're pickong up words from Gorohu as well.  "Namo" is an all-purpose word that means "hello" and "good".  "Dikadika" means bad, "medu" is rain, and (pardon my spelling), "heiakoata" means fast.  It's all about learning out here, whether vocabulary from another crew member or getting used to a different lifestyle.

One more week of school! Best of luck, gang!

Ms. Fuller