Christmas Island at last

The worst week we have ever had. We left with the last of the flu. Trinda had a small scrape start to infect and took antibiotic for 2 days. Then my scrape becomes very infected very fast. Then Trinda gets a bad burn and can't wear any clothes or lay down except for one position and discontinues her antibiotic so I can have it. We get close and have to put big jib down, the sheet gets caught in the prop and I have to dive and cut it loose. Then we finish by motoring 8 miles into a 25 knot wind at
only 4 knots (2 hours).
All in all a bad week, BUT we are here and safely anchored. Plan to find the doctors tomorrow.

Still Going

We are doing OK I guess. My leg seems to be responding to the correct antibiotic. Trinda is in a lot less pain, but has two areas like a .50 cent piece that are bare and two dine blisters and two 4 inch areas that are bright red.

Only 125 more miles. We should cross the equator in another hour or so.

Penrhym to Christmas

we have 230 miles to go. Estimate Friday morning.
My knee has become very infected and 2 false starts on antibiotics, but Bold Spirit called a Dr. on his satellite phone and got me on the correct antibiotic. If it is not better in 24 hours I should do something??? we'll hope.

While trying to make iced tea, Trinda poured a cup of boiling water with tea bags, then the boat hit a wave and splashed it on her. She has lost skin in a breast and belly just below it. we have only one burn medicine, so no choice there. She is taking asprin and tyenol on opposite 2 hours.

This is NOT a good passage!

wind is cooperating, 6.5 knots all night and most of today.
Not fishing. No one wants to deal with it if we caught one!

Penrhyn to Christmas

We left Sunday morning, much to the church's disapproval. Jeff and Trinda both turned up sick Saturday morning so we stayed one more day. Probably didn't make much difference, as most of us had a relapse under way.
Trinda and I have slept almost continuously since we left, Just peeking out every now and then.. She is too hot to sleep below and I am too cold to stay in the cockpit. It is a very un traveled part of the ocean, at least.

Three of us left Penrhyn, Bold Spirit and Aventura, a young single handler. They are both ahead of us by 25 miles today but I changed head sails so we might catch up in a few days.

Back to bed.

A month in Penrhyn -first part

We were blasting along through French Polynesia, along with most of the other cruisers, having only a 90 day visa to see the 118 islands making up the Marquesas, Tuamotus, Gambiers and Society Islands. Just a day or two at each anchorage and not seeing many of the sights. Feeling that we were going too fast to really get a feel for the places we stayed when we overheard another cruiser say they were planning to winter in Hawaii and do French Polynesia again. We had planned to take 3 to 5 years to
cross the South Pacific and at the rate we were going, we'd be done way too soon. That sounded interesting, so we talked to them som more. It looked like a route from Bora Bora in August to Penrhyn, Christmas, Fanning then reaching Hawaii in November. 4 months in Hawaii, then back to the Tuamotus in April would give us another shot at the atolls we missed.

Shortly after arriving in Penrhyn, the local health inspector, OJ, invited us to cross from the western village of Omoka to Te Tautua on the eastern side with him as a guide through the coral heads. They were widely spaced and brightly colored, Most have white poles with a triangular flag on top making them resemble the greens of a golf course spread across the 8 miles to Te Tautua. So the guidance was not that necessary, however the visit along the way was worth it. He was planning a trip to Rarotonga
and wanted to gather some clams to take to his family there. We got invited to go along on the clamming excursion.

The next morning OJ gathered some nephews in a small aluminum skiff and had us get our snorkeling gear and follow in our dinghy. About 5 miles south in the lagoon, we stopped at a coral head with less than 18 inches of water over the top, but 30 to 40 feet deep around the edges. Large clams with very pronounced scalloped shells and bright colored lips grow imbedded in the tops and sides of the coral heads. You pry them out with a large screw driver. We gathered clams for an hour or two, just piling
them on top of the coral head. When we had plenty, they all swam up on top and sat up on the coral head and started cleaning the clams. Almost all of the clam turns out to be eatable, it is mostly muscle. I noticed OJ taking a bite now and then, so he first offered me a choice morsel. You just reach out beside you and rinse the clam meat in the fresh sea water and pop it in your mouth. It adds a little salt and its better than chicken! Then he offered another piece he says tastes like it has cream
on it. Before we were done, I had sampled the entire clam. Trinda was a little reluctant to sample clams that fresh, "But they're raw!" We gathered more at a place or two on the way back to the anchorage without cleaning them so we accompanied OJ and family to the shore and helped shuck the rest. It was well after lunch, so OJ took off on a scooter and as we finish shucking the clams he returned with lunch. Two cans corned beef, a can of mackerel and a pot of hot rice. We teased about 5 gallons of
fresh clams and all the reef fish we watched while clamming and to eat canned mackerel! Rice is the current standard fare here. The average family buys a 35 kilo bag every 3 months or so.

Trinda has decided that in lew of letters of introduction she should make a batch of fresh chocolate chip cookies and walk through the village to get acquainted. We dinghyed ashore near the middle of the village and stopped each time we saw someone and offered a cookie. Saitu and Rariki, the eldest deacon of the church, insisted we have a cool drink. He opened the fridge on the porch and pulled out several husked, green coconuts, chops off the top and we have ice cold coconut juice. Very refreshing.

We wandered on through the village of 50 people, including children, passing out cookies. We meet Taina and Ben who calls himself Bana after his grand father. They are the keepers of the "Yatchie Guest Book" and insisted we take it back to the boat and write a page. It was started in 1987 with John Niel and Bana's grand father and had entries from several boats we that we had met during our 2 years in Mexico. We were the eighth to sign in 2007, but the harbor master said we were the 35th boat to
check in this year. I guess many of them were on the fast track and didn't make it to the quiet anchorage of Te Tautua.

The next day, since the cookies were such a hit and they all responded with refreshments for us, Trinda made one of her famous chocolate cakes with the thick fudge for icing. It was shared around widely! and more local refreshments returned. Later we were told about a birthday celebration coming up, a 21st birthday. It is a celebration of the young man entering adult hood and given a symbolic "key to leave" his parents control. The catch was that the special birthday cake for the event was to be
shipped up from Rarotonga by plane and it didn't arrive! They asked if Trinda could make another cake for the party and invited us to join in.

The whole village participated in the preparations. There were excursions to collect more clams, fish, coconut crab, crayfish (spiny lobster like in Mexico), chicken and a hunt for a wild pig. Then all the coconut for the various treats made from them.

Penrhyn - last day

We plan to leave in the morning for Christmas. Maybe 6 days passage.
I am still working on the story of Penrhyn. Maybe in a few days...
We had a nice steak dinner at Bold Spirit and Mike of Mike's Pearl farm, tonight and a noiice afternoon with Ale and Christine, the head of the church here in the village of Omoka.

Penrhyn - Omoka

We moved back to Omoka, the village near the pass into the lagoon today. Bold Spirit has the flu too and decided to wait another day or two before coming back here.

It has been a very nice 3 weeks in Te Tautua. We met lots of nice people. I hope to write a story about our stay, but still feel very uncreative. Mostly because I am not over the flu even yet. Trinda is still under the weather too. It has left us with a bad cough.

We plan to get some provisions and maybe head for Christmas Island, Kerebati about Saturday.