Day 22 – November 13
Extremely disappointed in the morning to find the rat trap empty and more of our dried goods eaten, we decided we needed to increase our rat catching efforts. This meant setting out glue traps in addition to the cage trap.
We sailed from 9am until 5pm through some very light and shifty winds and reached Dawson Island which turned out to be a little slice of paradise. I mentioned to Becky “if I were to live in Papua New Guinea this is where I would want to live”. She replies “you say that about every island we come to”. Maybe I do but this place is truly idyllic and how can you not love a place where all the village kids line up on the beach, waving their arms in the air, welcoming us as we drop anchor in their bay.
It has been 4 days since we have caught fresh fish and canned tuna is getting old. Just like every time we anchor near a village, we mention to the local men that if they catch us a fish or lobster we will pay them cash.
Day 23 – November 14
Lobstermania!!! Local fishermen paddled out to the boat early this morning with 3 parrotfish, a cuttlefish, and 14 lobsters! We gave them 100 Kina (about $40USD) for all and enjoyed a delicious fish fry for breakfast.
After breakfast we set sail across the Solomon Sea for the island of New Ireland – 360 nautical miles to the northeast. This means that we will be sailing night and day for several days.
Day 24 – November 15
After a great night sail with steady wind at 10-15 knots we came upon a group of 4 tiny islands in the middle of the Solomon Sea – the Marshall Bennett Islands. For several hours we anchored on the reef at Dugumenu Islet and felt like explorers as we snorkeled the pristine waters and explored this stunningly beautiful and uninhabited island.
Day 25 – November 16
Mayday Mayday… the Solomon Sea kicked our ass this morning. I was at the helm on night watch from 2-4am and all was great – 15 knots of wind, calm seas, and our only concern was the little bit of lightening off in the distance. Becky took over at 4am and 30 minutes later Captain Bill called for all hands on deck.
The wind had picked up to 30+ knots of wind, the rain was pouring down, and the waves were crashing over the cockpit. Before I could even make it out of the galley and into the cockpit the water alarm went off signaling that the boat was filling with water faster than the bilge pump could pump it out. Within minutes we were standing in ankle deep water! Captain Bill and I began to pass buckets full of water up through the hatch to Becky and Andy. Meanwhile, waves were crashing over the boat and through the hatch, soaking everything inside and undermining our efforts. My muscles were burning with exhaustion I couldn’t stop because the boat was filling up with water faster than we could bail it out.
All this time I couldn’t help but think about what I would throw in my dry bag should we need to abandon ship and jump into the life raft. After an hour of bailing water, Captain Bill had resolved the problem with the bilge pumps and slowly the water began to recede.
As the storm passed, the wind also died down and left us with very light and shifty wind. Not worth our effort or time to attempt to make that work in our favor. We shifted the sails so that we were completely stalled out and spent the rest of the day bobbing around in the Solomon Sea, cleaning up the mess that had been made, and found time to get a game of Yahtzee in. By night the wind still had not returned so we spent the night stalled out in the middle of the ocean with no land in view.
Day 26 – November 17
No wind in sight… and it could be days before we see the wind again. Since we weren’t going anywhere, it was a great day for boat projects. The only “project” that we did not succeed at was catching the rat that has now been on board for 8 days.
Day 27 – November 18
Captain Bill woke up with his knee swollen to the size of a grapefruit and developed a fever of 102 degrees. Since he was down for the remainder of the day and our bilge pumps were not pumping out the incoming water fast enough to keep up, we switched up our sailing schedule so that we each (Becky-Andy-Myself) would spend 2 hours at the helm (steering the boat), 2 hours watching the bilge pumps (emptying them every 10 minutes), and finally 2 hours sleeping. Not the most ideal situation but the only practical one we could come up with.
Day 28 – November 19
Please… no more lobster! 4 days of eating lobster for breakfast and dinner is just too much – in fact 1 day of lobster is enough for me. The thought of eating it now makes me cringe and tonight at dinner you could catch me secretly throwing bits of lobster overboard as I ate my dinner.
We had great wind today but the tiredness of only sleeping 2 hours and being awake for 4 has really started to set in. In fact I even began to hallucinate a little. When we woke Andy up for his shift he mumbled “are you sure it’s been 2 hours already… I don’t think it’s been 2 hours already… it can’t have been 2 hours already”. 2 hours of sleep goes by in a flash and you begin to question if your fellow crew members actually did their full 2 hour shift or only just said they did.
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