Wind And Waves

So Today I did it. I done gone and did it. I dropped my camera in the sea!

Sitting on the bow, enjoying the wind, arms stretched wide, Its easy to imagine what it must feel like to be a bird.
Suddenly, we get a gust of wind and its time to raise the sail, shouting motioning, lots going on, my freshly washed hair that I’ve let loose to blow wild in wind for the first time. is making it so I can’t see a thing, Laura get out of the way! they shout. As I’m stumbling back to the cockpit, my hand catches the wire and jerks the camera right out of my hands. It hit the side of Contessa and bounces into the sea. Gone before I can even understand whats happening.

I could hardly believe it. I just sat there staring in disbelief at my hands. This did not just happen, this did not just happen, this did not just HAPPEN!!
ERRRR so frustrating!

This was a loss to us all, as it was our group camera. We kept it in a common spot and every single one of us went to pick it up and snap a shots.

Makes you appreciate what you’ve got after you’ve lost it.

The thing killing me the most is the super cute picture I took of Aimme and Jeremy when they weren’t looking and the picture of Jeremy looking so happy as he stood next to the sail. Its lost, all lost.

Its painful to think of a huge leg of our journey being undocumented. Every once in awhile I see a great picture and get a pang. It hurts, Its like the feeling you get when you and your boyfriend have your separate ways.

And as if the gods havn’t already taught me the lesson I seem not to be able to learn (Laura needs to stay away from water with her digital camera) I sat stunned as the most beautiful picture developed right in front of my eyes……………..

Our engine is taking a lot of oil….too much. We find ourselves in a situation where we need to get oil and quickly. We’ve got a difficult straight ahead of us, with lots of islands and reefs to avoid. As the sun is setting and we’ve just finished our meal (Eddie’s cooking job, stir fry with lots of vegis and rice and then to all of our dissapointments, Eddie stirred in Corn beef. When Eddie gets in the kitchen its nothing but corn beef and rice…..with lots of oil. We’ve decided to hide the corn beef, so we can get a litlte rest from it!)

Anyway, so we saw a boat in the distance. We joked about playing pirates, kicked the motor in full speed and headed in towards the boat. We calculated it would take us about an hour to get to them. Our plan was to trade our “spagetti” (needs to be rewired! but engine works fine) generator for as much oil as we can get.

One could not have asked for better lighting on the scene. A beautiflly deep orange Pacific sun was setting behind us illuminating the Outrrigger, fishing boat in front of us. It had to have been one of the most beautiful boats I have ever seen. It filled my child hood fantasy of what a Huck fin like raft would look like (but quite a lot more extravagant). The outriggers were of bamboo and it had a seconde story to it, that looked like the loft where everyone slept. Their faces shone in the setting sun and the colors of their carefully decorated fishing boat leaped out at us.

They were all spread around the boat doing there indvidual tasks and they seemed undisturbed by our intrusion. Only after we acccidently dragged them a ways after missing the line they through us, did they stop what they were doing to look on.

As I write this, I’m sitting in the galley watching Tony (head chef) cook up the Two large white/reddish fish that they gave us. I’m trying to watch to see how he does this, he has no doubt demonstrated his cooking skills on this trip! He’s bustling away in the kitchen,chop, chop choppinng away. Moving here and fro……stay out of his way, this man is on a mission!

Its interresting on this trip to see everyone’s different skill and interests shine out. Today, Tony was the big star. His speaks tagalong which was the language we needed to speak. He bargained for a good long time….what he was saying, I have no idea but it started to look like they had oil that they were willing ot give us. Johny, didn’t necessairy understand the language but he was und,erstanding something else, he followed right along. Putting a funny joke in when tensions were a litlte tight, and helping Tony to bargain when the leader was in the mood to talk bargain.

We pulled away happier than ever! Though none of us openly talked about it, the prospect of going through the channel in the middle of the night with no engine (and most likely no wind) was a little scary!
And we could sense some concern from Johny and when Johny is concerned, you know at least something is up……most the time he seems almost overly relaxed.

What a night at sea!! AND now to the channel!