Almost a month since my last posting? That doesn't seem right, but we have been here at Fanning Island for almost two months now. Since the last posting we have mostly been the only boat here - the other yacht left. But we have had visits from the local supply ship, a 100-year old whaling ship from Norway, the Haganes, and the Holland America cruise ship the Westerdam. It's good to have some diversions, especially when the surf is flat! The local supply ship came, but didn't bring nearly enough supplies. No fuel, no flour, not nearly enough rice or sugar. Another private ship (the Kwai - which is also a sail training vessel apparently, with an international crew, based in Hawaii), is supposed to get here in a few days, but also was unable to fit all of the supplies that were ordered by the islanders here - less than half the rice ordered is going to be delivered. But this ship will bring us gas & eggs, which have been in short supply on Midnight Blue for awhile, and many other specially ordered items for the islanders. While there are tons of chickens running around the island, no one seems to keep them for eggs… So my baking has been suffering. I did give some *cookie baking* lessons (requested after people tasted my cookies!) but tried making them without eggs, substituting oil instead. They turned out way too crumbly! And we were baking in the local oven over a fire, so the first batch was a bit burnt and the later batches took forever and all tasted smoky. A week later I repeated the *lesson* for some other folks and we used a propane grill to bake on - this worked a bit better, plus I used the last of my eggs since these cookies were in part for Tim's birthday!
We had a great birthday celebration for Tim at our friend Bruno's house - even spent the night onshore so we could hang out and watch the fullish moon without fear of crossing the channel at night. Tim made everyone pizza and I made him a vegan chocolate cake. Our friend Tyrone surprised Tim with gifts of a local canoe replica and knife, beautifully detailed & made from local materials, including the twine which is made from coconut fiber.
This week the cruise ship visited, it was a sight to see. Apparently, they do not even anchor offshore - it is too deep for them to anchor, so they just heave to and hang out for the day. Tons of people came ashore - the ship carries 1,900 people and the small boats were going back and forth all day. After the first few hours there was a line stretching for several *blocks* to get back on the cruise ship! Weird to be surrounded by white people after being the only whites on the island for so long. White people are call 'te maton' in Kiribati - I'll be walking down the street and kids all call 'te maton, te maton'. Apparently it is just out of excitement, not derogatory - the word really means 'white person who came by boat from the sea'. For the cruise ship visit, there were several *choir* groups set up singing, and folks dressed in traditional outfits charging for pictures, tours of the island by truck, and lots of crafts stands, mostly selling the same items - the local knives, carvings, and shell jewelry. We hung out a bit by the dock and got to meet many folks - they are on a cruise that started in Seattle, went up to Vancouver, than down to San Diego, Hawaii, and here and will continue on through the South Pacific - 35 days in all. So, it was mainly retired folks on this cruise!
Well, it's time for us to start getting ready to head out. We've decided to head back to Hawaii for the winter - not sure which island(s) we'll end up at - it'll depend on dock slip availability. It's going to be hurricane season in the South Pacific, so we don't want to go further south, and we don't want to spend the next six months in the more remote areas nearer the equator where we might be safe from storms… We'll be in Hawaii until the spring, and then we'll have to decide - back to Mexico or head for the South Pacific, or elsewhere?
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
