video

DORADO & half-way

local 1855
N11 36 W157 11
585nm from Honolulu

Tonight we will be half-way to Honolulu from Fanning, putting us on schedule to arrive Saturday.

We've taken in the morning to saying, "What's going to happen today?" Yesterday was our dolphin friends, and today was a beautiful dorado on the hook. MJ reeled her in and Colin carved up some gorgeous fillets, one of which he has marinating for dinner right now.

We are definitely in the northeast trades now, close-hauled in 15 to 18-knots. We decided to put up the storm jib (nicely done by Liz and MJ), which actually has let us point higher and heel less, without losing any speed.

Scrabble and dream analysis were the afternoon activities over a huge bowl of popcorn. We're all getting pretty good at living and crawling about at this angle with the rail buried. Occasionally we launch off a wave and land pretty hard or get completely doused in the cockpit, but generally we are moving over 6-knots in the right direction. And we're half-way!

cocktail hour in the cockpit - video

checking off the latitudes

N08 08 W157 58
local 0650
270nm from Fanning 790nm from Honolulu

All is well as we sail north into the cooler weather. The sun is rising through a cloudy sky right now and everyone is sleeping. The nights are just cool enough finally that you need a sheet, at least near you. Our wind has been favorable (from the southeast 14 to 18-knots) and we have been averaging between 7 and 8-knots and sometimes hitting 11 or 12 as we come down the front side of a wave. Sometime today or tomorrow the wind should back and we will be close-hauled again.

We are double-reefed with full jib. Yesterday Liz and Colin went forward to shake a reef, but by the time they did a squall hit and the reef was back in. The squalls are littering the sky now, sometimes passing behind us and sometimes giving us a good dousing. Pretty soon we should also be out of squall territory as we head into the northeast trade winds.

My friends Karen Prioleau and Barbara Marrett are sailing Orange Coast College's Alaska Eagle (which I sometimes teach on) south from Honolulu to Fanning Island right now with an all women training crew. They were scheduled to depart the same day we did from Fanning, and hope to pass nearby tonight or tomorrow and at least say hi on the radio.

update:
local 2100
N09 39 W157 27

The wind was mellow all day today, but enough to move along at 6-knots. We were joined by a huge pod of cavorting dolphins who rode our bow wave and leaped and jumped around the boat for about a half-hour..

We are crossing tonight into latitudes where hurricanes have historically passed in July (although not super common) so we are making sure to get updated weather information with any suspicious low pressures. Everything is looking good for us, with no depressions forming anywhere and the trades blowing consistently. ETA for Honolulu: Saturday.

goodbye to Fanning

local 1930
N03 53 W159 24

What an awesome time we had on Fanning Island. After 5 days of exploring and resting at this beautiful atoll, we waited for the current to change in the pass, weighed anchor as the ebb began, and motored out the narrow pass just as the sun set and the moon rose.

Yesterday was our favorite day on the island. MJ and Colin did a "drift dive" in the pass, where they drove out the pass in the dinghy and then drifted back into the atoll under the water. Liz and Dan and I got dropped ashore with our boards and beach bags. But before we could hike over to the other side of the island we were surrounded by a group of children who were very interested in our surfboards. So we let the kids swim around on them for a while, which was a blast for them and for us.

After a while we picked up the boards and started walking, our little posse in tow. They stayed with us for the whole day, watching us surf and even getting a yoga class from Liz. They were some of the loveliest, most polite children we've ever met, and before we said goodbye one of them adeptly climbed a palm tree and picked us 3 coconuts to drink.

Dan just fed us a spaghetti dinner that everyone is hoping to keep down, and we're wishing for some good wind (as much east as possible) as we head the 1050nm north to Honolulu. It's blowing NE 17-kts right now and we're moving 6-knots on a course of 010-degrees T with a double-reefed main and jib. All is well back out at sea on Confetti!


Liz helping Dan rewire the fridge.


Scrabble on the real board (instead of the plastic travel set) and yoga (look closely) are much easier at anchor!

yoga class and coconuts

our little Fanning Island friends

They loved "reading" my magazines.

cool island

local 2000

Fanning Island has proved to be a pretty neat place here in the middle of the Pacific. After some good sleep (my last blog entry may have been a little incoherent since I hadn't slept at all in 36 hours) we went on a shore expedition to the outside of the island and Dan and I surfed some beautiful waves. It felt great to be in the water getting some exercise and was super fun to have a surf break all to ourselves.

The locals are a little shy, but always have a big smile for us. They do speak English, since the country is in association with Australia, but their first language is Kiribati. On arrival back to our dinghy at the dock yesterday we found a bunch of naked children using our boat as a dive platform and having a grand old time screaming and jumping into the water. The Kiribati culture seems to be pretty relaxed and the place has a nice feeling about it.

Liz and Dan and I went for a short walk on the island today and found ourselves under a huge variety of trees that we couldn't identify, but so much more than just the coconut palms of most of the South Pacific. They may have come from Australia. A small trading ship departed yesterday for Christmas Island after loading (by dinghy trips out to anchor) thousands of pounds of copra (dried coconut meat to be pressed into oil) for export, which is a mainstay of the local economy. Apparently there is
also a huge cruise ship that comes to the island every few months, delivering 2,500 people at a time to shore (local population is 2,500). Since it costs $40/person to come here as a tourist the cruise ship must provide the bulk of the island's income.

MJ and Colin went on a fishing trip in the dinghy this afternoon, but didn't stray too far from the boat as the wind has been blowing really hard all day and the current is quite strong in this lagoon. The Scrabble board was out for a few rounds, as was chess. Colin is cooking us up some tuna right now, and all is well here with the boat nice and flat at anchor.

Our plan is to do some more exploring tomorrow and take off on Saturday to head north.


Driving the customs and immigration officer back to the island after they cleared us into the country.



Our "driveway."

anchored at Fanning Island in 11-feet

N03 51 W159 21
local 2120 Wednesday (although Tuesday for us)

We had a great sail yesterday. The wind backed to SSE and we beam reached along for hours, regularly hitting 11-knots. Finally last night we had to roll up the jib and double-reef the main to slow down to arrive at Fanning Island at first light. It was a beautiful sunrise, with coffee in hand, over the 9-mile long atoll. The pass was pretty straightforward, with small waves breaking on either side, that Dan and I may go check out with our boards tomorrow.

We dropped the hook, Colin in the water to directing us to a nice sandy patch, next to a wreck, and have cleared into the country of Kiribati. Unbeknownst to us today is actually tomorrow since we crossed the international dateline, even though we are at longitude W159. The dateline jogs east here at Fanning so that Kiribati is all on the same day.

After official paperwork, Liz, Colin and MJ did some on-shore exploring and enjoyed walking on land as well as even climbing a tree. The sun is crazy intense here so managing our sun exposure kept us busy today and the sunscreen flowing. The trades are blowing over the lagoon, though, so the evening has turned a lovely temperature conducive to the full night's sleep that we are thrilled to get tonight. With our still abundant tuna we made poisson cru for an appetizer and then MJ grilled us up some
amazing tuna steaks with mashed potatoes for dinner. Life at anchor is fabulous. Everyone is hanging out chatting in the cockpit right now, under the waxing moon in this ultra-calm lagoon, and pretty soon we will all dive into some much-needed sleep.

We averaged 143nm/day at 6-knots on the 1250nm passage from American Samoa, which we are happy with considering that it was upwind. Our plan is to stay here for a few days resting and checking out this cool island in the middle of the ocean before we take off for Hawaii.


Approaching Fanning Island at sunrise.



Happily anchored.

75nm to go

local 1700
N02 39 W159 49

Today was the hottest day of the trip so far, with the sun turning Confetti into an oven. It still isn't as hot as the trip south though. We passed a ship whose captain informed us of a report of a missing sailboat en route to Australia from Hawaii. We are keeping an extra eye out for them.

Our ETA to Fanning at current speed is the middle of the night, so we have a reef tucked in to slow down and will likely furl our jib in a few hours to slow down further. Everybody aboard is really excited to land on this island in the middle of the ocean, mostly because it sounds cool, but also because 8 days upwind at sea has tuckered us out.

The sun is setting and everyone is emerging from behind their respective shady spots to convene in the cockpit for our last evening out before landfall.

equator

1900 local
N00 24 W161 02
225nm from Fanning

We crossed the equator this afternoon and are back in the northern hemisphere. It all happened so fast; the S on the GPS turned into an N while we weren't looking. We threw some "confetti," Liz adorned us with bindis and we toasted with snickers and Kahlua shots.

The equatorial sky has been filled with lots of big puffy clouds, so the sunsets and sunrises have been incredible. We saw another fish feeding frenzy today and you could see Colin fighting to restrain himself from throwing a line out. But our freezer is full of fish! In fact, Liz is pan searing some tuna for us at this very moment.

a great day

2200 local
S01 38 W161 56
360nm from Fanning

The wind has been pretty favorable today - from the right direction mostly and 8 to 11-knots. Colin served up some lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches from homemade bread, and just as we were finishing up a flock of birds filled the air aloft. Within seconds there were hundreds of birds everywhere and then crazy fish boils started frothing on either side of us.

Because Colin was down below making lunch we didn't have a line out, so MJ jumped up and threw one in. You could see the fish - what looked like thousands - feeding at the surface and it was only a matter of seconds before Colin, who had put the rest of grilling lunch on hold, grabbed the line and started screaming "Fish on! Fish on!!" After barking orders at us to slow the boat down (sometimes hard in Confetti!) he hauled the line in by hand (only sustaining a few cuts on his gloved hands and forearms)
and up came a most beautiful 30+ pound blue fin tuna.

The freezer is now chilling 3/4 of the meat and the rest we gorged ourselves on tonight in the form of sushi rolls and sashimi that just got better and better. The sky was so pretty as the sun set that it seemed fake, and Liz spun us a great playlist as soundtrack to our amazing evening under the stars.

We have edged our way east, so we won't cross the equator until tomorrow; hopefully before evening. All is fantastic as we glide underneath our half moon that is throwing off a huge moon river to the west.


The tuna boil.

light wind from the wrong direction

1400 local
S04 20 W163 11

The wind has been from almost every direction, and in turn we have pointed every direction, in the last 24 hours. Being on port tack for most of the night was disorienting when traversing the healing cabin, since we've been on starboard for 4 days. We're traveled up and heading as high as as we can, but have had a shorter and shorter day's run every day since we left. The last 24 hours we went a mere 112nm across the chart in the right direction.

There's bread in the oven, though, and Dan's playing guitar while MJ is reading and Colin is practicing his Spanish with Liz. Tiredness pervades but laughter still rings. Right now we're moving 5-knots in 8-knots of NE breeze on a course of 350-degrees T (course to Fanning is 026-degrees). MJ says "Happy Birthday Dink!"

ETA Fanning: July 24

Update 1600 local: The wind clocked to east and picked up to 12-knots, so we're on course and moving 7-knots. We should cross the equator sometime tomorrow night.

half way

S05 38 W164 20
1200 local

We are half-way to Fanning - 640nm from American Samoa and 640nm from Fanning Island. The wind has backed a little (not good for us) and lightened, so we are close-hauled in 8-knots moving 5.5-knots.

It's a beautiful day out here in the middle of the ocean. Lots of birds are buzzing about and Colin is trailing the homemade lure he tied this morning. MJ is getting ready to fix us a jambalaya and I just plotted our noon fix and 24-hour run of 135nm (one of our lowest ever). Dan and Liz are sweating to death down below getting the fridge rewired and hopefully we will save some of our food that has defrosted in this 90-degree heat.

We had a "COB" this morning. Not the kind to worry about though; it was a CUP that we retrieved with Colin hanging over the rail.

update: 1700 local
S05 16 W164 03
375nm from the equator

Light wind day with a few not-so-windy, but very rainy, squalls. We pulled out soap and showered under the run-off of the mainsail. Liz is steering us through a squall right now and the ipod is playing (some cool music of MJ's). Dinner's just about ready and then we'll each try to get our few hours of nightly sleep. Spirits are high and all is good aboard Confetti in our last few days in the southern hemisphere.



Colin putting together his homemade lures with various scraps from the boat.

sea legs

midnight local time
S06 35 W164 51
700nm south of Fanning Island

The wind moderated to 10-knots today and everyone seems to have their sea legs now. A couple of lures trailed behind the boat most of the day and we even got a game of hearts in. Although we are getting very close to the equator the heat is not as oppressive as it was on the way south, since we are going upwind and have more apparent wind.

Lately it's hard not to think we have a gremlin aboard. The fridge isn't working properly, the final original piece of our Raymarine autopilot system is giving out, and the watermaker is barely limping along. But we are enjoying the calmer weather, and the great sailing, even though it's upwind. The trade winds have been pretty steady, except when the squalls come. They have been dumping torrential rain on us, so heavy it hurts your eyes to try to look ahead or aloft. But the decks and anything we
have hanging on the lifelines are very clean.

No planes, boats, land or any other sign of human life for a few days now; just our little floating home moving along at 6.5-knots over the waves and through the phosphorescence.



Liz driving us through a squall.

calling the dinosaurs

1100 local
S09 44 W166 39
wind ENE 14kts

Still rough, and probably will be for a while, but all is good. Lots of euphemisms flying around for vomiting. Today's favorite is from our friend, Peter: "Calling the Dinosaurs." So far none have risen from the ocean, BUT... perhaps the whales heard the calls, as a couple of humpbacks have been breaching off our port side this morning.

It's great to think of the 70+ Transpac boats all racing toward Hawaii right now at the same time we are, although hopefully they are sailing downwind. We continue to race ourselves and try to go fast. We saw 11.4-knots 2 nights ago on the knot-meter, which is fast for us upwind.

Liz is clipped into the galley and cooking us up some sausage and eggs, and the wind has lightened a few knots which makes a big difference down below (especially in the head!).

175nm from Manu'a Islands

We had a great run of 170 miles from our 1230 departure yesterday to noon today. We've been close-reaching and close-hauled mostly in 15 to 20-knots of ENE wind. We're double-reefed with full jib that we occasionally bring in for squalls. It's a rough ride, with the rail mostly dipped and the bow launching off waves. Some of our amazing crew are doing what we call, "boot and rally." It takes a great attitude and good "EB" to come up from puking over the leeward rail with a smile and a joke, and then
offer to help stick a reef in. Our passage to Fanning Island will be a total 1250nm on a course of 030-degrees T. Cooking (actually everything) is a challenge on starboard tack, but we are all healthy and happy.






1300 local
S11 47 W167 55

(no subject)

Manu'a Islands

Today was a very productive day of projects. We got the new GPS installed and up and running, which is a big relief. MJ and Liz went up the mast (not at the same time) to install our running backstays, now that we'll be going upwind. And much, much more was accomplished!

We will weigh anchors (we have 2 set since the anchorage isn't great) in the morning after a few more projects and head for Fanning Island, an atoll 1250nm to the northeast. That will be our resting point in the middle of the ocean, as well as a good dive and surf spot. The forecast is for 20-knots of east wind, so we hopefully will be speeding along on a close-reach. All well aboard and enjoying our last night in these fantastic islands by drinking some coconuts and using the grill one last timw.

Installing the new GPS.



Colin and MJ changed the zincs and scrubbed the bottom so we could go north fast.



Getting the riding sail up to help with the rough anchorage.



MJ aloft to put on the running backstays.

Ofu Island

0900 local Friday

Confetti is anchored in a roll-y, but lovely anchorage in the Manu'a Islands (part of American Samoa). We had a fast 65nm close-reach east from Pago Pago in NE 10-knots, the island easily fetched in 9 hours. There was a fair amount of fish-feeding in the messy swell, but all were happy as we arrived at these beautiful green islands that jut straight out of the water to 2000-feet. There is a permanent cloud over the peak above our boat, and the rugged hillside is thick with lush growth. Samoan flying
foxes (fruit bat) have been flying over the boat, and there is the constant sound of songbirds from the trees.

Landing the dinghy in surf yesterday was a bit challenging, but well worth it for the amazing snorkeling inside the reef, and the gorgeous white sand beach that is part of the national park of Samoa. There are only a couple hundred people living here, and, although polite, they seem wary of visitors. We are the only boat anchored, and generally not that many boats come to the Manu'a, as the anchorage is only marginally protected (and because it isn't written about in the cruising guides, which most
cruisers stick to).

Our friend Liz Hammond flies in today on a small plane from Pago Pago. She and Dan know each other from high school, and she has recently become a NOLS Instructor, as well as the NOLS Mexico Branch Director. With her arrival, our crew will be complete, so we will shove off to head north within a few days. A few projects loom, but otherwise we are ready to head for the equator.

Update: Liz arrived on a little 19-seater and within minutes was in the water snorkeling in this virtual aquarium. Colin's lighting the grill now for burgers and tomorrow we'll get some projects done before some more island exploring/snorkeling. Our fabulous crew is complete and all is great aboard Confetti.

Leaving Pago Pago behind.



Heading into the Manu'a Islands.

We will cast off the mooring tomorrow and head for the Manu'a Islands, 60 miles east of here. No more photos until we get to Hawaii but will update text over the Ham. Cheers from Confetti!

Colin and MJ took some underwater pics this morning in front of Tisa's.

We filled the tanks with diesel, the boat with food, and got lots of projects finished.

Pago Pago hasn't grown on us much. In fact we are really looking
forward to getting out of here. Our friends Colin Sutton and Mary
Joyner (MJ), both NOLS Instructors, flew in last night, armed with
bags of dive gear, fishing gear and spear guns. I think we will be
eating a lot of fish in the next month.

We will take off early Wednesday morning if we can get our projects
done. Once again our Spectra watermaker is acting up, but we are
hopeful of getting it going. The constant aggravation of working on it
is still not as bad as jerry-jugging questionable water in the dinghy.
Our Raymarine autopilot and instruments (GPS, wind, depth, etc.) have
slowly been failing, one by one, so tomorrow we'll replace the GPS
unit with the new one that Colin brought. We've been navigating with a
Gecko handheld since Niue, which works but is slightly annoying. A few
other projects, provisions, fuel, propane (butane around here), and
then we should be good to go.

We won't miss the tuna factories and their stinky exhaust. Supposedly
they produce 50-percent of American tuna can supplies, churning out
over a million cans of packed tuna a DAY. The factories employ over
5,000 people, many of whom are from China and Korea. Some of the
locals we've talked to have expressed resentment at the foreign
workers who come for the $3.25 minimum wage here, as opposed to
60-cents in the non-American islands.

Right now the water around our boat in the bay is bright red, which we
thought at first was tuna blood (!). But it turns out that it's an
algae bloom caused by illegal Chinese laundry detergent. Combined with
the thousands of floating plastic bags, bottles and garbage, it's a
grim sight.

We are heading back to Tisa's Barefoot Bar for dinner tonight, where
Colin and MJ will also enjoy their last night on terra firma. Tisa
grew up here, in the village where her place is. She went to school in
the U.S., and when she came back to Samoa she decided something had to
be done about the garbage everywhere, and the struggling fish
populations. So she has created a de facto marine park on the beach in
front of her village; she doesn't allow fishing, dumping or hunting of
birds or fish. Apparently the locals respect her "park," and the
wildlife is flourishing and there is less trash washing ashore.

The rain is POURING down and we are getting projects done (or at least trying). We've had to move the boat to a mooring since our anchor dragged in the night two nights ago. The holding ground here is really bad because of all the debris on the bottom. We are also trying to get used to the smells emitted from the tuna factories just up the road from the boat. But it's pretty hard, especially when it accosts your nostrils first thing in the morning before you've even had coffee!

Riina and Matt flew out last night. They will both go back to Laramie, Wyoming where Matt works as a structural engineer. Riina will fly home to Brussels later in the month where she works and is also finishing up a PhD in education. We had such a great time on Confetti with them: exploring remote islands, cooking and eating delicious meals and drinking good wine. Hopefully the next place we catch up with them will be in Europe.

We plan to stay here through next Tuesday checking off the project list and provisioning for the next month.

For Matt's slideshow check out:
http://www.mpeavy.com/Matthew/Pictures/SailingSouthPacific/SailingSouthPacific_Intro.html

We have finally found some wireless. Yesterday everything was closed for the "4th," which was a little surreal, being in the middle of the South Pacific. This is the only American territory south of the equator and we are starting to get a sense of the island. We have been in French Polynesia (run by the French), Rarotonga and Niue (run by New Zealand), and now American Samoa, run by ours truly. It is extremely interesting to see how these island cultures, which were obviously very similar before Europeans and Americans showed up, have grown so different from each other with the various influences.

Matt and Riina found this lovely beach chalet/restaurant, run by "Tisa and the Candyman," that we went to for a real Samoan feast last night. It was by far the best food we've eaten since French Polynesia. They laid pork, turkey, shrimp, yellowfin tuna, coconuts, bananas, taro, breadfruit and more over rocks on top of a fire, and then covered the whole thing with huge wet banana leaves for 6 hours. After they pulled the steaming leaves off the fire we sat at a table, which was clothed in banana leaves, and ate the food with our fingers right off of the leaves. The meat practically fell off the bones and the rich taste of coconut enhanced every dish. It was fantastic. And to top it off some neighbors even set off fireworks right over the breaking waves.





Our cab driver back to the boat told us there are 3000 Samoans in the US military, and despite the fact that two of his grandsons have been killed in Iraq he says he loves George Bush. We are curious to meet some other locals and see what the general sentiments are on the island.

Our plan is to stay here for 4 or 5 more days, fixing things (too boring to write about but lots to do!) and then take off (with our new crew who flies in Sunday) for the Manua Islands. They are 60nm east and still part of American Samoa, with a protected marine park that is supposed to have incredible snorkeling.