by Judy Handley | Apr 23, 2010 | Chagos, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 179, Year 5: Ile Fouquet to Ile Fouquet
Date: Friday, April 23, 2010
Weather: Overcast, Squally, Seas 1.5 Meters, Winds SE to ESE 15 Knots
Location: Ile Fouquet, Salomon Atoll, Chagos
Latitude: 05 degrees 20.299 minutes S
Longitude: 072 degrees 15.768 minutes E
Remember the rule-never leave port on a Friday. Well, we broke the rule today and paid the price. We had a bumpy, squally ride to Salomon Atoll, but we are here and anchored in front of another Ile Fouquet. Constance called on the radio last night and said they were thinking of leaving today so we said we’d tag along. It was either leave today or tomorrow as the winds are supposed to die out by Sunday. That would means we would have to motor, but as it was, we had to motor half of the day anyway. We had wind but it was often on the nose and we had to use the motor to assist. We made it with just an hour to spare before dark. This Ile Fouquet is much bigger than the one we just left in Peros Banhos and not as dramatic looking, but I do love the tree on shore that is full of some sort of white birds tonight. I will be anxious to check that out tomorrow.
The REALLY good news of the day is that Jonah was a real trooper and now has those tubes inserted in his ears. He was a little fussy in the recovery room, but by the time he got home, he was ready to go to the backyard and play with Sam. We got this news from Heather when we sent the log last night, so we slept peacefully knowing all was well. Now we just have to hope that the tubes work and that Jonah does not get repetitive ear infections.
Tomorrow we will begin to explore Salomon Atoll, beginning with Ile Fouquet. Next door is Takamaka (I love that name.) and we might take a peak there as well. We will stay here for a few days before moving down to Ile Boddam. Like Ile du Coin in Peros Banhos Atoll, Ile Boddam was populated at one time. It is the go-to island in the Chagos for most cruisers and has an active social life. There are volley ball games in the afternoon and cruisers are there that come here year after year from Southeast Asia. I think being there will be a bit like summer camp, but if the BIOT boat comes at the end of the month and has another barbecue for cruisers, it will be at Boddam and we will venture down there to take part. So my best guess is that we will be here for a week and then move to Boddam.
by Judy Handley | Apr 22, 2010 | Chagos, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 178, Year 5: Thinking of Jonah
Date: Thursday, April 22, 2010
Weather: Lots of Rain Early, then Overcast; Winds ESE 12-15 Knots
Location: Ile Fouquet, Peros Banhos Atoll, Chagos
Today has been a day all about thinking of Jonah. He is just shy of ten months old and it doesn’t seem fair that he has had constant ear infections since December. But he has and today is the day that he is having tubes inserted. At 5 pm here it was 8 am on the Cape and that was the time of the procedure. Jonah had to be at the hospital at 6:45 am and be put under general anesthesia for the 8 am procedure. It is now 6 pm here and 9 am on the Cape, so he should be reunited with Mom, Dad, and Sam. At 4:55 pm I was working in the kitchen and all of a sudden I was overcome and almost in tears. I looked at the clock and realized that Jonah was probably just about to get those tubes inserted. Then at 5:20 pm, I got this huge feeling of relief. So I am assuming all is well. I might be thousands of miles away, but something has surely kept me connected to Jonah and East Falmouth, Massachusetts today. Jonah has the most incredible deep set BIG blue eyes you have ever seen topped by Handley eyebrows that turn down when he laughs. So Jonah, we are thinking of you and seeing you smiling and laughing. We so hope that is what is happening right now.
Our day started at 6:30 am with a deluge of rain accompanied by strong winds. When we looked out we could see nothing except for Constance and she was right next to us. Something was wrong but we weren’t sure what. It took us some time to figure out what was happening, but eventually Mark was sure that our anchor chain was wrapped around a bommie and that was keeping us from swinging normally. By 8 am the deluge was over, we had filled a few buckets with rain water and put them in our tanks, and we had used the engine to move us so that the chain was freed from the bommie. So all was well even though it was quite an exciting early morning. The rain stopped but the sky was totally overcast for the rest of the day and the winds never subsided. Since the only thing between us and the outside is the reef, it is a bit bouncy but not bad. We continued with rainy day projects. The main job of the day and the success of this year to date was that Mark took down the wind generator to finally check out what might be causing it to work sometimes and totally quit at other times when it should be working. This has been a problem since we left Thailand, but we have hesitated to take the generator down fearing that we would do something to totally screw it up. But the job was actually easier than expected. One of the brushes in the head was sideways therefore making contact occasionally with ground which caused the generator to brake to a stop. It would start up again and repeat the braking as soon as it got enough speed to generate electricity. Mark could immediately see the problem and fix it. So he reinstalled it and it has been working great all day. We do hope this is a true fix as we are getting great power despite the clouds that are keeping the sun from powering the solar panels. When I was not assisting Mark with the wind generator project, I was defrosting the refrigerator. Our refrigerator has a wrap-around cold plate that frosts up. It is just like the tiny little freezer compartment that froze ice in the refrigerator I grew up with. So every couple of weeks I have to take everything out and use hot water to defrost it. Other jobs included cleaning out the anchor locker and doing more Madagascar research. The more I research, the more excited I get about going there. But I will write about that later.
by Judy Handley | Apr 21, 2010 | Chagos, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 177, Year 5: Rainy Day Projects
Date: Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Weather: Off & On Rain All Day; Winds ESE 12-15 Knots
Location: Ile Fouquet, Peros Banhos Atoll, Chagos
After moving everything off the v-berth yesterday, we enjoyed our first night sleeping there last night. It was much cooler-so windy and cool and that I had to have a top sheet. So we will keep things this way while we are here in Chagos. Because we both took showers yesterday, I used the shower water to soak the sheets from the aft cabin bed overnight. That’s why it rained. Every time I soak sheets overnight and get them ready to hang out in the morning, it rains. But I went ahead and washed the mattress cover and material that has been covering the v-berth, and most everything is dry tonight. It has been very windy, so drying could happen in between rains. It is a little labor intensive bringing clothes in when it rains and then hanging them out again, but it works. Today we got under the v-berth and rearranged things. We put the huge spinnaker back under the bed and got out the candy-stripped boat covers that we will use in Salomon while doing our varnishing projects. Getting under the v-berth prompted Mark to clean out the huge drawer that he keeps electronic gear in and I cleaned out the cabinet in the v-berth and ended up gathering all of the batteries we have onboard and getting those better organized. In the afternoon, Mark worked on re-rigging his fishing pole with stronger line and I started mapping out our Madagascar anchorages. This requires reading every bit of information we have and then using what we know to make tentative plans for our three months there. It looks like we will have no trouble spending that much time there. The unusual geologic formations and unique plants and animals will certainly keep us busy for three months. It looks like most anchorages might be a bit rolly, but we’ll just have to put up with that so we can enjoy such a special place in the world.
Mark, Ed, and I went out in the dinghy mid-day to recover the lure Mark lost yesterday and found it amazingly quickly. Mark swam in one direction and Ed in the other, and Ed picked the closest route as he found it almost immediately. Both tried fishing from the boat this afternoon. Mark caught something, or rather something caught Mark and immediately went under some coral. It must have taken almost an hour for whatever it was to rid itself of the hook and escape, but at least Mark got back all his gear this time. We had the Bonito caught yesterday for dinner tonight and despite everyone saying that it is not a good eating fish, we found it to be quite good. I marinated it in the marinade recipe I inherited from my sister Margie and that was the magic formula. Oceanic Bonito and Skipjack Tuna are used interchangeably, but evidently Bonito should have a lighter pink meat. The fish Mark caught yesterday had dark meat like Skipjack, but whatever it was it was quite good when marinated and grilled. So we’ll stop throwing all of these fish back. They are easy to catch and small enough that you can eat it all in two days. So a couple of these a month would be great.
by Judy Handley | Apr 20, 2010 | Chagos, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 176, Year 5: Snorkeling, Fishing, Ho-Hum
Date: Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Weather: Partly Sunny Day; Winds 10-12 ESE
Location: Ile Fouquet, Peros Banhos Atoll, Chagos
I’m starting to sound like a broken record. We snorkeled . . . again. And Mark fished . . . again. But we never tire of it. It might sound the same, but each day is different and exciting. We snorkeled in the aquarium at low tide this morning. This time we were trying to get some video footage and we were a little more successful this time. We saw a big nurse shark sleeping among the coral, so we left him/her alone and went snorkeling elsewhere. They are supposedly harmless, but we avoid them if at all possible. In the afternoon, Mark and Ed went to shore to burn garbage and then trolled along the reef for fish. They caught one Bonito (a type of tuna that is not so desirable) but they had to keep him as they didn’t think he would live if thrown back. Guess we’ll figure out how to best fix Bonito. Mark lost another lure. It snagged on the reef and they couldn’t recover it, but Mark is going to go out at lower tide tomorrow and see if he can find it. It will be like looking for a needle in the haystack, but he might get lucky. While he was out fishing, I moved all of the things we have been storing in the v-berth back to the aft cabin where we normally sleep. We are going to try sleeping in the v-berth for a change and see if it is any cooler. I could not believe how much we have been storing in the v-berth. There is one huge suitcase of extra clothes that we will need when we reach the cooler weather in South Africa. Another carry-on size suitcase houses travel information and notebooks of important papers. Yet another carry-on size suitcase is filling up with gifts we have bought. Then there is the huge Monitor windvane, a hand-me-down cockpit teak table given to us by SeaBunny, charts that no longer fit in our chart tubes, extra pillows and blankets, all of our docklines that I so carefully washing and dried and then hid away from India pollution, and other odds and ends. The v-berth bed is obviously bigger than the aft cabin bed as all of the stuff barely fits. We’ll try the new arrangement for a night or two and decide if we want to keep it that way until we leave Chagos. Even if we love the new sleeping quarters, we will have to move the storage area back to the v-berth before heading for Madagascar. The aft cabin is way too open and things would fly everywhere in heavy seas whereas in the v-berth things can bounce from side to side but can’t fall out as there are walls on both sides. We have always reserved the v-berth for company, so now we will find out just how comfortable a situation we have been offering visitors.
Early in the day we went over to say hello to Bob and Peppy on Far Niente. They sailed out of Tacoma, Washington in 2002 and are headed in our direction. We invited them over for sundowners on Windbird and also invited Constance. Since we will be traveling the same “highway” for the next few months, it seemed like a good idea to get to know each other a little better. We had a nice evening together reminiscing about good times in the South Pacific and talking a bit about the upcoming adventure in Madagascar. All three boats plan to head to Salomon Atoll in a few days but it is so comfortable here that it is hard to break away.
by Judy Handley | Apr 19, 2010 | Chagos, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 175, Year 5: Walking From Island to Island
Date: Monday, April 19, 2010
Weather: Rain Overnight; Sunny Day; Winds 10-12 SE
Location: Ile Fouquet, Peros Banhos Atoll, Chagos
I like the idea of walking on water from island to island, but I must admit that we actually walked IN the water from island to island today. After dropping Constance’s dinghy off at the far end of Ile Fouquet, Mark and Ed dropped Lynne and I off on a sand bar between Ile Fouquet and the next little island to the west. The guys then took off for Ile du Coin to fish and get water. Lynne and I walked on the sand bar and in the water to get to Mapou De L’Ile Fouquet and then started our trek back to Ile Fouquet. The reef and sandbar walk today was not nearly as interesting as yesterday’s reef walk, but we did see three different eels. That was about it for wildlife. Our low tide timing was good and we got back to Ile Fouquet while the tide was still out. I had joked about having the swim the last little bit, but the water just wasn’t coming back in that quickly. We got to the end of Ile Fouquet and then walked its length to get back to the dinghy we had left there earlier. The tide was still very low so we had to pull the dinghy out until the water got a bit deeper and then we rowed until the water was deep enough to lower the engine. We got back to our boats around noon, but Mark and Ed did not return from their foray until 1:30 p.m. And they returned with no fish, again. Mark lost another lure, and caught and lost another needlefish. As far we know these are not good for eating so it is just as well that it got off the line on its own as it has very sharp little teeth that look like broken glass. I spent my afternoon making chutney and then had Ed and Lynne over for a veggie curry dinner.
Another boat came into the anchorage today. Jenain, a South African boat that was here when we were here the first time, sailed down from Ile Diamant where they have spent the last week. Tomorrow we will try snorkeling the aquarium at low tide once again to try and get some good video and then we hope to visit with our neighbors. We did meet Peppy and Bob on Far Niente yesterday, but we really haven’t had a chance to talk with them. We have met Bill on Jenain but never really gotten to talk with him for any length of time, so we’ll give that a try tomorrow as well. We keep thinking we will move over to Salomon Atoll, but it is so pleasant here and we keep finding things we want to do, so we probably won’t move until the weather makes us.
by Judy Handley | Apr 18, 2010 | Chagos, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 174, Year 5: Walking the Reef, Swimming with Dolphins
Date: Sunday, April 18, 2010
Weather: Another Beautiful, Sunny Day
Location: Ile Fouquet, Peros Banhos Atoll, Chagos
If yesterday was a bit of a low point, today was an extreme high. We knew low tide was at 10 am, so at 9:30 am we got ready to head out to snorkel the aquarium. But when we looked at the reef in front of us, it was exposed from one end to the other. We knew that meant that the very shallow lagoon on the south side of Ile Fouquet would be dry as well, so we headed that way with Ed and Lynne of Constance. We anchored the dinghy in about six inches of water and then walked across the sand spit at the end of Ile Fouquet and wandered out into the lagoon. As we got closer to the reef, we started to see tiny little colorful coral. There were plenty of sandy patches in between, so we could easily pick our way being very careful not to touch the coral. Lynne was the spotter of the day. She first found a small Hawksbill Turtle stranded in a shallow pool of water waiting for the tide to come in. It was a perfect photo opportunity. There were lots of sea urchins, blue sea stars, and Reef Triggerfish darting here and there. We have often seen the Lagoon Triggerfish, commonly called the Picasafish, but this is the first time we have seen the darker colored Wedge or Reef Triggerfish. We came upon two different schools of fish flailing about in the water also waiting for the tide to come in, and then Lynne spotted another, larger Hawksbill Turtle. We got some great video of this guy swimming through the water as by this time the tide was starting to come in. But the find of the day was a bright yellow Guineafowl Puffer. He was about ten inches long, but much of that was his tail. His body was about the size of an elongated orange and he was hiding under some coral. We could actually touch him and he wouldn’t move, but when he did decide to move he shot out like a streak of lightening. Little Snowy Terns flew overhead and the pounding surf provided the sound effects. It was a great walk on the reef and in the lagoon. As the water level started rising, we headed back to the dinghy. We met Bob and Peppy of Far Niente, a US boat, when we reached the island. They sailed in here yesterday, but we had not met them. We then got in the dinghy and took Ed and Lynne back to Constance. Lynne wanted to get a drink of water before going out to snorkel the aquarium, but just as she climbed aboard Constance she pointed to Windbird and the dolphins that were playing just behind her. Mark and I took off immediately, and I actually got to jump in and swim with them. They were heading away from us, but I jumped in and followed them. One dolphin came back to check me out, and then a second one came, but when they returned to the other seven they must have reported that they had seen a human as they then took off. I got back in the dinghy and tried to follow them so Mark could get in as well, but it was too late. They were gone. By this time it was almost noon, but we went to the aquarium and had a great snorkel. The water was clear and we really enjoyed revisited some of the friends we had seen here last week. Mark was shooting video and was really disappointed when we got back and viewed the results. It is almost impossible to see the view finder when snorkeling, so he turned on the video setting, shot what he wanted, and then turned it off . . . he thought. But in reality he was shooting video with the camera off, and had the camera on while he was just swimming around. He really wants another go at this, so we will probably stay here at least two more days so he can try again.
Tomorrow morning, Mark and Ed are going to take our dinghy to Ile du Coin to get water and to fish on the way there and back. It is just over three miles and with the two of them, our dinghy will plane and they will be there in fifteen minutes. Lynne and I are going to take her dinghy to Ile Fouquet, leave it there, and then have Mark and Ed take us to the next little island, Mapou De L’Ile Fouquet. We will then walk the sandbar that is exposed at low tide back to Ile Fouquet. This means that we will have to wait until Tuesday to snorkel the aquarium at low tide, so hopefully this wonderful weather will hold out until then.
