by Judy Handley | Apr 17, 2010 | Chagos, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 173, Year 5: Back to Ile Fouquet
Date: Saturday, April 17, 2010
Weather: Beautiful, Sunny Day
Location: Ile Fouquet, Peros Banhos Atoll, Chagos
Latitude: 05 degrees 27.473 minutes S
Longitude: 071 degrees 48.813 minutes E
One week ago today we left Ile Fouquet and went back to Ile du Coin. Today we made the return trip to Ile Fouquet. We rocked and rolled in the anchorage at Ile du Coin all last night and decided we didn’t want to spend another night like that. So off we went and from then on it was one of those days when things just didn’t go the way expected. We made an extra effort to catch fish as we moved from one island to the other. But no fish. We were going to go out of the pass to fish, but when we got there it was rough and there were oodles of dolphins. I hate dragging a fishing line with the dolphins are around, so we reeled in the lines and decided to forget fishing, enjoy the dolphins, and go on in to the anchorage. Once at anchor, I opened the spice drawer to get something out and discovered that a package of cumin seeds I bought in Gan was riddled with little bugs. And naturally, some of these little critters had escaped the bag and were all over the other spice containers. I spent the next hour cleaning up that mess. Then I started working on photos on my computer. I needed to get out the main back-up hard drive that has all of the photos from the past five years. I just wanted to get one folder, but I found that the organization of the photos for the past couple of years needed some serious rearranging and that took most of the rest of the afternoon. I guess it was a productive day, but it was not spent doing anything planned. So much for plans.
We did have a lovely dinner on Constance. Lynne caught a Jobfish on the way here today and we had that for dinner. It was delicious. Tomorrow looks like a snorkeling morning and maybe a fishing afternoon. Hopefully it won’t be another day fixing unexpected problems.
by Judy Handley | Apr 16, 2010 | Chagos, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 172, Year 5: Sky of Wonder
Date: Friday, April 16, 2010
Weather: Sunshine, Blue Skies, White Clouds, Dark Clouds, Squalls
Location: Ile du Coin, Peros Banhos Atoll, Chagos
Sitting this close to the equator with absolutely nothing to block our view makes sky watching here just fascinating, both day and night. We can see weather systems coming from miles away. Like the pristine, clear water here that sparkles in iridescent shades of blue, the blue sky is so perfect with the puffy white clouds piling on top of each other around the horizon. Then we see a patch of gray and we can watch a squall as it moves around us or heads toward us. When a squall hits, we get lots of rain in a short period of time. This is helping us keep the water tanks filled without running the water maker so much, so I can put up with the squalls as long as the wind is not too strong and the sun comes out in between. Even when we get rain overnight, the nights always seem to always start out clear. Once the sun goes down the world becomes totally black. There are no lights for hundreds of miles except the light of the stars and the moon. We just had a new moon, so the last couple of nights have been incredibly black showing off the thousands upon thousands of stars. When we look to the north we see the Big Dipper, but since we are in the southern hemisphere, we cannot see the North Star. That will have to wait until we cross the equator going north in the Atlantic next spring. But to our south, we have the Southern Cross looking like a crossbow shooting a fiery arrow. When you follow a straight line from the left arm of the cross, there are two of the brightest stars in the sky. I call that the arrow. The Southern Cross will be our guide for the upcoming months and I know I will miss seeing it when we head back north.
Today our morning was a squally one, but I had a laundry in to soak overnight and I hung it out anyway. The afternoon was sunny, so the clothes got dry before the late day squalls hit. Mark and I made one last trip to Ile du Coin mid-day. I wanted to get some video footage of the buildings and we got two more jugs of water. We plan to move to Ile Fouquet tomorrow and then on to Salomon Atoll in the next few days. We will probably not be back this way, so we said our goodbyes to this beautiful little island while ashore. When we returned, Mark and Ed headed out of the pass north of here in our dingy to do some fishing. They caught bonito which they threw back and Ed got caught by a huge Wahoo that bit his lure in half and bent the hook and got off. They know it was a Wahoo because it leapt out of the water when he broke loose and they could see it clearly. It was just too big for the tackle they had with them. We’ll fish on our way to Ile Fouquet tomorrow and hopefully be flush with fish again. Tonight we are having beans for dinner, so you know it is time to go fishing.
by Judy Handley | Apr 15, 2010 | Chagos, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 171, Year 5: D-O-N-K-E-Y and Much More
Date: Thursday, April 15, 2010
Weather: Beautiful, Sunny Day; No Wind
Location: Ile du Coin, Peros Banhos Atoll, Chagos
What a full day we had today. In the morning we went with Ed and Lynne to the western end of Ile du Coin. This is the end of the island closest to where we are anchored and we wanted to walk around to the south side of the island to look for a FAD. The one we found the other day was filled with water and sand, but the hope was to find one that still has good batteries in it that we can use. So off we went on our little adventure. We almost immediately found a bamboo raft covered with netting that most definitely had been the home to a Fish Attraction Device (FAD) before being washed ashore. But we did not see the actual FAD. We walked on and started seeing fresh donkey tracks . . . and they were going our way. I became hopeful that we might actually see the lone donkey. While I was very busy taking photos of beautiful little snowy terns I heard Mark call, “Judy, hurry.” I ran down the beach and found Mark and the donkey. I was so excited and snapped photos like crazy. It was then time to turn around before the tide came up so high that we would have to swim back. The south side of the island has no beach at all at high tide and very little at low tide, so we walked quickly. Mark found a big, hard plastic round float that had washed ashore that we will use when anchoring over coral in Salomon Atoll. You put the floats on your anchor chain to keep it off the coral. We collected two on Ile Fouquet and now we have three. Ed and Lynne were way ahead of us because I stop every couple of minutes to take more pictures. When we got back to the bamboo raft that we had seen earlier, I looked up and there was the FAD not ten feet from the raft. I have no idea how we missed seeing it earlier, but Mark grabbed that and we headed back to the dinghy. When we got back to Windbird, Mark opened the FAD and found 48 Duracell Ultra D-cell batteries in almost new condition and an Inmarsat D transceiver. These things are not cheap but once they have washed ashore here the fishermen cannot come to retrieve them. So we will put those batteries to use.
In the afternoon, Ed, Mark, and I went back to shore. I wanted to retrace the explore we had the other day and shoot video of the trek. We went all the way to the back side of the island finding the same citrus and bilimbi trees that we saw the other day, but this time we were walking in a swamp. The rain we had on Sunday and again yesterday has made a mushy mess of the interior of the island. One of Ed’s sandals came apart during the walk and the rivet holding the straps on one of my Crocs also broke. It was a tough hike, but I had duct tape in my pack and that did a temporary fix on the sandals so we could continue walking. We got to one clearing and were looking around when I heard Ed say, “There’s our friend.” The donkey was right there. He startled us and we startled him and he started braying loudly telling us to get out of his territory. I had the video camera in my hand, so I was able to turn it on quickly and record some of his loud protest. That made the whole tough trek worth it for me. And when we made it to the back side of the island, we saw huge coconut crabs. I mean these guys have claws that you certainly don’t want to get near. I might go back to the island in the morning to do one more video shoot and then I’ll feel ready to leave here when the weather dictates. Ed and Lynne came over for dinner tonight and we are all exhausted by today’s treks. I have a feeling tomorrow will be a low key day.
by Judy Handley | Apr 14, 2010 | Chagos, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 170, Year 5: The BIOT Boat
Date: Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Weather: Partly Sunny with Rain Off and On; Winds Variable
Location: Ile du Coin, Peros Banhos Atoll, Chagos
Last night just after Mark sent the log, he went outside to take a look around. He was a bit surprised to see ship lights coming our way as that is not something we normally see here in the atoll. We figured it had to be the BIOT boat, the Pacific Marlin, but there was no way to tell that at night. We watched it until it anchored and checked in by radio with Constance to tell them we had company in the anchorage. They had been watching the lights as well and had tracked it on radar. They agreed that it must be the Pacific Marlin. It was a coincidence that when we sent the log we received an email from our son-in-law Jed that included an article about Chagos that mentioned the Pacific Marlin. The article from the Times of London Online announced that on April 1 Britain announced the creation of the world’s largest marine nature reserve in Chagos-all 250,000 square miles of ocean in and around the atolls here. The article said that the ocean here is some of the “best preserved seas on the planet.” I can certainly believe that and we believe that the presence of the Pacific Marlin has something to do with this. Again, quoting the Times of London article, “The area is patrolled by the Pacific Marlin, a small vessel that costs £1.7 million a year to operate. Until now licenses sold to French, Spanish, Korean and Taiwanese tuna-fishing vessels contributed about £1 million a year to the cost. A faster patrol ship will probably be necessary to prevent illegal fishing in the new reserve, but there are hopes that the US military base will assist enforcement by sharing information from existing intelligence networks on activity in the area.” Making this area a reserve has doubled the global coverage of the world’s oceans under protection. Those that used to live here oppose this move because it means that they can never return to live here. They had hoped that once the US is no longer leasing Diego Garcia that they might return. But on the positive side, because this area is literally unpolluted, making it a reserve assures “a valuable scientific baseline against which to judge human impacts to other areas of ocean.” The Pacific Marlin is a bright red vessel and she spent her day here at anchor. The large dinghy went far out into the atoll, probably gathering scientific data, and then at sunset, she pulled up anchor and went back out of the atoll the way she came in last night. We saw camera flashes as she left, so maybe there will be a photo of Windbird and Constance in Chagos recorded somewhere in the history books.
We had a bit of a rocky start to our morning. We had our granola and checked for email and then I went to the forward head to get some cleaning agents. I have been smelling this sweet smell every time I open the door to that head and this morning I discovered what it was. A big bag of dry Tide detergent was stored on the sink counter and it had somehow torn open and there was a huge pile of Tide on and in the sink. It is amazing how sweet it smelled. An hour later that was cleaned up and Mark found the next problem. He was turning the eggs when he saw something dripping-a broken egg. So we had to take the egg palates apart and check and clean each egg. We found five bad ones, so it was a good exercise. But when we finished it was 10:30 and we were just starting our day. I cleaned the wooden louvered cabinets in the galley and then applied lemon oil to them while Mark worked on the electrical connections of the solar panels. The connections to the fuses were corroded and needed to be cleaned and fuses changed. We kept thinking the solar panels weren’t clean enough and that was the reason we weren’t getting a charge from them, but now we know it was the connections. In the afternoon, I wrote emails and Mark went to Constance to help Lynne organize the files on her computer and ran software to eliminate viruses that may have gotten on her computer when she was connected to the internet in Gan. She has been getting warnings since then but hopefully today’s work eliminated the problem. Later, Mark went to shore with Ed to burn garbage and get more water. We had dinner on Constance tonight. It was a squid pasta and was delicious. Lynne caught the squid and Ed fixed the pasta-a perfect combination.
I can’t believe it, but the calendar tells me it has been two months since my brother Dickie died. Today would have been his 75th birthday, so I know this is a particularly hard day for my sister-in-law. Conda, we just want you to know that we are thinking of you.
by Judy Handley | Apr 13, 2010 | Chagos, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 169, Year 5: Another Explore on Ile du Coin
Date: Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Weather: Beautiful Day; Winds S-SE 5-8
Location: Ile du Coin, Peros Banhos Atoll, Chagos
The anchorage here is almost empty. Mirage left yesterday and Nepenthe left early this morning. So that leaves just Windbird and Constance here at Ile du Coin. The winds are backing to the SE and soon we will have to move back to Ile Fouquet on the SE side of the atoll where the reef protects us from the swell caused by the east winds. We are now on the west side of the atoll and the winds blowing across the waters of the atoll cause a bit of a roll here. It is not bad yet, but I expect we could have to move tomorrow or maybe the next day. In the meantime, we continue to enjoy our time here. Mark visited with Ed and Lynne this morning, but I stayed home baking bread and doing boat chores that take time but I can never pinpoint exactly what it was that I did. The boat looks cleaner and neater inside, so that is what I did. When Mark came home he tried once again to catch squid but they are being very tricky. They are always around the boat but they just aren’t biting. Lynne caught five today, so she may have to come give us lessons.
In the afternoon, Mark and I took off in the dinghy with empty water jugs, the FAD that needed to be taken back to shore, and a fishing rod. We were headed about two-thirds of the way down the island to the cemetery in the dinghy. When we reached the coconut trees with white painted trunks, we took the dinghy ashore and could see the grave markers from the shore. Nepenthe saw the resident donkey there last week and we were hoping for the same, but no luck. But we did wander through the cemetery. It looks so very old, but many of the graves are from the 1900’s. Most everything is covered with green moss and crumbling stones in one part of the cemetery, but in the other half many of the graves look new. Many of the graves have raised stone monuments about two feet high covering the entire grave. In the one section, it looks like the old stone monuments have recently been covered with new concrete. It was very sad to see how many of the graves were small indicating that they were the graves of very young children. Either life here was very tough on the young ones or there was some sort of disease that swept through and killed them. We left the cemetery and headed back to the area to the west of the old pier where dinghies go ashore. I hopped off with all the water jugs and a bucket of laundry that I was going to do close to the well so we didn’t have to carry water for that. Mark went out to see if Ed wanted to come ashore to get water, but he was way too involved in a boat project today that took much longer than he expected. While Mark was gone, I walked back to the area where the well is and proceeded to get the laundry in to soak while filling one water jug. Five gallons of water weighs something like 60 pounds, so the jaunt back to the beach seems very long when carrying the full jugs. I carried the one jug back to the shore and Mark had just arrived, so we carried two more empty jugs back to the well to fill. He filled those while I washed and rinsed the laundry, and then it was back to Windbird.
Tomorrow could be a quiet day working on editing photos and reading. We’ll see what the morning brings.
by Judy Handley | Apr 12, 2010 | Chagos, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 168, Year 5: Snorkeling the Morning Away
Date: Monday, April 12, 2010
Weather: Beautiful Day; Winds SW 5-8
Location: Ile du Coin, Peros Banhos Atoll, Chagos
This morning we got in the water at 8:30 am and didn’t get out until 11. Carol of Nepenthe, Ed and Lynne of Constance, and Mark and I took our dinghies halfway down the island and then pulled them along with us as we snorkeled our way back toward the pier. It was a long snorkel, and not the most dramatic, but we did see a couple of things that were really fantastic-both right at the end of our morning. One was a hawksbill turtle that decided to hide from us by throwing sand on his back and just sitting quietly on the bottom. Carol of Nepenthe and Lynne of Constance had been following him as he swam to the sand patch, but by the time I arrived he had settled in. Two bright blue and yellow-striped Regal Angelfish were swimming around the turtle, as well as a beautiful blue fish with blue fins and yellowish-orange circles all over it. I saw a number of these today and have no idea what they are, so I’ll have to research that one. We had just put the camera in the dinghy so I asked Mark to go get it as it was such a perfect picture. But, of course, by the time Mark got back with the camera, the fish were gone. He did get photos of the turtle, however. As we headed to deeper water we saw the next incredible sight. There were parrotfish, probably two hundred of them, just swimming together in a cluster. There were purple ones, blue ones, and red ones, with yellow, orange, and pink splashes here and there. It was quite amazing and the perfect end to a peaceful morning in the water.
In the afternoon, Carol, Lynne, and I had a little book exchange aboard Windbird while Mark and Ed went out fishing and exploring. They came back with two red snappers and what looked like a big blue buoy. Actually it was a FAD, a Fish Attraction Device, or at least part of one. It had washed up on the shore and will be taken back there, but Mark and Ed thought we would like to see it. A FAD is a satellite transmitter that’s hooked up to a net (maybe with bait fish) that attracts and traps fish. The signal emitted from the transmitter gives the location to the fishing boat so they can find it later. I think there is more to the structure than the transmitter and net, but this is the extent of our knowledge. Cruisers here find them all the time here, so this must be the end of the line for FAD’s.
Jeff and Cathy of Mirage headed north to Ile Diamant this morning and have reported that it is a bit bouncy up there. They got a squall this afternoon that we didn’t get. Carol and Jim on Nepenthe are thinking of leaving tomorrow morning and heading over to the Salomon atoll. The GRIBS are showing that the SE winds are starting to set in and Salomon is protected from the East. But we have more exploring to do here and will probably move back to Ile Fouquet before the light E winds arrive in three or four days. If it looks like stronger E winds are coming, then we will make our move, but for now the address for Constance and Windbird is Ile du Coin.
