by Judy Handley | Apr 11, 2010 | Chagos, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 167, Year 5: Rainy Day in Paradise
Date: Sunday, April 11, 2010
Weather: Cloudy and Rainy; Winds NW to W to SW
Location: Ile du Coin, Peros Banhos Atoll, Chagos
Raindrops were falling on my head at 6:30 this morning. Mark quickly shut the hatch overhead and then we rushed to get everything secured. It was a pouring rain and we were able to catch lots of rain water in buckets to help fill the water tanks. I had put a wash in the shower stall last night to soak, so I hurriedly wrung it all out and hung it outside to rinse in the rain. Once all this was done, we had a special breakfast of bacon, eggs over easy (the first time since Thailand), and toast, and then sat in the cockpit to watch it rain while reading. Mark is reading The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright and I am reading a novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun. This novel takes place in the 1960’s in Nigeria and then in the newly formed country of Biafra. Both books are gripping, so it was easy to spend a rainy morning reading. Mark took time out to try his hand at catching squid and he was finally successful. I heard him calling, “Bucket.” So I went running with the bucket to put under the squid to catch the ink he was squirting. We don’t want to have to clean that off the boat. So now we had a squid but we didn’t know what to do with him. I love calamari, but the sight of this beautiful creature in a bucket made me think I might just have to change my tastes, but this one needed to be put out of his misery, so we called Ed on Constance. While he was giving us detailed directions, we saw Carol of Nepenthe headed our way. She is a master squid catcher, so we took advantage of her timely visit to have her show us how to deal with squid. She brought us a couple of pieces of upside down cake for lunch dessert and we gave her the last of our very over-ripe bananas. The rain subsided in the afternoon and the clothes on the life lines began to dry. We had happy hour on Constance with Jim and Carol of Nepenthe and Cathy and Jeff of Mirage. There are just the four boats here right now and it was great to get together.
If you are interested in seeing where we are located, evidently you can do that by going to Google Maps. Our friend Alan Kanegsberg in Concord, New Hampshire, wrote today, “We are following you on Google Maps. It is hard to locate the particular atoll you are on, but once you find it you can zoom in very close and read the names. You can see that there is virtually nothing but trees. You can see the buildings you are describing and the remnants of the old pier. To find it, you follow a line from India to Mauritius. Halfway there is a lighter blue area. Zooming in on the big one and then moving a little north
shows the necklaces of surface land that surround each lagoon. If you move south to Diego Garcia, you can see the military ships anchored inside the reef.” The next time you have a rainy day, maybe you can see if you can find our little paradise.
It is Sunday evening here, but Sunday morning in New Hampshire. Probably all of my teacher friends in Concord will be gathering this morning for a memorial service honoring a teacher and a friend who died suddenly this week and my thoughts are certainly with them. They are gathered to honor Sue Ann Martin, one of the best teachers I have ever known. She could help kids reach deep inside themselves and bring forth their best. She was a wonderful mother, teacher, and friend and it seems so unfair that she should die so young. At 50, Sue Ann was still running five miles every morning before breakfast. She was as fit as a 50 year-old woman could be, but a strep infection went into her blood system and spine and took her quickly. She was teaching on Monday and was gone by the end of the week. The Concord Monitor reported that only 1 in 100,000 die of this type of infection. Our thoughts are with her family and all of our mutual friends. Life is so precious and we must all remember to live each day to its fullest.
by Judy Handley | Apr 10, 2010 | Chagos, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 166, Year 5: Exploring Ile du Coin
Date: Saturday, April 10, 2010
Weather: Very Little Wind from the North
Location: Ile du Coin, Peros Banhos Atoll, Chagos
Latitude: 05 degrees 26.579 S
Longitide: 071 degrees 45.541 E
The weather was just right for our move back to Ile du Coin. The GRIB file says we should have very little wind for three days, so we got up early, checked to make sure the GRIB file was correct, and made the move. I really wanted to explore Ile du Coin, but we also needed water and there is a good well here. Most people don’t drink the water, but use it for washing clothes and dishes, and for showers. I know I have not explained the Chagos water system that we learned from Constance and used the whole time we were in India. It was a lifesaver there as we could not run our water maker and we would have run out of drinking water in the six weeks that we were there. So here’s a description of the system. We bought extra five gallon water jugs in India. We sit one on the top of the cabin and run a short hose through the galley hatch into the galley. It hangs down from a ceiling hook over the galley sink and we attached a shower nozzle that we also bought in India. It is the type of shower nozzle that you have to squeeze the handle to get water and we use this for all dish washing. We have a five gallon solar shower bag that we now hang just above the port in our shower stall. We fill up the bag from the water jugs we get on shore and simply pull the solar shower nozzle into the shower stall through the port. We save all shower water by not pumping out the shower right away and use this for washing clothes. I then take them on deck and use the water from the jugs for rinsing in buckets. The rinse water is then used to wash down the deck. Today we filled all four of our water jugs, so tonight we’ll save the shower water and tomorrow will be laundry day. So for now, we use our water tanks only for drinking water. We can make water here, but that takes power, and power takes diesel fuel. We probably have plenty, but we are trying to be as conservative as possible so we will have all the fuel needed for the 1,500 mile trip to Madagascar.
Before I can describe the island walkabout I think I need to give a brief history. According to the history books, there were no indigenous peoples living here when the Portuguese, the French, and then the English sailed here. The Portuguese came in the 1500’s. Later on the French camped out here, left, and then returned and started exporting coconut oil and copra. This required people and suddenly Diego Garcia, Salomon, and Peros Banhos Atolls in Chagos were populated. The population came in the form of lepers from Mauritius and slaves from Mozambique and Madagascar, but in whatever form, the islands were populated and the copra and coconut oil business flourished. In the late 1700’s the English arrived. Once Napoleon was defeated, the Treaty of Paris in 1814 gave Mauritius, and Chagos as a dependency of Mauritius, to the English. Sometime around 1834 “human rights” was a term being used to force the Brits to start paying their workers, so very slowly the slaves became apprentices and were paid a penny a month for their labors. Hardly freedom, but it was a bit of a step forward. By the late 1800’s palm oil mills were operating in Salomon Atoll on Boddum Island and in Peros Banhos Atoll on Ile du Coin Island. Diego Garcia Atoll was used as a “coaling station” for passing steamships. The hardwood Takamaka trees were also exported. There were few women but regardless, by the 1930’s, about 60 per cent of the islanders were born and bred in Chagos and were known as ‘Ilois’ or ‘children of the islands.’ During World Wars I and II there were some passing ships but it was not until the 1950’s during the height of the Cold War that Chagos was considered as a possible military base. At the same time, the independence of Mauritius was becoming a sure thing and the English didn’t want Chagos to go with it. So in 1965 they separated Chagos from Mauritius and called it BIOT-a British Indian Ocean Territory. Then in 1966 the Americans convinced the Brits to lease Chagos to them for use as a military base. This initial rental agreement was for 50 years and the Americans didn’t want the people to stay, so the English found some obscure clause in the history books that would declare the residents as temporary visitors so that the people could be removed. Lawsuits followed, but the agreement still stands and there are no people other than visiting cruisiers at Peros Banhos and Salomon Atolls and military personnel at Diego Garcia. That is a brief, and possibly not completely accurate history of Chagos, but it is the best I can do from the resources at hand.
So when you anchor close to Ile du Coin the remnants of a large concrete pier greet you. When we took the dinghy ashore next to the old pier, we could immediately see what little is left of a once thriving community. The buildings were roofed with tin and all of the tin has blown off, but the buildings themselves were built of coral blocks and mortar and are quite substantial. We walked down a path with huge elephant leaf plants on both sides and then saw the remnants of what was once the center of the community. The building was two stories with a waist-high coral block wall surrounding it with little pillars at the entrance. The well that cruisers use is on the back side of the house and is covered with tin. It is about twelve feet deep and you just throw a bucket on a line down, fill it with water, and pull it up. The water is crystal clear and cool. We wanted to fill our water jugs, but Jeff and Cathy of Mirage and Ed of Constance were onshore and had already filled their jugs by the time we arrived. They were getting ready to walk around the island, and since they have been here before and know their way around, we decided to follow. There are old orange and lemon trees, bilimbi trees that have fruit that looks like little cucumbers growing on the trunk, guava trees, and some sort of nut tree. There are huge plots of taro growing in the wet areas and a few bread fruit trees scattered here and there. Everything is overgrown, but not so much that you can’t see the remnants of homes and the railway track that carried the processed coconuts from parts of the island to the pier to be shipped. We walked all the way to the back side of the island and were amazed by the amount of coral that has been swept inland during storms. Mark and I also saw the biggest coconut crabs that we have ever seen. Where coconut trees have blown over in storms, there are huge holes where the roots once were. When we would peek into any of these holes, we would see the crabs with their most impressive pincers. We certainly didn’t get too close. By the time we got back to the pier, filled our water jugs and lugged those out to the beach, and got back to Windbird it was almost 5 pm and we were exhausted. Exploring the underwater world here will be tomorrow’s job.
by Judy Handley | Apr 9, 2010 | Chagos, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 165, Year 5: More Banana Bread and Granola, But No Fish
Date: Friday, April 9, 2010
Weather: Weather Unsettled; Squalls Passing to the South
Location: Ile Fouquet, Peros Banhos Atoll, Chagos
Things have been a bit bouncier today than normal. There has been a little more wind than the past few days and sometimes it comes from the NE, sometimes from the E, and sometimes from the SE. And squalls have been passing just south of us all day. We’re hoping whatever is going on will settle by in the morning so we can go back to Ile du Coin, but we’ll have to wait to get a GRIB file and then see how things look in the morning before making the move. Jim and Carol of Napenthe, a couple from Michigan, are the only ones left at Ile du Coin. Carol called today and offered to show us the hiking trails on the island, so I am anxious to get there before she leaves. The bouncy waters also caused our early morning fishermen some problems. Ed, Jeff, and Mark headed out of the atoll at 7:30 am, but by 9 am they were back with no fish and two lost lures. It was a little bouncy for Mark’s lower back, so I don’t think he’ll be heading out again until we have smoother waters.
I spent my day baking more granola and more banana bread. We are all sick of bananas, but we hate to waste what we have. They are getting over ripe and must be used, but without a freezer, two people can only eat so much banana bread. We won’t have bananas again until we get to Madagascar and I’m only assuming they have them there. But we’re getting our fill now, that’s for sure. And since I had to turn the oven on, I decided to do a double batch of granola. I shouldn’t have to make granola again until it is almost time to leave here. I also spent time editing the underwater photos from our snorkeling adventures this week. Instead of zooming in while underwater, Mark just takes all the pictures with a wide angle and we crop them later using the computer. It does take time, but his camera takes such high definition photos that we don’t lose much by cropping, so that is good.
Mid-afternoon, Ed of Constance, Cathy of Mirage, and Mark and I went to shore for a walk around the little island. It is tiny, but somehow we managed to spend two hours walking and talking and looking at all the little wonders on the beach. The sand crabs here are huge and dig holes big enough to lose your foot in, so you have to watch where you step. There are not many shells, but there is a lot of red coral that washes up both on the north and south side of the island. And today there were a number of perfect sea urchin shells on the south side. As I mentioned from our island visit two days ago, there are lots of shells, but they all have legs. Hermit crabs of every size and shape are crawling everywhere. We can look but not touch and are not allowed to take anything from our beach walks. We must leave only footprints, but it is a joy just to walk and see all the sand critters.
by Judy Handley | Apr 8, 2010 | Chagos, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 164, Year 5: A Special Call
Date: Thursday, April 8, 2010
Weather: No Wind; Another Beautiful Day
Location: Ile Fouquet, Peros Banhos Atoll, Chagos
Our friends Ed and Lynne on Constance have a satellite phone and they offered to let us use it to call Justin and Jo to wish Ziggy a happy birthday. So we took them up on the offer and made a quick call early this morning (Wednesday evening in New Mexico). We got to hear Ziggy making noises and I got to sing happy birthday to him. It was great fun and we really appreciate Ed and Lynne’s generosity.
We spent our morning doing what we have promised to do while here. Very slowly we are going through our three computers and five external hard drives to make sure all of our photos and videos are organized and backed-up. I think we could spend two hours every morning while we are here and still not have the job completed, but maybe it will go faster as we move along. We stopped for lunch and I made fish cakes using our daughter Heather’s recipe. I was using Rainbow Runner which is a dry fish and Heather’s fish cake recipe makes a very moist paddy, so the combination was great. They were so good. In the afternoon we tried for an instant replay of yesterday’s snorkel, but it just wasn’t the same. The water clarity wasn’t as good and there was a surge that we had to swim against. There was no Emperor Angelfish, no Oriental Sweetlips, no spade fish, and no ray today. But in the reef adjacent to the aquarium we saw a turtle and Lynne found one little clump of Clownfish hiding out in an anemone. This was our first sighting of anemone fish here, and it is nice to know that Nemo lives here, too.
All three of the French boats in the anchorage moved north to Ile Diamant today, so that leaves just Constance, Mirage, and Windbird here at Ile Fouquet. Mark called Ed on the VHF radio and asked if he would like to go outside the reef fishing in the morning and in the process ending up asking both Mirage and Constance over for dinner tonight. We supplied the grill and they supplied the last of the fresh fish supply. Lynne brought a wonderful red cabbage salad with carrots and fresh basil leaves. The colors were spectacular. And I added green beans and potatoes. Cathy of Mirage brought a wonderful cream cheese spread as an appetizer and I made tomato, feta cheese, and basil leaf appetizers topped with balsamic vinaigrette. Everything was so tasty and it was great fun getting together to visit with each other. Just at sunset a pod of dolphins made their way through the pass. They were far away, but we could see that they were a lively bunch-probably Spinners. I saw one fly into the air and do a complete 360 degree flip before reentering the water. I really want to swim with the dolphins while here in Chagos, but I think it is easier over in Salomon Atoll.
Tomorrow’s day will start with the fishing expedition to try and refresh the fish supply. Lynne has “ordered” Wahoo, so we’ll see what we get. I wouldn’t mind more Yellowfin Tuna for sushi, but Wahoo makes great sushi as well. Best not be too picky.
by Judy Handley | Apr 7, 2010 | Chagos, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 163, Year 5: Happy 1st Birthday to Ziggy Milo
Date: Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Weather: No Wind; Beautiful Day
Location: Ile Fouquet, Peros Banhos Atoll, Chagos
Last year on this day, we got up at 7am ready to leave the Boat Lagoon in Thailand for Rebak Marina in Langkawi, Malaysia. We were going to make it in four days, get the boat ready to leave, and fly to New Mexico on April 16 just in time for Ziggy’s birth. But things didn’t quite happen according to plan. Since we were planning to leave the Boat Lagoon at 9:30, one of the first things we did that day was check email while we were still connected to the internet. There was an email from Justin and Jo explaining that Jo’s labor was beginning and that actually it had begun a couple of days prior. We immediately tried to call and got no answer. We called our daughter Heather and she explained that we should have received a series of emails from the past couple of days that we just didn’t get. She forwarded those immediately so we could better understand the situation. Jo’s water had broken, but labor had not begun. They thought she was going to have to go to the hospital for the birth, but the latest email was explaining that things were moving along and that they were still hoping for a home birth. We were very torn as to what to do. If we stayed at the Boat Lagoon where we would have good communication, it would be another week before we would have a tide high enough to allow us to leave. But if we left, it would be at least four days before we could call again. In the end, we decided to leave. Since our morning on the 7th was really Justin and Jo’s evening of the 6th, it was two more nerve-wracking days before we got the email announcing Ziggy’s birth. They did have to go to the hospital for the birth as it ended up to be a C-section, but the email explained that baby and mother were a little traumatized, but fine. We celebrated that night on the beach at Ko Lipe by sending up a Chinese lantern. As it soared upwards, looking like it was headed for the moon, it was evident to us that a new star had been born-our Ziggy Milo. A year later, we still feel the same way. He is one happy baby and such a cutie. So happy birthday little star . . . Ziggy. You had a tough time getting into this world, but you have made up for it ever since. We love you and send hugs and kisses across the miles.
We spent our morning aboard Mirage with Kathy and Jeff and Lynne of Constance. Ed was hit with a stomach virus this morning so he didn’t come. Cathy and Jeff invited us over just to chat. We met them back in Thailand but really haven’t gotten a chance to know them. We had a delightful morning sampling the various banana treats we brought and drinking coffee-something we rarely do but I imbibed this morning and I’m glad I did as it was really good. I brought whole wheat banana bread, the recipe coming from my time honored thirty-seven year-old Tassajara Bread Book. Lynne brought banana muffins and Kathy baked banana cake with almonds. All were delicious and a result of the two huge stalks of bananas that Constance and Windbird brought from Gan. They were green when we left the Maldives, but are now in desperate need of being used up. We have given as many away as we can, so I guess the Gray Reef Sharks that hang out under our boat are going to get a banana treat-whether they want it or not.
In the afternoon, Mark, Lynne, and I went snorkeling on a coral shelf referred to by cruisers as “the aquarium.” We had hoped to go at 1:30 but the inner reef had rolling waves and didn’t look hospitable, so we waited until 2:30 and headed out. Our timing could not have been more perfect. “The aquarium” is separated from the main reef by a patch of sand. We put our dinghy anchor down in the sand and started exploring. The water was absolutely crystal clear and even though we had to tuck our tummies when swimming over some of the coral, the depth was also perfect for seeing the fish up-close. The parrotfish just absolutely ignored us and it was a delight to just hover over them and study them closely. I found an Emperor Angelfish hiding under a shelf, but I was patient and she came out to say hello. He or she was a big one, probably fifteen to eighteen inches long. The body had dark blue and yellow horizontal stripes with a bit of an upward slope, a bright yellow tail, and a blue snout with a black mask backed by yellow. Spectacular! We also saw a group of nine spadefish, either Boer’s Spadefish or Obicular Batfish. Whichever, their bodies are shaped like very large flat dinner plates. And they were followed by a couple of Longfin Batfish which are much smaller but much more curious about humans. And as their name indicates, they have long dorsal fins. Then there were the Sailfin Tangs. These are dark fish but when you see them up close they are ornately decorated and when you bother them their top and bottom (ventral and dorsal) fins fan out which gives them a circular shape when just a second ago they were fish-shaped. They usually are found alone, but today a group of four was hanging out together. And the highlight of the day was a spectacular ray. It was at least four feet across, nearly circular in shape and with a tail about as long as the disc. It had huge spiracles or gill openings topped by big eyes. It was whitish gray with darker gray splotches. It swam right across the top of the aquarium, just barely skimming the coral, and then settled in the sand at the edge so we could examine him carefully from a safe distance. Then he swam around the eastern perimeter of the shelf and off he went. He was spectacular, but unfortunately on a day when we really should have had the camera, we had left it behind. We will go back tomorrow and try to get photos of some of the fish, but I doubt that we will be so lucky as to see the ray again. Hopefully there will be other opportunities.
We headed back to the boats but decided to go check out a bommie that Bill on Jenain had marked with a Styrofoam float this morning. On our way there we saw Ed out in his dinghy, so we knew he was feeling better. He wanted to get in the water and the marked bommie was just too deep, so we snorkeled over near the island. The water was way too warm and other than humongous plate corals, some at least nine to ten feet in diameter, there was not much else to see. But just seeing that plate coral was a treat.
by Judy Handley | Apr 6, 2010 | Chagos, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 162, Year 5: A Day in Chagos Paradise
Date: Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Weather: Rain Overnight; Beautiful Day; Very Little Wind
Location: Ile Fouquet, Peros Banhos Atoll, Chagos
Picture this. A little white sand island with palm trees and a reef that extends northward. The waves constantly roll in over the reef, ever so gently. Far back from the reef there are seven little sailboats all in a row, evenly spaced, facing the reef. The boat closest to the island is Jenain from South Africa. The next boat is Constance from the US and then there is Mirage, also from the US. The next boat is Nomad from Reunion, a French island some thousand miles south of here. Then there is a tiny little boat from France with a single-hander, then Windbird, and then another boat from France. That is our little temporary community here at Ile Fouquet. The other two boats in Peros Banhos, back at Ile du Coin, are both from the US. Five out of nine US boats is a greater majority than I think we have ever seen in any location. Four of us will be traveling on to Africa, but one of those will not be going around the Cape of Good Hope. A boat named Napenthe will come back this way and then go through the Red Sea next year. A boat named Mirage will go back to Thailand, and only Constance, Windbird, and a boat from Washington State (I don’t yet know how to spell the name of the boat) will be going around South Africa. It will be interesting to find out what boats are over in Salomon Atoll that are going our direction. But that will have to wait a while. We are having way too much fun here to move on.
I feel like I am on vacation at a very exclusive resort. We had Yellowtail Tuna sushi for lunch and again as a dinner appetizer. Then we had fresh grilled Jobfish and cabbage salad for dinner. Before lunch, we took the dinghy outside the reef and snorkeled our way back home. The current was carrying us so pulling the dinghy along with us was not difficult. I pulled the dinghy while Mark took the underwater camera and got some photos. Although not top-notch photography because of the angle to the sun and distance away, his prize photos today are of the black-tipped sharks. This is not my favorite sighting as a snorkeler, but black-tips are reef sharks and we are snorkeling on a reef near a pass, so these guys are going to be there. They are small and seem harmless, but the operative word here is “seem.” I sure hope they stay that way. Mark and Ed also saw a nurse shark, but I missed that one. We saw the first soft coral we have seen for a while, the common Sarcophytus, commonly called leather coral. Today the Sarcophytus was covered with coral polyps but sometimes it is not and looks naked. It feels like leather and folds in and out on itself. We saw more of the same fish that we saw yesterday, so nothing new to add to the list and as yesterday, it was delightful watching the parrotfish and not have them speed away. My favorite is a yellow one with red fins and blue lips. I can’t find it in the field guides, but I’ll keep looking. I just have to know what it is. Another highlight was the sighting of a couple of pin-cushion type sea stars that are commonly called Bishop’s Caps because that is exactly what they look like.
After lunch we went to shore to burn garbage and to take an island walk on Ile Fouquet. Ed and Lynne went with us and we enjoyed our little tour. Where we took the dinghies ashore, cruisers have built a small table out of scavenged wood and have collected trash that has washed up on the island and put it all in one neat little spot. The island is sandy on the side that faces the anchorage but on the back side, it is hard coral. Many coconut trees have recently fallen in a storm, so walking is a bit of a challenge. And add to that the number of small and large hermit crabs that are walking everywhere. It was hard not to step on one, but what a sight. I will have to return and just sit and watch them for a whole afternoon. The variety of shells is just amazing. The island might be uninhabited, but none of the shells are empty. They are all homes for crabs.
