Surf's Up, Water Catchment, and Yoga

That forecast swell arrived just as predicted, and was phenomenal. The wave breaking outside the lagoon on the south side of the pass was a clean, offshore, beautifully formed left-hand peak with consistent 6-7-ft sets and occasional double overhead waves. It reminded Chris of a surf break called Frigate's Passage that he surfed in Fiji (just before the coup there in late 90s; it was where Chris' sailing dream was hatched) and appears to be able to hold a solid triple overhead swell. It is a relatively friendly wave (not too fast nor too heavy) but, during the full moon at least, you have to work against some strong tidal currents, and with the reef so close, it is not a beginner break. During the big tidal swings, Chris even had to get out and walk back up the shore to get to the peak, along the way he'd pass Shawn, who was taking photos and mingling with the locals who were also interested in watching Chris surf. One local surfer, Tekanaoro, joined Chris during a couple of his sessions. Otherwise, Chris surfed alone and reported feeling deeply moved by the raw and relentless energy of the ocean unleashing one seemingly perfect, pristine, and untouched wave after another on the shores of this tiny atoll. To add to this immense beauty, he was occasionally rewarded with glimpses of a large tuna hurling itself out of the water in pursuit of scattering prey, or a rainbow left in the wake of a passing squall.

During the swell, fellow cruising boat Privateer left for a beat to Tahiti and came back 36-hrs later with a 150-lb ahi tuna and a broken headstay. The same day, quite rickety looking and badly listing to starboard, the loaded Moamoa, one of the island's few supply ships, motored in and dropped the hook where we had originally been anchored. For the next two days while they were here, small boat traffic across the river pass increased noticeably as locals from all over the island made their way aboard to purchase wares (we primarily heard excitement for long absent tobacco and kava) or to secure off island passage. Privateer made their way over to our side of the pass to join the two other boats already tied up to the grounded barge for headstay inspection and "dockside" repairs. The Kwai, a motor-sailor cargo ship traveling between Kiribati the Cook Islands and Honolulu, usually visits Christmas Island before Fanning, but was diverted and filled the Moamoa's recently vacated spot. The cargo motor-sailor had been diverted by Tyrone, an agent for the Kwai who is in charge of buying seaweed from around the island and making sure it is prepared and ready for shipment, and who needed to get his family to Christmas Island by a certain date. Tyrone is also the unofficial cruiser's ambassador, speaks superb English, and is the guy who knows how to get things on Fanning. We have had several discussions with Tyrone and feel that he is a warm and honest soul and were very sad to hear of his father-in-law passing the night before he and his family left.

Throughout the swell, we poured over our tide charts figuring out daylight hours that were most favorable for surfing. We found that at least 0.8-ft of water is necessary, below that the reef gets difficult to avoid, an ebbing tide seems to hold the wave up best, and the smaller bump of the two daily tidal swings creates less current to fight against to stay in the line-up. Post-swell, we shifted our thinking toward heading south. We started to look at weather, and at the same time, continued dialogue with the Napoli local Beeto (the one who originally showed us around the north shore of Tabuaeran) who had contacted us in hopes that we would be willing to teach the island high school students some yoga. Feeling like that was our final activity, we prepared for it and slowly chipped away at our always growing "to-do" list. The chainplates were cleaned and rebed prior to the swell so top of the list was sewing and connecting our mast-funnel water catchment system. Another entire day was spent doing laundry, by hand, motivated by the fact that all of our holding buckets were brimming full of Fatty-caught (mostly fresh with a little salt water splash) water and needed to be used to make space. It was quite a process and sparked lots of thought about how much water and energy are used by washer/dryers we are familiar with, as well as very sore wrists. After the cleaned and rinsed laundry was hanging all over Tao and drying in the wind, we pushed off to make a banana bread delivery (all of our bananas ripened at the same time) to the folks working diligently on the barge. As the sun set, we made it back to Tao to pull the clothes inside just before it started to rain.

And rain it did, all night long. During a middle-of-the-night pit stop Chris saw lightning and the next morning Shawn heard thunder as the rain continually poured straight down with eerie no wind conditions. We juggled water: added what had been collected by our mast-funnel into our 6-gal jug plus two of our 5-gal jugs to top off our starboard tank and put these jugs back to immediate collection use. The larger one was posted at the base of the mast and the two 5-gallons on each side of the cockpit gathering water funneled off each side of our shade awning through side grommets into hose leading to each jug. By the time the sun came out, all of our jugs were nearly overflowing.

It turned out this morning was our planned high school yoga class, so we prepared for a very wet ride on the red "church" truck (apparently the white one is owned by "the local council" and the blue one "the people") that Beeto and the school had routed just for our yoga day. All three trucks have the driver's side on the right and are quite well-used (which is an understatement; imagine patches of paint, smashed windshields, and generally major signs of vehicular attrition as there are no official mechanics on the atoll). Ed and Nila from Quixotic, also dedicated yoga practicioners (Ashtanga) joined us for the occasion. It was a 45-min very wet ride standing in the back of the truck as it drove slowly from one wet pothole to the next to the far north end of the island. As the actual details had been lost in translation between us and Beeto via the VHF (he hails us "Tao's boat, Tao's boat, Tao's boat"), we were unsure exactly what we were to present to whom. Discussion of what yoga is with the high school teachers? Students? Did they want to see or do a whole class? Watch a demonstration of yoga? We went armed with books, CDs, and all sorts of information in our heads to share. We were flattered to have been invited and excited to share something so special to us. It turns out that Anates, the high school geography teacher is working with Beeto to improve the high school's physical education program, one of the ways by adding yoga. The problem is that they have no one to teach them, which is where we came into their plan. Unfortunately it is impossible to convey all of our combined yoga experience and knowledge in one afternoon. But what we were able to do was quite satisfying.

Napari Village, at the north end of the island, houses one of the two (and the only non-parochial) high schools serving all of Christmas (Kiritimati), Washington (Teraina), and Fanning (Tabuaeran) Islands and currently boards approximately 90 students. We were met by a man serving as the interim principal and the science-turned-geography teacher, Anates (we had previously met the actual principal, but she had left a few days earlier, along with several other teachers, on the Moamoa for several weeks to attend a conference on Christmas Island). Anates took us to meet the "senior" or grade 11, 16-yr old, students we were to teach. We all gathered in an open air space roofed by natural woven palm leaves covering a cement slab where the 4 of us were ushered to sit in the center on a palm woven mat and face the students. In addition to the teacher, whose English was quite good and Beeto, there were about twenty shy looking students. It was a co-ed class, who had separated themselves in half, with all girls on one side and all boys on the other. Each student was in uniform with a white button down shirt and blue knee covering shorts for the boys and skirts (which made some of the yoga quite difficult) for the girls.

We launched into it, each of us briefly introducing ourselves and meeting blank stares. Shawn asked if anyone had heard of yoga and only the teacher and Beeto raised their hands. We were unsure if the students could even understand what we were saying and though there was no head nodding or acknowledgement from the students when we asked if they were following our English, the teacher confirmed that they understood perfectly well (it turns out that all of their lessons except Kiribati class are performed in English). So we continued on, starting with what yoga is "union of mind and body," and how yoga might be good for each of them. Then we asked everyone to stand up and join in and first, Ed introduced Ashtanga by leading the class through several sun salutations and a couple postures. Next, Shawn introduced Bikram's Yoga, starting by describing the normal classroom with mirrors, heat, humidity, and how to practice on an empty stomach and well hydrated, then leading everyone through Pranayama Breathing and the first three warm up asanas. By the time we got to Eagle Pose, where you twist arms and legs like ropes to open all the major joints in the body, the students were smiling, laughing, and actually enjoying themselves. Our time was up and after a thank you in English from one of the boys and a Namaste, we were invited to join the class for lunch where Shawn and Nila sat with the girls and Chris and Ed sat with the boys. One of the girls, Keemie, turns out to be Miss Christmas Island 2010 (which means she was voted the best traditional dancer in 2010) and though in school uniform instead of traditional garb, she agreed to perform an impromptu dance for us. What a treat! We left them with the Bikram's Yoga class CD and hope to send them the Bikram's Yoga Blue Book via the Kwai when we can. Late that afternoon, they sent us off on the red truck with smiles, waves, and ko bati n raba(thank you very much)'s as well as fresh greens, Kiribati music, new words for Shawn's dictionary, more papayas, another entire stalk of bananas and a general sense of having shared something important with this community. It is a small step, but we are delighted to have been part of bringing Yoga to Tabuaeran.

Tigiroy! (pronounced sig-E-roy meaning good luck or cheers)

We have been quite busy out here in the middle of the Pacific Ocean since we last posted! As always, so much to do and see and learn and experience. We've only got a few main projects on tap; sew a mast water catchment skirt/funnel and re-bed the chainplates, but there has been so much fun social stuff that we haven't chosen to spend our time on the projects yet. We are enjoying our more isolated anchorage, but it hasn't kept us from visiting the other side. It has been very exciting to sail across together in Fatty- wet with big standing waves when the tide is flooding in and the wind is howling out, but fun! It is almost comical, going over to someone's boat for sundowners or appetizers usually the biggest challenge is not getting anything wet or spilling any of our food. Now, not only do we have to package the food for spill proofing in a rough ride, but we have to take a set of dry clothes in a dry bag, change, and then be off again by sunset so we can get across the river and back to our boat before dark.

One of our early adventures was short tacking Fatty upwind through a bunch of reefs to the other quite inaccessible and beautiful coconut laden east side of the atoll while Chris (Jahn) and Andreas from s/v Privateer paddled their sit on top kayak. It was quite an adventure. We have figured out a method to roll-reef Fatty's sail because it has been super windy nearly every day so far (18-20-knots). We have spent a couple mornings doing yoga with the 6 other cruisers in the anchorage from Privateer, Quixotic, and Fianna. When Shawn led class, there were not only 8 cruisers, but a large Kiribati children audience, and even a few daring young participants. Another morning we helped Arania, the local police officer, repair his VHF radio in exchange for an entire stalk of bananas, 4 drinking coconuts, and a Chivas Regal bottle filled with Kamaimai (syrup from a coconut tree). Once we had a working speaker attached, a very authoritative, "Tao, this is the Police, Tao, this is the Police" is how they hailed us. The whole anchorage was wondering what we'd done wrong :). We also made a kang kang (delicious) pumpkin coconut curry for a potluck on s/v Quixotic, after which we sailed Fatty home across the channel, in the light of the quarter moon. Yesterday, we were invited to visit the north shore of the island by a nice local, Beeto, who showed all four of our boats around his village, husked at least 30 coconuts for us (Shawn miserably failed to get even one opened let alone husked without breaking a sweat), and organized a volleyball game against the locals, which we valiantly lost. He also walked us to the only other charted anchorage on Fanning, "Whaler Anchorage," which suggests that Fanning Island may have been commonly used as a whaler stopover during the whaling days. The location also sports a beautiful right wave peak, which becomes a world class surf spot with any swell from the north. Beeto explained that winds tend to stay offshore in this anchorage, which is surprising considering its location and the prevailing ENE winds. We have been taking tons of photos, but who knows when we'll next get internet, probably American Samoa.

The locals here are really nice and very giving- even though they have comparatively little. I do wish that we had more of an idea what the people here really needed before we came. We brought things like tooth brushes and combs, but what they actually need are books, single prong fish hooks, thread, glass bottles, and clothes (not to mention any sort of medical supplies or expertise as there is just one nurse that lives on the island). They are forever awaiting te baas (the boat) to bring them more sugar and flour, pick up the island's cleaned and dried seaweed (their sole money-making export), and transport anyone to any other islands. There are approximately 2,000 people on the atoll spread among 6 main villages; 4 on the south island and 2 on the north island. When we made our way to the east island, we saw huts and people who apparently pay $30/month to be there and harvest as many coconuts as they want for copra (dried coconut meat primarily used to make coconut oil). The island's original money making export, copra has now fallen in demand from this particular atoll (apparently, nearby Washington Island controls the local market now) and we hear that paper "chits," pieces of paper with only a promise of genuine coin, are exchanged among the islanders as payment for goods. Many people don't speak a word of English, but most speak at least a few, learned early on in school, and there are a few, usually from Kiribati's capital, Tarawa (located among the island nation's primary island group some 1,500 miles to the west), who speak fairly fluent English. Still we try and we are very slowly learning the basics. The Kiribati language is quite difficult with intonations unlike anything in English although many of the locals purport the words are just like English. We will continue to do our best. In terms of fresh produce squash, bananas, coconuts, papayas, and fish/lobster abound. We'll also try to find some eggs and green leafy stuff when we provision next.

The swell has been small since we got here, so Chris has only gone surfing a handful of times, but a south is forecast to roll in here the 4th and 5th bringing a sizable bump in wave height, so we're trying to get projects done before that.

Mauri from Tabuaeran (Fanning) Island

Sorry for the silence. We are just slowly catching up with ourselves, settling in, and Fanning is a quite primitive island. Although the government has an internet setup, it is not functioning and hasn't been for several months. They await the Kwai, a ship that comes every few months with supplies for the islanders (flour, sugar, solar panels, computer modem apparently, etc...). The main anchorage is a lee shore and strongly influenced by currents, making for uncomfortable sleeping during the strong ebb current throughout the night, with waves crashing over the bow and water rushing under the hull, as if we were underway. We've been trying to dry out, but have had a few on and off wet days (it's those squalls passing us by). Desperate to dry out, we made the mistake of leaving our hatches open just a crack when we went ashore to check in (which required stops, paperwork and some small fees at: the Police Station/Immigration, Quarantine, and the Local Council). But it only took a few squalls for Shawn to be ready with her shower gear at a moments notice. We are working on a catchment system with several ideas including tarps, awnings, upside down sail covers and funnels which are in the process of being implemented, though Fatty has caught the most fresh water for us yet! We have spent hours watching the tidal changes, recalibrating our tide chart (it was basically an hour early), seeing how Tao rides the currents under anchor, and checking the surf. We are making progress each day and along with the normal dive to check the anchors, we took Fatty around the lee side (the navigable waters) of the lagoon with our lead line to find different anchoring options.

Yesterday we spent ashore again as the locals started to set up a craft fair for a cruise ship that was to come visit. Unfortunately, with the strong winds whipping up 2-ft swells onto the lee shore where they were to disembark, the cruise ship guests did not come ashore for safety. It is almost comical thinking of this as we see a "ferry" (two long pontoons with plywood along the sides, reminiscent of a sweep rig on the MF Salmon River) with a tiny motor astern, cross the river several times each day jam packed with children from villages across the river, and surely not a life vest aboard... This morning we took advantage of the slack tide, weighed our anchors and made our way NW across the channel to another anchorage we had sounded from Fatty, that we hope is quieter, at least in terms of currents. We are now anchored behind Cartwright Point, upwind of a grounded cargo ship whereas before we were anchored behind Weston Point next to a mostly sunken ship wreck!

Chris has made his way out surfing already- though the swell is currently small. And we have even figured out a way to reef Fatty's sail, because the Trade Winds blowing over the island are too strong to have all the sail area up. We have been doing our best to learn the Kirbati language, but are grateful that many people know at least one or two words of English (and several learned English in the Kirbati capital of Tarawa, nearly 2,000-miles to the west) most have huge smiles when greeted with "Mauri," the local word for Aloha. One local already walked 6-km both ways to bring us 4 most amazing drinking coconuts. There are a few other cruising boats here, all with unique stories, so it is nice to share this amazing spot in the middle of the Pacific with both cruisers and locals alike. We'll try to keep updates coming to the blog, so keep checking in, but everything does seem to take forever... for now, we are quite enjoying this spot that is almost equal distance between Cabo San Lucas, Mexico and Brisbane, Australia!