Emails from "Persian Lady"

In the Pacific Ocean

  Graham with sailfish                A policeman
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Received  23.10.02

The last month has been really good and wound up the season nicely.  Life is well this this end, we have spent a couple of super days swimming with the manta rays of which I have made 2.5 minutes of movie that I will try to get to you.

We have visited a small atoll named Wiva; don't look on the atlas it's not even on most of the charts and we had to weave in through a reef of 25 metres wide shoaling to 4 metres with surging breakers each side. I have a muscular valve at the base of my spine that was nearly relaxing with tension. We made it with a cheer two other boats following. Only 4 other boats have made it to this enchanting atoll 15 miles out from the nearest island Waya this year.

A 100 years ago it was a coral reef and as the ocean had receded became and island with large lagoon. Inhabitants from other islands sailed across bringing with them soil and seedlings from the island of Waya.(by sailboat I might add)

The land slowly fertilized and by heaping soil around the plants they gradually started to farm the land. This is truly land reclamation and the island now has developed a cultivated soil depth of over one spit.

So the population of over 400 hundred is self sufficient in all respects. They have to collect and store water during the rains and during the dry season when things get desperate they either get help via the government on the mainland or distill it themselves. They have no electricity and as such are quite isolated from the world except for their visits to the mainland to sell fish, their main source of income.

They are the happiest islanders we have met to date, we have participated in a formal Sevusevu and drained a few coconut cups of Kava for the first time this year, the Kava we bought was most welcome.

Yesterday a local guy Nambi took us diving and we returned with an abundance of fish albeit my tank gasket blew and I didn't get to dive. Later in the afternoon we played volley ball with the dads and kids; it was great fun and we are most welcome.

On the Monday the kids put on a special play for us, an hour of real fun. I video taped it and we realised they have a generator and VCR and once a week the whole village get to watch a movie. We put the film on video for them. You cannot believe the absolute joy it created I felt really privileged and have to say it brought a bit of a speckle to the eye.

Received 19.12.02  Futuna to Fiji

The journey to Futuna (lle du Horne) was pleasant enough, the only excitement was the departure through the Wallis reef. We still have the lumpy, confused seas but now we are resigned to this and appreciate we will not lose them until we are well clear of the convergence zone and back into trade wind territory; if then. The journey overnight was a desperate shade of dark with no outline at all between sea and sky, with total cloud cover and no stars to guide us by. “I know…we have electronic navigation and charts but that defies the romance and excitement doesn’t it”.

When you are on watch at night in those conditions with just the imagination to guide you and the creak and groan of the boat it sometimes gets spooky. There are voices talking that you hear as clear as a bell and every errant wave peak that folds close by is a whale breaching. In reality of course visibility is quite good…if you had but one thing to focus on but with no horizon and no objects or lights it may as well be fog.

The voices talk to you but only short sentences, as if spoken by ancient mariners that have only time to make one comment as you pass them quickly by.  The only effective way to pass the time is to drift away into the dreamland of your thoughts. If not careful these become negative and sometimes very maudlin so I play a in my mind all the odd memories; items that would make people chuckle. (I know, always the bloody comedian)

At dawn the islands of ill du Horne appeared out of the gloom, the day gradually warmed by the sun started to ease the aching bones and we dropped hook safely in the channel at about 08.00hrs tired but elated to look over and see the anchor in 20 metres of crystal clear water.

There is not too much to say about Futuna, pleasant as the scenery and people were. As we were still in a French protectorate there was no paperwork or formality of any kind. We anchored between the two islands and subjected ourselves to the contrary motion of the Pacific swell and tidal flow between the two islands, sometimes so strong we lay contrary to the wind and often side on to the swell. Depending upon the tide of course!

Without a reef to offer it’s protection this was, at times quite violent and looking across at Cariad it appeared they were rocking gunwale to gunwale.  The island we visited was pleasant and semi modern with solar panelled lighting system on the Fali in case the visiting locals wished to stay overnight. (Compliments of the French and European coffers of course)

There was a great fresh water tap and we indulged in showering under copious amounts of water. We then took the washing and between us managed to get up-to-date; much to the delight of the local girls who had not seen Europeans hand wash and laughing as they told us of their new washing machines? The pigs enjoyed bathing in the suds much to dispel the bad press they often get but I fear it will take more than a few suds to disperse the smell.

The island is full of pigs and we were full of confidence in completing our mission. The price was outrageous but there were too many locals around for us to steal one. Even one pig without any ears and only one eye managed to avoid us. How do they know our intent?  Maybe Fiji!

The swell made life really uncomfortable and limited an otherwise enjoyable stay and so it was time to move. We did manage to snorkel in the crystal clear water but fish life was limited and the joy was in peering in the many underwater coral caves.

On the evening before departure we were invited onboard Cariad for an early aperitif supper. Claude had done the most amazing Sushi with fresh raw mahi-mahi. With the rolling of the boat we suggested she had maybe laid out the ingredients and let the rolling of the boat do the rest.

The passage to Fiji was really a dream. The winds never exceeded 20 knots and then only in very short gusts as a squall passed by, luckily missing us each time.  Early in the trip we caught a very small skip jack tuna. We threw it back as it was only about 3 kilo and we had just finished the last of the old tuna that had become very dry and strong. We would like to catch a mahi-mahi?

The creator gives the bounty so I suddenly felt a bit weird (no I’m not getting religious again) and the rest of the day was spent wondering whether it was maybe not a good idea to spurn the gifts of the sea.  It was a strange feeling and that night and next day we just dragged the lure watching the birds feed and the fish pound the surface doing the same.   Nothing ventured close so I put on a brave face and said “we won’t catch anything until about 16.00hrs when they start feeding again.

At 16.05 the line screeched and a large mahi-mahi jumped, we lost him as he spat out the hook. S---!  I started to wind in the line. Next minute we followed another chasing the lure and I experienced the joy of watching him bite. So the creator set a tease, taught us a lesson I will remember and we finished a safe passage to Savu-Savu in Fiji. It felt like coming home the reception was great from really friendly people.

I had a couple of night dreams but I’ll leave them for another time.