--I had to break this into 2 parts because the Internet in Fiji hates me. I'm not sure if that makes it better or worse. We made it here though!--
They were the happiest dolphins I'd ever seen, all jumping out of the water and doing barrel rolls and swishing back and forth in front of the boat, fighting to stay in the bow wave. There were so many at the bow at one point there was just a wall of dolphins - they looked like a school of fish, all tumbling on top of each other and bumping into their neighbours. So that was awesome.
I lasted a whole day before I got sick, probably because I took a Piahia bomb when we left and it wore off by night time. The seas were calm and lovely, so at least now I know I'm going to be sick regardless. We're getting less waves than in the harbour! So it must just be the motion of the ocean, or perhaps because we're downwind. I slept in the cockpit that first night then dozed all the next day and now no more seasickness. Although I've screwed up my back from lying across the cockpit in weird positions and can no longer move or walk. Minor details.
Night watches have been really lovely, with a sky full of stars and a warm sleeping bag. It's terrible, but that's my favorite kind of sailing - curled up under the stars at night as the windvane steers the boat slowly across the ocean. It's all so calm and relaxing. I used to have an app on my phone that tells you the star constellations - I really want to find time to get it again, because its not as much fun not knowing what I'm looking at. The stars move slowly across the sky over the course of the night, but I can't tell by how much because they all look the same to me.
The sunrise and sunset look so similar some days.
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Thursday 3/10 - day 3
Our good luck went downhill rapidly after the first few days, probably because its us and we fail at life. Garth was rushing back into the cockpit to play with the spinnaker sheet when we all heard 'cling... PLONK' as his wedding ring came flying off and sunk 3000 metres below us. That was sad but not surprising. I knew he'd lose it eventually, but didn't think it would happen quite so fast. I've taken my engagement ring off and my wedding ring is stuck on tight (I hope) so I'm crossing my fingers that mine isn't doomed to the same fate. The safe thing to do would be to take it off, but I like wearing it. I was going to get Garth a new one in Australia, but I think while we're sailing the smart thing to do would be to just replace it with something nice from a foreign country every time he loses it.
Then that same day we lost two pins from the mainsheet blocks, one after another. They probably got knocked around too much on our way up the coast and just decided to fall out now. The boys put in a quick fix and we'll have to replace them with new ones when we get a chance. So that was the first thing to break.
Then our 200L water bladder that Mike already thought was too small managed to get a leak in it. Of course it did. Garth was distraught, because he was sure we'd have to turn back. If it was just the two of us we wouldn't have been that worried and just would have been super careful with the water. But as the skipper he knew he had to do the safest thing for our passengers, which was to go home. So we had a terrible hour or so of soul crushing misery thinking it was all over - if we turned back we'd have to redo cat 1 and we couldn't leave again until next year. So we ended up telling Mike and John roughly how much water we had left and let them make the decision as to whether or not they were comfortable with it. Luckily they were both happy to continue, provided our estimates were accurate.
John spent all day making fiddly little rubber seals for our emergency water containers, so they no longer leak. It looked like a very precise and annoying job, and in really glad he took the time to do it because we all feel a bit safer about what little water we have left.
Then Mike spent the day fixing up the broken bladder so we didn't lose any more water, although I have no idea how he did it. It looked complicated. There was wood and a strip of plastic and bolts and then silicone sealant to hold it all together. I think he fashioned something like a dry bag seal across where the hole was, and after a full day of work it was as watertight as it was going to get. I can't believe how good he is at fixing things - I guess that's where Garth gets it from.
The problem is we're not sure how much water is left in there. Garth's guess is that we've lost about 2/3 of it, so there's probably between 50 and 80L left. Luckily Garth has just installed the spare 50L bladder under the aft berth, and we have four 20L containers. So at least we have a lot of emergency water - we're left with 130L in containers, plus whatever is in the bladder. That's enough for 13 more days not counting the broken bladder, if we use 2L each for drinking and 2L for cooking every day. IF there's 50L left in the big bladder, then we have enough for at least 5 days on top of that, which is enough leeway to be safe. If there's less in there and something goes really wrong, we don't have enough. We're right by Raul island, which is technically part of New Zealand so we can't stop there after already checking out of customs. But it's very close and we want to be safe, so we're going to swing by to see if they'll give us some water. If they won't let us come within 12 miles of land (that's how far away you have to stay after clearing customs) and won't bring us any water, we're going to cross our fingers that our broken bladder will be enough. Then we'll just stop cooking with water I think, which will involve a lot of baked beans and some cranky crew members. So that's not ideal, but we can't do much about it without turning around - with headwinds all the way that could potentially take just as long as going to Fiji.
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Friday 4/10 - day 4
We've decided not to go to Raul island. They'll let us land there in an emergency situation, but the charts aren't accurate and there's a lot of potential hazards around the island. We haven't made a dent in the water left in the broken bladder, and we're estimating it has about 50L left in it. So we have enough water onboard for 18 days and Garth thinks it should take 8 to get to Fiji, so we're all feeling safer about the water situation.
Everything is still calm and peaceful. If sailing were always like this, everybody would do it. I feel like we'll be getting some nasty weather soon to make up for all the niceness. We were downwind for days, making use of the spinnakers - our riggers Todd and Dave are two of my favourite people right now because our new spinnaker pole has been amazing. It takes us from almost going backwards to a few knots forwards, which is awesome.
We were becalmed this morning so Garth went to go for a swim. He stripped off and just as he was stepping off the bow to jump in he noticed hundreds of tiny jellyfish streaming past the boat. They were as big as an Australian 50c piece, and on closer inspection we noticed that the water was filled with luminescent dots. I think they must have been dangling off the jellyfish, but there were lots just floating by on their own like glowing fish scales. They were orange, pink, blue and yellow, which made a pretty rainbow of glowing dots under the surface. So that was something different to break up the day.
We've been eating a lot of delicious food, even without much water to spare. Mike has been doing most of the cooking but Garth has made up a few really good meals too.
Garth's aunt Annabel made us some delicious pies in flaky pastry that are absolutely marvelous when you're sailing - they taste so good and they heat up fast. She supplied us with a really yummy fruit cake too, and uncle David went out in the pouring rain to gather us a big bag of grapefruit fresh off the tree as well. Then Garth's aunt Helen sent up homemade oat biscuits, heaps of our favorite dried apricots and roasted nuts from their tree - there's a LOT of nuts, so i can't imagine how long it would have taken to crack them all. Our darling Becca left a container of lolly cake in our fridge to be discovered after we'd left Wellington. And Mike's friend John who loaned us the hole saw paddled out in his kayak the morning we left to see us off, and came bearing a big bag of home killed meat. That was really sweet of him, and provided us with some excellent meals. So combined with good cooking, we've been eating really well!
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Saturday 5/10 - day 5
We found a freaking whale today. We've had hardly any wind and very calm, glassy seas with a gentle swell rolling through. I got really excited because I heard the puffy noise of water being blown up that dolphins make, and saw a big shape in the water. But when I looked at it I saw a dolphin fin and figured it was just a dolphin. It was just floating there though, and moving very slowly so I went to inspect it.
It moved across in front of the bow and popped up quite close to the starboard side, and it was definitely a whale. It was very hard to tell how big it was, because he only stuck a bit of his back up above the water. He came up one more time right next to us, and you could see all the nobbly barnacles around his head, which was cool. It was the first time everyone bar Mike had seen a whale in real life, so it was definitely the highlight of today. He went a fair way off in the distance behind us, popped up a few more times and then turned around and headed in the other direction. He came up again and sprayed water everywhere, but he was very far away so we couldn't see very well. So that's it, we can go home now. We've found both dolphins and whales. Although I'd still like to go swimming with them to complete the sailing trifector.
We didn't get a picture... But this is where he went!
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[Video: Dolphins]
[Video: Spinnaker]
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