We have pulled up anchor, lowered colors, and set sail for Penrhyn. We have enjoyed our time in Fanning but we need to move on in order to avoid cyclone season at other islands we’d like to visit. We’d like to apologize for the lack updates these past few weeks, after spending many months working on the boat we were just plan tired. We hope to fill you in on Fanning as we make our way to Penrhyn, but for now here’s a long recap, haha.
Wade did not have food poisoning but a communicable virus, which then passed to Sara. As Sara was still on antibiotic’s because of her foot (which is better) the virus passed her within a couple of days and her highest temperature was 100.1 degrees. The virus does linger a little while after the main symptoms begin to dissipate. Sudden spells of weakness and exhaustion overwhelm the body.
On a much brighter note Sara made Cheeseburgers. Normally in the states getting a cheeseburger and side of fries would not be too much trouble. Pretty much there is a good burger to be had within a block. We have been gone long enough that all bread is either gone or would have gone bad. The last of our tomatoes and kale are starting to look sad, so to maximize the greatness of our last produce Sara made cheeseburgers and fries which started from making hamburger buns from scratch, peeling potatoes and slicing them to McDonald size, sauteing onions and mushrooms, slicing the fixings (cheese, tomatoes and kale). This project took nearly eight hours, haha! Not to bore everyone, Sara’s created a separate post for later that describes this process and recipes.
A community on one of the Motu’s of Fanning Island prepared a feast, singing and dancing festival for us. This event had been scheduled and rescheduled numerous times, due to our turns at each getting sick. But alas we are both feeling well and last night the event finally happened. And we felt so bad with their having to reschedule, but WOW what an event and we are so happy they did not give up on us. There was dancing for us in traditional clothing and the first dancers were six women who lined up for Wade to spray perfume around each of them from behind. We were advised to bring perfume for this purpose by the police chief “On Top”, who also interpreted for us. At least we were told we were supposed to do this perfume spraying, but yet this caused the children to begin laughing hysterically, so who knows for sure. Two of the dancing women placed a floral crown on our heads. Next was a part of their wanting us to dance with them; we were not expecting that. With their and our dancing out of the way, next we were presented with tubs of food to eat which included nearly every type of food they have on the island. There was lobster, different fishes, pork, papaya, squash, breadfruit, rice, freshly baked bread, and coconut water to drink from a freshly peeled coconut. After eating, we wondered if that was it for the show, but there was more dancing and singing and this also meant more dancing from us as well. The children especially seemed to get a laugh out of us trying to keep up with and match the traditional dancing. So perhaps it was equally entertaining for them to watch us? Near the end was some beautiful singing accompanying a drum beat caused by men sitting around a huge wooden box that must have been over ten feet long and sounded like a drum when they slapped their hand on it. The finale’ was three boys and one girl of about 8 years of age singing in both English and Kiribati their song of Fanning Island, which mentioned the happy, smiling people of Fanning Island and also described their plentiful and delicious food. Their request of us was to ask of anyone we know coming to the island to bring them an unneeded sail. We have other items to give before leaving, but unfortunately not a sail. The night concluded with a scooter ride back to our dinghy and we were back on the boat by 11 pm.
Most sailors know that our route through the South Pacific is backwards from the norm. Most people sail with the wind at their beam or from the stern. Our trip from Penryn to Bora Bora will be on the noise. As we know from previous post sailboats do not sail dead into the wind. Our plan is to pick a weather window when the winds are light and motor straight to Bora Bora. As we have burned 56 gallons of diesel to get to Fanning we need to fill up. Diesel and gas is limited in Fanning and not for sale. We had a choice sail to Christmas island, into the wind on a light wind day. We waited and waited and it looks like a light wind day was going to happen. Casually talking to the nurse we told her of our issue and she suggested that we put in an order with the Kwai. We talked the Fanning Kwai agent, Nan, and were able to talk with the Captain on our SSB radio later that night to organize a fuel purchase. We were even able to organize the fuel transfer at our next stop August 13th in Penryhn. Diesel cost $300 American dollars for a barrel approx. 40 gallons of fuel.
Updates from previous post:
- Egg update from 7/19/16: We flipped the eggs each day that sat on the counter and still they were not going bad. When placing the egg in water they sunk like rocks to the bottom of the glass; even though, the yolk still looked flat in the frying pan. Sara started to get grossed out by how long the eggs were lasting and couldn’t take it anymore, so she hard boiled the last of the eggs sitting on the counter. We still have eight packs in the fridge so we think we’ll be okay until we get to French Polynesia. We can officially say that store bought refrigerated eggs can last up to 27 days on the counter not refrigerated if turned 180 degrees daily.
Wade and Sara
