Carl B shares his journals - from the voyage to Samoa
Assistant Engineer and deckhand, Carl tells of whales tails and island sails.

"Please note that these are in no particular order (of chronology or importance.... :)

SURREAL SIGHTING
We were several days into our passage from Tahiti, with blue ocean all around. I was on the helm and suddenly noticed a dark shape, perhaps a mile distant, just above the horizon off the port bow. I hadn't seen it before, or where it had come from, but it was there now. It seemed to lie there, floating, before rolling on it's side and disappearing back into the distant swell.

"Whale off the port bow!" Chris on the foredeck had seen it too and soon everybody was lining the rail and straining the horizon, cameras at the ready.
"Did you see it?"
"Which direction exactly?"
"I can't see anything!"

We've had nearly a dozen whale sightings since leaving New Zealand in March. They've mostly been one show wonders, but occasionally they've stayed with us for a few spouts before diving. Sometimes we've even been accompanied by several together, gliding along behind the ship, although this has happened mostly at night when we can only hear them.

BEST YET
And then, as if on commission from Lonely Planet, as we entered Samoan waters last week, we were witness to the best display yet. There seemed to be a few of them this time and their appearance was accompanied by the usual excited exclamations. Cries that, as with the dolphins, seemed to encourage the whales on.

They spouted several times up ahead of us before dropping below and coming up behind. We'd been sailing in a following Force 6 for the past two days, so there was a decent sized swell. As the whales came up and overtook us, we could seem them in the waves, like looking through double-windows of the building next door. And as they twisted and turned around under the water, their white bellies a clouded contrast to the seas bright blue.

Unlike the dolphins however, which dart this way and that, the whales seemed to move slower and more graceful. Although I suspect this was an illusion of their size, with their actual speed somewhat faster than that of their smaller cousins.

AITUTAKI (Cook Is.)
In the Southern Cooks Group and just 145 nautical miles north of Rarotonga, this was our first stop after Bora Bora. The lagoon here was the shallowest we've encountered yet and the pass through it to landfall, a thin sliver of a channel blasted out in the 1950's... just 15m wide and 1-3m deep, it stretches for half a mile. The out-rushing current at the entrance creates quite a chop with small standing waves. These, when superimposed onto the prevailing ocean swell make for quite a ride in our little inflatable tenders, which of course I had the exhiliration of driving ashore

So no, we didn't navigate this grade-3 rapid in Soren Larsen, but rather dropped the hook off the outer reef where it somehow managed to keep hold for the four days we were there. I say, 'somehow managed', as the drop-off was rather steep. I recorded 25m off the bow with the lead-line when we dropped anchor, with the depth sounder reading 90m and then 120m off the stern...

Once ashore a group of us hired bikes and set off around the island. The hard driving rain as we cycled alongside the airfield along the exposed northern coast might have turned some back, but I needed a shower anyway and winter in the Cook Is. really isn't that cold. And once the rain had stopped the strong head-wind just 10 minutes to dry our soaked clothes. We stopped by a beach resort on the far northern tip of the island and hired a couple of sea-kayaks to share between us for an hour. I then ordered a typical pub-style lunch from a girl at the bar, sporting a t-shirt that read, "Where the hell is Otematata?"...

... a tiny village in New Zealand's South Island, where I worked for 3 months at the Benmore hydropower station in 2003.

ENGAGED
Yes and the wedding is in Vancouver in January. Under normal circumstances I might have been worried by the fact that I didn't get a reply for 3 weeks, but then my proposal was hardly of the usual form... a poem (and ring) sent from Tahiti by snail mail.

The wedding in Canada, but we're having a second reception back in New Zealand in March.

LEAVING SOON
In order to be with Lisa again sooner I will be leaving the ship before the end of the season. I'll be flying home from Fiji in about 3 weeks time and meeting Lisa there. So of the 8 month Pacific circuit I'll miss the last 10 weeks, including Vanuatu and Norfolk Island. But I'll likely be visiting them next year with Lisa anyway, so I'll only have to wait till then. I gave Steve three months notice in which time he's tracked down Amiria to take my place. She worked as volunteer crew on Soren at the start of this year, so knows the ropes already and will be joining us here in Samoa for my last 3 weeks...

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Lucky Last

This is my last day off here in Samoa. Time is precious so this is in short form.

RAROTONGA
- The 'mainland' of the Cook Islands and starting port for our recent leg to Samoa.
- Everything was sooo cheap (except NZ yoghurt).
- Ice-cream cones just $1 (so I had a few :)
- Checked out harbour authority for yacht berthing requirements
- Good place to stock up, so have CITC price list for when Lisa and I come back

PALMERSTON ISLAND
- Three families share this lagoon and islands, all descended from one William Marsters and his three tahitian wives...
- Our decks (and below) were loaded with tons of supplies for them as they hadn't had a ship in months.
- Lots of coconut trees and chickens running amok (with heads attached still).
- Little kids also running amok, climbing me and pulling my beard.
- So I picked them up and swung them round in circles until they were dizzy (I remembered to spot).
- I then spent afternoon fixing generators for the locals.
(must say I really enjoy the hands-on work, so much more than shuffling reports :)

SUWARROW
- Island sanctuary paradise lagoon in northern Cooks group
- bbq ashore with the yachties from other yachts anchored there
- giant coconut craps all through the bush, scurrying over leaves....
- were nothing compared to the rather large 'blue crap' as we called it...
- this psychedelic blue/orange beast was bigger than my head and reminded me of the super-beings from 'The Fifth Element'...

NORWEGIAN COUPLE
- Gunnar & Ingvid on their yacht Helen Kate.
- Sailed from Norway 2 and 1/2 years ago with no sailing knowledge and a couple days sails experience between them (with a friend on his yacht)...
- Baked some snorbroed on the fire, although they called it pind-broed

BRENT
- VC on last leg from Cook Islands
- Engineer for Intel (with degree in physics), so we talked about lots of cool stuff...
- Comparison of their microchip architectures, 3-D (standard is 2-D) gates, flash memory, multi-layering
- Emerging power electronics (that I studied) and relative simplicity of the logic required (only one gate)
- Fabrication methods and technology for microelectronic circuits and chips

So yeah, chatting to him brought back lots of ideas I'd had in recent years... electric cars, renewable energy... all those things I love and might get more time with when I'm on my own yacht next year!

Time to close - next voyage to Tonga and Fiji...!

Carl

Read Carl's other journals in French Polynesia here

Soren Larsen will be visiting these destinations again next year.