Down to the Seas: February 17, 2012

So, here’s what I was planning on saying in the email I sent you today, but I did not have enough time to write any more than I did. Sorry I spent half of it asking for a plane ticket. It actually took twice as long to write as it should have because the keyboard is a French one and all the keys are out of order. I felt like Dad, typing with only my pointer fingers.

Anyway, we’re in Nuku Hiva right now, which is an island in the Marquesas. It’s a high island, not just an atoll, and is my favorite island yet. Very picturesque. This is our fourth day here. Our first day we spent in a valley on the other side of the island, the more rural area, checking out and documenting archeological sites in the morning and going on a hike to a beautiful waterfall in the afternoon. Part of the trail was a 500 year old street. It’s the first cold, fresh water I’ve been in. The Pacific isn’t exactly like Lake Michigan and the water we have to drink on the boat, while cool and abundant, is not cold. The first thing I want to eat at home is ice and other cold things. Although we’ve become to acclimated to the warmth that when we hit 23 degrees C yesterday we were a bit chilly. This does not bode well for April in the Midwest. On our way back to Mama Seamans, we stopped at one of the few houses lining the road and the people living there served us fresh mango, papaya, and pineapple. People are very generous here, and gift giving is part of the culture. French Polynesians view it as a way of passing on part of their Mana, which is like their spirit. It’s a really cool concept.

I really should have been writing letters like this for the whole trip. It’s weird though that it’s only been 2 weeks at sea, and we’ve already hit up Tahiti, Tike Hau, Rangiroa, and Nuku Hiva. Our watch schedule is such that each day seems like at least two days, since we sleep in between watches. It was rough getting used to that schedule, but now I like it. Time has taken on a very different meaning here. I’m never sure exactly what time it is, nor do I have to know, since a triangle rung throughout the ship signals when meals are ready and our shipmates wake us up for our next watch. There is one watch every three days where we get the Sleep of Kings, a potential 8-hour period of interrupted sleep. It’s a great way to catch up on some zzzzs.

Back to Nuku Hiva. The smell of land is wonderful. I didn’t realize how pungent land is. We spent one night in the bay of the first place we stayed, and me and some others from my watch climbed aloft for a bit. We’re the only watch so far who has been taught to climb, and it’s a gorgeous view from the top, not to mention that it’s cooler up there. We free climb up to the course yard, then clip in and are allowed to spend as much time as we want as long as we don’t have any duties. So that evening we saw a manta ray. At night, I was sitting on deck, listening to people play the ukulele and sing. Lots of people play. In the morning, we motored out of the bay, accompanied by a full rainbow that shortly turned into a double rainbow. It rained a lot that day, short bursts of 20 minutes or so. Before we were taken ashore, we had our line chase, a fun relay to test our knowledge of lines on the boat. There are over 70 lines we had to study. That day was a free day, so I spent it with some people I haven’t really hung out with before, attempting to paddle at one of the canoe clubs and, being unsuccessful there, hiking all over the place, trying to find the beach. It was quite an adventure, finding it, with detours at the hotel, along another path, and through a residential neighborhood. We finally found the beach, at the end of this deserted road populated by cows, just when some of our classmates were leaving. So we had the whole beach to ourselves, a beach bookended by cliffs and carpeted with black sand all the way out. No rocks. It was clear, too, though I’m used to that after Lake Michigan. It rained on and off while we were in the water, enough so a cool, fresh water layer sat on top of the water. We played Frisbee and jumped up and down in the waves and had a good time. We walked back through town and went to a restaurant on the beach before heading back to the boat for the evening and night, a night in which it was finally cool enough to use a sheet! Some nights it’s so, so hot. I’m glad I have an extra set of sheets. I got sunburned that day and used some of Aunt Kathy’s lotion she sent me and it did wonders. Hardly hurt at all. Also, haven’t gotten sun poisoning yet. I think I got it so bad last year because of the sunscreen I was using. Perhaps I was allergic. Oh, we also visited Notre Dame Cathedral. 90% of the residents here are Catholic, and it is the only island in the Marquises to have a bishop and a cathedral. There are a lot of Catholic churches in the area.

Back from another tangent. Yesterday we took a tour of the island in land rover esque cars, driven by locals. My driver was named Marcel, so Marcel the Shell jokes were, of course, brought up. He didn’t speak until the very end of the day when he took us to this overlook that was amazing, one of the highest points on the island I think. Anyway, in between those times, we visited a restored archeological site and stopped at several lookout points. Everyone was getting very hungry at the site and slow and not being very interested in what was being shown to us. But it was so worth it when we got to our lunch place, down by the water. We got out of the cars and performed our Haka, a greeting/permission to enter an area (we did awfully, but they clapped anyway) and were welcomed by the mayor, some people playing drums, and women with leis. In every port we’ve stopped at we’ve gotten leis. Lunch was at a long table in an open air restaurant with food that kept coming: fried fish, breadfruit, and shrimp, brisket, baguettes, rice, lime water, and mango and banana for dessert. It’s mango season and we’ve gotten so many mangos. Spent a bit of time last night washing and cutting about 12 lbs of them, and pressing the pits upon anyone who walked by us. After a restoring lunch (when none of us could walk we were so full), we walked through a museum, then on our way back stopped at a copra shack. We dodged many horses, cows, and chickens in the roads on our travels.

Today we woke up at 0530 (6 is the normal time we wake up) and got ready to go to a school up the road, a school that’s the highest level before university. This one was an agricultural based school and the students showed us their beans, tomatoes, eggplant, cabbage, and pigs. Not different at all from the states, except their beans were about 1.5 ft long. We came back to the boat for lunch, and some of the students came too. We performed our Haka for them, much better and more coordinated this time, and they performed theirs. It was intimidating and awesome, as it’s supposed to be. Then they taught us some other Marquesian dances, and we gave them a tour of the ship. In the afternoon, we returned to land for a question and answer session with the deputy mayor, the 5^th mayor we’ve met so far I think. The room we were in was air conditioned and everyone, even the professors, were falling asleep. Our captain is notorious for nodding off. We all get a good laugh from it. My watch is on tonight, so we had to return to the ship for dinner (chili in a bread bowl with salad and cornbread….we eat very well here) and we cleaned the ship afterwards in what is called Dawn Cleanup. It usually happens after dawn watch. It’s our least favorite thing in which we clean the heads, soles, showers, and today, the galley. I’m on watch first, for two hours since I have the earliest watch, and then it’s a good night’s sleep until 0600 and tomorrow we paddle!