1st August 2011 San Francisco, here we come!

Position: 37°57.2‘ N / 123°00.5’ W (finally made it around Point Reyes)

Speed: 1 knot

Heading: 136° (aiming for San Francisco)

The sky is pitch black, dark low stratus clouds casting a grey tone over the moana sausau, though the weather and outlook of the day doesn’t seem inviting, the Gaualofa crew are still going strong- laughing, jamming, working out, getting tasks done, spirits are still high and everyone is being their usual self J

Since our seal left us we’ve been constantly on the lookout if she’ll come back; every seal we see now, we say it’s her. We couldn’t agree on what to name her, that we’ve each given her a name: a few of agreed to Fran, wonder why???

Jef goes with Aulelei just to egg Fialelei who is against it, too close to his name I guess. And Koleni and John would like to name her something in association with our va’a. We will eventually set a name to our newly adopted crew member.

We finally have passed Point Reyes today. It took about a full day and a lot of patience even though a lot of us became tired of seeing this point; and it became a challenge for the watch teams. When we finally passed it, a sigh of relief went thru the crew: YES!!! Now for Drakes Bay to regroup with the fleet.

We laid anchor and closed our passage for this leg with our ‘custom belief’ led by John. Glancing from each beaming face, the mood that we’ve arrived safe, sound and still in high spirits was just remarkable.

We then had tea courtesy of Evohe (one of our support vessels, such a wonderful crew) who delivered it earlier today: fresh produce and chicken. Lucky thing as Lole was running out what to make with rice. It’s been rice with canned vegetables the last two days; our perishables ran out two days before.

This evening we’re to rest and prep the va’a for our arrival into San Francisco, into the mainland. After 3 weeks out in sea, the majority of us have never seen a city of this magnitude and back to the complexities of life on land - will we be able to handle the skyscrapers, the crowds, the responsibility of delivering our message, the task of representing ourselves to our fullest? We can only hope and give it all we have- Se pingi!!!

Soifua lava, FB

Gaualofa.

29th July 2011

Position: 39 01.4' N / 125 13.5' W

Course: 110 °T

Speed: 7 knots

We're having cheese twisties on our watch at the moment and chocolate, with tea. It's almost five in the morning and it's gusting 28 knots with winds of 25 knots. Koleni andIi are in the galley and Faapau is sitting at the galley opening. I just asked Faapau to check how cold is it and he stuck his finger in his mouth and stuck it in the air, then Koleni who's sitting next to him said 'ua malili lou lima' lol. These guys are too funny.

Salai is on the foe andIi'm his spotman but am in the galley getting warm until it's my turn to get on the foe. I'm supposed to be out there to be his look out, keep him company and help him with the foe. Faapau called out to him ' malo le foe' his quick response was, ' faafetai lava le fa'a malo mai' lol. It's a constant crack up on my watch with Koleni and Salai with their smart aleck quick responses.

The grey overcast sky casts the same colour on the moana sausau. It’s less choppy than yesterday morning with 1 metre waves now. Yesterday some of them were breaking on the deck giving the foe-man a good shower. We had to sew two sliders onto the sail which had come off during high winds earlier this week. We dropped the sail and had Faapau (our lightest guy) climb onto the boom and re-stitch the sail to the sliders.

We’re about 130 nautical miles away from our port of destination; we’re looking forward to seeing family, friends and new acquaintances.

The crew is healthy and still cracking jokes, so in high spirits.

Faafetai tele lava mo taupuaiga ma talosaga o loo manuia lava uma le auvaa.

Alofa atu,

FB

Gaualofa.

25 July 2011, Monday

Position: 41°48.6’ N / 138°53.9’ W (some odd 790 nautical miles left till we arrive under the Golden Gate Bridge) Speed: 9 knots

Heading: 110° T

It’s cold. How subtle was that put? And since the last time I mentioned the cold, hey it’s still cold; it’s very very cold.

Imagine our tufuna achieving this long voyage up north, in conditions that are just beyond mind boggling and add on the fact that they didn’t have the comfort of weather gear, thermal socks, marine boots and the occasional koko samoa fix we have on board… It’s just amazing!

It’s early morn and the sun is slowly making its climb from the Koolao quadrant gradually illuminating the sky and giving a face to another new day.

We pray to see a few of her rays peek out and provide us with a little bit of warmth today. The sky has a slightly lighter overcast to it than it did the last couple of days: a bluish and grey tint, reflecting off the moana sausau in a tumultuous play on the surface.

The cold weather makes us longing for the warmer days, which we had at the beginning of this leg, but we’re also quite thankful that we haven’t run into any bad weather. Bad weather defined by the crew: heavy downpour and winds of over 35knots. We’re grateful to be dry and we’re just as grateful if not more to be part of this epic voyage.

We’re once again together with the fleet, which is a nice feeling. To see and feel that your family of voyagers is nearby - conjured just by the sight of their navigation lights. As we near our destination there’s also a high increase of traffic. We’ve been spotting and hearing of cargo ships cruising along possibly on the same course we’re doing.

We’ve also had the privilege of sighting whales. For the last 6 days we’ve seen about 6-8 whales. How phenomenal is that?

Our little island is safe as well as the natives on board. Eating heartily and constantly finding ways to amuse ourselves during the sometimes dreary watches.

Faafetai tele lava mo le taupuiaga ma alofa’aga. O lea malolosi le auva’a ma le kapiteni.

Soifua, FB
Gaualofa

Saturday 23rd July - The latest

It’s Saturday 23rd July, a little behind in sending the blog…

We’ve been running and doing circa 9-10 knots since the northwest winds picked up to 15 knot late last evening. Swells coming from the southwest and sea state of F3.

There’s a lot of tulususu, cheering and laughter since then. Everyone’s in a good mood now that we’re moving at our usual speed. I guess we revel and seem to do better during rough weather.



Lolesio made a really yummy minestrone soup for lunch and Koleni had made sua masi for breakfast earlier. Everyone is in good health and smiling.




Faafetai tele lava mo taupuaiga ma alofa’aga. E fia momoli atu alofa’aga a le auva’a i aiga ma uao masiani.

Soifua, FB
Gaualofa.

22nd July 2011 - Wind on our Back

Position: 42°36.8’ N / 151°04.9’ W
Heading: 096° True (heading for San Francisco!)
Speed: 7 knots

Talofa lava,

We finally have wind! After two days of light winds or no wind at all and glass-like ocean, we have a reprieve and received ca. + 10 knots of wind from the west. That’s something after bobbing around and just trying to point the va’a back on course.

We are currently running with our genniker, with the wind on our back and ‘butterfly’ style as our crew fondly dubs the set of sails- main on starboard and mizzen on the port. We’ve been running like this since John’s shift early this morn at sunrise and we’ve covered good ground which is quite a relief, the bobbing around is very relaxing but you don’t go anywhere. This whole week due to the calm weather we’ve been taking advantage of it by learning new siva routines, jamming and just catching up with the latest jokes on board.

We actually had company in the last day and a half where we bobbed: the Cookie va’a, Marumaru Atua was close to us which was nice. We were so close that we could’ve gone over to borrow sugar.

During one of my watches with my crew, we decided to paddle towards the Cookies (about 400 meters away) using our dinghy paddles. That only lasted until we were about 300 meters away from them then we were done.



Imagine! A 14 ton va’a being paddled by four Samoans with puny light weight wooden dinghy paddles? Let’s say we received a good work out and had fun passing time.

Yesterday we had a small flock of albatross following us on our stern during the evening and this morning we had a great sperm whale coming from the north heading south east. It was pretty awesome. The whale came along on our port side and was about 15 meters away. It was just cruising on by.

Though it’s still overcast, the rays of sunlight that break through during sunrise and sunset are literally silver linings for our crew.

Life at Sea (and) a Box of Chocolates!

The sun sets on another calm day at sea. Everyday of this voyage has brought us lessons, and every encounter we have been blessed with has touched all of our lives in ways which are revealing themselves at unexpected moments, but more often then not, for the better.

We just finished a meeting with our crew - it is time to come together once again, and remind ourselves of the love inherent in each of us - for our fellow crew members, for the canoe, and for the oceans. We have many more lessons to learn, but I think we are on our way.

Marumaru offered us some morning company, as the light, focal winds gave us a chance to pull along side them. It was nice to see the faces and smiles of the other crews. They handed over a glass float, left behind by previous generations. The transparent of the blown glass globe reminds all of those who have passed these oceans before us.

The ocean has been incredibly kind to us on our voyage to the mainland. The wind is calm, the air is dry, and the swell of the waters is barely discernible - a welcome calm and change from our trip leaving New Zealand. Yet, as we make our way further north, the chill in the air reminds us all that we are far from home.

Five months we have been at sea. Five months of experience, education, and lessons for which our lives will be touched forever.

All the best from Gaualofa and a very happy and special birthday to Fani Bruun - we're all happy to be able to celebrate this day with her today. In fact, Evohe even sent over a birthday treat for her- a box of chocolates (I think we'll all benefit from this gift).

18th July 2011, Monday

Position: 40°44.3’ N / 157°51.7’ W (still making our way north for that 42° N turn)


It’s been one week since we left the Hawaiian Islands to sail for San Francisco, one week out at sea.

Yesterday was our first impression on this leg of bad weather: small downpours with short gusts of 19 knots. We were in the process of having our weekly aiga meeting when it had to be cut short due to no one wanting be get caught in the chilly elements. But we did finalise and came to an accord before making a dash for warmer and dry areas.

Jeff (our captain), made dinner for the first time on this leg and since he’s a vegetarian we were kind on tenterhooks with regard to what the meal would be; It turned out to be a quite a satisfying and lovely meal.

The night itself soon turned out to be quite cloudy and overcast which was a first since we’ve left. We only had the wind, swell patterns and our watch captains who serve as our traditional navigator-in-training.

The weather is getting colder as we trek our way north. This is the highest latitude we’ve ever been and I should say, we Samoans are NOT built for the cold. I guess that’s why our ancestors stayed close to the equator, my heartfelt gratitude goes to them for that choice; note this is my theory.



Taking sea water baths while the water is 15° C with winds of 12° C takes its toll on a person. But then us Samoans are fastidious so being clean is very vital to us; else like on our va’a we would bully or tease each other for not taking a bath. There was this one time we were teasing Kalolo for not taking a bath for some time and his quick response was, “I’m saving the seawater, we’re here to preserve it not waste it.”

For those who are unaware of the water conditions on board: fresh water is only used to drink and for cooking. Seawater is used for everything else; fresh water is very precious. And with that note Jeff has announced movie night for this evening: premiering on Gaualofa- End of the Line, a documentary about our consumption habits leading to the collapse of fish stocks world-wide.

We’ve had the pleasure and fortune of observing two large pods of dolphins in one day; early today around the afternoon and later in the evening. It was quite an uplifting sight; after sighting and collecting so much rubbish the last 6 days it’s a great relief that sea life is still alive in these waters.




I haven’t introduced my watch team as of yet, as I normally do at the beginning of each leg; on this leg (Hawaii – San Francisco) I have Koleni, Faapa’u, Sala’i and myself. As I have two comedians on the watch, we’re always laughing our heads off; never a dull moment. Of course we don’t just crack jokes on our watch; we also make sure the va’a is secure, check our position, plotting on charts, navigate by the elements and yes at times eat.

Due to the huge amount of saimin (instant noodles) that was gifted to Gaualofa, we’re still munching our way through it and it’s much appreciative during the 0300 am shifts. Faafetai tele lava.

Everything and everyone on board is safe and healthy. The crew sends their alofa to their family, friends and supporters. Faafetai tele lava mo le taupuaiga, o lea e alolofa atu le au va’a uma o le Gaualofa mo le atunu’u atoa o Samoa faapea le Aiga Folau o Samoa.

Soifua, FB
Gaualofa