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We have spent a lot of time with local people on many islands in the Pacific, but in Nanumea I ended up making a real friend. Someone who’s company I sought out and who’s conversation and insight I enjoyed. I’ve mentioned her already a few times throughout this narrative already: 1) she’s the woman at the tourist celebration who commented to me that we look like we understand their customs (based on the way we were dressed), 2) she is Government Secretary with whom I discussed the daily anchorage fee, 3) she is the woman I sat and chatted with during the volleyball tournament, 4) her family is the one who gave us tuna for Tim’s birthday, and 5) her daughters are the ones who went out and gathered flowers and then made the headbands and leis for us to wear at the high school talent show on Tim’s birthday.

Sipele is a highly educated and driven woman, as evidenced by her position in the government. We were able to speak openly about our cultures, the differences and similarities, and we learned that we had so much in common regarding our struggles and joy with working while raising a family. When we were saying such a sad good-bye, I told her I was proud to call her a friend, and it wasn’t just something to say. I really meant it.

Sipele patiently showed me how to weave a basket (it’s harder than you think!)

We went to church twice in Nanumea, the first time with True Blue V and the second time with Navire and EOS II. The services were a tolerable 1 hour in duration, and they were typical services that we couldn’t understand with amazing singing.

But the interesting thing about church in Nanumea is that there is only one church. I don’t remember the denomination, but it was one of the more ceremonial protestant varieties. We originally thought that having just one church is a good thing, because then there isn’t arbitrary social division across the village due to different church affiliations. But then we learned that having only once church is achieved by having the backing of the local government.

A supply ship had arrived, but we hadn’t taken much notice of it. After church the second time we heard from several people that there was mayhem brewing down by the wharf. Apparently, there were some men who had come on the supply ship (which was also a people ferry), and these men belonged to another church, and they had asked if they could congregate for their own church service Sunday morning. This was a huge controversy. They were told absolutely not, because there is only one church in Nanumea. From the perspective of many of the villagers that we met, these men could not get out of Nanumea soon enough.

Tim celebrated his “39th” birthday while we were in Nanumea, and this is how he spent it:

1. Scouting the pass conditions for yet another boat arriving at Nanumea
2. Vising some friends on shore – they gave us some fresh tuna for his birthday
3. Fixing the Reverend’s computer, printer, and overhead projector
4. Playing with some of the local kids on Exodus. When they found out it was Tim’s birthday they came back with coconuts and bananas, and Tim taught them how to drive the dinghy
5. Eating brownies that Alex and Brenden made for him
6. Helping one of the guys from another boat go around town looking for a belt for his alternator
7. Fixing another local guy’s cell phone
8. Having a FAIRY PRINCESS SPARKLE PARTY! Kiani and Ahia from EOS II, 4 and 2 years old respectively, decorated a big plastic breakfast cracker container and turned it into “Tim’s Sparkle Box.” (I’m sure Lahnee helped a bit!) They figured since Tim only has sons, he could use a little girliness in his life. Kiani sang him happy birthday, and I’m pretty sure it was the most adorable thing I’ve ever heard.
9. Dinner on Exodus – seared Ahi tuna steaks, what else!?
10. Attending a fundraiser for the local secondary school, bringing along his Sparkle Box full of popcorn to share with the kids. They made us wear wreaths on our heads in honor of Tim’s birthday, and it was a lot of fun. It was a talent show and there was singing and a lot of traditional dancing infused with hip hop. As we were walking back Tim and I mused about how kids are the same everywhere. With the exception of the language and the Polynesian dancing, this could have been a show at home. Kids laughing, showing off, running around, joking with each other, and generally have a fun time.

Fairy princess sparkle party!

One thing Tim missed out on was watching the sports tournaments. In the afternoon the girls were playing volleyball and the boys soccer. I sat and watched the volleyball with one of the local women while Alex played with the kids.

Girls Volleyball is a popular sport in Tuvalu

This is an edited version of an email I sent out right after this happened. A report from Tim’s perspective would be so much better… but we could be waiting a long time for that.

I’ve already written about the pass here at Nanumea, how it’s very narrow and very shallow, and with swell at the entrance you end up surfing in. One morning we had two boats outside the pass staged to come in and then one more maybe a couple hours away. There was a lot of radio traffic where Tim explained the geography of the pass and the condition of the swells which push you to port. He told them he’s go out in the dinghy as soon as he finished his coffee, and in the meantime the first boat came on in without issue. The second boat requested that Tim come out and guide them in, and he had no trouble going out and doing it. Conditions in the pass were ideal at high slack tide. By the time the third boat got to the entrance the conditions had changed a bit and there was a fair amount of current flowing out. They didn’t radio for any assistance, so we didn’t know they were coming in until a call for help came over the radio. I had taken the dinghy to quickly go ashore and then go say hi to the two new boats who were already anchored in the lagoon. One of them is a 50 ft catamaran with a huge dinghy with a 60 Hp engine (Tim has serious dinghy envy). That’s where I was when Tim raced over with another guy in the other guy’s dinghy saying, “We need the dinghy! A boat’s gone aground outside!” So, I jump in the other guy’s dinghy and he and Tim race off toward the pass in ours.

Meanwhile, the guys on the big cat start dropping their dinghy so they are not too far behind. I head over to our friends on Navire to find out what’s going on, since I had missed the initial radio traffic, and then we hear Tim on the radio yelling, “go to shore and get help!” So, I take Navire’s handheld radio and rush to shore, and on the way I can hear the woman on the grounded vessel yelling, “Mayday! Mayday!”

As I’m approaching the wharf I see that men are already running about, yelling at each other, jumping into one of the fishing boats. Clearly, someone had been monitoring VHF in the village. I saw the police officer, so just to be sure I asked him if they were going to help, and he said, yes. Soon, two fishing boats from the village were rushing out towards the pass also. So, I just went back to Exodus to wait.

The scene that Tim described when he got back was gut wrenching. The boat was pinned against the reef on the left side, and it was heeled way over so that the keel was on the reef and the mast was tilted over at 45 deg, out over the pass. They were getting pushed further and further up onto the reef with every wave, and they were really working their engine, revving the crap out of it in reverse as the prop was lifting out of the water. Tim says black smoke was just billowing out. Some people, admittedly myself included, are not particularly good at crisis management. Tim, on the other hand, shines in these conditions. He was calling for them to toss him lines, but he wasn’t really sure what he’d be able to do with the 20hp dinghy. Even with the big 60 hp dinghy and boats coming from shore, he wasn’t sure what they’d be able to do. It was a big, heavy, full keel sailboat, and he was doubtful that they’d be able to pull it off.

But then luck intervened. A really big wave came in and instead of hammering them against the reef it lifted them up, turned them around, and dropped them down into a little channel in the reef. Then as that big wave receded they were sucked out, and just like that they were clear of the reef on the outside of the pass. It’s hard for me to visualize this, that there was a wave big enough to do that and that there was a channel in the reef big enough for a sailboat, and that they were dropped down precisely into that channel. They really couldn’t be any luckier.

So, at this point they were back outside the lagoon and still need to get in. They were thankfully not taking on water, so the main concern at this point was the engine, since they ran it pretty hot. Tim suggested they let it cool down for a few minutes, and then rev it up so that they are going 5 knots and drive around like that for five minutes and if it doesn’t overheat, then they can be reasonably sure they can get into the pass without issue. In the end the vessel came through under their own power, and there was much elation throughout the anchorage as their bow came around the corner and they came into full view to all of us.

True Blue V left Nanumea before the first week was up, so we had several days with Nanumea to ourselves before some of the Northbound Fleet started trickling in.

First to arrive was Skua and then EOS II the next day. So, we had all the kid boats in the fleet together at Nanumea. Did I mention there’s a kid on board Skua also? A boy named Ulysses who was about 4 or 5 years old (I can’t remember exactly)

We had EOS II over for coffee and the SSB net one morning, and I served them some cinnamon bread a bit on the undercooked side, but they are good sports about pretty much anything really. This was the first time the girls had been over to Exodus, and to Lahnee’s dismay I let them play with Playdough. She was convinced they would make a horrible mess, but I’m not sure what she was going on about, they are perfect angels!

Kiani and Ahia (Tim calls them my mini-shes)

Over the next few days four more boats arrived. So, before we knew it we were seven boats in the lagoon, the most Nanumea has ever had at one time.

Before our week was up I went to Alefaio, the police officer, and asked if we could extend our stay because there was no wind and I asked if we could wait for wind. He told me he would check and that I should come talk to him the next day.

The next day he said that customs in Funafuti said that I should call them. He said I could call from the telecom office by purchasing a phone card. So, I went to the telecom office, but no one was there, so I waited and waited. Apparently, Jerry was taking a long lunch. Eventually Alefaio noticed me waiting, and without saying anything he just called himself and then he came to tell me what they said. Apparently, customs in Funafuti told him two things 1) it was up to him whether we are allowed to stay (good!) and 2) Nanumea should charge us a fee (bad!). So, Alefaio went to talk to the town council and came back and told me it would be $20/day for us to stay.

It turns out that I had already made friends with the Government Secretary (an office appointed by the Executive government branch in Funafuti), so I appealed the fee to her. I told her that some sort of fee would be reasonable, just that $20/day was kind of high.

I don’t know what went on in the subsequent town council meetings, but she eventually came back to me and said they had decided to not charge any fee. They want yachts to visit Nanumea, and they understood it was unfair to charge us so much money when we were just waiting for weather. In the meantime, I had paid two days of fees, but that was OK, because from that point on we could stay as long as we liked with no fee.

I was reminded that it was Thanksgiving from an email from one of my American cruising sisters, and I was totally at a loss of what to cook. We obviously didn’t have access to any turkeys, and although I really wanted to bring a leg of lamb from New Zealand, in the end I decided it was pretty inefficient use of freezer space. So, I was thinking of just doing something typically American, like cheeseburgers, when I got a VHF radio call from True Blue V, and they asked if we felt like a potluck because they were thinking of roasting a chicken. I asked Craig if this was just a coincidence or if he knew what U.S. holiday it was, and it turns out it was just a total coincidence.

So, with their roast chicken as the center piece, we ended up having a fantastic Thanksgiving feast. I made dinner rolls, mashed potatoes, green beans w/ almonds, meat balls w/ marinara sauce (since I had thawed ground beef for the cheeseburgers), and Aunt JJ’s corn casserole. Of course, I had to improvise a bit for the corn casserole since we didn’t exactly have “sour cream” or “one box of jiffy corn bread mix” but it turned out great anyway. It was the first thing I made and when Alex came out of his room he said, “it smells like Thanksgiving at Grandma’s house.”

A squall with gale force winds and pouring rain blew through right before our feast was supposed to begging, but it ended just in time for True Blue V to come over. Dinner looked so good all laid out on the table, we all dug in before I even thought to snap any photos.

After our motorbike tour of the island while we were milling about the wharf, the village chief came up to Tim and asked to speak to him. Tim was worried at first, wondering if we had done something wrong, I mean why would the chief want to talk to him? But it turns out that the chief simply asked Tim if he could help him. He said the fan on his computer isn’t working, and would Tim maybe be able to fix it. So, Tim went with the chief to his house to get the computer and he spent quite a bit of time engrossed in the project. It turned out that it wasn’t just the fan, but some of the keys didn’t work either. What pressure to fix something for the chief! Of course, Tim accepted the challenge, and although the solution wasn’t pretty, it worked, and the chief got back a usable computer.

Fixing the Chief’s computer

So, the chief told us we could stay as long as we wanted in Nanumea. Too bad he’s not an official part of the Tuvaluan government.

Word got around about Tim fixing the computer and he was bombarded with requests, and he fixed some things for the reverend and various town council officials.

This story starts with a need to get internet. Somehow, I failed to transfer enough money from savings to checking, and while we were in Funafuti, Tim received an email that our account was overdrawn. Crap. We have overdraft protection, so checks weren’t bouncing, but our account is such that we still get charged a fee by our bank, so I wanted to take care of this sooner rather than later.

We had heard that you could get internet at Nanumea, but there’s no wifi so you have to physically plug your computer into the network. The problem is that I have a relatively new computer, and its relatively low profile, so there is no network cable input. I mean, everyone uses wifi these days, right? So, Tim had the idea to take a router in with us, and maybe we could connect the router to the network and then I could connect my computer to the router via wi-fi. Brilliant. Except we couldn’t get it to work. Jerry, the internet guy, didn’t know how to configure the router so that it could talk to the network. Tim kept asking him to show him how he configures a computer, but they were talking past each other. So, Jerry said I could just use his computer to do my stuff. Brilliant again. Except all the new, and I’m sure totally necessary, website security protocols make you jump through hoops whenever you try to log in from a new computer. Keeping in mind that the internet was painfully slow, I mean each page would take about 2 minutes to load, I had to go through a chain of self verifications to get to my bank accounts. First the bank needed to send a verification email to my yahoo account. Then when I tried to log on to yahoo I found out that yahoo also has this sort of verification required when you use a new computer, and yahoo gave me a choice of receiving a text message to the US phone I haven’t used in years or receiving an email to Tim’s gmail account. Thank god for gmail, which stopped the madness. Of course, gmail also had the verification hoops, and at first it looked like our only choice was to get a text to Tim’s old US phone that he hasn’t used in years, but then we noticed there was the option to simply type in what that phone number was. Now, we had to dig deep into our memory storage to recall what Tim’s phone number used to be. It took us about 5 minutes, but then… success. So, then I had to follow the verification trail back, and remember it takes a couple minutes for reach web page to load. In the end, it took me over an hour to make a transfer from my savings to my checking.

But there’s always a silver lining. All of the time we spent in that little office gave Tim a chance to talk with Jerry, and he invited him out to the boat for a beer that evening. So, after hanging out on Exodus for awhile and enjoying a beer with Tim, Jerry volunteered to arrange a motorbike tour of the WWII relics for us and True Blue V.

Motorbike tour

Helmets? Yeah, right.

No, the guy driving the motorbike pickup truck is not Jerry, but a friend of Jerry’s, and it turns out he’s not even from Nanumea and didn’t know where any of the WWII relics were. He drove us around to the other side of the island and then stopped at the end of a road and told us we could look around. A little bit confused, we asked him if the wrecks were nearby, and he said he had no idea and maybe we could ask someone. There happened to be an old man nearby, so we asked him and got some vague directions and headed that way, but soon enough we were lost again with no idea which way to go. Then we came across a young couple on a motorbike eating pandanas fruit, and they agreed to show us the wrecks. They turned out to know exactly where they were going, and they showed us two plane wrecks and some mobile artillery. It turned out to be a fun day, and once upon a time I would have been frustrated by how it unfolded, but not anymore. I just relaxed and enjoyed the ride.

If you are interested in Nanumea’s role in WWII, there is a little info here: http://www.pacificwrecks.com/airfields/tuvalu/nanumea/index.html

And here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanumea_Airfield

We asked around if there was anyone still alive on the island who remembers this, and the answer was sadly no.

The kids of Nanumea were not shy at all, and pretty soon Alex and Brenden had quite the posse. The first night we were anchored, a group of them clustered on shore and started yelling, “Hi!!!” out to us. So, Alex and Brenden got the paddle boards down and headed over to see them. Brenden quickly made a friend and got a tour of the village while Alex got a lot of attention from the smaller kids who all wanted to touch his blonde hair.

It was summer holiday in Tuvalu, so kids had a lot of freedom to play. Pretty soon we had daily visitors and it was tough to get them to wait until the Alex and Brenden were done with *their* schoolwork.

The boys paddle to shore to say hi

Brenden gets a ride in the outrigger canoe

Hangin out on Exodus

Learning to drive the dinghy

Hangin out on shore (taking a break after playing some basketball)

Dinghy surfing at Nanumea