Gresham Family Exodus

Here are a series of emails I sent out during this passage:

Day 1

We sadly left Nanumea yesterday afternoon with high slack water, and the pass exit was far less dramatic than the entrance. So far on passage we have sailed really fast in the wrong direction and now we are motor sailing slowly in the right direction. We don’t have enough diesel to motor too much, so hopefully the wind fills in today.

Yesterday during some bumpiness we lost our big plastic tub overboard (yes, the one Tim recently rescued at Funafuti) and we had a hatch left open so there is sea water in our bed. Sheesh! You’d think we just started cruising last week with hatches left open and things not tied down.

Anyway, one other boat left Nanumea with us yesterday and I think everyone else is leaving today. It’s looking like those who waited made the right call since it really hasn’t been that great out here.

Day 2

Right now we are sailing slowly, and I seriously mean slowly. Under 2 kts. But Tim used that as an opportunity to rig a bit of a sling attached to the pulley we use for the dingy engine, and he had Brenden him lower him into the water to go for a swim. Well, I thought it was just to go for a swim, but what he really wanted to do was look under the boat and see what kind of fish keep triggering our depth sounder. Too bad it was just little fish, if it were tuna, I’m sure he would have asked for his spear gun. Although the winds are light our spirits are still high, because at least none of us are seasick. The boys are passing time eradicating Exodus of all the flies from Nanumea. We don’t want to import any to Kiribati

Day 3

Forget the naked tuna dance, someone needs to do the naked wind dance! We can’t even get a squall to come over us. We are baking in a 95 deg F oven called our salon, and the only fish we’ve caught was a tiny Mahi Mahi, so we released it. Other than all that whining, things aren’t too bad. It’s hard to complain about a comfortable, flat sea, and we are even going to BBQ chicken tonight, since we don’t have to worry about the wind blowing the grill out!

Perhaps we’ll make it to Tarawa by Christmas.

Day 4

It seems that shortly after I sent the email last night the wind picked up and we’ve been sailing ever since. So, someone out there must have done the naked wind dance for us, and for that, we thank you.

Oh, and it must have been a two for one, naked wind AND tuna dance, because we caught a yellow fin tuna today. Well, we actually hooked 3, but one got away and one was too small to keep. And the boys will tell you that the one that got away was my fault, but don’t you believe them for a second.

It is peaceful, even if slow, sailing, and we are enjoying it.

Day 5

So, lack of wind is no longer a problem, so I’ll just share a couple of tidbits unique to this passage so far…

I always have the early morning watch, so I have grown accustomed to peacefully enjoying the sunset by myself in the mornings. For almost 3 years, this has consistently been one of my highlights while on passage. I usually count down until the sun comes up and the shroud of deep black darkness is slowly replaced with colorful brightness.

Well, not any more. Now, I loathe when the sun comes up because my comfortably cool cockpit, where I can doze in my underwear without being too hot or too cold, turns into a furnace with a laser piercing heat source that will burn holes in your skin if you stay in one place too long. No, sunrise is no longer a happy time.

We figured out how to send inReach to inReach texts that don’t count towards the monthly limit, and there are two other boats out here who also have them. So, we are constantly texting back and forth, and it feels so normal to be checking my phone for texts (my iPhone is paired to the inReach) and laughing and sending something back. I’m just out here in the middle of the pacific ocean sending texts on my iPhone… nothing strange about that!

We are about to cross the equator again and re-join the northern hemisphere after over a year and a half. We don’t have anything big planned but there may be haircuts involved again. And pizza. I’ll write more about that tomorrow.

Anchor down Tarawa

This morning I was sure there was no chance we would make it before dark, but this afternoon the wind picked up and shifted to a good direction just enough that we made anchors down just at dusk. We had some our worst conditions the entire passage as we approached the island as there were squalls all around us, but now we are anchored safely right next to True Blue V again, and all is good. We have a new safe arrival tradition of playing a game as a family as we drink our safe arrival drinks, and I’m really enjoying that time with the boys.

Now, it’s time for a full night sleep without someone waking me at 3am to stand watch.P.S. I slept through the equator crossing last night. The boys toasted to Neptune and ate popcorn. Everyone still has their hair.

7 Dec 2015 – 18 Jan 2016

Based on everything we had read and heard we had low hopes for Kiribati and tended to look at it as simply a stepping stone in between Tuvalu and The Marshalls. However, there were some surprise gems, and in the end we can’t imagine having spent Christmas and New Year’s anywhere else!

Route Recap

After a month in Tuvalu we continued north even further off the beaten path up to the island nation of Kiribati. We departed Nanumea, Tuvalu in the early afternoon on Monday, 7 Dec. It was just over a 5 day passage before we arrived in Tarawa, the capital of Kiribati, just after dusk on a Saturday. We turned around our time in Tarawa as quickly as we could, and after 5 days we made an overnight passage to the southeast to the atoll of Abemama. Christmas in Abemama was one to remember, but before we knew it it was New Year’s Eve and we were off to the nearby atoll of Aranuka. After 10 days in Aranuka we bashed back to Tarawa in order to provision and clear out.

After we cleared out we spent a few more days in the bouncy Tarawa anchorage trying to decide when we should leave, and finally we decided to go hide out in the atoll just to the north, called Abiang. However, as we approached Abiang we changed our minds to just keep on going with the passage all the way to Majuro (Marshall Islands). This plan was altered later that day when we rescued a small boat and three fishermen who were lost and low on gas. We gave them a ride and towed their boat to their home island of Marakei, and we stayed there anchored on the outside of the lagoon for 2 nights before finally, for good this time, departing for Majuro on the morning of 18 January.

(Nanumea) –> Tarawa –> Abemama –> Aranuka –> Tarawa –> Marakei –> (Majuro)

Next up you will hear about our adventures across the equator in Kiribati, including Christmas with my mini-shes and a little white boy dancing in Aranuka.

Next time find out what the locals think of Tim’s moves

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.