My First Challenge - Blog by Greg
Hi to everyone back at home, yes we are safely on our way to Tonga and making good progress.
My blog today is from before we met the yacht when Peter and I were in Apia Western Samoa. We hired a car and explored the Island for a few days, which was great fun and we saw some very beautiful places. On our last full day Peter decided to rest up from the extreme heat so I decided to return to the “Robert Louis Stephenson” museum. It was Saturday and when I got there the museum was about to close, the only thing open was the walk up Mount Vaea, where Stephenson and his wife Fanny were buried. The trail, or better put “climb” was about 1km long if you took the fast way or 2.5km the long way, I decided to take the short way.
After the first easy 200m the climb began and shortly after I heard giggles from behind me. As I huffed and puffed 2 teenage girls came running past me, I asked them how much further and they explained the route. You go up and up and you meet a rope to help pull you up the steps, then you get to a big tree that you must jump for then you will be almost there, they explained and off they went. I set about climbing and concentrated on my breathing when I saw a pair of feet. It was the larger girl catching her breath, so I yelled: “You can't let an old man beat you,” and we all just laughed. From then the girls would go a little way ahead then check back to make sure the old man with the walking stick was still OK.
Finally I reached the top and all I could do was stand in the cool shade and puff my guts out. The view was amazing and I felt honored to be where the old sailor/writer and his wife were laid to rest. I had read Joshua Slocum's book “Sailing alone around the world” where he described being at “Vailima” Stephenson's home shortly after Stephenson's death in the late 19th century, he stayed in Samoa for an extended time and was treated as we were, with the utmost hospitality.
After taking some photos I turned to go back down the mountain when a sharp tropical squall hit, I chose to return via the longer safer path. After going down for some time I began to doubt if I was on the correct path because a bloke at the top had said there was another track that led to the other side of the hill. I started to panic a bit, no one knew where I was and, if lost, nobody would be able to find me. I gave my mobile phone up as a lost cause because I was soaked to the bone, so I went back to the top of the hill. I again started my descend this time down the steep way which was made of slippery mud, rocks, tree roots and more slippery mud, I took each and every step with great care as any one of them could have been my last, sliding off the edge into the dense jungle. Panic gave way to fear and all sorts of things went through my head, I stopped myself and remembered Kay Cottee's” book where she said “happy thoughts make happy people” That’s when I knew what my first blog would be. I took each step slowly and eventually I made it to safety, the descend taking almost two hours where I had taken only 40 minutes to get to the top.
Back to Oceans of Hope and it is Sven and my turn to prepare dinner so I must go, two days out of Tonga heading towards Auckland, yahoo!
Report from Bosun Bertram:
Almost 1000 miles to go and zero wind to help us. We are out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and the wind is gone. Trusty Mr. Perkins is propellingus through the slow swells, but we recently experienced a serious hick-up on his behalf. As the wind had died from great sailing conditions to non-existence, we turned on the engine, though with no luck. It died on us twice before we had to realise that the propeller was caught by either robe or net. Snorkel and knife to the rescue, and a dip in the Pacific just over the Tonga Trench – the second deepest place on the whole planet! How's that for an eventful morning…
Local time onboard is 18:00 and our current position is 23,8.39S , 175,39.15W