Sailing With Impunity_Adventure in the South Pacific by Mary E. Trimble

Author:Mary E. Trimble [Trimble, Mary E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ocean, samoa, ocean adventure, tahiti, pacific sailing, sailing adventure, sailboat, hawaii, South Pacific, adventure
ISBN: 0692417788
Amazon: B00XEWHNYM
Goodreads: 25636906
Publisher: ShelterGraphics
Published: 2015-05-08T00:00:00+00:00

Mary viewing Vaipahi Falls near Papeari, Tahiti

The next morning William stopped by with a bunch of green finger bananas, probably 100 or so bananas on a three-foot stalk. He rowed to our boat in his outrigger canoe. I started to take them, but then remembered that there might be bugs and hesitated. “Bugs?” I asked. He dropped the bunch into the sea and when it popped up, he said “No more.” He also gave us about a half-dozen papayas from their yard.

We enjoyed the fresh fruit. Of course the bananas all ripened about the same time and one early morning we heard soft plop, plops, as they fell off the stalk onto the deck. That evening we shared a big bowl of banana pudding with Greg and Kathy.

One evening Greg rowed over with the exciting news that William and his son had invited us to go fishing the next morning from their outrigger canoe. As scheduled, William picked us up at 5:30. We paddled in the outrigger for a distance, and then William threw out an anchor about a mile from shore, but on a reef in only about four feet of water. We dropped overboard and snorkeled through a pass in the barrier reef. We swam a distance from the outrigger and were dazzled by the coral and fish in colors from brown and black to bright blues, oranges, and yellows. Some of the fish glowed like neon lights.

We collected large shellfish, which William and Greg immediately cleaned. William made a point of showing us that he was using the knife that we had given him. He had brought fresh limes from his yard and now soaked slices of the just-caught snail meat in the lime juice for about 5 minutes. Then we ate it, raw. I was surprised with how good it was.

William and his son both speared parrotfish and I saw Bruce wince when he noticed William tuck a just-caught fish in his very brief swim suit. They brought the fish back to the outrigger and again gave it the lime treatment. We feasted on raw fish that had been swimming only five minutes before.

On our “down time” Bruce busied himself with preventive maintenance. Our main water tank was a large bladder made of a rubberized fabric. Bruce searched below decks for any possible leaks. He also watched for leaks on fittings throughout the boat. He checked the battery voltage level a couple times a day. On deck, he looked for sail chaffing as the result of rubbing against a shroud. He’d check for worn or frayed lines. He installed new gaskets on the portholes. He sanded and varnished the exposed brightwork on deck.

It often rained for a bit in the afternoon, sometimes long enough for us to collect rain water in our fresh water tank. Unless it was wind-driven rain, we could usually continue to sit in the cockpit under our awning, but occasionally were forced to go below decks.

Greg and Kathy had collected a number of shells ranging from the large spider variety down to tiny augers.

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