Saturday, September 22, 2007

Fire Dancers in Samoa!

Hello again! Now we're in Samoa - Independent Samoa - on the Island of U'polu. We are headed for Suva'i tonight at 1800hrs. We arrived on Thursday afternoon, and I was able to spend a few hours on land before dinner, just walking into the town, going to the bank to exchange currency, dropped of some laundry, and went to the grocery store to get some snacks (nuts) and ice cold water! Our boat is docked at the farthest most possible spot from the town, so it allows us all to get some great exercise in walking to and from the town every day, often multiple times a day! Friday (yesterday) was spent mostly shopping for food with Gillian. We took 2-3 trips to and from the grocer's and market in taxis, carting food to the boat, loading it on, and stowing it all away. I had to leave Gillian at the market early because I needed to be back to the boat to make dinner (Judy, I made your famous chili again, with my own incorporation of chick peas, black beans, corn, and some extra spices, and cornbread)! But I didn't eat at the boat. Gillian and I used the showers near the boat after a long, hot, sweaty day of shopping and stowing down below with the oven on, washed off all the grime of the day's work, and then went out with Karen, Jordan, and some other trainees to a buffet dinner and a fire-dancing show! It was awesome! The guys were the fire dancers, and really amazing entertainers! It was great! At the end of the show, one of our trainees kissed "the godfather" (the name of the biggest firedancer) and then she got up to dance with the dancers on stage, and many of us got up there as well! (I was taking pictures and laughing at our table). It was great fun! And after all our dance practices in the Marquesas, Tuamotus, and Cook Islands, it was really fun watching everyone bust out their South Pacific moves! Later, we all went to "Vbar" for some more dancing, but we were the only ones dancing. It was fun! Dancing to songs like 500 Miles, and other recognizable tunes (Matt, you would have loved it - I imagined you there dancing with us)! It was very hot there, though, so I was happy when we finally decided to go back to the boat. It was an incredibly hot day, but Gillian and I were able to do some laundry, and get all the food put away, so I'm happy!
Today, Gillian, Karen, Jose and I all went up to Robert Louis Stevenson's House (which is now a Museum) and got a tour of his place. IT was incredible! (R.L. Stevenson, for those who don't know, wrote many books and poems, the most famous being "Treasure Island", "Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde", and "Kidnapped"). His house was really quite amazing, with all original furniture, artwork, pictures, instruments, original copies of his first books, and so forth all there. I learned a lot about his life, and his time spent in Samoa, and then we hiked up the hill to where his and his wife's gravesites are (at the top of a hill overlooking the town and ocean - just magnificent)! Jose took a video of us up there, so when I get his website I will add it to my links so you can all take a look! He has many great pictures and videos of the trip so far, and I think it would be very beneficial to check those out! I will get that as soon as possible! After the hike, we went to a cute little cafe for lunch and fruit drinks, and now, here I sit in the internet cafe, just finished listening to Usher.

We are leaving soon, so I just want to say a big Hello to everyone and that I miss you all a ton (especially you, Matt!) By the way, my camera stopped working, and my Ipod and charger got stolen on Palmerston Island (the last Cook Island we went to), so I am really upset and sad at this loss of technology. I am hoping to get Mom to maybe get me a new digital camera and Amy to get another IPOD (both for good deals) and download all the music onto it and send it to the SALTS office within the next couple of weeks, so it can come out with the next group of trainees, who are meeting us in FIJI on October 10th. Loren Hagerty (SALTS's executive director) as well as Sarah Brizan (the Watch Officer) and Gillian Hoyer's Dad are all coming to Fiji, so one of them can bring them out. Of course, I will pay you back, but I am just really upset about no camera or IPOD (You can't imagine how necessary those items are on a trip like this!) and I would SO LOVE to take pictures and listen to music - that's all i need! That, and Matt's hugs and machine gun kisses from MOm~hee hee~

I love you all! Take care, and I will see you all soon (in my dreams)!

Love always, Katie

Monday, September 10, 2007

Beautiful Aitutaki!

Well, we made it to Aitutaki, after about 24 hours of an expected 12 hour sail. (Someone wasn't plotting properly, if at all). Oh well, we're here now, and in quite possibly the most beautiful Island I have seen yet. It's not so much the Island itself, as much as the clear-blue water, palm trees, and coral atolls that surround Aitutaki that make it so gorgeous. But, as I was talking with Leslie earlier, I could never live here. Visit and tour around, yes, but not permanently. The lifestyle here is so laid back and relaxed, and I think that would get to me after a while. But for right now it's fun just to see people in their 70s, with gray hair, riding around on motor-scooters in Floral shirts, with no helmuts! It's hilarious. But everyone rides around on those scooters, everywhere! Not just the elderly, although they are the typicals. Anyway, We had to anchor about a half mile from shore because of the coral reefs, and a tour boat offered to transport all of us to shore, which was great because it would have taken us forever to have transported everyone in the Zodiac (our dories are full of food and supplies for people in Palmerston, from friends we made in Rarotonga, as favours for them).

Gillian and I were finally able to do our BIG shop on Saturday, after the bed bug clean, before we left for here, so our boat is now full of food, plus all the stuff we are bringing to the small Island of Palmerston for people in Rarotonga. Apparently, no supply boats - or boats barely ever - go to Palmerston (the next one is in March). So when word got out that the Grace may be heading over there, a lot of people asked if we could take things there for them. Making good, friendly connections is always beneficial, so we ended up taking a bunch of food and supplies for one man's family who live there half of the year, along with a washing machine for the Police, a whiteboard for the school, a propane tank, and some other things for the Mayor of Palmerston. They told us to expect people to invite us into their homes, and stay a couple nights on land with them, like billeting, with full use of their showers, and new washing machine (that we are transporting over there)! It's quite hilarious! But we really enjoy helping others out, since that is what everyone has been doing for us!

The people down here are so friendly and sweet. Everyone knows everyone, and they all support each other. They just want to help you out and befriend you, and everyone is genuinely concerned for your well-being and really want to get to know you, and really curious about what we do on the boat. We get a lot of visitors regularly, and the boat even made it into the daily newspaper in Rarotonga! A couple trainees, as well as Skipper and Bo got their pictures in there too! I bought a copy to keep for my records!

Well, that's all for now. We have a pet Gecko that hitched a ride on the bunch of bananas that we are transporting, which I don't like, but people assure me it's a good thing because he eats bugs, so hopefully he will take care of the bed bug problem (they are still here, but so far only confined to the 4 bunks). I hope they don't spread! We will have to be regular with spraying the bunks down, and then doing another boat-gutting once we hit Fiji!

I hope everyone is doing well! Take care, and enjoy the rest of the lovely summer weather wherever you are!

Love always, Katie

Friday, September 7, 2007

Cook Islands Gong Show!

Well, we made it to the Cooks unscathed. Sort of...We have discovered upon just arriving hear that we have some unwanted visitors onboard: BED BUGS! AAAAHHHH! Quite possibly the worst thing that we can ever imagine on board, minus a deathly squall or the boat sinking, or a shark attack, or something like that. But for right now I think it's the worst thing (as we have weathered many squalls on our way here already). We had a great time touring around the Society Islands near Tahiti (Moorea, Huahine, Tahaa, Raiatea, and Bora Bora). We left French Polynesia on September 1st, and made it to the Cook Islands yesterday (September 6th). We are on the Island of Rarotonga, which is one of the main - if not, THE main - Island in the Cooks. It's fabulous! It used to be owned by New Zealand, so everyone here has that Kiwi accent, but they are all French Polynesian looking. They all speak English - which is GREAT (it's so good to find things and buy food that way) - and they are very friendly and sweet. They drive on the left side of the rode, with the wheel on the right side of the car, and the stick-shifts on the left (naturally), which, if you talk to Karen, is VERY confusing! I haven't had a chance to drive yet here, but Gillian and I did get our driver's licenses at the police station yesterday for only $10Kiwi dollars! It's awesome! I also got a hat and a few golf shirts from the police station as well, along with some pictures. I took the liberty of asking the woman cop there what it too to become an officer, and she laughed, then said you had to be 18, apply, and that was about it. She said you don't even have to have been born there! WOW! How easy is that? They don't even carry guns. But they get to drive motorcycles - probably because it's so hot. I'm not really sure exactly what they do all day, but yesterday they were busy making driver's licenses for all the tourists who wanted to rent cars. Anyway, after Gillian and I scoped out where we were going to purchase all our food, and went to the bank to exchange money, we returned to the boat to discover that we had to take ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING out and put it up on deck - due to the bed bugs! Fortunately, we think only 4 bunks have them (3 in the Hold, where some guys were bit, and Jordan's bunk in the Galley - which are at the opposite end of the Hold where Gillian and I sleep, but still in the same area)! You can imagine the scare! The girls in the Fo'c'sle are so far untouched, but we still had to clear everything out for the exterminator today. So that is what we did all day today! It was a mess! Imagine everyone putting all their clothes and bedding into plastic bags, all of it going to the laundromat to get washed - ALL OF IT! (Gillian and I had 3 huge garbage bags each just full of clothes). Then we put all un-washables in other bags and up on deck. EVERYTHING was taken out! EVERYTHING! And I mean EVERYTHING! Mattresses were stripped, individually looked at, sprayed, hung, dried, (still hanging and drying up on deck as I write), mattress covers taken to get washed separately, everyone's stuff up on deck in a specified area, all our food, dishes, supplies, EVERYTHING out of cupboards, drawers, seat lockers, under bunks OUT! EVERYTHING is up on deck now! WE had to clean everything, vacuum, sweep, bleach water wipe everything, scrub, scrape, everything! WE were up before 6am and didn't finish until after 9am! I put together a fruit salad and yogurt for breakfast, but people were hungry by 10am, so I had sandwiches, apples and granola bars ready by then (I took a quick trip to the store when it opened at 8am to have that prepared on deck for people). We all had to individually inspect our stuff up on deck, transport the laundry to the cleaner's (Karen did this with Arwen), and everyone else was helping to get everything up on deck, clean, spray, inspect and just make sure it was all okay. The "bug guy" came at about 10 to do his thing. So right now he is probably finished, but we can't go down there until about 4pm, as the stuff he uses is toxic - which is why we had to get everything out from below (our boat is completely gutted, and everything is up on deck, minus all the clothes and bedding that is at the laundromat, which we won't get back until tomorrow, so we'll be sleeping on mattresses tonight - I'll be on my thermarest)! Anyway, it was - is - a gong show! Gillian and I can't do our huge shop until this is all done, so for right now, we're still making a list of everything we need, and then we'll get it tomorrow. We were able to find a place to make pizza for us all tonight (since we can't use the stove) and we'll have an early dinner before everyone starts putting the boat back together before sunset tonight. It's been a long day. I've just had a little time to use the internet before we have to go back to the boat to get people to help us carry all the pizza back to the boat.
WOW! The excitement of Offshore! I just hope this exterminator guy kills the living bugs. We will have to wipe down and spray bunks every week, and then do this same boat-gutting again when we get to FIgi, and then another huge spray, because the new eggs will hatch (nothing but fire or drowning will kill the eggs - and we can't do that on a wooden boat)! It's a real problem, but we're all hopeful it will be taken care of and we will get rid of them! At least the whole boat is clean, and I have an excuse to reorganize all my stuff! Gillian and I have by far the most out of everyone - because we're girls, we have 3 bunks between the 2 of us, we have a ton of storage space, and we keep buying more things. Plus - we weren't planning on needed to move anything, so we are living out of plastic bags for the moment, and won't be able to completely unpack everything until the problem is completely taken care of.
But enough of that. I'm still enjoying myself and loving the Cook Islands! Gillian and I had our first real, naked fresh shower since Tahiti! We even got to shave! WOW! I feel so clean now! We found a public washroom with a shower stall. Don't worry, Mom, I wore my sandals!
Well, that's all I really have to tell you for now. I will let you know more about the bed bug situation at a later date. For now, the weather is still hot, everyone is getting along, Leg 3 is going well, lots of Island hopping and many things to still see on this part of the journey, and we will be crossing the International Date Line soon, so we'll be almost a full day ahead, rather than 3/4 hours behind Vancouver! Love to you all!
Happy 24th Birthday, Melissa and Andrea, on August 25th and 26th!
Happy 3rd Anniversary, Amy and Jason on August 31st!
Happy 24th Birthday, Ashli, on August 31st!
Happy Anniversary, Jamie and Judy, on September 2nd!
Happy 39th Birthday, Jason, on September 10th!
GOod luck with school everyone - I wish I was there with you all (sort of). I love it out here though, and although I miss all of you and do miss University, I am glad I'm out here travelling, exploring, and experiencing all there is to see and do out here!

Love all of you so much, and miss you terribly!

To my Matt - I love you more than words can say, and I definitely miss you the most! I hope you are doing well up in Boyle, and enjoying your job! I think of you all the time, and I hope you are being safe and have a good experience! I love you!

Love always, Popeye Katie