Polynesian Party

Last night we went out with our friends to a big party on the 

beach, well not exactly on the beach near the beach.

We were shown to a big building were there was a big U

shaped table with food and drink.

Kids were at one table and all the grown ups were at the others.

at first they just played music for us while we ate but

then they got on outfits and danced for suit was very good.

After the dace they called up all the men and boys to dance. She

showed them how to bend down and put your nease in 

and put your nease out while sidling along the line of men

and boys.

After the boys went the girls had to go. So I get up there with

my mom and sisters and she tells us to shake our 

butts so I’m like ooookkkkkaaay and were all standing around just 

shaking our butts then she tells us to sidle along the group of people 

so were walking back and forth trying to shake our butts 

at the same time to the drums, but not doing very well at it.

After the music and dancing was done all the kids ran out 

to play while the parents paid for the dinner all the kids started 

a game of tag and every one played.

Fatu Hiva

After 3 weeks at sea any island would've looked magnificen to us but Fatu Hiva was especially gorgeous.  We've been to the low lying San Blas islands with their palm trees and pearl white sands, the Galapagos, a volcanic wonderland, even Bonaire a desert island, but we've never been to the French Polynesian islands.  Lush hills rose steeply on all sides of the bay full of clear deep blue water, valleys full of waving ferns and gurgling mountain streams met us on our hikes.

We spent days taking hikes, swimming and playing with friends, in addition to Remi De; Moana Roa, Camanante and Field Trip soon arrived and we became fast friends with a new boat named Voahangy, already friends with Remi De.  

We spent a day tubing and playing in the water by a small bay with a beach of water-rounded stones Remi De discovered.  On the beach there is a small creek of ice cold fresh water that trickles through the stone to the sea, we propped a dead palm branch up to catch the water and make a spout for it. Soon we had a tap to wash our hands and clean shells we found, we also used coconut shells as cups and filled them at the tap then dumped them over ourselves for showers.  

We tried building shelters out of palm  fronds but that didn't work out so we played house on a large flat rock that we found, we wove palm fronds into beds for ourselves and delt out jobs around the "household" for everyone, for example, Cleo smashed and cut cocnuts for meals, Jade cleaned up after the ladies of the house [who were Remi from Remi De and Anne from Voahangy], Cara from Moana Roa was the bodygaurd and I tended the fire and collected the water for meals and showers.  We ate ceviche and crackers on the smooth stones for lunch and had coconut for dessert, I ate so much cocnut it's gonna last me a life time.

We tubed all the way back from the small bay and took a few turns around in it before getting dropped off so we could get ready for the welcoming feast we were all attending that night.  I showered and dressed then got in the dinghy with everybody else, we're now sailing with my uncle who joined us in the Galapagos.  At land we all gathered in a warehouse where the locals had set up a gigantic feast for us.  On the table were all different kinds of delicacies ranging from chicken and rice to pickled bananas.  As we ate musicians filed in and started playing a kind of loud musiisic in the native language.   After a while dancers came in and lined up, one woman announced them and they began dancing they did a lot of difficult looking moves, then the woman came up again and explained what the moves meant.  We stayed there late into the night, watching the performances and plaing tag when we got bored,finally we dragged ourselves away to head back home but we all agreed it was really fun.

Barley the Marlin

One day when we were sailing across the pacific 

I heard that buzz-buzz-buzzthat means we caught a fish

my dad heard it also we both raced to the back of the boat were the line was.

My dad started reeling it in “its…a..big…one is all he managed.

Stella went down to wake up my uncle after a bit of moaning we got him up 

my dad gave him the gaff which is a long stick that has a hook on the end.

Ok your going to gaff it and i’ll hit it with the hammer he said to my uncle

wait just a minute said my mom and she hurried in side to get our fishing book

when she came out she started flipping threw the pages till

she found the right one ahhhh here it is she said.

“Never try to bring one of these on board. If you catch one I

recommend setting it free” I glanced at my dad and uncle they had 

fake innocent looks my mom went on “People have actually been

impaled by last minute attacks by the fish.” 

By now my dad and uncle were shrinking back with innocent looks

on there faces. so I guess were gonna set it free said my dad 

yes we are said my mom.

I got some scissor for my dad to cut the line with he took the scissor and was about 

to cut the line when he remembered something he called out 

guys quick name him so we did.

                   And from that day on he’s been now’n as Barley the Marlin

Half-Way-Day

On the half-way-day to Marcasus we cooked crepes for breakfast.

We had nutella and butter with lime and sinomon.

It was good.

after we did the usual wash-up we read our books and listened 

to some audio tapes like Fantastic Mtrs Fox, Charley and the Chocolate Factory,

The Magic Finger.

We stayed like that for a good wile to about lunch. For lunch 

my uncle made sandwiches with melted cheese on them 

mmmmmh it was good. We did the same thing in the after noon that we did in the 

morning. 

I really like it out here i would prefer to stay

evan thow its a bit boring.  I love sailing evan thew its a bit rough 

in two ways.

We planned to go to Fatu-Hiva first an then nuku-hiva. Because heard 

hiva-oa wasn’t very good . But I didn’t wan’t to go to any island

 but i did wanna see my friends and not see my sisters. 

In the Clouds

On Tuesday we went to the clouds.

Let me explain it better.

On Tuesday we went on a hike to a volcano it was an 18 kilometer walk.
First we took a big cab for all of us up half way then walked the rest to were we were supposed to see  a good view of the whole island.

But when we got there we saw nothing well not nothing just white all white and some bushes but nothing else. The tour guid even looked surprised at how white it was.

After we saw the "sight" we walked another eight kilometers to a rocky place were we collected rocks to build fairy houses. After, we sat down to have lunch and build.

Stella built an amazing fairy house. On the way back we saw lots of beautiful plants and caterpillars.
We also saw lots of myst later we found out that we had been walking in the clouds!
when we were walking back home me and my walking buddy put beautiful wild flours in our braids.
But by the tim we got back they were all out.

A Farm Day

We're leaving soon for the islands in French Polynesia, The Marcecies.  Before we leave though we need to stock up on fresh fruits and vegetables because we ran out of them coming from Panama to here in the Galapagos.  We do this every we time we leave for a passage, but this one is going to be at least three weeks long so we need to get a lot.  The store in the town is unreliable because it only gets small shipments every few days, so we are going to go up to the farms that supply the store with most things.

At first we did not have high hopes because the first farm was a run-down dump and did not have very good produce, but the second one was really good and we got everything we needed.  We drove into the drive way, scattering a bunch of ducklings who were feeding on a watermelon rind, and sat on the bench to wait for the owner.  The owner was a tanned man with a machete and knife case attached to an old leather belt and... He only spoke Spanish.   When we asked for bananas he took a long branch, looked for a while then poked just the right spot so that the clump of bananas slowly lowered itself down and he took his machete and chopped the whole bunch off and the tree sprang right back up!

When we got back we were excitingly telling everybody who didnt come (including my sisters and dad), how amazing it was.  We gotten everything we wanted and more, overflowing all of our bags in the process, watched him chop it all off the plants when we asked, and paid forty dollars, a very cheap price.

Tsunami

We were at the island of Isabella in the Galapagos when one night a woman got on the VHF and warned everyone in the harbor that a tsunami was coming and everyone should evacuate the anchorage for safety.  At first we all thought this was an April fools trick, but when our friends got on the radio we were surprised to here that this was no prank and everyone raced to get their boats ready to leave.  Our friends on Moana Roa were in town that night and we were all panicking to get a hold of them before the wave reached us.  Field Trip organized everybody to contribute any information on how to contact Moana Roa, but nobody had their phone number.  Luckily they had brought their satellite phone with them and eventually we reached them.

When everyone reached their boats there was a mad rush get out.  We hauled up our anchor and weaved in between the moving boats until we passed in between the jetis and sailed out sea.  We kept our radio on so that we could here what everybody was saying about the tsunami.  Apparently there had been an earthquake off the coast of Chile and a tsunami was heading our way.  

We spent the night 20 miles away from shore and didn't have the time to develop a good watch system so everyone was tired in the morning, luckily a surprise was waiting for us.  By 7:00 in the morning we had caught a 35 ilb tuna and we were all excited for lots of tuna dinners in the near future.