Halekai sailing the world: SailBlogs

Land Ho! We're in Oz!

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 22:18:45 -0500

Ah, the pleasant culture shock of returning to the "first world." AU customs and quarantine officials (two young women) were friendly and professional. We're now in a berth at Bundaberg Port Marina and just reunited with Aussie friends Don and Barbi, s/v Lutana II, who we first met in French Polynesia, then NZ, then Fiji. While Burger tends to boat r&m, I'll be researching our land travel plans. Looking forward to seeing those kangaroos and koalas! (View Post...)

Boobie on the Bow

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 08:05:03 -0500

Just before sunset, a brown and white boobie approached and circled the boat, finally landing on our bow pulpit. Poor guy must have gotten tired and needed a rest. The bow of a boat is the least stable spot, bobbing up and down with the waves. But not only did our friend not have a problem balancing, he even tucked his head under his wing and had a snooze! After a few hours when the moon came out, he took off again. We hope he found his way home. (View Post...)

Home Stretch

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 02:25:03 -0500

It was tempting to stay longer at Chesterfield Reef, but the weather looked good for the 450 mile stretch to Bundy, so off we sailed next morning. ETA is tomorrow night, just in time to clear in with Customs on Friday to avoid paying hefty weekend overtime charges. We're trying to eat up our remaining fresh food since it'll be confiscated by Quarantine. But winds have picked up to 20-25 knots and seas are rough, so we don't feel much like cooking today, or eating, for that matter. (View Post...)

Last Chance for Lobster

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0500

Another two nights and a day brought us to Chesterfield Reef, yet another uninhabited large atoll in the middle of the Coral Sea, belonging to New Caledonia. The Coral Sea is full of such reefs, treacherous to navigate without reliable charts and GPS. We anchored in the shelter of an island in 20 feet of crystal clear aquamarine water on a wide sand shelf studded with coral heads, in front of yet another bird rookery, this time with lots of boobies, noisy brown terns (I think) and frigate birds. At first we thought the terns were blue, then realized their white underbodies were reflecting the color of the water. The lagoon and surrounding ocean must teem with fish to support such big seabird colonies. It's nice to know there are areas of the world where the marine life is thriving undisturbed. (Continued...)

Baby Boobies

Sat, 29 Aug 2009 01:15:12 -0500

Two nights and a day with steady SE tradewinds brought us from Santo to Ile Huen, a large coral atoll in the middle of nowhere. Why not two days and one night, you ask? We calculated our departure to ensure a landfall during midday, since we needed good visibility to see the bommies (coral heads) in the lagoon. We anchored in front of a long narrow white sand islet, uninhabited except for the thousands of boobies and other seabirds who make their home here, as well as turtles who lay their eggs in the sand. We dinghied ashore to stretch our legs, burn our trash and do some beach combing. Just as I stepped out of the dinghy into the shallow water, a small black-tipped shark swam by. A sign on the top of the grassy ridge proclaimed the island and surrounding reef a World Heritage site, and gave directions for counting turtle tracks, but we didn't see any. We did see lots of nesting boobies, some black on top and white on bottom, and some just the reverse, and some fluffy babies. Then we snorkeled around the coral just off the beach. Back aboard, it was so nice to be able to cook without having to hang on, take a hot shower and have a good night's rest, to the sound of waves breaking along the reef. Now we're on our way to our next stopover, the Chesterfield Reef, conveniently located on our course toward Bundaberg. (View Post...)

Underway, Or So We Thought

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 02:15:03 -0500

We cleared out with Customs in Luganville and filled our fuel tanks with duty-free diesel at a big discount, but it still cost around US$4 per gallon. Now we can power through any doldrums between here and Australia. We took off this morning and headed out, but by midafternoon we discovered a problem with the mainsail roller-reefing. Impossible to fix at sea, we checked the chart and found that we were right near a beautiful, protected bay with a backdrop of high mountains, on the southwest corner of Santo, the last bit of land before leaving Vanuatan waters. If Burger can't fix the problem by nightfall we may be here another day, a pleasant prospect; several dugongs live in the bay, and we'd love to swim with them. Dugongs are very funny creatures, just like manatees but a different shaped tail. (Continued...)

A Hard Place to Leave

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 03:48:39 -0500

I'm amazed to realize that we've been here at Oyster Island Resort nearly a week already! It's a virtual hurricane hole surrounded by idyllic deserted islands, and the healthy coral reefs and two jungle-clad rivers with blue swimming holes (photo) have given us plenty to explore. On the main island of Santo, just a short dinghy ride across the small bay, we hiked to an abandoned WWII airfield. The surrounding waters reportedly abound in fighter plane wrecks but we weren't able to find any on our snorkeling forays. James Mitchener's postwar experiences here and in the Solomons were the inspiration for his Tales of the South Pacific. (Continued...)

Tarzan Burger

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 00:47:39 -0500

Watch this video of Burger playing Tarzan! (Continued...)

A Charmless Place

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 20:21:54 -0500

I was finally able to upload photos to accompany my blogs. Scroll down and take a look! The photo on this post shows a kastom dancer's poll decorated with four boar tusks. (Continued...)

Doctoring under the Mango Tree

Sat, 15 Aug 2009 15:51:50 -0500

We were just planning to spend one night in Malua Bay to break up the trip to our next destination, Espirito Santo. But no sooner was the anchor down than we were surrounded by outrigger canoes, the paddlers offering us papayas and pampelmousse, and asking for rope to tie up their cows. A young woman named Stefanie pointed at Burger and asked me, "what he do?" "Doctor," I replied. Could he look at a sore on her little son's leg, she asked? But as there were three little ones with her in the canoe, she was understandably reluctant to board Halekai with her son. So we agreed to meet her ashore next morning. (Continued...)