Sailing with Nine of Cups

It's a hot, sultry day here and the rest of the cruisers are either out snorkeling or getting ready to visit one of the little motus (islands) here in the atoll with the Park Warden, John. We, on the other hand, are in major repair mode and getting ready to go to shore for sail repairs. The wind finally subsided and we got the main sail down and took it to shore. We laid it out on the beach on tarps. There's good news...we're very optimistic we can get it useable again AND it's no worse than we imagined (no better either, but glass half full/half empty?) There's a rip about 20' long right up the middle which we taped and hand sewed into place yesterday. Then we cut strips of sailcloth that will be patched and stitched by machine over the rip area which we think will hold. There are 2-3 full panels that are blown out completely further up. We cut away all the shredded edges and now will replace whole panels with extra sailcloth we had on hand from an older sail. There are a myriad of small holes/chafe areas that we'll try to patch up as we go along. We're anticipating 3-4 days of work. The hard part, of course, is getting the gas generator and sewing machine to shore along with everything else that we'll need which was today's task. They have no electricity ashore except for what they generate themselves and we really can't impose on the family to run their generator for us to be able to sew. As it is, they're allowing us to use their big table and covered space to work.

The family, by the way, is wonderful. John and his wife, Veronica, have come to Suwarrow with their 4 sons for the past 5 years as caretakers of Cook Islands only national park. They're warm,hospitable and very outgoing while really caring about the park and making sure people respect the rules and regulations. A NZ boat we know from Chile and have got to know better since they've arrived here, celebrated the 19th birthday of their daughter, Kathryn, last night ashore at John's. They decorated and we had a potluck with all of the boats here participating (about 10 maybe). Everyone provided some little gift...most handmade and some just something that happened to be aboard their boats. John is a good guitarist so after eating and blowing out birthday candles, we sang. A fine evening, but now back to the grindstone this morning. We need to make hay while the sun shines (literally) and the wind and seas are forecast calm for the next 3 days.