Anchored at Ovalau
We had this island all to ourselves
Such a beautiful spot
Later on Ladybug and Black Dog showed up and we had sundowners on Charisma
We’re still anchored at Ovalau Island. But today, only one other boat was here and they didn’t go ashore, so we had the island to ourselves. We went ashore at low tide and walked halfway around until we couldn’t go any further without swimming! The sand was very fine and felt good between our toes after so much coral sand that is much coarser. One of the benefits of your own private island is there are no footprints in the sand. But wait! There were! Closer examination revealed they belonged to a goat family-looked like a large male, a female and a couple of baby goats including a very tiny one. I had visions of myself stealthily moving through the jungle with a bandana tied around my head to absorb the sweat, gripping a large knife in my teeth while parting the foliage with my sharpened stake. Ann just wanted to see the cute little goats.
So there we were; Rambo and Heidi. We decided to compromise and just hunt for sea shells.
After our island excursion it was back to Charisma for lunch and a nap (actually Ann did some sewing on the mainsail where a couple of seams had rubbed the thread off) in anticipation of our leaving tonight around 2300 for Ha’apai. More specifically we’re going to the island of Ha’apana in the Ha’api group. It’s about 63 miles from where we’re anchored and we’d like to get there early in the day for a change. We’ve been making too many landfalls at the last possible minute of sunlight. Not safe in an area like this.
OK, now that I think of it, I actually did something useful today besides nap. I made four new lures for fishing. They are very nice looking, but there’s one flaw-the biggest line we have is 100lb test and for the handline we really should be using 300# test. You can’t find it here so we have, what we have. I put a new bungee cord on the line so hopefully that will absorb the shock and we will catch something instead of losing the lure. They say the fish (like a 100 lb Tuna) hit at something like 60 miles/hour so you can see that the lures need to be tough! Well, like I said-they look really good.
Pray to the Tuna god, we need some sushi.
Hey Bob, I just wanted to thank you for detailing the prep involved in realizing a trip like this. I am following your blog – actually since I started at the beginning, I am still a couple of years in the past, and will continue to follow your adventures. My husband Martin and I are hoping to cruise to the Caribbean in a few years. We’re currently at the beginning stages – taking classes, tooling around on our Catalina 270 on the Bay — and for one week this past summer — on the Delta. We also chartered in the Med.
so our master plan is to sell this big old house in four years and purchase a blue water boat so we can do the Baja Ha Ha and then prepare for a 6-month cruise. I’m going to have Martin read every word of your blog as well. Congrats on accomplishing your dream! I’ll have more to say once I catch up to your Pacific crossing! Are you on Facebook? I recently posted some nice shots of the AC semi finals. Don’t know that I will be able to find the right Bob Johnson if I search for you there. I am glad I found this! More later, Nina