The math book and pencils are out on the table and I’m going to be looking up definitions for math terms I haven’t heard in decades, or maybe ever, as part of my new role onboard of math teacher. Our longest term buddy boat with another 13 year old boy on it, Morning Stars, had decided school starts today and even though Seattle Schools started 2 weeks ago we decided having the boys start the same day made sense. Suffering together is always better, for kids and parents. We think we’ll do school every day that we can and days off will be days when there’s something else we want to do as a family onshore or if we’re on passage. I also told Griffin that as soon as he finishes his grade 7 math workbooks he can be done with math, the sooner the better for everyone! (We’ll do reviews, don’t worry.) Greg is doing the Language Arts but those workbooks aren’t arriving until Julie gets here on the 26th.
Oh hey, our friend Julie is coming to visit! Julie and I met as babies and spent a month every summer cruising with our families. Outside of that we got to visit maybe once or twice a year via roadtrips between West Van and Seattle and our families have always been close. We love that our kids also got to spend time boating together, will any of them carry on the tradition and make a 3rd generation of it? We’ll see. Meanwhile, she’s coming all the way here and bringing a ton (or a max weight checked bag) of boat parts, random things that aren’t available here, and materials for the reading and writing program we decided Griffin should do.
We’re back in the SE corner of Fakarava dodging a maramu, a slightly stronger than normal wind event. Last night when Greg was up he saw gusts up to 40kts, but we’re in the cozy corner with a few other boats and our anchor is set well. One of the other boats has a couple we met on shore when we first made landfall on Nuku Hiva. They came by and invited us to a potluck dinner on shore. Some one had caught a big marlin and the kite boarding school offered to use their big pit BBQ on shore. They filled the bbq with coconut husks that made a nice fire. They made the delicious coconut bread that was grilled between two leaves. When the leaves were peeled off and the outside toasted it revealed the pattern from the leaf, they were beautiful and tasty. The fish was to die for, perfectly grilled and great flavor. How fun to share such a good meal!
When we were up in the Marquesas we met Billy and Willis, father and son, on their Bristol Channel Cutter, sv Pixie. We had a great time with them and were obsessed with following them from when they sailed out of Anaho bay all the way back to their arrival in Victoria BC. Their tracking blog was hilarious, hopeful, and so entertaining. When another boat like theirs named Calypso sailed into the bay and dropped their hook I paddled over. It turns out they had heard of Pixie but hadn’t met them, their paths just haven’t crossed yet. Greg went over later to invite them to dinner and happily, they accepted. We had fun making tortillas and Griffin and Dylan even helped chop up cabbage for a salsa fresca. While I was helping them, Nica ran the tortilla press expertly- turns out she is part of a well known blog and show called “The Boat Galley”! Ha, it’s like inviting a famous chef over for a casual and quick meal, no big deal. Nica and her husband Jeremy were really fun to hang out with and brought some delicious guacamole and boat made tortilla chips that we all enjoyed.
As always when we’re on board, we have a bunch of things on the to-do list we’ve been working on. Greg rewired the power going to the starboard stateroom bus board which wasn’t getting enough voltage due to an old hacked and taped over connection. I finally installed a new head sink faucet and was able to get rid of a bunch of old and sketchy looking plumbing fittings. The old fixture holes are filled and now I just need to dig out some paint to finish . I did an oil change on the engine, cleaned all the water strainer baskets and changed the raw water impeller just for good practice, yay. I feel good about our stores on board because I spent a morning digging through and making list of everything in the deep forward storage under our bunk. We certainly have plenty of dry goods. It was fun to see the little vacuum bag of Christmas supplies too. It’s weird not to feel fall coming on, Greg’s birthday is 9/25 and the weather hasn’t changed one bit.
Our buddy boat, Morning Stars, needed to make a run up to Rotoava, about 30 miles NE in the atoll. They would come back here after so we thought it would be fun if Dylan stayed with us on Rocket Science while they were gone. Dylan is a great guy and he and Griffin have so much fun together, too much fun sometimes if you ask the adults! They did their individual school work in the mornings and spent the rest of the days on shore doing who knows what, paddle boarding, being towed on the paddle boards, and they even got to watch some movies. They exhausted each other and everyone slept well but we missed Jason and Amanda and were glad to have them back three days later.
We’ve been enjoying hanging out with s/v Flying Tiger and their 2 kids again too, they’re a riot and their big catamaran and associated water toys are super fun for all the kids. Today we’re just finishing school, we’ll have lunch, and then dinghy over to a tiny motu nearby to make into our own for the afternoon. Time to pack up the snacks, beach chairs, water toys, and art supplies!
