Another day behind me. I was running a lot today trying to organize things. It took me a lot of time in internet café – connection is so slow you could not believe, it’s almost impossible to open letters from you! I had no idea it can be such a difficult task for a computer to do it! I needed to make some phone – calls but when it’s day time in Vanuatu it’s a night time in Poland. To call my friends from other countries is hard also since I have forgotten to bring my note-book (telephone index) with me… from the public phone booth it is no use to make any phone - calls because it’s more expensive than a satellite connection. By the way – for some reasons Iridium has no coverage over this part of Pacific. It’s functioning on the sea though, I want to thank to Krzysztof Kaminski and Inter-Pro Sailing Team (www.inter-proauto.com) for buying an Iridium and paying bills for emergency calls!
After the Internet trial I went to Australian Embassy, once again. I’m in a hurry to avoid the hurricane season after Torres Strait, meaning not going up straight against a monsoon. In October the wind changes its direction to west and on shallow water (average 50 m deep water) it could be extremely difficult for me through about 500 NM) So, here I am walking to this Embassy visiting gym on my way – 56 double wide stairs. In a hot sunny day, currying a heavy camera on my shoulder and a computer in my bag it should be considered an achievement, taking into consideration my age because I was obliged to do it 6 times! Why so many trips? Because I forgot to make copies of my yacht documents. My dad used to say that if you don’t know something you’ll never remember it even if you try hard. Nobody had told me about it earlier. Moreover, I learned from my application that I can pay with my credit card for a fee but in reality it was not a case. In real life I had to go down and up the stairs twice. Because it’s not like an ATM would help you out, oh no! First cash machine was closed. Second open but with no money in it, third – long line to wait in! I was sweating a lot. There were still plenty of things I had to do before the lunch time.
I got a software program about currents and tides and I started my work on a splice of my halyard. Luckily I made a mistake on Hawaii keeping my halyard too long – now I can take an advantage on just cutting it (making it shorter) because in one place the rope got worn although I tried to frequently change its position on the mast. Gladly I got into my work meaning I’ve started to look for someone to help to solve the problem. The halyard issue was not a difficult task but first of all I had to find a necessary part. Let me remind you we are talking about an island here and it has a marine shop where you can find anything - except a part useful to anybody. Obviously I wrongly calculated the size of a needed part (a diameter of the wire). It could happen to all of us! I found ‘the end’ of the wire but it wouldn’t fit. So good Pieter (and Linda) from s/y Deutch Touch helped me out and Mike from s/y Lelystad offered me a chicken for a dinner by the way. I thank you so much guys. Especially when I did not have any free time to shop today, I even did not have my breakfast either because I had forgotten about it. I was simply too much in a hurry the whole day.
p.s. I decided to give the chicken away to better hands – Max’s hands and guess what, he prepared a dinner with three courses. Spices were from Thailand, curry I don’t recall where from, tea from India… being invited to his yacht it’s a pure pleasure. For the dessert we had sorbet, fried bananas and yogurt on the top of it and raspberries. It was delicious but I needed to run. The owner of Pacific Internet Café was so nice and left the server on through the night and through Sunday even though it’s closed on Sundays just in order so I could sit by the café on its stairs and make up for all necessary phone calls – he even lent me earphones! Isn’t it nice of him? So I go.
After the Internet trial I went to Australian Embassy, once again. I’m in a hurry to avoid the hurricane season after Torres Strait, meaning not going up straight against a monsoon. In October the wind changes its direction to west and on shallow water (average 50 m deep water) it could be extremely difficult for me through about 500 NM) So, here I am walking to this Embassy visiting gym on my way – 56 double wide stairs. In a hot sunny day, currying a heavy camera on my shoulder and a computer in my bag it should be considered an achievement, taking into consideration my age because I was obliged to do it 6 times! Why so many trips? Because I forgot to make copies of my yacht documents. My dad used to say that if you don’t know something you’ll never remember it even if you try hard. Nobody had told me about it earlier. Moreover, I learned from my application that I can pay with my credit card for a fee but in reality it was not a case. In real life I had to go down and up the stairs twice. Because it’s not like an ATM would help you out, oh no! First cash machine was closed. Second open but with no money in it, third – long line to wait in! I was sweating a lot. There were still plenty of things I had to do before the lunch time.
I got a software program about currents and tides and I started my work on a splice of my halyard. Luckily I made a mistake on Hawaii keeping my halyard too long – now I can take an advantage on just cutting it (making it shorter) because in one place the rope got worn although I tried to frequently change its position on the mast. Gladly I got into my work meaning I’ve started to look for someone to help to solve the problem. The halyard issue was not a difficult task but first of all I had to find a necessary part. Let me remind you we are talking about an island here and it has a marine shop where you can find anything - except a part useful to anybody. Obviously I wrongly calculated the size of a needed part (a diameter of the wire). It could happen to all of us! I found ‘the end’ of the wire but it wouldn’t fit. So good Pieter (and Linda) from s/y Deutch Touch helped me out and Mike from s/y Lelystad offered me a chicken for a dinner by the way. I thank you so much guys. Especially when I did not have any free time to shop today, I even did not have my breakfast either because I had forgotten about it. I was simply too much in a hurry the whole day.
p.s. I decided to give the chicken away to better hands – Max’s hands and guess what, he prepared a dinner with three courses. Spices were from Thailand, curry I don’t recall where from, tea from India… being invited to his yacht it’s a pure pleasure. For the dessert we had sorbet, fried bananas and yogurt on the top of it and raspberries. It was delicious but I needed to run. The owner of Pacific Internet Café was so nice and left the server on through the night and through Sunday even though it’s closed on Sundays just in order so I could sit by the café on its stairs and make up for all necessary phone calls – he even lent me earphones! Isn’t it nice of him? So I go.