Natasza Caban, S/V Tanasza Polska
Vila, Vanuatu to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
Tuesday, 10/9/07
Light wind from the stern, I’m going 4 knots, the sun is shining, there are little clouds, small waves, my furler (the one I have repaired in Vanuatu) is working beautifully, my position at 1500 UCT is 13º 56’ S, 158º 44’ E
I saw a ship. From the distance it did not appear to be very big. It was going in opposite direction but stopped by. My first thought was scary - what if they are pirates? So I nervously started to think about how to escape on TANASZA but frankly, with hardly any wind and a small engine I would not make more than 6 knots and there was no plan B, whatsoever. I switched my UHF on, just in case. It turned out to be a fishing boat. The Captain could not speak English, not that my Japanese is any good, but I counted on hearing words like "sashimi" - anyone can understand that, right?
Commotion started. I looked through everything on Tanasza in search of something I could reward donors for a fresh fish delivery. I have no beer on board and it's the last time I take off without a box of beer. A small deck bag, t-shirts, a captain's hat. What else, fruit canes, meat and chicken canes, a bracelet for fisherman's lady. In my stores I found banana chips and started to wonder if they have bananas in Japan - would it be something of delicacy to them or maybe they eat bananas all the time? Well, it was one of those moments when I felt a bit 'not smart at all'. Anyway, we agreed on how they would approach Tanasza but the very last moment Captain has changed the plan or maybe my Japanese was not good at all because he stopped just a meter from my hull pointing at me with bow. He almost touched my spreader. Ufff, it was close. It just crossed my mind that women would risk so much in order not to disembowel fish! Luckily nothing wrong happened. Besides the fact that I crushed my sunglasses. I liked them a lot, you know, boo hoo. Now I have to wear not fashionable ones and what's more I will gain some extra wrinkles - they do not cover my eyes as completely as previous ones!
Just in case, I put my fenders out - one accidentally fell into the water. Oops! So I ended bending on my knees in front of a bunch of 20 men or so. One fisherman was standing on a board with tiny towel twisted around his waist with a toothbrush in his mouth. If I were him I would have come to watch too! So eventually we changed the strategy - they let on water a yellow box and we did complete our barter trade but first I had to pick it up doing the maneuver using only my sails and it went surprisingly well - I was proud of myself, you would be too! Would you guess what I found in the yellow box beside a giant fish?! A box of Japanese soups! Well, soups were a nice surprise but I felt overwhelmed by a size of a fish - it could easily fed hundred of men! So we both took off in opposite directions. Nice story, don't you think?
So would you say i invite you for a dinner in new restaurant "Tanasza" - the specialty of a day "mahi mahi a la Tanasza". I fried some already, although I realized I'm short of oil - I did not buy any in Vanuatu. So what would you say for a dried fish, then? I'm drying fish for a first time ever. You should know that before leaving Hawaii together with a fishing gear I got a supply of salt in big grains and proper instructions how to do it. We will see if it works or not.
p.s. Later I found out that fishing boat left behind not only a fish but also plenty of nets on its fairway. It would be terrible if I got into such a net. And I prayed for a wind so I would not need to use the engine because a net in the propeller could mean night dive. It's one thing I did not try yet in my journey and I'd rather not. Blow wind, blow!
Wednesday, 10.10.07,
Coral Sea, weather the same, 0030 UTC : 13º 19’ S, 157º 56’ E
Still little wind, but I went little more north to get into a sub tropical current which is helping me towards the west ( north west). The passage seems to be slow but very pleasant. The sun is shining and the fish is drying. I enjoy the calmness because on the first leg of my trip in fact i did not have any time to get a rest. The weather on the Pacific was difficult for most part, lots of little repairs needed to be done almost every day, everything was dump and I hardly ever got a good sleep.
So now finally I get to listen to music to relax not to get over the tiredness; finally I have the time to think over things which were waiting long time for me to have time to think them through; at last I have time to read some books - some of them were waiting years for me to do it. I think I took a whole library with me by plane from Poland about solo sailors... because it is different to read their stories on shore and imagine them and it is different to be doing " the same thing" and comparing the experience. For example Leaonid Teliga who was the first Polish person to sail solo around the world in the 1960’s. He was so incredibly tough and he went through amazing things. I could not of have done as good as he did. And this feeling I had since I was about 10 years old and I would go for some classes to a school named by his name. You would see me staring at his black and white huge picture over the halls of the building not even realizing one day he would become my hero.
Or for example another Polish solo sailor, the fourth in history to sail non stop around the globe. Funny we used to do the same thing before leaving on hour trips. He says in the book:
" The thing what took me the most time preparing for the trip was a mental training. For many years, when the wind was blowing behind the windows in the night I would imagine that I am by myself in the middle of the ocean, alone, among huge waves. At the beginning I was terrified just thinking about it, but finally I got used to the feeling."
Well, I live very close to the Baltic Sea and from my room you can hear when the storm is on. Often I would lie in my bad horrified with the same thought. Then the scaredness was overtaken by curiosity....
But changing the subject, did you hear about some guy, whose name I cannot recall right now. He was sailing on a very little boat to see his wife and he fished for a shark to make her a bracelet. The shark on deck destroyed his cabin roof so the very next storm flooded the boat. In a frenzy of bucketing the water out he chucked away all his food and navigational instruments then almost died because of this... what a story and apparently a true one. Life of a sailor is so hard sometimes :)... but at the same time how romantic isn’t it? All for the woman, ech we love it, don’t we?
ps. I dried the fish for the first time in my life. It turned out a little too salty and gives me runs but I love it anyway :)
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Thursday, 11th of October; 1500 zulu, 13º 16’ S, 156º 01’ E, little wind, no weather change.
I've welcomed a new day with pudding. What times, nowadays you don't need any milk that would stick to the bottom of your pot but you just pour in some boiling water, stir it and it's ready! And who would mind some clumps - I've almost made a hole in my jar trying to clean out all the food. Preparing pudding I also poured hot water onto my Japanese soup, and my morning coffee. I heat up my chili - everything done on the gas stove – The fire lighted up with just one match, since I have just one box of matches and I try hard to save them for later. I don't know how it happened but my electrical lighter although found, is malfunctioning. So I count every single match and I came to a conclusion that I need to go faster otherwise it will not be enough of it. Good news is, however, that my bilge pump is functioning well although I repaired it myself! And it's very good news since I have to use it frequently because I have some leaking into my boat. Nothing serious but I have to look it up when I arrive at the shipyard. So far I've seen very little of dolphins, frankly speaking I've seen none. I guess not the ocean should be called 'pacific' but the Coral Sea itself (at least in October). I'm a bit late. Hurricane season starts in November. In Vanuatu this year avocados ripened earlier than usual and that meant to locals that the cyclones are building up somewhere. But that's fine, I'll be fine, there is no reason to worry.
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Friday 12th of October, 0100 zulu, 13º 00’ S; 154º 56’ E,
In the night I contacted a fishing boat because I could not figure out which course she was going. I tried to look though the book but it became quite hard because since I spoke up the fishing boat switched its lights off. I could barely see where it was but I noticed it has changed its speed and course. I heard only something like "hooooo" on my radio and then silence. Trying to be courageous I imagined myself asking them to give me some more matches I was short of but it was not funny at all when I realized they were heading towards me. I’d heard some scary stories about smuggling people or drug traffickers in these regions. I thought it was not good at all. I hid my computer and cameras. I was making 3 knots, they approached and they were going parallel to me about one cable away from my hull. (cable it's such a nice measure of distance that I hardly ever remember how long it is, but I found it sounds very professional)
In such circumstances I wish I had The Arabella's ring (Arabella is a princess in one of the Czechoslovakian kids movies) that you turns around and it allows you disappear or make you invisible. Wouldn't that be a surprise to unwelcome visitors? Ha! Believe me they took off only when I started to talk to them on the radio with a man's voice. When they were eventually gone for good, I just wanted to shout out loud "hey guys, just kidding!" - but I guess it was not funny at all.
Sunday,
14th of October, 0600 zulu, 12º 14’ S, 152º 00’ E,
Quiet night, no big weather changes. Papua New Guinea in the north
I'm going fast, like crazy. Sometimes I make up to 4.5 knots. But compared to my lately averaging 2 knots I feel like I'm on the race track. I bet flying fish were amazed at my speed too - cuz found about a dozen of them dead on the deck this morning. Because it's Sunday I decided to celebrate the day by getting along with my engine meaning get down to it and do some work on it. But believe me or not when I was about to start disassembling it, the engine decided to work smoothly, I could even get the reverse gear - so no need to do any adjustment. Hurrah!
It's very hot today. Under the deck is as hot as in the oven. Any one feel like fried TANASZA? I would go for pierogi (kind of dumplings, one of the Polish specialties)!
Well, it seems I'm only taking about me... so I'd like to share with you Teresa Remiszewska's way of preparing eggs so they would last for very long. All you need to do is to parboil them for 5 seconds in boiling water. For me it's not that important because I do stop frequently on my way but for all the people who circumnavigate non - stop this advice must be worth a fresh egg!
I overheard that Tomek Lewandowski who is doing that is already somewhere on Atlantic. I almost met Tomek once while I was on my last boat delivery (Cabo San Lucas - Mexico to Los Angeles) but when I got to Ensenada he was already gone. I talked to people in Ensenada about Tomek and they said to me that he even did not say a word about what he was about to do - he just prepared his boat and off he went. Nice. I wish him all the best and I sent him one of my birds - companions. So that it would soil not only my yacht! J
Wednesday, October 17th, 0322 UTC, 10 45 S, 147 52 E, already two weeks on water
I had a very difficult night.
On my right side I had huge thunder and lightning so bright and strong that it reminded me of a fireworks show at the end of the summer festival in my hometown of Ustka. On the left side I had two fishing boats - I can't stop wondering what they would like to say with their lights - it's almost never like by the book so you can't be sure which direction they are going. Also there was a nasty cloud behind my stern that brought impetuous wind and squalls or zero wind and pouring rain...
For quite some time I was hearing very scary sounds, kind of hoots or growls, sometimes louder and sometimes quiet ... they were terrifying, I even was scared to go outside and see what this could be. Then I spotted something floating on the water right by Tanasza's hull. I couldn't say what that was so i put my naviagtion lights to shine on the water and it turned out to be a whole group of birds resting on the surface of the ocean and instead of taking off when approached by an intruder (it would be me) they were just making those strange, horrid noises. I was concerned on not running over them. And here I was, going extremely slow, though tiring squalls, with sloppy waves coming from every direction - I felt as if I was inside a washing machine.
At 5:00 am decided to make myself a hot chocolate - no way i could fall to sleep that night. Of course, I wouldn't be me if I hadn't spilled a half of it accidentally.
And since this morning I have clouds and sun alternately. I have a visitor as well. A brown bird, in size of two palms put together. I offered him some of dead flying fish which lands all the time on my boat but he wouldn't eat instead he passionately sits in places I would not recommend at all like ropes that move with every move of the boat so he needs to balance himself every second. It is funny to watch even though I’m very tired after not sleeping a bit last night.
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