Pearls of the South Pacific

One more big sail before Australia. It is really hitting home that this trip is a mammoth endurance adventure. So far for us a thirteen month run. Time has gone by in a flash. Sail the boat, provision the boat, sail, repair the boat, sail, sail, sail. Sounds boring. It has been anything but. Largely because there are pearls in the South Pacific.
These pearls are the people we have met along the way. During the trip we have met many other sailors on the same path and schedule as us. Sailors that in the last year crossed from Europe, from Africa, from the east coast of South America or North America and in late spring crossed from the Atlantic into the Pacific Ocean. Some are couples like us, others families with young children and even babies, still others are solo sailors, or a couple of friends, a boat owner with casual crew coming and going, or boat owners with hired crew.
Some of these sailors we meet again and again in different ports along the way. Others we might meet them for five minutes and never again. A five minute interaction. But given that you all share something from this common adventure, this experience, you have an instant connection. The connection could be anything. Something that defines your experience of the adventure as it exists at that moment in time. An adversity, or a celebration. A rough sea, a sunset, the wonder of an island people, good fresh bread, good tasting drinking water, rain, the song of the local people, the smell of the air, anything, but something.
At this time, the circumstance we have in common is that many of us are preparing to leave the South Pacific behind before the end of October. We must. Cyclone season is coming upon us. Call them cyclones, hurricanes, or typhoons, they are all the same to us. And they aren’t part of our plans. The majority of the sailors on this ‘coconut milkrun’ through the Pacific Ocean are going to New Zealand, or Australia for cyclone season. Others are going to Asia, and some chose to stay in the cyclone area and take their chances. With only a month to go before cyclone season, we undertake these last few big long sailing passages back to back to achieve our schedule. Go, go, go! With all this sailing comes stress. Stress on equipment and boats and on people and relationships. Boats break down, and relationships break up. Many boats lose crew. Things just aren’t working out, so they are flying home. Boats sit in harbours waiting for repairs or crew. Some which will never come. Go, go, go?
At the last few ports, the conversation between sailors often focuses on the future. The circumstance of resting. A holiday from the dream. To stop sailing. Just for a minute. Cyclone season will slow the pace of cruising down. No more long sailing trips, over the 4 month cyclone season. Just the mention of it, brings a smile to a sailor’s lips. But it is the tired smile of contentment.
Where ever it is they are going, what ever it is they will be doing, they will be “home“ for a while. Whether it is working or playing, on or off the boat, it won’t include sailing long passages. We’ll have the chance to go to the same store more than once, to walk the same street., to have a mailing address and to forge new friendships and to reunite with some of the pearls of the South Pacific.

Here is a sampling of some of the pearls we have met. Most of us just can’t sit still long enough for a photo.
1) Joanne, the cattle rancher, 2) Boyd, the former free dive lobster fisherman, come boat builder, ocean sailing racer and story teller, 3)me, 4)Rory, the former patent lawyer, 5)Ian, former internet entreprenuer, 6)Anita, former psychoanalyst 7)Nancy, 8)Wambo, ocean gypsy, no fixed address or phone, you can contact him by leaving a message at a friends factory, apparently he’ll get it.