Wednesday, April 15, 2009

From s/v Circadia

We have arrived! Got in yesterday (April 13 at around 3:30 pm, almost exactly 21 days after leaving Cabo). We had very good winds for the last two days, which pushed us through the last leg (a good thing as we had only emergency fuel left). It is a strange feeling after so many days of being at sea to see land emerge on the horizon. Farlyn saw it first--a blue shadow which could almost have been a dark cloud. I had been expecting to smell the land before seeing it, but the winds were blowing from the sea. Only once we were in port did the full aroma hit us: soil, fresh water, decaying fruit, and flowers. The harbour is tiny and is crammed with boats. It is interesting to talk to the others here--you can only get here via a long passage--not your usual cross section of boaters. Mostly people, like us, sail in, drop an anchor and look pretty dazed for the first couple of days. We all felt weak as kittens on our first walk into town yesterday. Atuona is a pretty little town of plantation style houses on streets lined with hisbiscus, mango, frangipani. It still seems strange to hear Polynesians speaking French--though they speak their own language, which sounds similiar to Hawaiian (though I'm sure is very different). Other observations, the streets are very clean and the offices are very bureaucratic. We waited an hour in the bank, in something that did not in any way resemble a line. Then I went to the post office to use the internet, and there were all the people who had been in the bank (waiting to pay bills, or whatever they do in the post office).  We will likely be here a few days, doing boat repairs, re-provisioning and just generally relaxing.
bonne nuit,
Alison

5 comments:

corey said...

I'm glad you made it across alive and well...loving your adventures and wishing I was on a boat instead of captaining my desk!

Alison Watt said...

Corey
thanks for following our progress. Awesome birds here--you must take to sea one day. Perhaps on the freighter (with cruise ship accomodation) that pulled in this morning--nice birding from the decks!

ldanesin said...

You're there! Of course, "there" is a very wee speck in the middle of great deal of blue, so I'm glad you made it! *smile* Loving your blog.... love from us all -Lisa

Anonymous said...

Congratulations, A&K. You have arrived! It must be quite an experience to have reached such a goal -- an epic journey and such wonderful accounts of it.

I'm looking out on the water this sunny morning and imagining you far away on that other tiny island. Altuona sounds pretty and so exotic. I hope you can do some sketching in your few days there.

How pale our little local lives! Today Heather and I will go to Milner Gardens for the spring tea and plant sale. Oh, and maybe to try to capture some exotica will stop by the annual orchid show at Country Club plaza. Our circadian journeys do not quite compare ...

Press on, adventurous one. Miss you. Love,
Carol

Alison Watt said...

silverdog
great to hear from you. Meant to tell you I liked your fish painting at the NAG--my friend Trudy bought it. Love to the sisterhood, and Rachel

Carol
Milner Gardens and the orchid show--that sounds like good plant therapy. I hope your own garden is bursting. I think of the little yellow primulas along your path...