s/v Field Trip

Shallow lagoon waters of Beveridge Reef Lobster anyone? After bouncing around in the fetch of Beveridge Reef where Mark speared a massive lobster, getting to Niue and its calm mooring field was just what the doctor ordered.  We radioed to Niue Radio on VHF channel 16, and talked to Ira at the Niue Yacht Club to ask about the check-in procedures.  To get up onto shore was quite a feat!   Unlike anyplace we’d docked the dinghy before, the high concrete wharf required us to lift our dinghy out of the water each time we went ashore!   A line from the front and back of the dinghy would serve as a bridle to haul the dinghy up, using a huge remote controlled crane.   Then, we had to swing the dinghy in mid air over a steel cart and wheel the cart over to one of the designated dinghy parking spots!   It was quite the process but quickly became old hat. Dinghy Lift Commodore Keith came and picked us all up in his van and drove us to the off...

Tossing shells with Dad After saying goodbye to our friends on SV Moana Roa, we headed out the Maupiti pass and on to Maupihaa to meet up with our friends on Remi De, Dafne, Elena, Rockstar, and Outsider.   On the way, I would turn one year older – a birthday at sea.   Before we left Bora Bora, Mark had surprised me with a day at one of the fancy resort spas for some birthday pampering.   Not a bad place to be for a birthday! In the first evening of our sail, we noticed whales breeching off the port stern.  It was amazing and unsettling at the same time.  Would they come too close to us and breech at an inopportune time?  Visions of a whale slung over our deck quickened my heart rate and sent me turning the autopilot a few clicks more to starboard, just to be on the safe side.  I watched, relieved, as the spouts of spray confirmed that the whale was going further and further away from us. Good winds allowed us to sail ...